Duck family (Disney)

The Duck family is a fictional family of cartoon ducks related to Disney character Donald Duck. The family is also related to the Coot, Goose, and Gander families, as well as the Scottish Clan McDuck. Besides Donald, the best-known members of the Duck family are Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Donald's three nephews.

Members of the Duck family appear most extensively in Donald Duck comic stories (although some have made animated appearances). In 1993, American comics author Don Rosa published a Duck family tree which established each characters' relationships for purposes of his stories. Rosa even created a fictional timeline for when certain characters were born. (All birth/death dates given below are Rosa's.) Some other comics authors, both before and after Rosa's family tree, have shown variations in the family.

Development[]

In the early 1950s Carl Barks was in his second decade of creating comic book stories starring Donald Duck and his various relatives. He had personally created several of the latter, Scrooge McDuck and Gladstone Gander being the most notable among them, but the exact relation between them was still somewhat uncertain. Barks decided to create a personal version of their family tree. To better define their relations, he added several previously unknown relatives. Barks never intended to publish this family tree, as he had created it for his personal use.

The first public attempt at a coherent biography of the Ducks was published in 1974. An Informal Biography of Scrooge McDuck by science fiction author Jack Chalker used names and events in the Barks stories (and a very few non-Barks ones) to create a life story for McDuck. It provided the basis for a Scrooge biography included in The People's Almanac.^[1]

By 1978 the Duck family was ingrained sufficiently in popular culture that a character in the movie Corvette Summer quips "Just call me Gladstone Duck" after being lucky.^[2]

In 1981 Barks was well into his retirement but his stories remained popular and had gained him unexpected fame. He had given several interviews and answered questions about his personal views on the characters and their stories. Among other subjects, Barks described his early version of the family tree. Rough sketches of the tree were published in a number of fanzines. Fans of the characters were pleased for the background it added to them. At this point decided to create a drawing of this family tree including portraits of the characters mentioned. Otherwise Worden made few changes to the tree, most notably adding Daisy Duck as Donald's main love interest. His illustrated version of the tree was published at first in several fanzines and later in the Carl Barks Library. The latter was a ten-volume collection of his works in hardcover black-and-white edition.

In 1987 Don Rosa, a long-time fan of Carl Barks and personal friend of Mark Worden, started creating his own stories featuring Scrooge McDuck and his various associates. His stories contained numerous references to older stories by Barks as well as several original ideas. After several years he gained a fanbase of his own. In the early 1990s Egmont, the publishing house employing Don Rosa, offered him an ambitious assignment. He was to create the definitive version of Scrooge's biography and a family tree accompanying it. This was supposed to end decades of contradictions between stories which caused confusion to readers. The project was to become The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The family tree accompanying it was first published in Norway on July 3, 1993.

In the process of working on Scrooge's biography, Rosa studied Barks' old stories mentioning his past. Then he added several ideas of his own. Among them were biographical information for Scrooge's supporting cast.

Family tree by Carl Barks[]

The family tree below shows the Goose (left) and Duck (right) portions of Donald's family tree according to Carl Barks. The chart is based on a 1950s sketch made by Barks for personal use, which was later illustrated by artist Mark Worden in 1981.^[3]

hideFamily tree by Carl Barks
? Goose Grandma Duck Clan McDuck ? Goose Luke Goose Daphne Duck Quackmore Duck Hortense McDuck Gus Goose Gladstone Gander (né Goose) Daisy Duck Donald Duck Thelma Duck Huey, Dewey, and Louie

Family tree by Don Rosa[]

In 1993, Don Rosa published his version of the Duck family tree as part of his 12-part comics series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The most significant change was Rosa's expansion of the family tree to include the Coot relatives. Rosa also added Goostave Gander as the father of Gladstone, and made Luke Goose the father of Gus, rather than his uncle.

The chart below is Rosa's tree which shows relationships within the Coot family (left) and Duck family (right).

hideFamily tree by Don Rosa
Cornelius Coot Pintail Duck (ancestor) Clinton Coot Gertrude Gadwall Gretchen Grebe Casey Coot Elvira Coot "Grandma Duck" Humperdink Duck Clan McDuck Luke Goose Fanny Coot Cuthbert Coot Lulubelle Loon Eider Duck Goostave Gander Daphne Duck Quackmore Duck Hortense McDuck Gus Goose Abner "Whitewater" Duck Fethry Duck Gladstone Gander Donald Duck Della Duck Huey, Dewey, and Louie

Ancestors[]

Pintail Duck[]

Pintail Duck was a 16th-century Duck relative and the first early ancestor to appear in person. Pintail served in the Royal Navy as the boatswain aboard HMS Falcon Rover. The Falcon Rover raided Spanish targets in the Caribbean Sea between 1563 and 1564 when the ship was sunk. Pintail was friends with the ship's first mate, Malcolm McDuck, who was also an ancestor of Donald. Pintail appears in the story "Back to Long Ago" (1956) in which it is suggested that he was an earlier incarnation of Donald.

First generation[]

Humperdink Duck[]

Humperdink Duck is the earliest known modern Duck family member. He is the husband of Elvira Coot, known as "Grandma Duck", and Donald's paternal grandfather. He worked as a farmer in Duckburg. He had three children: Quackmore, Daphne and Eider. Humperdink Duck had relevant comic appearances in two stories by Don Rosa. "The Invader Of Fort Duckburg",^[4] a chapter of the saga The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, and "The Sign Of The Triple Distelfink".^[5] He was known as "Pa Duck" (later known as "Grandpa Duck").

