DD's life in an eggshell

[Fredrik Ekman]

Knut Hanstad wrote, 27 May:
> For those who don't want to read anything more about my likings/dislikings 
> of Rota I'll start with the relationship Grandma Duck-$. Having had the 
> question up in a norwegian news list I have gotten several answers from 
> other faithful norwegian DD-readers through several decades. None of them 
> can remember anything other than the: "My life in an eggshell" suggesting 
> that GD is $'s sister.

This is certainly one of the things that should go into the FAQ. It is
one of the discussions that seem to be coming back with some frequency.

I will try to sum up what conclusions have been drawn previously:

1) Grandma's first appearance (by Taliaferro) does not explicitly make
clear whos grandma she really is, Donald's or the newphews'.

2) Barks first uses her in the story "Donald's Grandma" (or something
like that). Even though the script is not written by Barks for this
comic, it is perfectly obvious what the relation is. HOWEVER, this is
only the case in English-speaking countries. In other countries the title
is likely to be something else. Also, this seems to be the ONLY reference
in a Barks comic.

3) Barks' family tree again makes it clear that she's Donald's grandma.
However, this was only known to fans ten years ago.

4) Perhaps the most important reference to the "sister" theory is "This
is your life, Donald Duck" from the 60's with art by Strobl. This seems
likely to be Rota's source.

5) There is an Italian comic that translates to "The beheaded totem
pole" where Scrooge meets his "sister" for the first time.

If you think about it; without Barks' (or Rosa's) family tree, there
isn't much to prove that she is not Scrooge's sister. In fact, many
artists, including Barks, draw her so young that she seems to be only
a few years older than Scrooge. Look, I'm not trying to say that I think
they are sister and brother, only that from Rota's point of view, it
wasn't very unlikely.

Fabio, you told us about an upcoming Italian family tree a while ago.
Do you have any news about that? What's the official Italian view on
this these days?

  /F