Donald Duck in Comics - Further Developments

Further Developments

Barks wasn't the only author to develop Donald. All over the world hundreds of other authors have used the character, sometimes with great results—for example, the Disney Studio artists that made comics directly for the European market. Two of these, Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard, created Donald's cousin Fethry Duck, an obsessive dreamer with a love of discovering new lifestyles and hobbies. Fethry remains one of the most popular Duck characters in Italy and Brazil, frequently with his own comic book title in Brazil.

The American artists Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl, working directly for the American comic books, created Moby Duck.

Italian publisher Mondadori created many of the stories that were published throughout Europe. They also introduced numerous new characters that are today well known in Europe. One example is Donald Duck's alter-ego, a superhero called Paperinik in Italian, created by Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi.

Giorgio Cavazzano and Carlo Chendi created Umperio Bogarto (no consistent English name as of 2010), a Sam Spade-like detective. They also created OK Quack, an extraterrestrial Duck who landed on earth in a coin-shaped spaceship. When his ship shrank in size, OK Quack lost track of it among the coins in Scrooge's money bin. But OK befriended Scrooge and is now allowed to search through the bin time after time, looking for his ship.

Romano Scarpa a very important and influential Italian Disney artist, created Brigitta MacBridge, a female Duck who is madly in love with Scrooge. Her affections are rarely reciprocated, although she perseveres. Scarpa also created Dickie Duck, granddaughter of Glittering Goldie (Scrooge's prospective love interest in the Klondike), and Kildare Coot, an eccentric nephew of Grandma Duck.

Italian artist Corrado Mastantuono created Bum Bum Ghigno, a cynical, grumpy, and not very good-looking Duck who teams up with Donald and Gyro a lot.

The American artist William van Horn also introduced a new character, Rumpus McFowl, a rather fat and lazy old Duck with a giant appetite who in Horn's earliest stories is said to be a cousin of Scrooge. Only later, Scrooge reveals to his nephews that Rumpus is actually his half-brother. Later, Rumpus also finds out.

Working for the Danish editor Egmont, artist Daniel Branca and scriptwriters Paul Halas and Charlie Martin created Garvey Gull (British name "Sonny Seagull" more commonly seen), a mischievous orphan who befriends Huey, Duey, and Louie and his rival, Mr. Phelps.

Among the most productive Duck artists today is Victor Arriagada Rios, who is better known as Vicar. He has his own studio, where he and his assistants draw stories send in by Egmont. With writers Stefan and Unn Printz-Påhlson, Vicar created the character Oona, a prehistoric princess who traveled to Duckburg in the 1990s by using Gyro's time machine.

The best-known and most popular Duck-artist of this time is Keno Don Rosa. He started doing Disney comics in 1987 for the American publisher Gladstone. He later worked briefly for the Dutch editors, but moved to work directly for Egmont soon afterwards. Rosa created numerous sequels to Barks's stories as well as a 12-part series on "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck," which won Rosa two Eisner awards. Also for Egmont, Rosa developed a popular edition of the Donald Duck family tree.

Other important artists who have worked on Donald are Freddy Milton and Daan Jippes, who made eighteen ten-pagers in the 1970s and 1980s that some claim are as good as Barks's work. More recently, both Jippes and Milton have continued to produce Duck stories on a solo basis.