tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post1161498313053814023..comments2024-03-28T03:15:52.497-04:00Comments on Duck Comics Revue: "Ducky Date"GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-90195381133360308332011-09-24T21:43:31.609-04:002011-09-24T21:43:31.609-04:00Thanks, Thomas, for the Barksian example of a &quo...Thanks, Thomas, for the Barksian example of a "cross-species" marriage (though he didn't have to draw it!). I just happened to run across an Egmont story ("The Butler Did It" in Gemstone's DDA 46, originally Danish) where the dognosed Lord Glossop, who employs Donald as his butler, makes a move on Daisy (not realizing she is Donald's girlfriend). It's clear he is strongly attracted to her at first sight.Elainenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-50864183344997984522011-09-17T08:41:46.735-04:002011-09-17T08:41:46.735-04:00Do Ducks date dognoses? In-deed dey do!
Donna Duc...Do Ducks date dognoses? In-deed dey do!<br /><br />Donna Duck was engaged to a dognosed Manuel Gonzales in a Taliaferro newspaper gag. In Barks' "The Old Castle's Secret", dognose Diamond Dick's "third wife was a McDuck on her great grandfather's side!"Thomasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-22950387724171741882011-09-14T11:52:23.749-04:002011-09-14T11:52:23.749-04:00(I should add, by the way, that "Ducky Date&q...(I should add, by the way, that "Ducky Date" breaks my rules by making Mim both underconfident, and seemingly uncomprehending of her witchy look—which for me is a little out of character.)ramapithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01751343744514656549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-85928820473252528412011-09-14T00:58:15.673-04:002011-09-14T00:58:15.673-04:00I look at "Mim Le Pew" like this:
As an...I look at "Mim Le Pew" like this:<br /><br />As an inherently powerful witch, Mad Madam Mim doesn't have to be ugly, and she doesn't have to be weird. With her magic she could permanently take one of any more conventionally appealing forms, and have almost any handsome hunk she wanted.<br /><br />But Mim is also selfish, egotistical, and (in her best stories) confident. She's the marvelous Mad Madam Mim, dammit! She's proud of her natural shape and habits: proud to be ugly; proud to be eccentric. So she's determined not only to land the guy of her dreams, but to make him eat "toad knuckles smothered in bat wing soup" (WDC 313).<br /><br />She wouldn't be lonely if she was willing to give an inch. But Mim likes everything her way—which should ideally make her pursuit of romance amusing, not pathetic.ramapithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01751343744514656549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-48801394325491102422011-09-13T18:53:57.987-04:002011-09-13T18:53:57.987-04:00That sounds fascinating and awful. Thanks for bri...That sounds fascinating and awful. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-68625812291919854872011-09-13T05:38:56.793-04:002011-09-13T05:38:56.793-04:00just wanted to mention that mim falls head over he...just wanted to mention that mim falls head over heels for the phantom blot and has many stories of her chasing him down like the old pepe le pew cartoons...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-87616263905381809202011-09-10T20:06:27.784-04:002011-09-10T20:06:27.784-04:00Mim is sad 'cause her appearance doesn't w...Mim is sad 'cause her appearance doesn't win her any dates...yet, when Donald finds her one, she completely changes her looks for it. <br /><br />I know it avoided an awkward cross-dating scenario, but still...Huh.Richienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-41724524392237192002011-09-10T18:19:30.481-04:002011-09-10T18:19:30.481-04:00The idea would be that Gladstone was feeling down-...The idea would be that Gladstone was feeling down-on-his-luck/depressed, as is known to happen from time to time. It's something that a good writer could pull off, and then Donald's behavior would make more sense.<br /><br />I am curious as to how the story David mentions dealt with the interspecies thing.GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-50389909984471046212011-09-10T15:52:08.988-04:002011-09-10T15:52:08.988-04:00Isn’t it obvious that Gladstone would NEVER NEED D...Isn’t it obvious that Gladstone would NEVER NEED Donald to find him a date. And, even if Donald offered the prospect of a date completely unsolicited, Gladstone would smell a rat! <br /><br />Jones might have made an interesting victim for this plot, save for two things. (1) Western was not using him at this time. Barks revived him in two 1964-era stories, but no one else picked up on it. (2) Either Jones OR Donald would have been depicted as “dating out of species” for the gag to work! Can’t speak for everyone, but the idea of dogs dating ducks (and vice-versa) never worked for me. <br /><br />Fethry, despite his then-limited exposure, was just right for this scenario.Joe Torciviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00421096229407174474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-70876409462893686452011-09-10T15:21:48.486-04:002011-09-10T15:21:48.486-04:00I've never been a fan of Mim's intrusion i...I've never been a fan of Mim's intrusion into the Duck comics universe, but this is a cute story with a funny and pretty imaginative use of both Fethry and Mim. I do think that Donald's scheming would have gone down better had Fethry been around longer in American comics and more definitively established himself as an all-around pain. Geo's point about using Gladstone as opposed to Fethry is well-taken.