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Rich Bellacera wrote about April, May and June:
> their cousins HDL
The girls are Huey, Dewey and Louie's cousins? What's your source?
Lars

Rich Bellacera and others wonder about
the different nuances shown us by April, May, June,
who are sometimes difficult to tell apart:

<<Now that Daisy's nieces have distinctive hairstyles
they would appear to be a little easier to tell apart,
moreso than the less reliable color of dress. Anyhow,
I was wondering, for those of you who have access to
these new comic portrayals, do the creators actually
identify which name belongs to which hairstyle? One
has a ponytail, another a moptop and the other has,
I guess, pigtails. Which is which? >>

Well, Britten found the following description helpful:

First, April, she with mellow showers
Opens the way for early flowers,
Then after her comes smiling May
In a more rich and sweet array,
Next enters June and brings us more
gems than those two that went before
Then, lastly, July comes and she
more wealth brings in than all those three;
April! May! June! July!

Nils Lid Hjort

I've been looking over the Carl buettner WDC & S covers Nr. 124-129, plus
covers he drew for The Cheerios Giveaways. I have a pretty good idea of his
style. As he did not (to my knowledge, draw a whole story with the "Ducks",
this may be all we have to go on. I truly believe now, after having thought
about it more, that the last 2 "replacement panels" in "The Firebug", were,
indeed, drawn by Carl Buettner, in an attempt to make the artwork "on model"
with Barks' drawing in the rest of the story. He did a good job with the head-
on pose of Donald in the first panel. It looks very similar to Barks' drawn
pose on Page 1, Panel 6. That is a pose NONE of the other Donald artists in
the 1940s were using. And, the Nephew is not bad at all. One can notice,
however, that the work was done in a hurry, as the feathers that normally mark
the boundary point at which the leg connects with the body were omitted, and
the Nephews feet are cut off by the panel's bottom line (a CARDINAL SIN that
usually makes editors irate). The nephew in the second panel is very passable
in being similar enough to Barks' style. Donald in the last panel is notably
unlike Barks due to the short beak. That beak, however, is much like Donald's
beak in Buettner's Cover for "Donald Duck's Atom Bomb". The main difference
between the latter and that of the Firebug's last panel is that "The Atomb
Bomb" cover version had an upward curve line in the corner of Donald's mouth to
show evil self-satisfaction. That emotion, often shown in that way by Buettner,
was not necessary for the last panel, and furthermore, was very seldomly used
by Barks inside a story before 1959. I believe Buettner DID draw those 2
panels, and kept out his OWN style signitures, to allow his "replacement art"
to blend in better with Barks' as it had to be as consistant as possible within
a single story. The inking looks like Buettner's. It appears to be a much
more steady hand than Barks', and holds that thicker cover drawing style
throughout (more consistantly). It appears to me that the same hand that inked
the Buettner covers inked those 2 panels. Originally, I thought Barks
only "surmised" that Buettner was the actual artist who redrew those panels.
But Buettner could well have told Barks that he did it himself. Carl DID have a
copy of that story in his files (I saw it there, myself). So, if Buettner
(Then Editor) had not told Barks before printing that the story ending had been
changed, he would have found out when he received his printed copy. Naturally,
he would have been curious as to who decided to do that, and who did it. I
think it really would have been told to him by Buettner, himself, in the normal
course of discussion (as it is a courtesy of editors who have a good and close
relationship with their artists (as he did with Barks), to inform them of what
changes have been made to their stories. I believe now, that Barks KNEW that
Buettner had done the work, and wasn't only guessing that.

One last thought: When Walt Kelly left Western ostensibly in 1950, to work full-
time on his new "Pogo" Strip, Buettner took over drawing the "Duck" covers for
WDC & S, during the stop-gap period before Barks was chosen as the new cover
artist. I would guess, based on the Ducks I saw in those last 2 "Firebug
Panels", that had THAT artist been another staff member, Buettner would have
used HIM as the stopgap cover artist. Also, I looked at all the early Donald
Duck 4-Color covers again. "The Mummy's Ring" cover (and its inside cover
pages look like Buettner's work, as well as the "Frozen Gold", "Terror of the
River", "Volcano Valley", and "Ghost of the Grotto" covers. "I'm guessing that
Carl Buettner was THE DUCK STAFF ARTIST at Western between 1943 and 1951 (Chase
craig replaced him as Editor-in-Chief at the very end of 1951).

I believe Buettner drew a few whole Donald stories which appeared in the
Cheerios and Wheaties Giveaways of the late 1940s and very early 1950s. I will
try to scrutinize them once again. Can some knowledgeable member tell us which
website they are uploaded on? (I believe it was made by one of our Danish
members?).

Otherwise, I only know of Buettner's 1940s work on Bucky Bug and Little Bad
Wolf stories. I'm not sure that looking at those will help us in considering
this question.

Rob Klein

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Olaf the Blue said:

> I assume and guess that Rich when saying "cousins" means
> "cousins" in the extended version. That they may not be
> blood-related, but still think of each others as cousins
> and call each other cousins.

Thank you for the nice explanation, but really, it's always
been my understanding that AM&J and HD&L are blood-related
cousins, not that it matters one way or the other. I'm not
going to debate the issue (I'll let others) as it's probably
a matter left to some creator to verify or disavow, I just
want to know if they are now easier to distinguish which-
niece-is-which based on their new hairstyles... and, since
I'm on the subject, if they've also received individual
personality traits along with the new "look."

Does anyone have access to any of the comics with AM&J with
their new "look"?

Maybe David knows?

