Duck Universe

[Rob Klein]

We've hashed over these same topics and statements several times before.  I 
will add my same comments again.

(1)The Barks and Rosa "Duck Universes" are not meant to be "gospel" and to 
disallow anything that might in any way be considered by fanatics (real word 
for "fans" contraction)to contradict those gospel facts. There have been many 
other creators (including myself)who would like to have the creative freedom to 
invent new characters and situations that might be appropriate for enjoyment of 
a large range of readers of various ages and walks of life.

2)Neither Barks nor any other artist ever showed a "Duckburg/Calisota duck" 
being born live. Marco Rota, Tony Strobl, and a few other artists showed 
Donald, and some other "Duckpeople" hatching from eggs. Furthermore, I believe 
Barks' dialogue having the Ducks mention that "if they swam across 
the "Fountain of Youth" lake, they'd return to their place in their egg, before 
getting half way across." was meant to be taken as a joke based on the real 
situation.  The funniest jokes to mankind are often based on reality (often 
based on real misfortune).  Yes, it was said with irony, but I believe it also 
referred to a well-understood fact.

3) I believe also that The Duck's World is a parallel world to Earth. it is in 
another dimension, where the laws of our Universe do not apply (exactly the way 
they do in our science). Some things work the same, others are similar, but 
different in degree, still others are based on a totally different history 
and/or physics.

4) I am CONVINCED Carl Barks' famous sketched family tree, was NOT used by him 
as a technical resource data base for his referral in creating many future 
stories (after making it). I talked with him at length several times between 
1966 and 1973, about his stories, main characters, secondary characters, 
Duckburg, Calisota, where his ideas came from, etc. etc. He mentioned time 
after time, that he NEVER had a DEFINED self-made database or plan of the 
geography and history of the Ducks, Duckburg, Calisota, etc.  He said that he 
only had a very general idea about the Duckburg/Calisota geography, and make-up 
of the Duck Family in the back of his mind.  He invented new characters as he 
needed them for individual stories. He CHANGED the geography of Duckburg to 
suit his needs in particular stories. After he had built up a large body of 
stories, Barks became aware that he had better be aware of what he had created 
previously, to avoid contradicting his past stories (even though he had no idea 
that a whole generation of readers had continued to read his stories already 
for more than 10 years).  He thought about the duck family, and hastily 
scratched out his "family tree". He told me that he DID NOT refer to his family 
tree, religiously when he wrote future stories.  He only had a "vague idea" of 
the familial relationships of all but the main "core" characters.  When I told 
him that he had made very few contradictions in all his work, he was 
flabbergasted. He had thought there would have been much more, as he said he 
used characters and geography as needed for each story, and rarely, IF EVER, 
went back into his previous stories to research what he had done, to avoid 
contradiction.  He did it all from memory.  In "Race To The South Seas" 
Gladstone was not even related to Uncle Scrooge by blood. The latter was 
Gladstone's mother's brother's brother-in-law. In other stories, he mentioned 
that Gladstone was Donald's cousin.  Sometimes he thought of Donald's sister as 
Dumbella, sometimes as Della, and on the family tree as "Thelma". As for many 
of the names of characters he put on his family tree, whom he never used in a 
story, he probably NEVER  THOUGHT OF THEM AGAIN!!!  How can one consider Barks' 
hastily produced family tree as gospel, when he never really used it?  
Shouldn't what appeared in the comic books take precedence?

Rob Klein  


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