Humperdink's life before having a family was never shown in the comics. Don Rosa speculated that the Duck family originated from England, but it is unknown if Humperdink is an immigrant.^[6]

In the story "The Good Old Daze" by Tony Strobl,^[7] Grandpa Duck (an older Humperdink) appears in flashback taking care of little Donald along with Grandma. He is portrayed as a dedicated but rigorous grandfather. Grandpa's real name was not revealed in this story, but in an untitled one from 1951, where an old lover of Grandma called Humperdink has a cameo appearance. Don Rosa considered that this character became Donald's grandfather.^[8] In this same story, Grandma remembers an occasion where she and Humperdink heard one of her favorite songs. She says to herself, "I remember the band played that for Humperdink and me at the Fish Peddler's Picnic in 1905!". Besides, Grandma finds the ruined coat Humperdink had used to let her not step on a mud puddle and some romantic letters addressed to her written by Humperdink. Then she remembers some sweet names Humperdink used to refer to her in those letters.

Humperdink appeared as "Grandpa Duck" in two comic stories previously mentioned. "The Good Old Daze" by Strobl and "The Sign Of The Triple Distelfink" by Rosa, but Strobl drew him with a quite long beard and some hair, while Rosa has drawn him with a short one and a full head of hair. In a comic story first published in 2013 Grandpa Duck (Strobl's version) appears in a flashback scene which is told by his wife Grandma Duck. This story is called "The Good Neighbors" by Lars Jensen and Flemming Andersen and makes part of the comic subseries Tamers of Nonhuman Threats.^[9]

Humperdink appears unnamed in the 1955 film No Hunting in which he posthumously inspires Donald to take part in hunting season. Humperdink is also the father-in-law of Hortense McDuck, as well as the maternal great-grandfather of Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Grandma Duck[]

Elvira "Grandma" Duck (née Coot,^[10] October^[11] c. 1855) is Donald's paternal grandmother and the Duck family matriarch. In most stories, she is simply referred to as "Grandma Duck". She was introduced to the Disney comic universe by Al Taliaferro and Bob Karp in the Donald Duck newspaper comic strip, first in a picture on the wall in the August 11, 1940, Sunday page, and then as a fully fledged character in the strip of Monday, September 27, 1943.^[12] Taliaferro found inspiration for her in his own mother-in-law, Donnie M. Wheaton. Depending on the writer, Grandma Duck has had various given names over the years; in a story by Riley Thomson from 1950 she was named "Elviry"^[11] and in a story from 1953 she was given the name "Abigail".^[11] Don Rosa later gave her the name "Elvira" in his comic books series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.

According to Don Rosa, Grandma was born around 1855. In the comic strips by Taliaferro and Karp, it is mentioned that in her youth she was a pioneer in the American migration to the west, riding a covered wagon and participating in many Indian Wars.^[13][14] Later, she married Humperdink Duck, and they had three children named Quackmore (Donald's father), Daphne (Gladstone's mother) and Eider (Fethry's father). Grandma Duck also helped to raise her great-grandsons, Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck (her daughter-in-law's grandsons). In most comic book stories as well as other media that handles Donald Duck's childhood, it is Grandma Duck who takes on the role as his caretaker.

Grandma is very kindhearted and humble as well as having great respect for integrity and hard work. However, she is also very resolute and will not tolerate people who behave unfairly or otherwise badly. Therefore, she is one of the very few people who can rebuke against Scrooge McDuck when he is being too greedy, or thrifty, or behaves unfairly to family members like Donald Duck. Her family is very important to her and probably what she values most in life. Grandma is also a great cook, and has won many prizes for her pies and pastries. In many stories, especially in her early appearances, she is also very strict about cleanliness. In her first appearance for example, she is very upset with Donald for not having washed his neck properly.^[15]

Grandma Duck lives on a farm with many acres of land, given to her by her father Clinton Coot,^[16] outside the city of Duckburg. She is very strict and punctual on how to run the farm efficiently, like always getting up very early in the morning to have time to do all the chores, which is an attitude not shared by her great-nephew and farmhand Gus Goose. Gus is very lazy and does not do much work at all, spending most of his time eating or sleeping instead, but Grandma is very patient with him and lets him stay on the farm anyway. In some stories, especially older ones, Grandma Duck also gets help from Gus and Jaq, the two mice from Cinderella. She also has a number of farm animals; including Billy Goat, the cows Bossy and Queenie, a bull named Angus, the hens Eggatha, Steady Heddy and Henrietta, and a horse named Dobbin. At one time, in Carl Barks' story The Whole Herd of Help (1961), she is even given an elephant named Packy by Scrooge McDuck, mostly because he wanted to get it off his hands. Grandma also has a few distant farmer neighbors and the most notable is farmer Si Bumpkin, a tall anthropomorphic chicken, who is easily annoyed when he in some way is affected by disturbances on Grandma's farm, which often caused by her family or friends. Her farm is also the center of the Duck family's annual holiday gatherings, with said gatherings usually arranged by her, and these are always merry, warm and interesting occasions, greatly appreciated by her kinfolk.

Grandma's vehicle of transportation outside the farm is an early 20th-century Detroit Electric automobile and for overall she lives a very old-fashioned way of life, mostly relying on older technologies, techniques and experiences she has learned over her many years, refusing to acquire any modern gadgetry or lifestyles. For example, as instead of watching her television set she got from Donald for Christmas, she watches pictures on her old stereoscope.^[17] In a few stories however she does watch the weather program on an old television set, but in most stories she relies on her knee or hip, caused by weather pain, to predict rain for the crops. Typically, the only thing that runs on electricity in her house is a late 19th-century telephone. Grandma Duck also owns furniture and home accessories that are very valuable as antiques, but she always refuses to sell them because of the sentimental value they have to her. In some stories this causes some people to try to steal them, but thereafter they are often apprehended because of Grandma's superior intellect or her reliance on her life's experiences.

Grandma made her animated debut in the 1960 Wonderful World of Color episode "This is Your Life, Donald Duck", where she was voiced by June Foray. The episode depicted her great difficulty in raising Donald, a strong-willed and ill-tempered duckling from the moment he was hatched. She also made a non-speaking cameo in Mickey's Christmas Carol, as well can be spotted in background in episode of DuckTales "Horse Scents".

