Hearing difficulties and Sign Language

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

VIDAR SVENDSEN, 3 FEBRUARY 2001:

> I'm currently working on a page about hearing difficulties and
> Sign Language in comics (Norwegian only). I've found references
> to this in Tintin, Gaston Lagaffe, Lucky Luke and of course 
> Donald Duck (Barks and others).

Interesting! Which Disney stories did you find so far?

Here are some Barks stories I'm thinking of:

OG 23
Barney has an headache and tries to get rid of a noisy Benny by
saying he's hearing bees somewhere faraway. (I don't know if
you also need stories about hearing ability in general, because
this one is not about hearing difficulties but rather the opposite.)

U-WDC 64 (previously unpublished)
Donald singing Christmas carols for Jones' deaf friend.

WDC 178
Donald moving to a silent neighbourhood, ending up with a 
hearing aid.

WDC 203
The sleeping owner of a lion doesn't hear anything of the noise
inside and outside his house. Even though I don't remember 
a comment about him having hearing difficulties, I think the
owner must at least has become deaf for the noise his lion is
making. (The nephews are not the first having difficulties
with their delivery.) 
I don't know if there's a name for this 'deafness', but what I mean
is the rather common situation in which one hears a certain sound
so regularly (traffic near the house, for example), that he/she
doesn't consciously hear it anymore after some time.

OS 1047 The Gab Muffer
The Ducks not being able to talk with each other.

JW 10 Bottled Battlers
Being locked up in a giant bottle, the nephews can hear the
curious passengers but the opposite is impossble.

JW 14 Duckmade Disaster
Though not identified by name, Daan Jippes' version of this story
shows Carl Barks with an hearing aid throwing eggs at Scrooge's bin.

I think there must also be some Gyro stories in which Gyro
communicates with the dumb Helper. 

In some Gyro stories (or stories containing Gyro) there is an
invention which translates animal talk to human talk. 

There are stories in which Scrooge uses his ears to find/recognize
riches. I'm thinking of a scene in which Scrooge hears oil under
the ground, hoping it was water instead. "The Golden Nugget Boat"
(US 35) also shows this good hearing ability.

Maybe there are also stories in which the Woodchucks use sign
language? Do smoke signals and light signals count?

> In WDC 60-02 Donald is able to read HDL's lips even though he
> only sees their silhouette. I must say I'm impressed!
> (wonder if Don Rosa's Donald could have done anything like
> that, btw.)

Don Rosa's "Eye For Detail" is about Donald's ability to keep the
identities of the nephews apart, giving Scrooge the idea that
Donald's detailed sight may be of use in a professional way.


Best wishes,

--- Daniel