Young Donald etc.

Mattias Hallin Mattias.Hallin at jurenh.lu.se
Wed Oct 27 16:12:42 CET 1993


Mostly to Don...:

Yeah, I've noticed how you sneak in the dates sorta on the sly - f'rinstance I
think in "Master of the Mississippi" you talk about, I think it was the sixth
Kentucky Derby, and by looking that up in my Brittanica, I could figure out
the date - was it 1881? or whatever (as usual, I'm at work and my comic books
are back home). I haven't yet tried to figger the entire chronology in any
detail - for that I'm waiting 'til I get the entire run in English, but that
kind of thing is "Great stuff! Great stuff!" in the opinion of your
not-humble-enough reader!

So - reneging on the 1920 birthdate, are ya? Tsk, tsk, tsk... But as you point
out, as long as you don't spell out the dates, you're probably quite right to
think that not too many will be wise to it, and as I wrote you in a letter last
year about HD&L, it's probably not a good idea to try to fix the exact age of a
duckling at any given time, but rather to see them in some sort of stages:
babies, 5 to 10, 10 to 15, 15 to 20 and from thereabouts on as adults. (1930, by
the way - does the story deal with the great depression, or something like
that?) BUT I don't think you should, if you ever do, give Donald's bithdate as
any later than 1920, because of the problems you'll then get with HD&Ls's age
(and as we've discussed before, that's a big enough problem as it is without
adding a new problem about Donald's seniority), as well as the fact that
Donald's mother is old enough already, as you say (speaking of which - did you
decide to make Quackmore a little older than your Duck Family Tree sketches
originally suggested? He is still, I suppose, quite a few years younger than
Hortense, isn't he?).

About Mickey Mouse, then: Sure! You have a good, strong point when you say that
"so what, I won't use him any ol' way, so why all the fuss?"; and if you will
never actually use Mickey, I guess there's no point in, well, having Donald
mention him, f'rinstance, or making some other kind of aside reference just to
establish his existence. I didn't mean quite that, although I personally
wouldn't take offence if you or anyone else decided to use Donald and Mickey
simultaneously. What I did and do mean is that from a more general donaldistic
point of view, one should see all the classic Disney Comics as a whole, and
only when there are conflict of facts, or of logic or whatever should one
decide on priorities. Basically, my sort of philosophical standpoint is that
there is ONE Duck Universe and ONE real universe, and that these entities are
separate, but should be harmonized as far as possible. I.e., the USA of the
Ducks and Mice should tally as much as possible (there is to my knowledge no
REAL talking ducks - alas!) with the real USA (but, unfortunately (?) not the
reverse). All this is simply my personal OPINION, and I don't claim to have a
better opinion, or a worse, than anyone else. Mine is by all means a decently
INFORMED opinion when it comes to donaldistic matters, but yours is (in my
opinion (sic!)) even more so, I guess.

What the above boils down to (what I'm trying to say in many words, and which
I'm not sure I'm getting across) is that I think that stories about Donald in
the mid-to-late 1930s should take into account the works of (at least)
Taliaferro/Karp/Gottfredson from this period, which means that Donald at that
time would probably not live in Duckburg, at least not permanently, and that
the "Mickey Mouse Character Gallery" in part or in toto should be used. I think
it is unnecessary to create conflicting timelines and biographies of characters
when the already existing material doesn't make that neccessary, except
possibly in minor details.

I could say more, I guess, but this is at the bottom very much a matter of
opinion, and thus not arguable beyond a certain point, so unless you, Don, or
anyone else wants to, there's no need on my account to carry this debate any
further.

Give my regards to old Duckburg! Remember me to Webfoot Walk!

Mattias



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