Duck, Duck, Burg

Rich xephyr at jps.net
Wed Aug 16 06:27:25 CEST 2000


Don Rosa said that Moby Duck, Fethry and Ludwig Von Drake are "Officially
Dead" in Duckburg.  I'm curious what this means.  Don, would it be fair
to say that there are, at least in the various countries where Disney
Comics are published, "different versions of Duckburg"?  And in these
various countries they all seem to use their own rules, thus making some
characters "official" whereas other countries do not recognise these
same characters?  For instance, a while back we were talking about how
Brazil publishes comics where Gyro has a girlfriend named Ermengarda who
was even originally invented in the US as a one-shot character named
Matilda.  I suspect Don never utilizes Matilda in any stories featuring
Gyro.  The same is probably true in Italy where Scarpa created a brother
for Scrooge named Gideon and a "girlfriend" named Bridgetta.  I know
Rosa prefers the Barks characters to any other creators, but are Scarpa's
characters "dead" even though they seemed to do quite well in Italian
and other European and Brazilian publications?  Perhaps it is just one
publisher that considers certain characters as dead, and that publisher
being the one Don works for, and thus reflective in Don's work?  I
realize there are most assuredly characters Don wouldn't touch with a
ten foot pole (Moby Duck & Dim Witty, Fethry, Dugan and Gloria, and,
it seems Mickey Mouse & Goofy, too, fall well into that category?). I
guess this is fine, but it still tends to make for several versions of
Duckburg that co-exist in the publishing world of Disney comics. This
going beyond just the INDUCKS seperations of "Duck Tales" and "Duck
Universe", but even to an extent that we can see Brazil tends to mix
Mickey's world with Donald's, and Don & Carl's version of Duckburg, and
Romano Scarpa's version of Duckburg, Van Horn's and probably others
where the distinctions are even less clear. I realize Don may not be
able to respond to this right away.  Actually I'm not even sure he's
interested in any version of Duckburg other than the one he feels 
most comfortable with, but does one version of Duckburg necessarily
invalidate any of the others? At lease in Rosa's Duckburg it is nice
to know Panchito and Jose still exist.

Even I have my preferences, that is that Mickey, Goofy and Pete all
live in Mouseton (or whatever it might be called these days?) and
that Donald, Scrooge, Ludwig and even Launchpad all live in Duckburg.  

In anycase, I enjoy much of Don's work, but I also enjoy Scarpa's,
van Horns and many others.  Of course I'm mostly a fan of Mickey and
Goofy comics moreso than Donald and Scrooge, but I like the entire
line of Disney characters so its all good to me.

Thierry Fernand said (to Don Rosa):
> You said you would not use "Fethry" in a new story - is that
> because Fethry is not a character from Barks' universe or
> just because he is unknown in the USA (as I think he is). Or
> just because you're not used to him and would not know what
> to do with him?

I know we discussed Fethry quite a bit on this list in the
past, and despite what I have read Mr. Rosa supposedly saying
that Fethry has never appeared in the USA, this is false since
he has his very first stories published in the USA as far back
as the mid 1960s.  He looked very different, but he was definitely
the same character.  He had one or two of his newer comics from
Europe published among the last of Gladstone II's run here in
the USA also in the late 1990s.  Fethry is not entirely unknown
in the USA, though he was not very well know for sure.  His
nephew Dugan and his hippy girlfriend, Gloria, and there
superhero identies as the Red Bat and the Purple Butterfly
have never seen publication in the USA either.

David Gerstein said:
>         In D 99156, my Pegleg Pete birthday story "History Re-Petes Itself,"
> the two pigs seen *are* Patricia and Peggy - no mistake. ("Nyx" is Inducks
> terminology that may disappear from the story listing later... you needn't
> pay attention to it.)

Ahhh. O.K., but does that mean Patricia's name will move into a proper
place of being indexed along with the other appearing characters, since
as of now she is relegated to the segregated "nyx" footnote which makes 
it seem as if she's being removed rather than included.  Perhaps one of
the Master indexers knows?  And the Name of the story should also be there.

>         I'll get back to you regarding Percy and Patricia's son.

Oh good!  :-)

>         The fish character on the wall portrait is Goofy's favorite comic
> book character, Flip the Fish. You remember Byron Erickson's "Fantasy
> Island," don't you? Oy! (Flip makes cameos like this in a *lot* of Egmont
> stories.)
Would it be presumptious of me to assume that "Flip the Fish" is somehow 
an homage to Ub Iwerks' "Flip the Frog"?  If it is I think that is wonderful!
http://vitaphone.thetaband.com/flip.html

>         The "weasel" character at the end is really a dogface, and he's
> Trigger Hawkes from the classic Gottfredson Foreign Legion story. You
> haven't seen the last of him... we hope.

Yes, that makes sense... He is a rather cool looking character (much better
than Scuttle anyhow), and I think he would make a nice addition to Mickey's
rogues gallery!  I always enjoy your indulgences into the past... You 
have breathed new life into such characters as Butch and Patricia, and many
of the old Gottfredson villains.  I just wish I could enjoy them more!  I
get to see some of them through the comics I receive through trade with
Franco, but I see you have so many other stories to your credit that I
haven't seen!  It's nice that you are keeping the Gottfredson legacy alive.
Oh, and keep using Figaro... I like that! :-) I wonder if you've ever
worked Fifi into any stories?

Thanks,

Rich Bellacera
xephyr at jps.net




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