Rich's Character List

[Harry Fluks]

Well, I read the mails of last week. Time to give a reaction. I will
react here on the mail entries with subjects related to Rich's character
list, in chronological order.

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Date: Wednesday, 5 August 1992 17:22 PT
From: rich
Subject: DISNEY Toon Character List

Some of the characters are misspelt:
  Dinah the Dachshund (not Dachsund)
  Sylvester Shyster (not Sylverster)
  Panchito (not Ponchito)
  Huey Duck (not Heuy; you spelt it this way on several places)
  Flintheart Glomgold (not Flinthart Glumgold)

Is the 2nd pig really called Fifer? Is this an English word? It sounds
a lot like the German "Pfeiffer" to me.

[about Darkwing Duck:]
> (NOTE: This is the first "spin-off" series, having its roots in DUCKTALES.
> Originally it was conceived as a James Bond-type show based on the character
> "Double-0 Duck" that appeared in Ducktales, and the plan for Launchpad to
> move
> to the new series was set from the start.  D.W. and the rest are residents of
> the the spralling metropolis of St. Canard).

There was a short series of comic stories in the 60s starring "OO Duck". The
stories were drawn by Allan Hubbart. They were Studio stories, that never
appeared in the USA, I think.
Most likely this OO Duck has nothing to do with the "Double-0 Duck" from
Ducktales (whom I don't know).

In the late 70s and 80s, there was a series of stories about a London
detective, with Mickey Mouse as his helper. The Dutch name of the detective
was Oliver Flops. Again: Studio stories, not likely to have appeared in the
USA.

> RAW TOONAGE:
>
> Marsupilami               (frog)                      (doe)
> Maurice the Ape           (Rambo-esque rooster)       (dog?)

Is the marsupilami a DISNEY character? It was a comic character of the Belgian
comic "Spirou", written and drawn by Andre Franquin (also known from his
"Gaston" stories). Apparently, Disney bought the rights to use this
character. I don't think this has anything to do with the "Disney world"...
BTW: in Belgium, marsupilami is the name of a species, not the name of a
single character (although there may be only one..). He is always referred
to as THE marsupilami.

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Date: Thu, 6 Aug 92 04:42:21 +0200
From: Per
Subject: DISNEY Toon Character List

> As you list Donald's middle initial (F.) you might want to know that
> Big Bad Wolf has an M.  "Zeke M. Wolf" that is.  I know what the M.
> stands for, but I'm not sure I can find the story it's mentioned in.

In Holland, Zeke is called "Midas Wolf" from the beginning. His first
and only name is explained in the 3rd or 4th story that ever appeared
in Holland.
Zeke has a brother in the early comics (Dutch name "Stef"), which has
a son (Dutch name "Pollo"). Both characters are used in the Dutch wolf
stories quite a lot.


> Grandma Duck is another interesting character name-wise.  Most of the
> time everybody calls her Grandma, even people who possibly can't be
> her relatives.  But then, once in a while, her real name has been used
> by some authors.  I think I've only seen it in Swedish translations
> though, and it's so infrequent so that the translators generally don't
> seem to remember that they've already chosen a name for her, so it's
> not very consistent.  Has her original real name ever appeared?

In 1987, a "life story of Donald Duck" comic was published in Holland.
It may have been a copy of an italian story (artwork looks like Rota).
In this story, Scrooge is Grandma's brother. They both found an egg, which
contained Donald (because Scrooge knew a Californian cowboy called Ronald...).
Scrooge teesed Grandma by calling her Grandma, and since then everybody does.

In this story, Grandma's name is Dora (Dutch). Since then, the Dutch trans-
lators alway called her Dora, even in a Barks story. Before 1987, Grandma
had no name in Holland.


> * MISSING DUCKS AND OTHER PEOPLE
>
> [about Feathry Duck]
> In many of the Hubbard stories Donald has a cat, who's original name
> is unknown to me (Swedish name: Kisse).
Dutch name: Tobber (meaning: worrier. In one story, this name is explained)
BTW: Feathry is called Diederik in Dutch (is anyone interested in this?)

I recall a dozen stories featuring a female sailor called Bella Duck (Dutch
name again). She always appeared in Scrooge stories, mostly drawn by
Strobl and Hubbart (for Disney Studios).


> There are also many other characters that are only seen in the Italian
> Disney's.
A.o.: Brigitta McBridge, who appeared in a Gladstone comic (by Scarpa).

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Date: Thu, 6 Aug 92 13:54:27 +0200
From: Per
Subject: Character List

> Re Minnie's niece/nieces: Of course she could have had one niece
> visiting sometimes and two other nieces visiting at other times.  You
> also have to choose if you want to count all Disney comics produced
> over the world, or only the American ones.  If you count Gutenberghus
> characters like Tone/Tuttan, you should also look at all the
> reoccurring Mondadori characters in Italy.  Tone/Tuttan appeared
> only in the sixties btw.  By now I guess she lives with her parents.

Are you sure the stories were from Gutenberghus? I always thought that
Gutenberghus started about 1970, and that the Tone/Tuttan stories were
from the Disney Studios, who had a comic production for the foreign market
since 1963. The niece appeared in Holland, too.

> Finally you might think of adding two pets Donald had in the newspaper
> strips in the thirties and fourties: Bolivar (a dog) and a donkey
> (name?).  Bolivar's been used by Barks too.

Then, isn't Donald's car a 'character'? It is one of the few things in
Donald's world that never changed! Always number 313. (BTW: in a Barks
Gyro Gearloose story, were Barks had to change Donald by a character named
Speedy, that character is still using the same car. Nice touch: the license
number is 818.)

--------------------------------------
Date: Saturday, 8 August 1992 21:54 PT
From: rich
Subject: Lists & Profiles

> CHARACTER PROFILES:
> (...) Also listed (if possible) would be their first
> appearance in cartoons (and/or the written medium if known).

Here's a list of first appearances of characters 'invented' by Barks:

Neighbor Jones                WDC 34   (good deeds)
Gladstone Glander             WDC 88   (bet)
The Junior Woodchucks         WDC 125  (st bernard)
The Beagle Boys               WDC 134
Gyro Gearloose                WDC 140
April, May and June           WDC 149  (flipism)
Uncle Scrooge McDuck          FC 178   (bear mountain)
Flintheart Glomgold           US 15    (the second-richest duck)
Magica De Spell               US 36    (the midas touch)
Little Helper                 US 15    (Gyro story: cat language)

[WDC = WD's Comics and Stories; FC = Four Color Comic; US = Uncle Scrooge]


> (...) to work out the details and over the mailing-list to determine what
> people are interested in knowing about the characters (i.e. who voiced them,
> who drew them, who wrote for them, etc.).
I would like to take an other approach: make a list of Disney artists, and
what they have made, who they invented, etc. etc. sorted by country (USA,
Italy, Denmark, Holland, Germany, France, Brazil, are there more?)....
BTW: is there an Italian in the mailing list? If not, why not? (S)he could
bring in interseting facts.

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Date: Sun, 9 Aug 92 23:07:38 +0200
From: Per
Subject: Character List

> Some other characters from the daily Mickey Mouse strip that appeared
> in several stories:
>  o Eli Squinch
>  o Captain Churchmouse
>  o Captain Churchmouse's pet gorilla Spooks
Captain Churchmouse also appeared in some Paul Murry stories.


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Whew! That was my reaction. It took me an evening to read the mail of
a whole week. I hope this list will stay that much used...

Harry Fluks.