For the record, I tend to think that maybe Morty & Ferdie
and Melody (& Millie) are blood-related, too (not that that
matters either since it's not easily proven, just a theory
based on some concfusion of other relatives possibly shared
by Mickey & Minnie). I won't argue this either, it's not
that big of a deal.

Lars Jensen said:
> Well, my problem is this: In several stories, the
> girls have pursued the boys for romantic purposes.
> And in the real world, romance between cousins is
> in some places considered incest.

I recall some of those stories, one in particular from
a Giant-Size HUEY DEWEY & LOUIE BACK TO SCHOOL where
April appears solo as a new student in the boys' class
and they all vye for her interest. (April was wearing
"blue" for the record, as I recall). And another Barks
story which ended with they boys, girls and Donald &
Daisy on a picnic-date.

I think there has been a dramatic move away from any
romantic interest between AMJ & HDL, which, as I've
noticed now has them all pursuing romantic interests
elsewhere, and the same goes for Mickey's & Minnie's
respective neice & nephews. I doubt there is a trend
anywhere these days to bring the Nephews & Nieces together
in any romantic way anymore. Still, that leaves Donald
& Daisy, and Daisy & Gladstone as possible "kissing
cousins." :-)

-Rich Bellacera

Olaf Salstrand said

"Just like Huey, Dewey and Louie ALWAYS have called Daisy 'aunt'"...
They certainly have not 'ALWAYS' called her Aunt Daisy.
I have never seen HDL call Daisy 'Aunt' in any Barks story.
If anyone knows a reference where Barks used this term for Daisy,
please let us know. I know Don Rosa has HDL call Daisy 'Aunt',
which I find rather strange, as Rosa normally is very faithful
to Barks' usage of these terms for family relationships.
............Larry Giver.

Hey Rob (and Steve, and others interested),

>I've been looking over the Carl buettner WDC & S covers Nr. 124-129, plus
>covers he drew for The Cheerios Giveaways. I have a pretty good idea of
his
>style.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you appear to be judging
Buettner's Duck style based solely on a handful of covers- most of them from
1951, years after his tenure as a regular Disney comics artist (1943-46).

>As he did not (to my knowledge, draw a whole story with the "Ducks",
>this may be all we have to go on.

But Carl Buettner *did* draw a whole story with Donald- WDC&S 50's
Three Caballeros story, which was published about a year and a half before
"The Firebug".

>I believe the 2 last [Firebug] panels were [by Buettner, but] drawn
>less in Buettner's style, to fit in more with Barks' drawing in the
>remainder of the story. The short beak IS typical of Buettner's
>cover drawings.

I don't know any other way to say this... please don't think of me
as being too harsh...
It feels like you want to have it both ways. The short beak
indicates a Buettner duck for you, while you explain away any differences
from Buettner's usual style by saying that it's just because he's trying to
imitate Barks.
It's almost like you're saying that if the duck looks like
Buettner's, that proves it's Buettner's, while if it doesn't look like
Buettner's, that also proves it's Buettner's.

I strongly feel that "The Firebug" panels can't be Buettner's work,
whether or not he might have been trying to imitate Barks. Let me offer
observations on the following aspects.

First, the duck design. Buettner's full-length Donald story, the
Caballeros in WDC&S 50, shows a rubbery, gangly Donald with fat, off-model
feet and big reflections in his eyes- a Donald who bears almost no
resemblance to the stiff, black-pupiled ducks with on-model feet in the two
"Firebug" panels. You could explain this by saying that in the "Firebug"
panels, Buettner is imitating Barks- except that the "Firebug" ducks don't
look a lot like Barks ducks either.
Next, the lettering. As a Western Publishing editor, Buettner
relettered various Barks panels: for instance, in "Ghost of the Grotto" and
"Adventure Down Under". In these cases, Buettner made no effort to hide his
distinctive lettering style. Barks' lettering simply stops and very
different-looking Buettner lettering takes over.
The lettering style in the "Firebug" panels does not look like
Buettner's at all. You could explain this by saying it's Buettner imitating
Barks- but why should he have imitated Barks' lettering here when he saw no
need to do it at other, similar occasions (like "Ghost of the Grotto")?
Finally, the voice balloons. Buettner's wolf, bug, and duck stories
of 1944-46 use big, soft, bubbly voice balloons with giant margins and fat,
curved tails. By contrast, "The Firebug" has smoother-edged word balloons
with sharper, straighter, narrow tails. You could explain this by saying
that in the "Firebug" panels, it's Buettner imitating Barks- except that
Barks' voice balloons are generally bubbly with wider, often curved tails.

My educated guess is that the "Firebug" panels were drawn by Dan
Noonan, whose work in NEW FUNNIES and ANIMAL COMICS I've been collecting for
a long time. Noonan was Walt Kelly's inker for some mid-1940s stories (such
as "Donald Duck and the Seven Dwarfs", 1944). Noonan was also sole artist of
some 1943 covers (WDC 39, reprinted on WDC 609) and stories ("Mickey's
Party" in the 1943 WDC&S Xmas giveaway).
Noonan's ducks (sorta stiff, thick-legged with on-model feet, eye
pupils either black or pie-cut), lettering style, voice balloons (in
"Mickey's Party"), and even clouds of dust are very similar to those in the
final two "Firebug" panels. A few minor details in "Firebug" (the size and
spacing of the lettering and the tops of the balloon stems, most obviously)
suggest a token effort to make the job look a little Barkslike, but the
overall look is to me still Noonan.

I've made a webpage where you can do a comparison of "The Firebug",
Buettner, and Noonan yourself. Please respectfully tell me what you think...
http://bolderbast.inducks.org/david/firebug.html

Best, David