In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa, it is told that her father is Clinton Coot, her mother is Gertrude Gadwall, her grandfather is Cornelius Coot, and her brother is Casey Coot. In numerous European stories (including Marco Rota's From Egg to Duck), she is shown as Scrooge McDuck's older sister. In some of the older American comics, they have also been portrayed as being cousins. According to the Duck family tree that Carl Barks sketches out for personal use in the 1950s, Scrooge is the brother of Grandma's daughter-in-law.

Second generation[]

Quackmore Duck[]

Quackmore Duck (born 1875) is the father of Donald Duck, and has been variously depicted with or without a moustache. His parents are Humperdink and Elvira "Grandma" Duck. He was born in Duckburg, and from and early age displayed a very nasty temper. He worked at his parents' farm till 1902 when he met Hortense McDuck and they became engaged. He started working for her brother Scrooge McDuck.

By 1908 he was helping Hortense and her sister Matilda McDuck run their brother's empire as Scrooge's chief accountant, mainly because Scrooge thought that as a possible heir he would probably work hard and stay honest. In 1920 he finally married Hortense and later in the same year became the father of twins: Donald and Della. So he and Hortense became parents when they already were more than 40 years old, according to Don Rosa.

He remained the chief accountant till 1930 when a fight between Scrooge and his family ended all relationships between them. Quackmore retired and it is believed he died sometimes around 1950, although his exact date of death and death place are still unknown.

"I shudder to imagine the kid that would come from that unholy union!", exclaimed Humperdink in "The Invader Of Fort Duckburg" by Don Rosa, predicting the type of child his grandson Donald would be because of the explosive temperaments of Quackmore and his wife Hortense. There is a panel in "The Sign Of The Triple Distelfink" by Rosa where Humperdink is behind Quackmore and Hortense during the birthday party of his daughter Daphne Duck, and his facial expression suggests he is disappointed with an argument between the couple. Since both characters have a quick temper, their marriage possibly was full of ups and downs.

Quackmore's image is visible in several photographs in the DuckTales premier "Woo-oo!", and is also mentioned by name by Webby Vanderquack.

Hortense McDuck[]

Hortense Duck (née McDuck; born 1876) is married to Quackmore Duck. She is also Donald's mother. She was born in Scotland and is the youngest sister of Scrooge McDuck.

Daphne Duck[]

Daphne Gander (née Duck) is Donald's aunt and the mother of Gladstone Gander. In the story "The Sign of The Triple Distelfink" (1998), Don Rosa explains that Gladestone's good luck was inherited from his mother, after a traveling worker painted a giant sign of the "Triple Distelfink" on her parents' stable on the day of her birth. The symbol was supposed to bring the baby luck, and it did: Daphne was always incredibly lucky. She worked in her parents' farm until at least 1902. Later, she stopped working and started living on the things she won in contests. She married Goostave Gander, and in 1920 became the mother of Gladstone Gander. Gladstone was born on her birthday and under the protection of the same symbol as his mother.

Eider Duck[]

Eider Duck is Donald's uncle. He was first mentioned in August 1944 in the story "The Fighting Falcon" by Carl Barks. In this story, Donald receives a falcon called Farragut as a present by his Uncle Eider who does not live in Duckburg. Farragut arrives inside a big box brought to Donald's house by an expressman. Barks never mentioned Eider again but Don Rosa decided to include him in his Duck Family Tree.

According to Rosa, Eider is the son of Humperdink and Elvira Duck and the father of Abner and Fethry Duck. As of 1902, he worked on his parents' farm. He later married Lulubelle Loon and became the father of at least two sons, Abner "Whitewater" Duck and Fethry Duck.

Lulubelle Loon[]

Lulubelle Duck (née Loon) is married to Eider Duck and the mother of Abner and Fethry Duck, according to Don Rosa's version of the Duck family tree. She does not have any comic appearance so far, not even a cameo one.

Sheriff Dan Duck[]

Sheriff Dan Duck (aka Cousin Dan) is an old cousin of Donald who happens to be sheriff of a Western town called Bent Spur Gulch. Dan originally has thick, dark-grey eyebrows, a long, dark-grey mustache and long, dark-grey hair on the left and right sides of his head. He is generally shown holding a crutch. He appeared in two comic stories, "Daredevil Deputy" by Jack Bradbury,^[18] where he asks Donald to replace him while he recovers from "a touch of rheumatism", and "Trigger Gulch Gang" by Tony Strobl,^[19] where he has only a brief appearance on the first page.

Dan Duck is presumably first cousin once removed of Donald because of his advanced age.

A remake of "Daredevil Deputy" was drawn by Chilean cartoonist Vicar for the Danish publisher Egmont. It's called "Sheriff for a Day", first published in 1978.^[20]

Third generation[]

Donald Duck[]

Donald Duck (born 1920) is the son of Quackmore and Hortense Duck, and the most well-known member of the family. He is the nephew of Scrooge McDuck, the older twin brother of Della Duck, and the uncle of her sons Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck. His girlfriend is Daisy Duck. He does not have any children of his own, but he is very close with his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck. In some stories Donald is the triplet's legal guardian, such as in the 1942 film The New Spirit in which Donald lists the boys as dependants on his income tax form.

Della Duck[]

Della Duck (called Dumbella in Donald's Nephews; born 1920) is the mother of Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck, the younger twin sister of their uncle Donald Duck, and the niece of their grand-uncle Scrooge McDuck. She was first described as Donald Duck's cousin,^[21] but was later referred to as Donald's twin sister. She was first mentioned in a 1937 Donald Duck Sunday strip on October 17, 1937 in which she writes a letter explaining to Donald that she is sending her sons to stay with him.^[21] She appears as a child in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck in which she and Donald are wearing identical sailor suits. While both she and Donald Duck are linked to Scrooge McDuck in equal measure, Donald is always referred to as Scrooge's closest living relative, suggesting she has disappeared or died. In the Don Rosa comic "Super Snooper Strikes Again", Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck refer to themselves as 'orphaned' suggesting that their parents had died.

