The Grandma and the Great-grandma

[Frank Bubacz]

Rob,

"...but he did receive a newspaper every Sunday."

Aha! Elvira only had appeared on three (next to nothing!) Sunday pages at 
the time, the last of which had been published a long time (one and a half 
year) before Barks drew "Best Christmas". I'd say that adds to my main 
argument about the possibility of Barks not being aware of the character at 
all. Or maybe he had just forgotten her.

"...he only invented characters, because he NEEDED them for his current 
story."

Yes, and, always assuming he didn't know about Elvira, which other of the 
characters appearing in Taliaferro's strips he could have used for his 
story? Gus Goose? In the strips it was obvious that Donald didn't like him. 
So why visit a relative that will ultimately spoil your Xmas. Daisy? She 
does obviously live too close to Donald to give Barks the opportunity of 
letting all these misadventures in the snow happen. As Xmas is a family 
feast he needed a beloved relative that doesn't live too close. So (not 
being aware of Elvira) he chose a grandmother. It's nothing special that she 
only appeared in one story, because quite a few stories (e.g. WDC 55, WDC 
267, and WDC 312) contain relatives we've never heard of again. Even Scrooge 
wasn't intended to be used more than once originally.

"In ALL these 38 years that I've had the story, I NEVER even imagined that 
she wasn't the same Grandma."

In ALL these 9 years that I've had the story, I ALWAYS thought she's a 
different character. ;-)  I like your suggestion that she could be the 
grandmother of HDL, regarding her "youthfulness" in contrast to the 
great-grandmother Elvira. Although you don't really agree with this, either.

Frank

(What's wrong with me? Normally I hate to argue.)





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