Keskustelujen arkisto

Quote from user: Baar Baar JinxSo is Gyro balding under that hat of his? I recall a Barks story (can't remember which one but it involved Gyro sitting around a table with a group of generic scientists discussing some tragedy having been wrought by Donald's latest escapades) where he is sans his hat and looks like this:

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/4475/gyrohatless0002.jpg

Was Barks consistent with this portrayal, and have other artists shown Gyro with a full head of hair?
I would say that you have interpreted what you saw incorrectly, and that Barks was consistent. He showed Gyro without his hat many times (especially when he tipped his hat to a woman, or took his hat off to hit himself on the head. Gyro's hair was smashed down, but he has no bald spot.

Quote from user: Robb_KHere is a view of Gyro with his hat removed. Admittedly, it doesn't have a good enough angle to prove beyond any doubt that there is not even a small bald spot. But it was always clear that Barks had intended Gyro to be relatively young, and he never showed any sign of a bald spot. So why assume it exists without the slightest bit of evidence?
I really wish I could remember the exact Barks story I saw this in, but if someone can provide any suggestions .... it was a 10-pager from Barks' later period, I remember it involved Donald and a rocket ship, and I believe Gyro was a minor character. The scene in question involved Gyro and a bunch of scientists (were they from the government?) lamenting over how Donald's escapades were posing a problem in some way, and it was towards the end of the story, perhaps the last page. Maybe it was just the way Gladstone chose to color it (I believe it was reprinted in a Gladstone Series II book) but I clearly remember a bald spot. It is possible Barks only drew him that way once, but it has stuck with me all these years. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing; it serves to make Gyro more "human," if you will, with imperfections like all of us, despite being an anthropomorphic chicken . I always thought he and Donald were childhood friends and both in their late twenties or early thirties, which is definitely young, but as we all know, not too young to start balding a little. Gyro tends to wear his hat almost all the time, so his having such a bald spot would not necessarily be inconsistent with his usual portrayal. Didn't Rosa draw Gyro's father bald? Early balding often runs in the family.

It's the Barks comic in WDC 212, last page.

Could be an early version of the thinking cap and they just forgot to colo(u)r it?

This might be the reason?!
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/5197/49461738.jpg

Quote from user: Baar Baar JinxQuote from user: CoolwaterPerhaps Gyro suffered from Alopecia areata (spot baldness) at times. The stuff can regrow then.
Hmmm, I don't know. Looks a little too extensive to be spot baldness. Looks more like typical crown thinning to me. Poor Gyro. But then again, if anyone can find an effective cure for male pattern baldness, I guess it would be him.
Barks portrayed him llike that only once, and with a full head of hair many times. So, we must conclude that, in that single situation, he was suffering from alopecia, triggered by his worrying over that situation. He did not look appreciably older than in the other situations. So, clearly it couldn't have come from a progression of male pattern baldness over a period of some years.

Quote from user: Robb_KBarks portrayed him llike that only once, and with a full head of hair many times. So, we must conclude that, in that single situation, he was suffering from alopecia, triggered by his worrying over that situation. He did not look appreciably older than in the other situations. So, clearly it couldn't have come from a progression of male pattern baldness over a period of some years.
This story is the only one I know of where Barks drew Gyro balding. However, he presents it matter-of-factly; neither Gyro nor any other character comments on it, he is worried about events going on in the story but does not seem unduly stressed, and in the last panel, he is wearing his hat and hawking peanuts, looking like he always does, bald spot covered. He never says, "These events are causing me to lose my hair .... I better put my hat back on until it grows back". His baldness is a fait accompli, and Barks presents it as if it were always the case. Therefore, I get the impression that when he drew that particular story, Barks decided, for whatever reason, that Gyro was balding. I don't know if Barks ever drew Gyro hatless again after that point (I'm sure he did and he went back to the full-head-of-hair model, but I just don't know offhand). Again, I have no problem with a balding Gyro, and do not think it detracts in any way from the character we know and love. In fact, I think it kind of adds to his appeal.

Quote from user: CoolwaterGyro's case doesn't look like a typical crown thinning caused by hereditary male hair loss to me. With such a large area on the back of the head already completely "deforested", the hair above the forehead is usually affected significantly more or less already, with the hair line having receded (especially in the edges of the forehead) and the hair having lost density and got thinner (compare the Norwood hairloss scale). Gyro's hair above the forehead, however, shows no signs being affected of that. It is as dense and thick as always.
I'm not sure the Norwood scale applies to Gyro, as he does not really have a typical adult human male hairline in the front with frontotemporal recessions; by the same token, he doesn't have hair over the sides of his heads (where his ears would be) or over the back of the head (occipital hair), which, in human men, is resistant to balding and considered a "donor area" for hair transplants. Again, Barks drew Gyro with a prominent bald spot in this story, and quite clearly never did so before, so he must have decided to make Gyro a balding character at one point, and probably changed his mind after that.