Secondary characters

[David Gerstein]

    Hey Sigvald,

> [A Stavanger Aftenblad article written by a friend of mine] presented some of
> the Secondary characters in the Disney's comics universes [...] These
> characters were mentioned:
> The favourites [and] the "hate" characters [...]
> My personal opinion is [that some characters on each list should be replaced
> by other characters...]

    Interesting stuff, Sigvald, but I'm not entirely clear on the point of
your friend's article.
    Is he attempting to speak for MOST Norwegian Disney readers when he
defines "favorite" and "hated" characters? Or is he simply writing a
personal memoir, talking about the characters he HIMSELF likes and hates?
    If he's really trying to speak for MOST readers, I'm a little
disappointed‹ because IMHO, speaking for most readers isn't a good thing for
any single person to try to do.
    For example, your friend puts Fethry and Chief O' Hara on the favorites
list, but I know many who would act differently (you yourself, for instance,
in the case of Fethry).

> My personal opinion is:
> a) Fethry Duck should be replaced by a character like Glittering Goldie,
> John D. Rockerduck, José Carioca [...]

    I'm a big Fethry fan, so I'd leave Fethry on my own list; but I
certainly agree with you on José, who's also one of my own favorites.

> The last comment leads to a new question. Do anyone here know for sure if
> Horace Horsecollar is in love with Clarabelle Cow despite the fact that they
> are of different species (horse and cow)?

    In film cartoons and Gottfredson stories, Horace and Clarabelle were
shown as a romantic couple throughout the 1930s. In 1932, the Mickey
newspaper strip had Horace and Clarabelle engaged and openly planning to be
married, though the marriage never actually took place (characters just
stopped talking about it).
    More recently, Horace and Clarabelle don't date "exclusively": since the
1940s, Clarabelle has often romantically chased other men (at times, even
Goofy) in various creators' stories. But Clarabelle and Horace still tend to
date each other often, too.
    In a recent Egmont story by Byron Erickson, Horace and Clarabelle
temporarily broke up after a bad argument. Clarabelle then invited Goofy to
lunch, just to make Horace jealous. Today's Egmont Clarabelle isn't really
in love with Goofy, and Horace probably knows that-- but Horace is also
insecure, egotistical and touchy, so he got jealous anyway (as Clarabelle
surely knew he would do!).
    Goofy, who considers himself friends with everyone, appeared not to
really understand what was going on.

    David