A story about Donald Duck's 80th birthday says Della was an astronaut and gave the nephews to Donald before a dangerous space expedition.^[22]

Della made her first animated appearance in DuckTales (2017), with her sons discovering she was previously a companion of Scrooge and Donald's in their adventures. Dewey and his brothers set out to investigate the cause of her disappearance along with Webby Vanderquack. They subsequently discover that Scrooge has gone to great lengths to conceal information about her. It is eventually revealed that, shortly before the triplets hatched, Della stole The Spear of Selene, a spacecraft constructed by Scrooge as a gift, to give it an early test run. However, she was caught in a cosmic storm and lost in space. Scrooge spent a large portion of his fortune looking for her, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Blaming Scrooge for her disappearance, Donald cut all ties with him and raised Della's children on his own. Della is later shown to be alive, living on the moon in the remains of her crashed spacecraft and unable to contact Earth. In season 2, it is further revealed that she has a prosthetic left leg because of injuries she sustained during the crash, survived off of Gyro Gearloose's Oxy-Chew gum (which provides air, water, and nutrients), and worked feverishly to get back to Earth. In the episode "The Golden Spear!", she succeeds in making it back to Duckburg, and in "Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!" she meets the boys for the first time. Although she causes some issues from her difficulty adjusting to her new lifestyle, Della eventually settles down and decides to be the best mother she can be. In the Christmas episode, "Last Christmas", it is revealed that as kids, Donald used to insult Della by calling her "Dumbella", a reference to her name in Donald's Nephews. She is voiced by Paget Brewster.^[23]

Huey, Dewey, and Louie's father[]

The identity of Huey, Dewey, and Louie's father is something of a mystery. The character does not appear in any stories, but he did partially appear in the 1993 Duck family tree drawn by Don Rosa. In this illustration, Rosa partially concealed the character's face with a bird. While his first name was also hidden, his last name is revealed to be Duck. His face was fully shown in the unofficial Duck family tree by Mark Worden and first published in several fanzines, which labeled him "? Duck" and showed him with a flattop haircut and human-like ears.

In Huey, Dewey, and Louie's first appearance in a 1937 Donald Duck Sunday strip, Della writes to Donald that the boys had placed a firecracker under their father's chair as a prank and that their father had been sent to the hospital.^[21] This was the reason why the boys first showed up at Donald's house. The father has not been mentioned again in the chronicles. In "The Richest Duck in the World", when Scrooge mentions that the few family members he had had disappeared, the boys respond, "We know how that feels!"

Fethry Duck[]

Donald's cousin Fethry Duck was created for the Disney Studio Program by Dick Kinney and and was first used in the story "The Health Nut", published on August 2, 1964.^[24] Kinney and Hubbard created Fethry to be a beatnik member of the Duck family; the definition of that term—"a person who rejects or avoids conventional behavior"—is Fethry to a tee. In personality, Fethry is an obsessive New Age thinker, eagerly trying to pursue various new hobbies and lifestyles based on books he has read or TV programs he has seen. Fethry is also quite a blunderer, however, so his new hobbies tend to cause chaos for his friends and family.

In "The Health Nut," Fethry is first seen running from the airport to Donald's house, implying he is not a Duckburg citizen at that point in time. It is also implied that Donald and Fethry know each other from earlier: Fethry calls Donald by a nickname, "Don." Elsewhere in the story, Donald thinks to himself, "Wonder what [Fethry's] kick is this time?", making it clear that he knows about Fethry's tendency to come up with temporary obsessions every now and then.

Fethry wears a stocking cap, for reasons revealed in "The Health Nut": he was convinced by a self-help book author that one's head is healthier when it's kept hot. Fethry's trademark sweater, usually bearing a black stripe, is typically a different color depending on which country the story is published in: in Brazil, his sweater is generally yellow; in the Italian comics, he usually wears a red one; and, in the comic books of Egmont Publishing, the traditional color of his sweater is pink.

The early Fethry comics were created for the Disney Studio Program for publication outside of the United States. An exception to this are three stories with Fethry drawn by Tony Strobl that appeared in Gold Key Comics published in 1966 (Donald Duck #105 and #106 plus Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #304). Strobl actually drew more than two hundred comic stories with Fethry for the market outside USA. The first comic story with Fethry published in the USA was "Donald's Buzzin Cousin",^[25] which—like "The Health Nut"—shows Fethry as a nonresident of Duckburg coming to meet Donald after a long time away, though the plot is otherwise very different.

Later, some of the Fethry Studio Program stories were reprinted in the Wonderful World of Disney giveaway magazine published in 1969–1970 for Gulf Oil. From the 1970s to the 1990s, Fethry mostly appeared in European- and Brazilian-produced stories; in Brazil, he even had his own comic book title during the 1980s, which lasted 56 issues. More recently (2003–present), Fethry's modern Egmont and 1960s Kinney/Hubbard stories have been published in domestic American comics: Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.

Hubbard and Kinney developed more than fifty comic stories with Fethry, originally for the market outside USA.^[26] Nevertheless, they did see publication in English at the time: the vast majority were published in Australia between 1964 and 1969, often in one-shot comics billed Donald and Fethry Duck—suggesting a comedic duo—or simply Fethry Duck.^[27][28]

In Brazilian and Italian stories, Fethry is depicted in various occupations, including as a reporter (alongside his cousin Donald Duck and, sometimes, Daisy Duck) and comic strip artist for Scrooge McDuck's newspaper, the Duckburg Chronicle. Fethry has also gained a superheroic alter ego, the Red Bat (parody of Batman, like Donald's Paperinik), and a number of supporting characters, among them his girlfriend the urban hippie Gloria and his nephew (the son of Fethry's unnamed sister) the bratty Dugan Duck. After discovering Fethry is The Red Bat, Gloria also decided to become a superhero herself, so The Purple Butterfly (presumably a parody of Batgirl) was born, and she eventually ends up saving The Red Bat when he is in a jam. Gloria wears a hippie-like style of clothing and she usually is a carefree girl. She appeared as one of Daisy Duck's closest friends in some stories. But according to a couple of old Brazilian stories, Gloria was not the first and only love of Fethry. He had a girlfriend called Rita Gansa (original Brazilian name) whom he really liked before knowing Gloria.^[29] Like Gladstone Gander, Rita looks like a mix between an anthropomorphic duck and an anthropomorphic goose. She was actually Fethry's childhood classmate. There is even one story where Gloria and Rita contest against each other to know who is Red Bat's biggest fan.

