Duckburg, Mouseton and Mickey's appeal

[patinhas@net.sapo.pt]

Dim I Nticoudis wrote:

(a really insightful analysis of the motivations (or lack of them) of 
the main mouse.)

 >Seriously some Mouseton characters seem to me more interesting than 
Mickey himself.(..).
 >Goofy is good enough for surrealistic stories and he is at least more 
imaginative, creative and fun-loving than his friend.

I agree. I also remember that Goofy as historically been used more as 
"everyman" than Mickey (mostly on the cartoons), giving it a background 
that Mickey lacks. And Indiana Pipps (although not strictly Goofy) also 
present another side of him, whereas Mickey seems always one-dimensional.

 > Mickey often seems to be the all too boring, proper and predictable 
character in a whole set of colorful characters. And to be honest I 
would like to see him im stories that provide him
 >with better motivation, more realistic emotions and actions, a 
bussiness life , and some use of his years of experience in adventure 
and crime-fighting. Seeing him run around in shorts in
 >an attempt to de-age him isn't exactly a thing that makes him more 
exciting in my eyes.

One of the best series of stories with Mickey I read recently was the 
"Frontier Chronicles" on Topolino, a series of Sci-Fi themed stories 
series written by Pezzin (which I must regard as one of my favorite 
Disney comics authors). In it, we not only see alternative lifes for the 
mouse gang (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy but also Pete, Trudy, Clarabelle and 
Horace), but in those lifes they have much more developed personal 
relationships (see SPOILER at the end of the message for an example, if 
you don’t mind spoiling some of the plot). Also, I'm particularly fond 
of the Anderville (MMMM) series, for the same reasons – believable and 
not necessarily simple, plots and backgrounds for the characters

I realize now that in those stories (and in other stories of the mouse 
that I like) Mouseton / Duckburg (in Portuguese they are the same, 
Patópolis=Duckburg) is almost nowhere to be seen. It may be because on 
the standard "Mouseton" stories (like the ones that now come from 
Egmont) the limits on the character usage are too rigid, and don't allow 
the Mouse to attain its true potential. Even the attempts to use “new” 
characters on those stories seem less interesting than the Italian, 
which rather than changing the characters that interact with Mickey, 
change Mickey itself (creating “new” characters, like Inspector Topot, 
and the like).































SPOILER for the frontier chronicles:

In it, Goofy not only has a “steady” girlfriend – he almost marries her 
– but also acts independently of Mickey, and allies with Pete betraying him.