Damaged silk hat

[Michiel Prior]

Daniël van Eijmeren wrote:

> In "The Golden River" (US 22), Scrooge's silk hat gets damaged by a 
> stone falling from the waterfall. The hat keeps on being damaged in the 
> rest of the story, up to the very last panel. (By the way, this is rather 
> unique for a comic. Normally, damaged clothes restore themselves 
> within a few panels.) 

Like James Bond climbing out of the water and his suit instantanely being 
dry in the very next scene, right?

In Don Rosa's stories, damaged or lost clothes keep being damaged or lost 
for the rest of the story, unless Scrooge or Donald get a chance to replace 
their hats/suits/etc. In "The Crown of the Crusader Kings", the button of 
Dewey's cap jumps off in a comicstyle surprise-reaction and keeps 
dangling on a loose thread till the end of that story.

There seems also to be a rule for when the characters wear their hats or 
not. It's very obvious and simple, although it took me a while tot discover it: 
when outdoors, Donald, Scrooge and the nephews wear their hats and caps 
(unless the headwear gets lost, of course) and indoors they go bare-headed.

> As far as I remember (I can't find the comic), this story purposely 
> leaves the reader wondering if the adventure was a dream or reality. I 
> believe that the parts about Donald's birthday itself, are meant to be 
> real. 

That's right. You can find "The Duck who never was" in DD 
Vakantieboek 1995. One good thing about stories being published in 
those Vakantieboeken is the lettering, which is neater and nicer than the 
common DD/DD Extra lettering. The most recent lettering for De Beste 
Verhalen looks imho also awful, at least when compared to the 
handlettered (?) earlier issues (like "Lost in the Andes").

Michiel Prior.