According to a version of Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree, Fethry is the son of Eider Duck and Lulubelle Loon, is the cousin of Donald Duck, and has a brother named Abner Duck. However, since Fethry was not created by Carl Barks and was never used in any Barks stories, Rosa does not consider Fethry part of the Duck family. Be that as it may, due to editorial pressure stemming from the character's popularity in Europe, Rosa reluctantly included him in the tree anyway.^[30]

With Donald, Fethry is a member of the Tamers of Nonhuman Threats, a special super-secret organization fighting hostile paranormal creatures of all sorts to protect the earth. These stories are all produced by Danish creative house Egmont Creative A/S and drawn by Flemming Andersen. They are published in pocketbooks.

Fethry also works, again together with Donald, for Scrooge McDuck's secret organization, originally (in Italian) called the P.I.A.. Besides, he started starring stories as an assistant of the detective Umperio Bogarto (an Italian character whose name is a play on "Humphrey Bogart") in 1996 and as Moby Duck's First Mate in the early 2000s.^[31]

In earlier times, Egmont used Fethry very seldom; from the late 1990s, however, Egmont decided to bring back the character and create a whole range of new stories around him, this time based on the original 1960s concept of the character.

Donald has often teamed up with Fethry to do all sort of jobs for Scrooge (usually with disastrous results), with Donald being the "straight man" and Fethry the "funny man". These terms are rather loosely applied, however, insofar as Donald's reactions to Fethry, and attempts to neutralize him, are often every bit as funny as Fethry's doings.

In 1970s stories drawn by Tony Strobl, Fethry is the owner of an over-friendly dog named Poochie. Some Brazilian cartoonists also used Fethry's little-known pet.^[32]

In 2018, Fethry made his first animated appearance in the DuckTales episode "The Depths of Cousin Fethry!", voiced by Tom Kenny. He is depicted as the caretaker of one of Scrooge's undersea research facilities that Huey and Dewey visit. While they are at first put off by his odd behavior, the two come to respect Fethry after he protects them from a sea monster. He later returns in "Moonvasion" to help protect the Earth from the invading Moonlanders and in "The Last Adventure!" to attend Webby Vanderquack's birthday party.

Whitewater Duck[]

Whitewater Duck^[33] was created by Carl Barks and used by him only in the story "Log Jockey", published in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #267 in December 1962. According to that story, he is a distant cousin of Donald and Huey, Dewey and Louie,^[34] and works as a lumberjack in the woods.

Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree states that Whitewater's real name is Abner, and "Whitewater" is a nickname. He is also shown to be a son of Eider Duck and Lulubelle Loon and Fethry Duck's brother, making him Donald's first cousin.

In his second appearance in "Smarter Than The Toughies" (2004) by Lars Jensen and Daniel Branca, Whitewater is the nephew of Scrooge McDuck's cousin Douglas, making him Donald's second cousin.

In his third appearance in "Too Many Donalds" (2012) by Lars Jensen and Carlos Mota, Whitewater is in a relationship with Donna Duck. In this story, Donald introduces Whitewater to Daisy as his distant cousin.

Dudly D. Duck[]

Dudly D. Duck is a cousin of Donald who appears in the comic story "Why All the Crabby Ducks?" by Vic Lockman and .^[35] He is a flopped architect and inventor who was responsible for the construction of the "Jog Tunnel", which annoys the citizens of Duckburg because it really has a jog in it, and for the bad planning of Duckburg's streets. Therefore, Dudly became very unpopular and was forced to live isolated in a lonely street, including his name was forgotten until the day that Donald discovers who planned the "Jog Tunnel", and then his girlfriend Daisy Duck reveals who is Dudly Duck through the newspaper where she works as reporter. A reporter rival of Daisy ends up discovering that Dudly is related to Donald, who in turn becomes unpopular too.

Dudly appears in a Brazilian comic story where Fethry Duck works as reporter of Scrooge's newspaper, the Duckburg Chronicle, and he intends to interview Dudly, who is returning to Duckburg. He also had a cameo appearance in another Brazilian comic story where Gyro Gearloose is called by the Mayor of Duckburg (a dogface version) to fix a sinking building planned by Dudly. Actually, this building originally appeared in "Why All the Crabby Ducks?".

Dimwitty Duck[]

Dimwitty Duck (originally just called Dim-Witty) is a duck who was introduced in the comic story "The Vanishing Banister",^[36] where he appears as an assistant of Donald Duck, who in turn appears working as a private detective. Daisy Duck has a brief appearance in the beginning of this one. But there are some old American stories with Dimwitty and Daisy where Donald does not appear. In the story "On Disappearing Island",^[37] Dimwitty appeared for the first time as Moby's ship hand and from then on he became the most common supporting character in Moby's stories. Dimwitty is incredibly clumsy but he is loyal and subservient, and maybe that's the reason why Moby keeps him as his ship hand. But a close kinship between them could also explain this fact. Dimwitty is taller than Donald and Moby. In some 1970s stories, Dimwitty was shown as a friend of Gus Goose.

There are some old stories where it's revealed that Dimwitty's surname is also "Duck". The first one was "The Fix-it-fiasco",^[38] which also features Daisy.

Just like Moby, Dimwitty had also a cameo appearance in the Darkwing Duck / Ducktales crossover called "Dangerous Currency" from 2011.