<br /><br />ChrisChris Barathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06845538037091279990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-72744354880294758072011-09-10T11:22:25.314-04:002011-09-10T11:22:25.314-04:00Clarification: I am of course using "duck&quo...Clarification: I am of course using "duck" as a shorthand for "fowl," including loons, grebes, geese, etc.Elainenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-38490962781891501122011-09-10T11:19:14.257-04:002011-09-10T11:19:14.257-04:00....that is: the story would make more emotional s.......that is: the story would make more emotional sense as a Donald vs. Jones story, assuming that ducks date dognoses. (Whether Mim morphed into a glamorous dognose or a glamorous duck, one of the two guys would be cross-dating.) Do we have any evidence on this question, O Ye Gods of the Disney Comic Archives? It's clear that dognosed humans and duckiform humans mix in Duckburg with no societal distinctions, but do they, um, mix? I am reminded of GeoX's comments re: the unaccountably dognosed grandparents of the female duck love interest in Rota's "Night of the Saracen." (Of course, dognoses and ducks could date even if they never marry, but this brings up many thorny questions! The suggestion made in a comment that perhaps the grandparents adopted one of her parents is an indication that fans believe the two groups are different species. One could handle this the way Muppet Christmas Carol handled the cross-species marriage of Kermit and Miss Piggy, by having their offspring be female pigs and male frogs....)Elainenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-34984457740772486092011-09-10T09:31:58.929-04:002011-09-10T09:31:58.929-04:00Ah, the storyline would work *much* better with Do...Ah, the storyline would work *much* better with Donald vs. Jones (for the very reasons Geo suggests).<br /><br />As some of you know, I'm a fan of Madam Mim. Her role in "Secret of the Sphinx" in Beagle Boys 1 was the closest I found in childhood to a female's having a lead role in a Disney comic adventure. But then, in that same issue, she gets dragged by her hair by a caveman! Sigh. Anyway, as a feminist I don't mind Mim's being lovelorn or boy-crazy, as long as she isn't down on herself. She should be, as I've heard David say, proud of who she is, with a complete disregard for others' standards of beauty, wealth, etc. I also don't mind her being linked with the Beagle Boys, as long as she isn't depicted as their fall guy; she can be clueless about their motives, but not dumb, and she should sail through the encounter with her self-esteem intact. (This is the case in "Secret of the Sphinx"; there's even a visual joke about the BBs finding her ugly in comparison to her Egyptian princess avatar, but there's no sense that she cares about this at all.) For me the most successful melding of Mim into the Duckburg universe comes in "The Den Mother" (WDCS 291), wherein she is rescued by HDL-as-JWs from the Beagle Boys. In my own personal "continuity," I like to believe that after the events of that story she wised up and no longer hung out with the BBs. But it's that story that causes me to believe that Mim's house is somewhere in Duckburg's Black Forest.Elainenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-48784681459170049582011-09-10T03:56:46.663-04:002011-09-10T03:56:46.663-04:00"You can understand why [Donald] would want t..."You can understand why [Donald] would want to get rid of Fethry, but his desire for vengeance over something as malice-less as his bongo-playing just seems kind of psychopathic."<br /><br />Theory: The mid-1960s Western writers were likely given Dick Kinney stories to look at. They understood that Fethry was supposed to be annoying to Donald, but—none of them being as "dark-minded" as either late-'40s Barks or current Dick Kinney—the Western writers couldn't find it in them to make Fethry anywhere near as frustrating to Donald as Kinney made him, so Donald appears to be overreacting.<br /><br />Joe points out that bongo-playing could have been Fethry's fad of the week in "Ducky Date"; just as authentic regional food could have been his fad in "Donald's Buzzin' Cousin." Another theory: I bet the writers had exactly that in mind when they came to these stories.<br />The problem is that in execution, Fethry's not as creative or as single-minded as he should be for the hobbies to feel like obsessions. Instead, they're just interests that float amid a sea of other "wacky" behavior—behavior that could have been treated as the side effects of an obsession, but essentially isn't.<br /><br />Trivia: The Dutch, who still use Mad Madam Mim with the Ducks today, grafted a remake of this plot onto a Donald and Jones story several years ago. Where you suggest "...the whole thing would've made a lot more sense with Donald trying to fuck over a down-on-his-luck Gladstone," what we got was exactly that interpretation, but with Jones (and a longer introductory sequence to set everything up).ramapithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01751343744514656549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-44161189321777549382011-09-10T01:55:10.186-04:002011-09-10T01:55:10.186-04:00I TOLD ya it was a classic!
Strobl really sells...I TOLD ya it was a classic! <br /><br />Strobl really sells the final gag with Mim’s sweeping / slapping gesture, in the reveal of the “lady” Don deservedly gets stuck with! <br /><br />Something this bizarre AND funny (if one chooses to regard it that way) from Western would be inconceivable a mere 2-3 years from that point. Just bizarre? Yes. Especially so as fillers in Walt Disney Comics Digest. But bizarre AND funny? Never again. Indeed, some of your hypothetical “bad acid” could have only helped the likes of the near-future’s “Bird Bothered Hero”, and other stories in that vein! <br /><br />And, just think… From the moment Donald cut in on that long ago dance, Fethry faded away (for us American readers whose parents didn’t go to the right gas station) for decades! <br /><br />…And, for all we know, perhaps BONGO DRUMS were Fethry’s fad of the week!Joe Torciviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00421096229407174474noreply@blogger.com