Disney-comics digest #139.

[David A Gerstein]

Here we go, folks:


The Uncensored Wabbit (but isn't this a *Disney* forum?)
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Wilmer Rivers responded to Geir's article on the sex lives of the
Ducks:

> Anyway, thanks to you both for sharing this article with us.  Please let
> us know as soon as "Dagbladet" follows up on this line of hard-hitting
> investigative journalism with articles about the sex lives of Pluto, the
> seven dwarves, and (of course) Ariel.  Not to mention (** Please!!!!**)
> the scandalous live-in relationship between Chip and Dale....

Then Torsten Adair added:

"Hmmm....  I never thought of Chip and Dale.  And just what were they doing
while they were scampering around in Donald's sailor suit?  Is Donald
homophobic?  Or maybe the opposite?  And I'm certain everyone knows
that Bugs Bunny was gay (cross dresser kissed Elmer Fudd, fought over 
Elmer Fudd with Daffy Duck)."

Now I add:

	First... Please note that kissing an antagonist of the same
sex is standard "cartoon wiseguy" behavior.  Besides Bugs,
perpetrators of same include the aforementioned Daffy, Woody
Woodpecker, and of course all three of Warner Bros' recent
"Animaniacs" stars, Yakko, Wakko and Dot.  Those last three, a group
with male and female members, will kiss antagonists of either sex, and
they do the kissing in a group.  Outside of this, they subscribe to
the practices of heterosexual members of their sexes.

	Second... Bugs didn't fight with Daffy over Elmer, he was more
than willing to let Daffy get Elmer's "favors" (BANG!) in the end.
"Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin."

	As for anyone who doubts whether Bugs is gay or straight, the
banned-from-TV wartime cartoon "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" contains a
closing sequence which is the most sexually explicit of any Warner
cartoon... Bugs chases a buxom female rabbit into the distance and
over a horizon, wolf whistling as he does, then a moment of silence,
then the boinging sound of him presumably leaping on her, or doing
some other sexual act.  The cartoon CAN be seen on the recent tape
"The Golden Age of Looney Tunes:  Bugs Bunny by Each Director."

	Chip and Dale are brothers, although I don't reveal now where
that was revealed.


Mark on Donald's age viz. AT
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	"that Donald was peers with Morty and Ferdie, but "boy" to 
Clarabelle and others of Mickey's generation."

	This seems fine until you note that as early as 1935 they call
him "Unca Donald."  Yet Donald *is* younger than Mickey and
*definitely* younger than Clarabelle.  And that old lady whose window
Donald broke in DD 280 refers to Donald as "a nice boy".  I imagine
Donald being born in 1920 a la Rosa;  then I see Mickey as being born
in 1917 and Mickey's nephews about 1936.  And Clarabelle around
1895-1900, ditto for Horace, and I imagine Goofy as being about
Mickey's age.


And then Mark said
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"I finally got my paws on some Jippes stories.  The first one that I
read (in WDC&S 513) where HD&L plan to buy cigars for Donald's
birthday (but Donald thinks that they are buying them for themselves)
gave me an extreme sense of deja-vu, and I could swear that I'd
already seen the same plot in an old Donald Duck cartoon.  Does anyone
else remember this?"

	This Milton/Jippes story is a direct adaptation of the cartoon
from ca. 1949 "Donald's Happy Birthday," which was directed by the
ubiquitous Jack Hannah.  One of the better DD cartoons for its time
(during which most of the DD cartoons aren't that red-hot).

	Donald is 60 on June 9, 1994 (by "debut" data, not "year of
Donald's fictional birth" data).  The anniversary issue will be some
issue of DD around then, I believe, though I don't know when.  I'd
like to see the issue of DDA that comes out then be a commemorative
issue too... but I dunno whether THAT will happen.

	Donald's film appearance wasn't his first appearance in
general.  "Donald Duck" was named and shown in the 1931 book _The
Advs. of Mickey Mouse_, then in the 1932 British _Mickey Mouse
Annual_. This version of Donald looks more like Mickey interpreted as
a duck.  In the first appearance, he is a white duck with a bowler hat
and a suit of clothes.  In the second one, he has exchanged that suit
for black shirt and shorts and has black feathers on his head.
However, the face and general design are the same.

	According to Bruce Hamilton some 1933 Disney poster includes
this same duck, *now* with a sailor suit.  I don't know what cartoon
that poster is for.


	Re-reprinting foreign stories (NEW TOPIC)
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	Some of the readers of this list have expressed interest in
seeing the best foreign stories that Gladstone printed from 1986-1990
be reprinted.  I don't remember who asked this, but for now, I hope it
will not happen.

	My reason for believing thus is simple:  Gladstone has very
little space for foreign DD material in their new comics:  some issues
of DDA and WDC&S and that's *it*, it would seem.  The only artist we
have seen besides Barks in DD is Rosa in the coming #283, and D&M is
pledged to Barks ONLY.  USA is beginning to re-reprint stories that
were in Gladstone's first album series -- and very soon those will be
used *again* in the coming CBL of US in Color albums.

	I prefer Barks' best stories to most other Duck material, but
I must say that overreliance on Barks is now occuring at the expense
of other DD and US creators.  Since there's not much room for foreign
stories now, I'd rather see new ones than old ones.

	What brings me to all this is that I was worried someone would
suggest that Gladstone REPRINT that Milton/Jippes story over here for
the 60th birthday.  I love that story, but I want more reprints like a
hole in the money bin (with the exception of MM, of course, but that's
because there aren't albums collecting Gottfredson's work).

	John and I have a great DD story by Mau Heyman -- whose work
has never appeared here and whose style is wonderful (Harry will
back that up... when are you getting back, Harry???!) planned for that
anniversary DD.  (I don't know what number that will be.)  Yes, it's
about Donald's birthday, and a couple of other burning issues in the
Duck world...

	Yours,

	David Gerstein

	"He looks just like you, Unca Donald, only his hair is black!"
	<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>