tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post1399126556441600343..comments2024-03-28T03:15:52.497-04:00Comments on Duck Comics Revue: "The Mischief Mystery"GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-49695224758142821812020-12-14T02:13:19.119-05:002020-12-14T02:13:19.119-05:00Miguel says "Zeke could be perfectly consider...Miguel says "Zeke could be perfectly considered as a kind of small[-time] thief": That's right.<br /><br />Zeke Wolf in these Grandma stories is often described as if he's a wild animal, or at least an ill-behaved one ("the Bad Wolf," in Lockman), but he plays the role of the thieving hillbilly/tramp, stereotypically fond of robbing henhouses and stealing pies and roasts off windowsills in early 20th century pop culture. As such, the thief often meets the business end of a farmer's shotgun or broom.<br /><br />I think the only real oddity is characters referring to him like an animal; the role itself doesn't strike me as less than humanized.<br /><br />See, for example, the post-Disney Oswald Rabbit cartoon <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFutTv1AF5I" rel="nofollow"><i>Weary Willies</i></a> (1929), in which Oswald and Pegleg Pete are tramps trying to get past a bulldog to reach a roast on a windowsill. The specific type of thievery might also be suitable for a wild animal (and was, in the later Yogi Bear remake <a href="https://www.arcoiris.tv/scheda/it/18371/" rel="nofollow"><i>Pie-Pirates</i></a>, 1958); but there is nothing exclusively animal about it.ramapithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01751343744514656549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-85792312345583676452020-12-13T21:11:55.701-05:002020-12-13T21:11:55.701-05:00I think that there is not a big problem with Zeke ...I think that there is not a big problem with Zeke - my idea is that in the stories with Zeke and Grandma Duck, Zeke could be perfectly considered as a kind of small thief, not an wild animal; sometimes Grandma pursues him with the shotgun, but even that could considered a kind of "self-defense against criminals" - and in these story he even steal something that I suppose is not typical "wolf meal".Miguel Madeirahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07382939732567489809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-9796051678474377552020-12-11T14:35:24.070-05:002020-12-11T14:35:24.070-05:00I would contend that Dobbin has done something bey...I would contend that Dobbin has done something beyond not-saving the pie, as Grandma observes that BW won't try any more pranks. <br /><br />There has been *much* discussion on Feathery about MEAS levels--level of anthropomorphism and how to define the levels and where which characters land. The farm stories, throwing together characters from various fictional worlds, have the highest degree of confusion on this front. Why do the Cinderella mice talk to Grandma but her beloved horse does not? Because the horse grew up on the farm, while the mice immigrated from an animated feature. Other stories also had some confusion of levels, though--such as the stories where Chip and Dale interact with the Ducks. C&D live in the woods and don't wear clothes or hold down jobs, but they can talk in Chipmunk-English and be understood by the fully anthropomorphized Ducks. Elainenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-37633533438901714022020-12-11T13:25:25.358-05:002020-12-11T13:25:25.358-05:00You might be right. It does seem like there's ...You might be right. It does seem like there's something about a farm setting that makes that happen, intentionally or not. And I'm quite certain that he's intentionally referring to that song.GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-34212817022758907952020-12-11T09:42:07.846-05:002020-12-11T09:42:07.846-05:00You do have to wonder if Lockman was thinking of t...You do have to wonder if Lockman was thinking of the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" when he wrote "Who's afraid of a big dumb horse?"<br />These Grandma Duck stories are cute, but even the ones Carl Barks got stuck drawing do seem to be aimed at a much younger reader than your average Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge story (or perhaps I've been spoiled by the Geoffery Blum/David Gerstein helmed stories that gave their readers more credit (or knew that by then, more adults were reading these than kids). Debbie Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648307522331962265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-27538308571649590772020-12-10T18:39:08.045-05:002020-12-10T18:39:08.045-05:00I honestly don't really see the issue with Zek...I honestly don't really see the issue with Zeke being treated as a wolf that can talk rather than a wolf-type human when these Grandma stories have treated Gus and Jaq as mice that can talk rather than mice-type humans since forever.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-61683743305584269952020-12-10T18:32:01.818-05:002020-12-10T18:32:01.818-05:00I've got to say I really like the punchline he...I've got to say I really like the punchline here. The animals all trying and failing to be helpful is this sort of sweetly whimsical idea that I think Grandma Duck's farm, as a setting, is really well-suited to. And this particular premise seems like it could have worked quite nicely as a Marcel Aymé story. (…I've no idea if that reference makes sense to you as a non-Frenchman, sorry.)<br /><br />Yeah, seeing Grandma Duck talking about "the Bad Wolf" like this is very jarring. I don't mind interaction between the Wolves and the Ducks <i>per se</i>, especially in the countryside setting of yer Grandma Duck tales; there, the shadow of the 1930s and 1940s comics, with their slightly more animalistic Ducks and Mice, looms large enough that it doesn't jar too much, for me at any rate. But that only works if Zeke and Grandma <i>are</i> treated as equivalent for the purposes of the story — if it is the Ducks who are suddenly slightly more birdish, rather than the opposite. The Ducks remaining functionally-humans while Zeke remains a-wolf-who-talks simply doesn't work.Achille Talonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11636339293230261724noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-10343594760815934242020-12-10T18:25:13.730-05:002020-12-10T18:25:13.730-05:00She has her moments!She has her moments!GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-8768989330558539162020-12-10T18:10:09.199-05:002020-12-10T18:10:09.199-05:00Grandma Duck is rad! Grandma Duck is rad! Pan Miluśhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01364446151493198587noreply@blogger.com