Anonymous asked: I'm so confused. I start with DT and then got into the comics because I found your fanart, but the characters are so completely different? is there a separate canon for the cartoon that I missed somewhere? also how do you think magicstone fits into the show (if it does at all)
I’m going to make a very rare exception of answering this (I do ask that people don’t ask me about Ducktales- for a few different reasons but mostly because I just don’t watch it any more! so I’m not able to answer most things) but I feel like a lot of people get this confusion after getting into the show first and the comics second so imma address it-
basically the new DT show is completely different from the original comics, or it certainly is in a lot of ways- enough to make it pretty unmixable in terms of taking bits from the comic stories and trying to fit them into the show. DT draws inspiration from the comics, but the characters’ personalities, backstories, and interpersonal relationships are vastly different, so it’s best to treat it as a completely separate universe. That’s just how it is! Ducktales is not bad show- just too different for the logic of the comics to apply to it fluidly, so it’s best not to attempt it at all unless you want a headache.
I stopped watching when I realised it simply wasn’t for me- which is fine! I’m just happy to see more people learning about and loving the ducks, but consequently I don’t know anything about DT Magica or her relationship to DT Gladstone, or if/how that could work as a ship. They are, effectively, strangers to me, so I can’t help there!
Anonymous asked: Quick question: so do you ever draw ink-and-paper? All your art seems to be digital. And you're a master of it, but just, I'm wondering — do you not like traditional?
amazingly I don’t draw with ink and paper much these days- and I say amazingly because I used to do nothing but! to the point that my art teachers used to accuse me of having it in my veins instead of the regular stuff! I still love it, admire it, and maybe one day I’ll go back to it but right now it’s much easier on my hands (and my wallet) to produce things digitally- on the occasions that I do scan things into the computer they’ve either been drawn with a pencil or a uniball eye micro (which I find to be the most draw-able-with travel-safe pens)
Anonymous asked: so I know duck ages are like, impossible to pin down bc cartoon ducks are immortal and never age etc. but I'm interested in what your headcanon ages for them are? like I noticed you draw Fethry quite a few years younger than Don and Gladdy when you draw them as kids, and I think you said you think Magica is definitely older than Gladstone?
man is it ever impossible, but okay I’ll try to summarize my headcanons!
Just based on when the characters were invented, I think Fethry is the youngest cousin, Gladstone is the middle cousin, and Donald/Della were the oldest. For some reason I think Gus is about the same age as Gladstone? But less sure on that. Because Gladstone and Donald are often shown in school as being in the same year/about the same size as kids I think they’re pretty similar in age, so like a year apart tops. Fethry I see as being one-to-three years younger than Gladstone because he’s so zany (and is definitely a more recently invented character). I’m not sure about Whitewater but just because he’s so scrappy and energetic perhaps he’s between Fethry and Donald/Gladstone’s age?
In terms of general age brackets I’d say Donald and Gladstone are in their mid/early thirties (considering Huey, Dewey and Louie’s age is probably about 10 in the comics, and I imagine Della having them when she was in her early twenties), and so Fethry might be in his late twenties or just hitting 30. Magica I always saw as being in her mid/early 40′s, Scrooge in his 80′s and Grandma is anyone’s guess man that girl is indestructible.
Anonymous asked: okay but DOES anyone from Disney know about your comics it's driving me that they're better than the official comics (can we? tell them? about them?)
haha well, gosh, truth is one of the Italian comic artists and an American comic writer have got in touch with me but we’re pretty much just friends- I talk to them and ask them questions from time to time, I wouldn’t want to overstep that sort of relationship by asking them for more. On the other hand, I am horribly shy and clueless about how to tell such people I exist and wouldn’t mind at all if you would like to tell Disney people about the doodle comics SO LONG AS-
1. you are polite and don’t hassle them about my stuff
2. you are kind about the official comics (which tbh I think are A+ and always always better than mine)
3. if you’re talking to Don Rosa tell him I adore his work and hope his garden’s chilli crop is doing well
4. you’re really sure you want to do that I mean hell that’d be cool I have no idea what I’m doing with these I just really really enjoy making them
Anonymous asked: Unca Mod, can you give us tips on how to find duck stories, please? Also- I'm French, and a lot of the duck comics I read as a kid were translated from Italian, and I'd looove to find them again, but I have no idea if they ever got an English release and if so what were the titles... In any case, thank you so much for what you're doing- I started looking into my old comics again thanks to you and it brought back lots of happy memories :')
Ah, well my friends it is time for me to introduce you to the wonder that is I.N.D.U.C.K.S.