A character called Dim-Witty Jr., who appears in the Junior Woodchuck's comic story "The Green Gauntlet",^[39] apparently would be son of Dimwitty, since their respective names, looks and behaviors are very similar, including they both wear clothes with a "D" on it. Dimwitty has the initial letter of his name on his long hat, while Dim-Witty Jr. has this same symbol on his orange blouse. Dim-Witty Jr. is called Dimmy by Huey, Dewey and Louie. Moby also calls Dimwitty Dimmy in some of his stories with his first mate.

Moby Duck[]

Moby Duck, whose name is a spoof of the novel Moby-Dick, was created by writer Vic Lockman and illustrator Tony Strobl in the comic-book story "A Whale of an Adventure" in Donald Duck #112 (March 1967).^[40] He made his only major animated appearance in the Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color episode "Pacifically Peeking" (October 6, 1968),^[40] and had a cameo appearance in the episode "House of Crime" of the House of Mouse TV series. He first appeared in Donald Duck #112 where he is seen saving Donald from drowning at sea, after Donald was forced to accept Moby's proposal to work as his helper, since Moby's porpoise Porpy pretended to be a threatening shark. Later that year Moby got his own comic book title which ran 11 issues until 1970, and then from 1973 to 1978 (issues #12-30). Illustrators of American Moby Duck stories include Strobl, , and Pete Alvarado. Not seen in the US for two decades, he was used in a comic subseries produced in Italy during the 2000s. Moby had two cameo appearances in the 2010s: the first one was in an Italian story from 2010,^[41] and the second one was in the Darkwing Duck / Ducktales crossover called "Dangerous Currency" from 2011.^[42]

Moby has a quick temper and he can be really rude sometimes, not showing any remorse when he acts this way. He also shows a male chauvinist behavior in some stories. Moby is a disaster as a whaler, but a good sailor in general. He makes a living out of carrying cargo, especially for Scrooge McDuck. He also fights pirates and other villains, including the Beagle Boys, Mad Madam Mim, Emil Eagle, The Big Bad Wolf, and Captain Hook. There is not any comic story where Moby was shown harpooning a whale indeed, however in the American comic story "Whale Bait",^[43] first published in 1969, when Gyro Gearloose asks him why he is so gloomy, he exclaims, "Whales are scarcer than hen's teeth lately!", suggesting that he had successfully hunted whales on some occasions. But this same story also shows Moby developing affection for whales when he comes face to face with one of them for the first time and hesitates to use the harpoon of his whaler on that one, exclaiming "I-I can't! I never got so cozy with whales before as to look into their big tender pink eyes!". In the Danish comic story "Miraculous Bait",^[44] first published in 1972, Moby reveals to Gyro Gearloose that he never could hunt any whale, and for this reason he is using his whaler to deliver letters. In the half-page Danish story "Hitting The Tooth Mark",^[45] first published in 1973, Moby asks himself, "Why do I have a harpoon cannon?" (informal translation from the following excerpt in German language, "Wozu hab' ich überhaupt eine Harpunierkanone?"), since he realizes that he never used this one for hunting a whale. Moby even joined forces with a female animal rights activist to save a whale belonging to a Scrooge McDuck's enterprise called Sea Kingdom, as seen in the comic story "A Whale's Ransom".^[46]

Moby is a relative of Donald Duck as seen in "Sea Dog's Holiday" by Vic Lockman and .^[47] There are American old stories where Moby seems to be familiar to other members of Donald's paternal family as well, like Grandma Duck and Gladstone Gander. In the comic story "The Dread Sea Adventure" by Lockman and Wright,^[48] Grandma exclaims when she sees Moby, "Moby Duck, you salty old sea biscuit!", making it clear that she knows him very well.

Donald was Moby's first mate for a while but he was replaced by Dimwitty Duck (and, on rare occasions in the comic books, by Goofy). There are a couple of stories featuring Moby where Donald and Dimwitty appeared together working for Moby as his crew. The Spanish cartoonist Antoni Gil-Bao used the duo Moby and Dimwitty in various Danish comic stories.^[49] Porpy also appears in many Moby's stories.

Moby was one of the few secondary characters selected to be cast as a small figurine in two collections made by De Agostini, Disney Parade and Disney Collection.^[50][51]

Fourth generation[]

Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck[]

Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck are Donald's three nephews, grand-nephews of his uncle Scrooge McDuck and identical triplet sons of Della Duck and an unnamed father.

Dugan Duck[]

Dugan Duck is Fethry Duck's nephew who is a little bit younger than Huey, Dewey and Louie. According to the Brazilian comic story "O Nascimento Do Biquinho",^[52] he is the son of Fethry's sister, who lives in the periphery of Duckburg.

Dugan originally had yellow feathers, an uncommon characteristic for Disney Ducks given by his Brazilian creators, which was authorized by Disney Publishing Worldwide. He is a stubborn child whose most common activity is to cause troubles for his Uncle Fethry, who adopted Dugan after he and his girlfriend Gloria rescued him from a forest. Dugan's most frequent partner is usually a little pignose girl called Cintia, whose mother happens to be Fethry's neighbor and she really dislikes Dugan. He made a huge success in Brazil during the 1980s, when his charismatic figure was quite explored by Brazilian cartoonists, but he practically disappeared from the Brazilian comics in the next decade. Some Italian cartoonists have been used Dugan once in a while, but he just appears with white feathers in Italian comics.

Coot kin[]

The Coot family, typically called the Coot kin in stories, are the relatives of Grandma Duck and, along with the Clan McDuck, constitute the third major branch of Donald's family tree. The name "Coot" was used by several comic authors including Carl Barks, but Don Rosa was the first to show their relationship to Donald. The members of the family are depicted as white Pekin ducks like Donald, although real-life coots are typically black.

Cornelius Coot[]

Cornelius Coot (1790–1880) founded Duckburg (and the real-world, but since closed Mickey's Toontown Fair at the Magic Kingdom). He first appeared as a statue in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #138 in the 1952 story "Statuesque Spendthrifts" by Carl Barks. His statue and legacy has later appeared in many other stories. Although Cornelius was a well-known figure to readers of Disney comics, his character history was not told until Don Rosa began using the character in the late 1980s. The following history is mainly based on Rosa's stories, especially "His Majesty, McDuck", first published in Uncle Scrooge Adventures #14.

