This is the illustrated version of Barks' Family
Tree from the early 1950's, and has been drawn by Mark Worden and
inked by Laron Williams.
It has first been published in Worden's book "Carl
Barks Checklist", (Second Edition,1981), and then in an issue of
the "CAPA-alpha" fanzine, in the Swedish comics fanzine "Bild
& Bubbla", and in in The
Carl Barks Library, set 6, page 476. Worden had seen Barks' tree
reproduced in a fanzine and decided that the Duck family deserved better
than a rough sketch.
He worked up a set of portraits, adding three relatives, designated
by question marks, to clarify relationships which Barks had left implicit
: Gus' mother, Luke's father, and Huey, Dewey and Louie's father (It's
the first and only time we can properly see him, except in Rosa's tree,
on which his face is only partially shown). He also added Daisy, whom Barks
had left conspicuously off the tree, but who belongs here by ties of affection,
if not by blood. A peculiar change is that in Mark Worden's version Goosetave
Gander is renamed : in Worden's original version, it was Goosetale
instead,
but in the reproduction in CBL it's Goosetail,
before Don Rosa himself eventually renamed him Goostave
in his tree, which make 4 different names fot the same character!
Note that there's a question mark in the heart between Thelma and her
husband, which probably means Worden doesn't know if the characters were
married, which would be a possible explanation of why the nephews carry
the name "Duck"...
There are lots of similarities with Rosa's later tree : Worden's Thelma looks like Rosa's Della, Worden's Luke the Goose looks like Rosa's Luke Goose, Scrooge, Grandma, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Gladstone have similar attitudes in both trees, Rosa's Lulubelle Loon seems to have been inspired by Worden's Daphne, Rosa's Fanny wears the same clothes than Worden's Gus' mother's clothes,... When asked about these similarities, Don Rosa answered :
"Yes, you're referring to the Tree drawn up by Mark Worden, an old friend
of mine for 25-30 years. [...]
Marks' book was the first time I had seen Barks' Tree, so I definitely
used some of Mark's drawings as a guide
since I had already for many, many years accepted Marks' idea of
what the characters looked like."
The portraits Worden invented for Luke, Goosetail, Matilda, Huey, Dewey and Louie's father, as well as Luke's father and Gus' mother, have been actually inspired, or even copied from minor characters in Barks' stories :
* Gus' mother and Luke, and their father are all background characters
from "Jet
Witch" :
|
|
* Matilda McDuck's portrait is deeply inspired by a character in Barks'
"The
Midas Touch" : the star Gina Luluduckita, who is in actually a
magic disguise for Magica de Spell, while Goosetail Gander looks very much
like Jolly Ollie Eiderduck in "Christmas
In Duckburg", and Huey, Dewey and Louie's father seems to have
been inspired by one of the Duck surfers with human ears from "Double
Masquerade" :
Gina Luluduckita from "The Midas Touch" |
Jollie Ollie Eiderduck from "Christmas in Duckburg" |
One of the surfer Ducks from "Double Masquerade" |
>>> Back to the Duck Family Trees page
>>> Back to Calisota.org