Gyro is a CHICKEN, I tell ya! A GIANT CHICKEN!

[David A Gerstein]

	Dear Folks,

	Don Rosa said, "Yes, isn't that a WIG Gyro is wearing? It's 
clear that there's a STRAP of some sort around his bird-chin... and
that strap seems to lead not to his HAT but to his HAIR. Has anyone 
ever wondered about that strap?"

	There is definitely ONE Barks story wherein Gyro is surprised,
or shocked, or something, and his entire WIG flies up revealing his
bald head underneath.  But I always thought that was an exaggeration
like having Donald's pupils leave his eyes at the sight of the
shrunken Cornelius Cobb in "Voodoo Hoodoo".

	The way to tell is for someone to look at that story about
Gyro learning to swim.  He is without his hat for most of it, I
recall, but I can't remember if that strap is still there or not.  If
it is, we'll know Gyro definitely wears a wig.  Sorry I *can't* do the
looking myself -- but I only have one of my six CBLGG albums here at
school with me, and it's the wrong one for this debate.

	BTW, if the strap went to his hat from his chin, as I believe
it does, it would be covered by his frizzy hair, or at least buried in
it.  Either that or it would pull back the area of hair it crossed,
leaving Gyro looking rather odd.  That's why I think it isn't drawn.

	But find that swimming story -- you know, "I'll use fins and
an inner tube and water wings, and phooey on what the neighbors
think!" -- and prove me wrong, folks!

	Don again:  "Actually, what IS Gyro? I always thought he 
was a sorta cockatoo-stork judging by his beak, his intelligence 
and his lankiness. Even though he doesn't have a chicken-beak, I 
understand most people have always thought of him as a chicken."

	Hey, he HAS a chicken-beak!  Barks himself frequently
refers to him as one, which clinches it.  "He was a tall, gawky
*chicken*, twice as tall as the Ducks" -- there we go.  I do notice
that he's pretty big for a chicken -- look at the Barks Daisy Double
Date story, and look at Clara Cluck and her rooster boyfriend (whose
name I've forgotten).  Those chickens are the same size as the Ducks,
but portlier...  Gyro's a *giant* chicken!  But there are giant Ducks
too -- though most Ducks Barks draws are DD/U$ size, some are the size
of the dogfaces in the stories, and of Gyro.

	In any event, in the US, Gyro is a chicken.  I know that at
least one other country's comic lettercol pegged him as a crane,
although I don't know which country (I heard it here).  And one old
Whitman story by Kay Wright (well, drawn by him) called him a goose,
which is like calling an apple a piano.  Gyro a *goose*?  Damned if he
looks like a goose!  For now, the back covers of the CBLGG series,
calling him "Barks' cerebral chicken," will stand.

	Yours,

	David Gerstein

	P. S.  The title of this article sounded unusually desperate,
but in fact was a Warner-Bros. cartoon reference.  Anyone here get it?