Cornelius Coot was born in 1790 as an American citizen. His ancestors had been in America for quite some time and his roots are believed to reach to the colonization of Jamestown, Virginia (1607) and the voyage of the Mayflower (1620). But he is the first member of the Coot Kin to gain prominence. His birthplace is unknown and before reaching Duckburg he was a wandering hunter. He apparently had travelled all the way from the East to the West coast making his living by trading furs from the animals he killed.

He arrived at Fort Drake Borough, a British military base in Calisota, in 1818. He was apparently only looking for some trading with the soldiers, but his life took some unexpected turns. During his stay the Fort was attacked by Spanish troops from neighbouring California (the fictional Calisota includes parts historically belonging to Northern California. The Duck's version of California only includes the historical Southern California). The small British garrison could not defend the Fort and decided to retreat. To save face the commander made a deal with young Cornelius. The Fort would pass into his possession and if the Spanish managed to conquer it, he and his troops had nothing to do with the failure other than trusting an insane American to guard. Cornelius agreed. After the escape of the British he managed to frighten the Spanish away by making them believe that British reinforcements were approaching by popping some sweetcorn. (His statue depicts this.) The abandoned Fort was now Cornelius's and he had big plans for it.

He renamed it Fort Duckburg and turned it into a trading camp for hunters. Soon enough, some of them began to settle down and start their own families. Cornelius started his own farm and started acting as the leader of the new settlement. Pretty soon, a village was flourishing in Duckburg. Calisota was annexed into the new independent state of Mexico in 1821 but Duckburg acted much as a city state. It had its own laws, its own leaders and thanks to Cornelius its own defense force. Cornelius organized the citizens that could carry weapons into the Woodchuck Militia, a force that would guard the territory from any threat, including any conflicts with the Native Americans of the area. Cornelius turned the old Fort into the militia's base. He personally supervised the repairs to the Fort and had the idea to build tunnels under the Fort so that even during a siege they could still move in and out of the Fort. Besides the tunnel they made, they found an already existing tunnel built by and his men in 1579 after the Fort was built. Cornelius explored the tunnel. He found the body of the long-dead Fenton and gave him a proper burial. He also found the information on the Guardians of the Lost Library. He found and kept the book written by Fenton and containing the secret knowledge of the Guardians. Apparently he appointed himself the next Guardian, the first after Fenton.

Cornelius had managed to pipe mountain water into the village. He was a capable leader and managed to improve his settlers' relationships with the Native Americans over time, and according to Gilles Maurice's non-canonical Duck Family Tree Cornelius married a Native American woman named Pluckahontas. They had their only known son Clinton Coot in 1830. Through the rest of his life Cornelius continued to act as Duckburg's unofficial leader. Even when Calisota and neighboring California were annexed to the USA in 1848 nothing truly changed in Duckburg. When Cornelius died in 1880, aged 90, he was a very respected family man but over time he has been honored by the citizens of Duckburg as the "father" of the city. The old hunter has gained legendary status in Calisota.

A statue of Cornelius holding an ear of corn is present in Mickey's Toontown Fair in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Before 1996, the land was known as Mickey's Birthdayland/Starland, and was set in the city of Duckburg.

Cornelius Coot made his first television appearance in the DuckTales episode, "The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot". The episode retells the story of Coot's founding of Duckburg, though the Spanish are replaced by Beagles in the story. Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby explore the catacombs under Fort Duckburg in search of his treasure, discovering a series of giant popcorn makers that Coot used to imitate the sound of gunfire and scare the Beagles into retreating.

Clinton Coot[]

Clinton Coot (1830-1910)^[53] was first mentioned in Uncle Scrooge Adventures #27 in the story "Guardians of the Lost Library", first published in July, 1994. There he was introduced as the son of Cornelius Coot and the founder of The Junior Woodchucks, inspired by the book given to him by his father.

In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck it is revealed that he is the father of Grandma Duck. In Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree, Clinton is married to Gertrude Gadwall and their two children are Grandma Duck (Elvira Coot) and Casey Coot.

He is named after Bill Clinton, who was running for President of the United States when Don Rosa created the character.^[54]

Clinton makes his animated debut in the 2018 TV show Legend of the Three Caballeros, voiced by Thomas Lennon. In the series, Clinton was an archaeologist obsessed with his ancestor Don Dugo and his adventuring companions, who were the original Three Caballeros. He founded the New Quackmore Institute near the site of one of their headquarters, building a cabana over the base itself, but his business partner Baroness Von Sheldgoose would seize control over the rest of the land the campus sat on. After his death, he arranged for the cabana to be left to his great-grandson Donald and the descendants of the other two Caballeros, Panchito Pistoles and José Carioca.

Gertrude Gadwall[]

Gertrude Coot (née Gadwall) is married to Clinton Coot and the mother of Casey and Elvira Coot ("Grandma Duck"). Like Lulubelle Loon, Gertrude has appeared only in Don Rosa's version of the Duck family tree.

Casey Coot[]

Casey Coot (1860-c. 1960)^[53] first appeared in "Last Sled to Dawson", first published in June, 1988. He is introduced as an unsuccessful gold prospector and friend of Scrooge McDuck during his years in Klondike. In need of money he sold to the significantly more successful Scrooge McDuck his share in Duckburg, Calisota, USA. His share included "Killmule Hill" which, renamed to "Killmotor Hill", comprises the land where Scrooge's money bin stands. He later appeared in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Part 8 and Hearts of the Yukon. In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Part 10 it is revealed that he and Grandma Duck are brother and sister.

In Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree he is featured as a grandson of Cornelius Coot, a son of Clinton Coot and Gertrude Gadwall. He married to Gretchen Grebe and they had at least two kids named Fanny and Cuthbert Coot, being the maternal grandfather of Fanny's son Gus Goose.

