nephews

[Elaine Ramshaw]

The Rosa story of which Don Markstein speaks is "An Eye for Detail" (WDCS
622). And Rosa certainly believes that the nephews are identical in
character as well as (to all but themselves and Donald) in appearance. He
wrote on this list a few years back "I still like the idea of them being the
same character times 3, with no individual traits... I think that's part of
the 'gag' for me, that there could be three such noble yet identical
people." He's also more than once included scenes in stories that make clear
that the nephews themselves don't think they're identical; that's also part
of the gag. So Rosa, for instance, would not do a story where the nephews
take advantage of their identical appearance to fool someone else. Barks
actually did have the nephews try (unsuccessfully!) to fool Donald in this
way, in the ten-pager in WDCS 71 (which Gladstone named "Swimming
Swindlers"); perhaps Donald had already at that early stage developed his
eye for detail. Though it's not clear that Donald would have seen through
their masquerade if he hadn't overheard their plans in advance. 

The McGreals have written a story, "Happy Birthday Times 3," in which the
nephews apparently try to establish independent identities in order to get
separate (or multiple?) birthday celebrations/presents (I'm just going by
the INDUCKS summary). I'm hoping Gemstone will publish that some time (now
that they've published the April, May & June birthday story!), because I'm
curious to see how the McGreals chose to handle the issue. I'm the younger
sister of identical twins, and my childhood claim to fame was that I was the
*only* one who never got them mixed up (which basically just meant that I
took the time to look carefully before I called out a name; everyone in the
immediate family could tell them apart if they tried), so I'm naturally
drawn to such stories!

And on another note entirely... The Amazon previews for upcoming Gemstone
issues list "Master of Disaster" in both DDA 21 & 22. Is that accurate? Will
it be published in two parts? 

And on yet another note... Has anyone ever made April, May & June members of
the Chickadees? (Personally, I'd far rather be a member of the Junior
Bonfire Girls [WDCS 42]--not such a cutesy feminine name! Though to be fair,
it's not like "Junior Woodchuck" would sound like something anyone would
want to be, if we didn't have all the Barksian associations with the name.)

Elaine