Duckburg's population/Barks Christmas Book

[Rob Klein]

Greetings everyone!
I wonder why Barks' great 1949 Christmas Parade story "A Letter To Santa" was 
left out of that great Christmas Book?  There was also Barks' late Uncle 
Scrooge Christmas story from 1964 with the gifts for the Duchess of Duckshire 
fore the "Twelve Days of Christmas".  I can understand that that story was late 
in Barks' career, and not one of his best, but why was the 1949 classic story 
left out?

Regarding the population of Duckburg. As a master of city Planning, a 
geographer, and mapper of Duckburg and Calisota, I have some thoughts on the 
problems of pinning down a population (even one that changed over time during 
the Duck's lives). As Carl told me several times, he never had a specific sized 
city in mind. He made it big and small, an intensley urban large city and semi-
rural, almost village-like in various stories, as needed.  He placed it on the 
seacoast with a large harbour when needed, or placed it surrounded by farmland, 
when needed.  It was often large and important (enough to have its own 
consulate) with a large seaport, riverport and railroad/transportation hub (as 
in The Magic Hourglass), it had an International Airport, large city centre 
with many tall skyscrapers, military bases, sent its own team (or at least 
national contingent) to the Olympics. For the purist Barksists, it is very 
difficult to erase these elements of large size, just because they are missing 
in other stories.  It is EASIER and MORE LOGICAL, to assume that they did 
exist, and that when not seen in other stories, they exist in other parts of 
the City that are not shown in that particular story.  Therefore, I subscribe 
to Don Rosa's idea that Duckburg is of the size of a middle-sized U.S.A. city.  
However, I would put THAT size at 250.000 to 350.000 rather than the size of 
Trondheim or Stavanger.  I realise that that size is much bigger than many of 
the Barks stories would indicate by story tone and "feel". But we can't erase 
those Barks panels and references.  A "City" of 100.000 in U.S.A. is NOT a 
middle sized "City".  That is the size of a large "bedroom suburb" of the big 
cities there.  Glendale and Pasadena, California, Pasadena and Arlington, 
Texas, and other bedroom suburbs of Chicago, Detroit, Toronto and other large 
North American cities have as large, or larger populations than that, and are 
made up mostly of peoples' residences.  They don't have all the commercial and 
industrial facilities that Duckburg has, which imply many more jobs; in turn, 
implying a much larger population.  

Many of us think about many of the Duckburgers knowing each other. That gives 
it a small-townish feel.
If you wonder how the small-townish feel of 
the Duckburg of many of Barks' stories could take place in such a big city, 
think no further than Milwaukee Wisconsin, USA. It has a City population of 
about 800.000.  Yet, if any of you would have lived there for a while, you 
would agree that it has a "small town atmosphere and feel".  I believe that is 
also true of my home town of several years, Den Haag, netherlands.  It is much 
larger than the population range I am proposing; yet it has a "small town feel" 
to me. I would say Duckburg would be more the size and feel of Oslo, than 
Stavanger.  Any of you who have been to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, would know 
you can have a small town feeling at 250.000-350.000.  When I lived in 
Copenhagen, Danmark, I felt that small-town feeling.  Even when I was first 
there, and only knew about 20 people there, I kept seeing people I knew by 
accident.  Through the years I continued to meet people who knew people that I 
knew.  And, it was NOT because these people were all connected with people with 
whom I worked at Egmont, NOR from my comic-book collecting hobby. I met people 
who knew people I knew from family (my sister is married to a Dane), through my 
stays at the dormitories at U. of Copenhagen, etc.  Copenhagen has of 
population of near 1 Million (not so?). Yet, to me, it has a small-townish 
feel. I have lived in Los Angeles, USA for parts of 18 years, but have NEVER 
seen anyone on the streets whom I knew (unless we planned to meet eachother at 
a precise place and time). I think I've only met someone who knew anyone I knew 
one or two times. So that Metropolis DOES NOT have the small-town feel that 
Duckburg has.

For other evidence of Duckburg's necessary large population: Don't forget that 
Duckburg was also ahead in technology (space programs), and 
also the seat of the Duck County and Calisota State Governments. It also has 
the World-Wide headquarters/Economic Empire of the richest man in the World, as 
well as reasonable-sized facilities of a few of his rivals (Flintheart 
Glomgold), and lots of industry. These facilities and organisations imply lots 
of jobs.  Where do all the people live? Barks mentions no large suburbs of 
Duckburg.  There are a few nearby towns, but most are separated from Duckburg 
by areas of farmland. Some people could commute from Hentown, Catville, 
Pumpkinburg, Pickleburg, Skeetertown, Cattail Slough, but that should only be a 
small trickle of workers, compared to all that are needed. Many could come from 
nearby rival middle-sized city, Goosetown. But, as that city, at a similar 
size, should also attract 1/2 to 2/3 as much, away from Duckburg to its 
industries.  I place it as less of a draw, as Duckburg contains the 
Governments.  So you see, a large portion of the many thousands of workers 
needed would have to come from Duckburg city, itself. Tuleburg and Tuleville 
would be too far away to provide commuting workers.

I'll be interested to hear what others of you think.   Rob Klein 


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