Gretchen Grebe[]

Gretchen Coot (née Grebe) is married to Casey Coot, the mother of Cuthbert and Fanny Coot, and the maternal grandmother of Gus Goose.

Fanny Coot[]

Fanny Coot is the mother of Donald's cousin Gus Goose and she was first mentioned in the Donald Duck comic strip of May 9, 1938 by Bob Karp & Al Taliaferro where Gus first appeared. But Gus's mother's surname was not revealed in this comic strip, where she identifies herself in a letter to Donald as "Aunt Fanny".^[55] So she was originally sister of one of Donald's parents. In Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree she is featured as a daughter of Casey Coot and his wife Gretchen Grebe, and so a niece of Elvira Coot, Donald's paternal grandmother, and first cousin of Donald's father, Quackmore Duck. It's possible to consider that Quackmore had a high regard for his cousin Fanny, and for this reason Donald was taught to treat her as aunt. Fanny also had a brother named Cuthbert Coot and she married Luke the Goose, and then became the mother of Gus Goose.

Cuthbert Coot[]

Cuthbert Coot was introduced in the story "Webfooted Wrangler," first published in April 1945, as a distant cousin of Donald Duck and a rancher. In Don Rosa's Duck family tree he is included as a member of the Coot Kin as son of Casey Coot and Gretchen Grebe.

Kildare Coot[]

Kildare Coot was introduced by Italian artist Romano Scarpa as a highly eccentric fourth cousin of Donald Duck in the story "Sgrizzo, il papero più balzano del mondo" (roughly translated as "Kildare Coot, the weirdest duck in the world"), first published on October 25, 1964. Though his exact relationship to Donald remains uncertain his last name suggests he belongs to the Coot Kin and that he is related to Donald through Elvira Coot, Donald's paternal grandmother. Curiously, Kildare usually treats Gideon McDuck, Scrooge's half-brother, as his uncle. He calls Gideon 'Zio', which means uncle in Italian.^[56] Kildare and his fellow Andy Ascott (original Italian name) appear as reporters of Gideon's newspaper, The Cricket, in some Italian stories.

Goose family[]

Luke Goose[]

Luke Goose (sometimes called Luke the Goose) is the father of Donald's cousin Gus Goose. He was originally supposed to be Gladstone Gander's father,^[57][58] Daphne Duck's husband and Gus's uncle, but Carl Barks later changed his mind, making Goostave Gander (who was originally Gladstone's adoptive father after Luke and Daphne "overate at a free-lunch picnic") Gladstone's biological father and Daphne's husband. Luke the Goose disappeared from the tree.

When Don Rosa created his Duck Family Tree, he used Luke Goose (removing "the" from his name) and made him the husband of Fanny Coot and Gus Goose's father.

Gus Goose[]

Gus Goose is Donald Duck's second cousin, and the great-nephew of Grandma Duck. He debuted on 9 May 1938 in Al Taliaferro and Bob Karp's newspaper comic based on Donald, before making an animated appearance in the 1939 short Donald's Cousin Gus.^[59] Gus's main personality traits are laziness and gluttony.^[59]

Within Disney comics, Gus is usually shown living as a farmhand on Grandma Duck's farm outside of Duckburg. Along with his gluttony, Gus is quite lazy, often doing little if any work on Grandma's farm. He also has a tendency of falling asleep at random occasions, sometimes even standing up. On occasion Gus has even shown signs of ingenuity as to finding methods or solutions to make his chores much easier for him and at times even automating them so he does not have to work at all.

Gus made no appearances in DuckTales, but there is a background character in the series, Vacation Van Honk, who looks similar to him.

Gus appeared in the 2000s animated series Disney's House of Mouse, as the club's gluttonous chef, speaking only in honks rather than words. He also made non-speaking cameo appearances in both Mickey's Christmas Carol and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The friend and neighbor from Quack Pack is probably not the same as Cousin Gus since there are very few similarities (aside from the name and general size of the character). Some confusion is also caused by the German comicbook version of Gladstone Gander being referred to as "Gustav Gans" ("Gustav Goose").

Gus Goose has appeared as boyfriend of a classy and rich anthropomorphic swan called in Danish stories.^[60] In Italy, a nephew of him called Pepper already appeared in two comic stories.^[61]

Gander family[]

Goostave Gander[]

Goostave Gander is Gladstone Gander's father. In some early stories he is married to Matilda McDuck, Scrooge's sister and adopted Gladstone and his brother and had a son, Osar, but Carl Barks later had him married to Daphne Duck instead. They are considered the parents of Gladstone Gander; although his wife and son's luck does not include him. "Us Ganders have never sunk low enough to associate with you Ducks!", exclaimed Gladstone to Donald in "Race to the South Seas" by Carl Barks,^[62] suggesting that there is a mutual antipathy between his father's family and his mother's. In this same story, Gladstone exclaims, "Us Ganders have never worked!",^[63] what suggests that originally Gladstone's luck came from his father's side.

Gladstone Gander[]

Gladstone Gander is a Walt Disney fictional character created in 1948 by comic artist and writer Carl Barks. He is an anthropomorphic male goose (or gander) who possess exceptional good luck that grants him anything he desires as well as protecting from any harm. This is in contrast to his cousin Donald Duck who is often characterized for having bad luck. Gladstone is also a rival of Donald for the affection of Daisy Duck.

Shamrock Gander[]

Shamrock Gander is Gladstone's nephew. Shamrock first appeared in a story printed in Duck Album Four Color #649 where he was shown to be as lucky as his uncle Gladstone. He has only been used a few times since; one example is a Brazilian comic story where he competes with Huey, Dewey and Louie.^[64]

See also[]

• List of Donald Duck universe characters
• Clan McDuck
• Ludwig Von Drake
• List of fictional ducks

References[]

External links[]

• Don Rosa's Duck family tree
• Fethry Duck
• Sketches For Fethry Duck's First Appearance
• Al Hubbard