Marco Rota & Grandma

[Per Starback]

Don Rosa wrote:
>	I am going to do a special "Donald's 60th Birthday" story
> beginning as soon as I finish the 211 page "Life of $crooge"... which I
> expect to ink the last page, the big finish, a single full-page panel
> (first in a Disney comic? Probbly not...) by next Tuesday.

Actually Barks's "You Can't Guess" (CP 2) *begins* with a full-page
panel. That's one of the three (or am I forgetting any) times Barks's
pages can't be divided neatly in two half-pages.

> ... that nicely drawn (Marco Rota) but idiotic "Life of Donald Duck"
> epic that the Italians did some years ago. Actually, I've never read
> the whole story which I think deals with Donald's past life on the
> basis of his old Disney cartoons rather than his comic-book career --

Rather comics.  There are lots of one-panel allusions to various Barks
comics.

> but I do know the story opens with brother and sister $crooge McDuck
> and Grandma Duck (!!!! -- my family is Italian so I can vouch for the
> fact that, even in Italy, one's uncle is not the brother of his
> grandmother)

Well, in this story Donald isn't really related to Grandma or Scrooge
at all, so "Grandma" and "Uncle" are just what Donald calls his
foster-parents.  I agree that the story is strange though.

After some of Fredrik's old messages suddenly found their way here he
wrote in a more recent message:

> For example, since Grandma is called that by everyone (even
> non-relatives), whose grandma IS she really? It is true that
> Taliaferro clearly states in her first appearance that she is Donald's
> grandma, but [...]

He did?  I've always gotten the impression that Taliaferro intended
Grandma to be grandma of the boys and Donald's *mother*.  Then that area
got muddled until it much later was made clear that Grandma is
Donald's Grandma.

> In one Italian "flashback" the first meeting between Scrooge and
> Grandma is depicted and there it is actually clearly stated that they
> are sister and brother and also that they were not brought up together
> nor, indeed, knew of each other's existence.

Where is that flashback?

> Of course, if the above-mentioned Rota story was to be used today,
> it would have to go through some serious re-dialoguing.

Only if we insist on everything fitting nicely together.
(Or only if we insist on every story taking place in the same
universe, to put it another way.)
--       "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden.  email: starback at student.docs.uu.se
 "Life is but a gamble!  Let flipism chart your ramble!"