this is an amazing search engine, just for duck comics! here’s an example of how to use it; type in some aspect that you’re looking for (here I’ll use the title of the story)
then you get a list of possible answers- scrolling down I find the one I’m looking for fairly quickly
clicking on the right result takes you to a page for that specific story with all the data available, describing the contents and artists responsible, but if you’re looking for a particular translation keep scrolling down; here I’m looking for the English (US) translation
so with that I know this story appears in number 374 of Uncle Scrooge which was printed in 2008- a quick hop over to readcomiconline and I find it easily
and that’s all there is to it! sometimes the tricky part is which category of comics it will be in on readcomiconline, as there are so many runs of Donald/Scrooge comics. This one was fairly simple, but use your intuition and you’ll probably find what you’re looking for. I hope that helps, and happy hunting!
Anonymous asked: On TV Tropes there's mention of a comics where Gladstone saves Donald from drowning and I wonder if you'd heard of it? According to the page it's called "Donald's Lucky Day", but I've only found the 1939 cartoon under that name (which is really cute, btw, but no Gladstone).
I stg everyone who’s been on the Gladstone tvtropes page asks this question- including me! XD I haven’t found a readable comic version (untranslated or translated) but this might be the one? I don’t know for sure though. Searching on I.N.D.U.C.K.S. for that title brings up these results but there are an awful lot I haven’t read!
Anonymous asked: uncle mod this might be kinda personal but, how? how do you stay so motivated. you have EDS just like I do but you don't seem to slow down at all and you don't let it dent your love of things, you don't hide the fact that you have it and when you've talked about it you don't sugar coat but- how? I'm so tired, of being so tired, how do you still be so... cartoonish? about life?
This is a hard one to answer, and as ever I’m like, just me I ain’t no sage or some perfect answer machine but- I think the best thing to look out for is if you aren’t comfortable with your story yourself. If you look at your story and only see the work of someone else, then perhaps you should rework it. Don’t drop it entirely necessarily; put it in storage, mull over it, try a few ‘what if’ scenarios, change characters around, or put the cast in a totally different world. Try smashing it together with another story idea you had, and see what results from the collision! Play with it until you feel you’ve muddled it up enough that it feels strange and new and wonderful to you- the odds are it will to everyone else! It’s impossible to remove yourself from all external influences; everything and everyone influences stories, and good writers build from the ideas they absorb from other writers. We all inspire one another and that’s healthy, and how great stories come to be! Don’t be afraid of it.
Anonymous asked: Help! I'm an anon that has recently become a TPoH fan but when I checked out your tumblr it's full of well-drawn ducks?? Because of this, I want to join in the Duckverse fandom but I have a few problems: 1. I wasn't alive when the comics and 1987 TV show was popular 2. I don't know where to start looking for them and 3. I'm poor. Are there things online I can use to help me learn about the story and characters? Should I just wait for the 2017 reboot? Is joining the fandom even worth it? Thanks!!
1. not an issue comics and cartoons are immortal my dude
2/3. idk about watching the old Ducktales cartoons (to be honest I’ve not watched every episode myself) but it is possible to read the comics online! I do, of course, encourage people to go out and buy them when it’s possible but until such a time you can read them here (search for Donald Duck/Scrooge McDuck you’ll find them) and as a short cut I’m gonna just plonk you right at the beginning of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck bc you gotta read that man u gotta
4-18am asked: How far ahead into TPOH do you usually plan? Like, do you already know the story start to end, or do you find that you only have the outline of X amount of pages?? Or something else entirely?
not sure how to describe it: I know the story start to end, in the sense that always I knew how it began, how it would end, and most of the Big Stuff that Happens in the middle. However, over time I have shuffled some of the Middles around, and while now they’re in a pretty 99% set order I’m always willing to let the story say ‘actually mate we’re doing this bit now’ because this thing is the boss of me, not the other way around. Likewise I have certain pages all set out in my head, and have from the start, but on the whole I do thumbnails chapter by chapter so that I have a fluid visual narrative without trapping myself too far ahead of time. I also have to account for the fact that I’m still learning, and what I thumbnail now will not be as good as something I could thumbnail in the future, so forcing myself to thumbnail the whole comic before I started was never something I wanted to do, because I knew it would want to change it later and this story is so sodding long I would have had to wait like, 10 years to start.
