More Relatives of Mickey and Donald

Rob Klein bi442 at lafn.org
Sun Mar 25 21:10:15 CEST 2001


Below are a few more of Donald's and Mickey's relatives.  But first I must
apologise for an error in my previous message:  Dick Duck, Private Eye was
not introduced as a cousin of Donald.  He was a member of the "greater Duck
family"; and having the same surname, we may postulate that he may be a
distant cousin, - but we cannot assume that.   The private detective who
WAS introduced as Donald's cousin was Dickey Drake.  That was in DD 91(USA
original series), a story drawn by Tony Strobl.  That story was about a
Duck Family Reunion.  Several other (male only) members of the Duck family
were shown, (in their work uniforms) but not introduced by name.  There was
an astronaut, fireman, soldier, ship captain, explorer (pith helmet &
caquis),airplane pilot, deep sea diver, matador, track athlete, pirate (in
17th century garb, including eye-patch) - perhaps he was an actor - on a
break from a movie set (or perhaps just an insane person), and a university
professor(cap & gown).  Donald addressed them all as "cousins".  Therefore,
in addition to all the regular characters, Cousin Cuthbirt Coot, Cousin
Whitewater Duck, and any others mentioned by Barks and the others on the
family trees, Donald has at least 11 more cousins from this story alone.  

Of course, there are many other non-Barks US, Italian, Danish, Dutch,
French and other stories which contain a family member used for that story
alone.  In DD 42 (USA original series), McTavish Duck was an ancestor of
both Donald and Scrooge.  With the last name "Duck", he must be the link
between Scrooge and Donald's family.  He died  approximately 200 years
before Donald's nephews were their "normal comic book story ages".  That
shows that there was at least one link between the McDuck and Duck families
a long time ago.  Could the recent link proposed by Rosa be incorrect?  But
if that is so, Scrooge and Donald must be VERY DISTANTLY related. 
Consistancy dictates that the two families must be linked BOTH in the
distant past, and again recently.  

There is also a very distant link between Gladstone Gander's family and The
McDucks.  In that same story, it is declared that Mctavish Duck's daughter
married a direct ancestor (Lochbert Gander) of Gladstone Gander. 
Gladstone's  Great, Great, Great, Great etc. Grandfather was married into
the Duck family.  However, Donald and Gladstone must be reated more closely
from a more recent union of the two families, or they would not refer to
eachother as "cousins".  Generally, in most "Western societies", 3rd or
certainly no further distant than 4th cousins would be the most distant kin
that would be considered related.  A union 200 years earlier would make
Donald and Gladstone much more distant than 4th cousins.  Similarly, as
they are both considered heirs to Scrooge's estate, the union that makes
that so cannot be the 200 year old connexion with McTavish Duck.

In DD 65 (USA original series - Tony Strobl), Scrooge has two Scottish
nephews, Wee Angus and Cousin Slye (both contemporaries of Donald).  Wee
Angus has grown up to be a giant athlete, and Slye was a stingy thief.  In
DD 61, Donald visits his Cousin Daniel, who is Sheriff of a Western town. 
Dexter Duck (1959 Strobl story) and Dexter Drake (1954 Moores story) were
both Duck rivals of Donald for Daisy.  Are they just distant members of the
Duck Clan, or are they more closely related? 

Mickey Mouse Album (FC 1057 from 1959) introduces four male relatives of
Mickey Mouse:

Uncle Boomer  - railroad owner
Ben Ali Maus  -  Arab Oil Sheikh
Uncle Mukluk - Old Alaskan Sourdough (miner)
Cousin Digger - Australian Rancher (should that be "Stationer"?)

I have only looked through a few of my US comics in this effort, and have
found many relatives of the stars.  They are one-shot characters who were
used to meet a need in each individual story.  I do not have the time to
look through all my US, Dutch, Scandinavian and German comics (some located
in Europe - some in North America) to come up with a larger list.  I don't
have many Italian, French, Brazilian and other nations' productions, which
must also have an extremely large volume of similarly created characters. 
But, I do applaud the efforts of those list members who are trying to put
together an exhaustive list from all the different Disney comics(and
animation) producers.  As to the family trees: I think it is interesting to
postulate, but impractical (nee, impossible) to produce an accurate one,
due to the many controdictions.  But, it is fun to consider them.  To the
various DCML members who can look through ALL the printings of your own
country to tabulate these characters, I hope you can do so.  Perhaps then,
we can later compile them onto a single, international list.  Cheers,  Rob
Klein

 


  



This shows that there are probably hundreds of one-shot character

















 





 



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