Neighbor Jones

Donald's neighbor with whom he always fights. His first name starts with J as he has appeared as J. Jones (in WDC 63, panel 3.8).

Neighbor Jones was introduced into comic books by Carl Barks and he debuted in WDC 34. The neighbor Jones in that story looks very different from the the one in later comics by Barks though, so maybe instead WDC 38 should be seen as his real first appearance.

He basically disappeared from the Donald Duck ten-pagers about the same time that Barney Bear's similar neighbor Mooseface McElk was introduced in Barks's non-Disney comics. Maybe that's simply because Barks funneled all his battle-with-the-neighbors ideas over Barney Bear instead.

Jones was used by other writers as well. One early example is Donald Duck's Big Blow-out (1947). Artist Jack Hannah draws him much as Barks did, but strangely eliminates his hair.

Neighbor Jones in the newspaper strips

Sometimes in the newspaper strip Donald Duck has had a neighbor whose name has been Jones. His appearance has changed a lot, so maybe those are actually several different people. It's not clear if Barks was thinking about any of these Joneses when he created his neighbor Jones, or if the name is just a coincidence as Jones is such a typical name for a neighbor. Here are some of the Donald Duck newspaper comics with neighbors in them:

June 7, 1939: A Jones is mentioned but not seen.
February 21, 1940: Fat neighbor appears.
August 25, 1940: Donald tries to borrow a water hose from his neighbor, but the neighbor instead wants to get a lot of other stuff back. He and Donald are not on very friendly terms with each other.
September 21, 1941: A fat person, a bit like in August 1940, but without the moustaches.
November 30, 1941: Once again a fat neighbor, who looks a bit like the one in August 1940, but still different.
October 18, 1942: Yet another neighbor who looks a little different from all the above.
January 17, 1943: Donald sends shovel to Jones in Florida. Here Jones looks a lot like in the previous entry.
April 4, 1943: Fat neighbor who looks almost exactly like the one on September 21, 1941. (The story even refers back to that one.)
October 3, 1943: Same character as the previous.
April 24, 1947: Arrows in Neighbor Jones' hat
July 13, 1947: One J. Jones wins photo contest. There is no evidence this Jones is a neighbor of Donald though.
July 31, 1947: A neighbor who looks a bit like the neighbor with the shovel.
1951: Sliding down Jones's hill

It seems like Karp and/or Taliaferro experimented a bit with different neighbors, but that at least some of them were recurring. Also it's possible that the neighbor with chickens (Sep. 21, 1941; Apr. 4, 1943; Oct. 3, 1943) has inspired Barks. (Just as Barks picked up some other recurring characters from the newspaper comics, like Bolivar.)

Other sources

Rich Bellacera's HooZoo page.

Find the names in other languages for: Neighbor Jones

Last updated April 23, 1999.

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