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In the Rosa continuity, she's Donald's grandmother who nonetheless raised him as her son when whatever happened to Hortense happened. But as Robb_K notes, there's no such thing as "definitive" here. It's not like there's some officiating body that convenes to determine what the "truth" of duck relationships is.

Quote from user: Michiel PQuote from user: Lars JensenSo when Huey, Dewey and Louie call her "Grandma" in that 1943 strip they don't mean what they say, but when Donald calls her "Grandma" he does?! How do you know Donald means it and HDL don't? Dismissing evidence that doesn't fit in with your personal beliefs as "they didn't mean what they said" means that no source can be trusted.
You realize that this argument can easily be turned around, don't you? How do *you* know it's the nephews' words that should be taken literally? Maybe we should agree that both our theories fit the facts as presented in that first comic.
You don't seem to understand. You're the one who stated:

Quote from user: Michiel PGerstein's assumption that Taliaferro's Grandma is Donald's mother is wrong.
So you're the one who has to provide the evidence to support that statement. I'm merely pointing out that the evidence you have so far presented can be interpreted in another way than you have done.

Quote from user: Michiel PQuote from user: Lars JensenI wouldn't be surprised if Grandma evolved into becoming Donald's grandmother. But it's pretty likely (to me, at least) that when Grandma started out she was intended to be Donald's mother.
But that's a whole different argument! I assumed that there's consistency in Karp and Taliaferro's presentation of the character. (And still do so, in fact.) So suddenly the argument is only about Grandma's first appearance? Fancy that.
Again, you don't seem to understand. This discussion is about your claim that Taliaferro always meant for Grandma to be Donald's grandmother. Please show me your source for claiming that. And why in the world would you assume there was consistency in the Donald Duck strip throughout the 30 years Taliaferro worked on it?!

Trying to turn the conversation into what I personally believe is not going to work.

Quote from user: Robb_K"And I'm sure there are tons of similar strips. I wouldn't be surprised if Grandma evolved into becoming Donald's grandmother. But it's pretty likely (to me, at least) that when Grandma started out she was intended to be Donald's mother."

This is my assumption, as well.It seems to me that Taliaferro brought her in to be a grandmother to Donald's nephews, not to him. Grandmothers usually spoil their grandchildren and side with them against the parents. The parents need to discipline the child. Grandparents, who live somewhere else, don't need to hand out discipline and have the child temporarily angry at them or resentful. They see the child sporadically, and therefore, want to have the most positive, enjoyable, quality time with them as possible. Thus, they shower them with gifts, play with them and show interest in their interests almost every second of their time together.

Grandma Duck lives away from Donald and his "Children". She would try to "spoil" The Nephews behind his back, and be strict with Donald. That IS what we see from her early visits. She is very hard on Donald (as a mother would be). She chastises him for not being more strict and careful with The Boys. She is critical of his housekeeping. This is exactly how my mother acted when she visited my apartment or house. I would bet more mothers act like that than those that "spoil" their adult children. Furthermore, I would bet that a LOT more grandmothers, who don't dwell together with their grandchildren, spoil them and have fun together with them, rather than criticise and act strict with them.

These are reasons why I believe that Taliaferro meant for "Grandma" to be Donald's mother. But, he probably didn't have Donald call her "Mom", as he didn't want to get in the way of Disney's practise of not showing parents of main characters. Taliaferro wanted a grandmotherly figure for The Nephews, and to interfere with the relationship between Donald and them. But, it wasn't necessary for his purposes, to identify her directly and irrefutably as Donald's mother.

Over the years, other writers and artists needed Grandma for other purposes. And, so, - she was used as Donald's Grandmother, and even implied (erroneously) as a great, great grandmother, to fit into an historical timeline desired in a specific story (all because they didn't feel it necessary to bring in an extra new character, and possibly, ruffle feathers of the editorship). So, because of these types of events, we have an ambiguous geography and history of Duckburg, Mouseville/Mouseton and Calisota, and ambiguous family trees and histories of the characters.
Sorry for quoting the entire post, but I just wanted to state that you put this perfectly, Rob.

And I agree totally with you.

"The point of the newspaper strip was to provide a good laugh every day. Not to construct a timeline."

This is a major reason why we have discussions such as these, and why timelines and reasonable family trees are impossible. There were just too many contradictions because few writers thought about kids reading and remembering and crossreferencing details from the entire body of published Disney comic book stories. Almost all (If not absolutely all) were only thinking about what was needed to make the one story they were working on funny and logical within its own context.

Grandma was based on a relationship of a man to a woman one generation older than he was. She was considered as a possible foil for Donald, based on that inspiration. Therefore, I believe that Taliaferro and Karp decided to introduce her to the strip. Quickly, they saw the potential for having her be very old, and also saw little use for her as Donald's mother. So they used her as a "generic" grandmother, not risking breaking any rules, and also to add flexibility in her use, by clearly defining her exact blood relationships.

So Michiel, you are correct that in most of the strips Grandma can be considered a grandmother to Donald, and a great grandmother to his nephews. And Lars, you are probably correct when you say that Taliaferro had first in his mind that Grandma was only one generation older than Donald.

But, let's consider this idea: Donald never acted as if he were Grandma's son. Perhaps Taliaferro and Karp meant Grandma to be the mother of Donald's sister's husband? Donald didn't really act towards Grandma like a grandson who had known her in his early life. He was fairly distant. She acted a lot like a mother-in-law towards Donald. If she WERE the grandmother of Huey, Dewey and Louie (tus the name "Grandma"), but NOT a blood relative of Donald, she might still act critical towards him, as he has the awesome responsibility to care for "her babies". That might explain why he doesn't introduce her to Daisy either as his mother, or HIS grandmother, but only as the generic "Grandma".

Using her with THAT relationship, could meet all the comedy requirements from that character, but not ruffle the feathers of the Disney Company's policy on keeping children from knowing that sex exists in the lives of human beings.

The more I think about this, the more I am convinced that IF Karp and Taliaferro had ANYTHING concrete in mind regarding that issue, the relationship I described above is the most likely.