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<DIV>Don Markstein wrote:</DIV>
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<DIV class=signature>> Twice, several years apart, Barks mentioned that one of the Beagle Boys <BR>> liked prunes. As far as I know, it's the only individual trait he ever <BR>> gave a Beagle Boy, who otherwise were almost as much alike as Nephews. <BR>> It's also an example of continuity in his stories. And by the way, <BR>> that's what initially turned me off to DuckTales -- the fact that you <BR>> could tell one Beagle from another without reading his number. They even <BR>> had different names. Booo! <BR></DIV>
<DIV class=signature>The "identifying" of Beagles on <EM>DT</EM> didn't strike me as an "inferior" idea in the least -- merely different. Vic Lockman created plenty of "specialty" Beagle Boys in his stories. The only difference between that convention and the one used on <EM>DT</EM> was that the "specialty" B-Boys still looked like the "regulars" (though Intellectual-176 did wear glasses, as I recall).</DIV>
<DIV class=signature><BR>> Also by the way, I can't think of any other examples of identical <BR>> triplets in comics -- or in stories in general, for that matter. In <BR>> fact, just off the top of my head, I can't think of any absolutely <BR>> identical twins, other than Heckle & Jeckle, the Terrytoons stars, and <BR>> the twins in Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. <BR></DIV>
<DIV class=signature>Thomson and Thompson from <U>Tintin</U> immediately come to mind. The only difference between them was that one had more curve in his mustache; it was the sort of thing that you'd miss if you blinked. (Given Don Rosa's "An Eye for Detail", I'll bet Donald could have told them apart with little trouble.) And Henry Boltinoff (I think) created Dover and Clover -- oddly enough, also a pair of twin detectives -- for DC Comics in the 1940s.</DIV>
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<DIV class=signature>Chris Barat</DIV></body></html>