DCML Digest Issue 37

[Don Rosa]

> From: "Mickey" <mickey at iol.it>
> Subject: Questions about Lo$
> 1) Where does "Abner" comes from about Whitewater Duck? And the
> "Dabney" for
> Humperdink?

I had to choose a name for "Whitewater" Duck since that's obviously a
nickname. I thought "Abner" had a backwoods sound. Same for "Dabney", but
afterwards I was told that the name "Humperdink" was once used in an old
obscure (non-Barks) story in a way that it probably referred to Grandma
Duck's husband, but that was after the first publication of my Family Tree.
I am happy to accept "Humperdink" as a replacement name, but "Dabney" is in
the permanent Egmont script for that project and it can't be changed except
by intervention of knowledgeable translators, such as the one or two reading
this ML.
As for Whitewater's brother Fethry, another thread is saying that he can't
be acceptable as Whitewater's brother (I don't think somebody has met very
many brothers), and that I gave his inclusion "no thought" when I popped him
into my Tree on editorial direction. I think people would know by now that I
don't do *anything* without careful consideration... probably way TOO much
for my own good! If Fethry's last name is Duck and he's Donald's cousin,
there's no place else he could be than the son of a son of Grandma. And the
same goes for Whitewater. Therefore they must be brothers. Sure, I could
have made up another whole duck as another son to Grandma, but I made up
absolutely NO characters in that Tree except those necessitated by already
existing characters so that there's be no out-of-wedlock shenanigans. Making
up characters for no reason would have violated my entire purpose. And, if
it makes any difference to anyone, that Family Tree was one of the few
things I worked on directly with Mr.Barks... he made his comments and
suggestions and I followed them when I could, but there was no objection to
the Fethry-Whitewater question (though I suspect that's because he really
didn't remember Whitewater and probably didn't know Fethry).

> 2) Are any other b-chapters of the Lo$ planned?

Oh, yes, indeedy.

> 3) Is it now impossible that the Ducks were in Dawson at the time
> of Scrooge
> (as intended in the rejected storyboards of Don Rosa), isn't it? Even if
> they didn't met?

Yes, I'd say so -- they don't seem to have met until 1902, and obviously had
been working the farm for some 20 years before that.

> 4) Is the "Mabel" who appears at the end of the chapter 10 of Lo$ another
> homage to Barks?

No. Does she look like Barks? I hope not. You mean did Barks ever use a
"Mabel"? No, she's just a background character to show settlers moving into
Duckburg.