Universes

[Klartekst]

The current discussion made me think about how I myself view
the relationship between the Duck Universe and its different
creators. Here is what I came up with:

Duckburg is a real place. A real place inside my head that I
like to visit. The ducks live there. They live there today,
and have been living there for a long time. They don't age,
but that doesn't bother me.

The different editors, writers and artists have a pipeline
to Duckburg, so that they can see what's going on there.
Then they report it to me. Not all of them are equally good
observervers, so not everything they tell me is necessarily
accurate. This is to be expected. People witnessing a bank
robbery may give conflicting statements to the police. But
nearly all of the Duck storytellers add some small piece of
information that enrich my inner picture of this world.

For example, thanks to Don Rosa I now know how Donald tells
his nephews apart. I am grateful for this silly little piece
of information, it's fun to know! And I don't care that Don
in my opinion draws Killmotor Hill all wrong (much too high
and steep), because if I want information about Duckburg
landscape or architecture I can turn to Vicar's drawings.

One last thought about different universes and
inconsistancies: Pick up a current US duck comic book that
contains a new story and a Barks reprint. Are they so
different? I don't think so. Do you think that a reader who
had never read a duck story before would realize that one
was fifty yerars older than the other? No! He or she
probably wouldn't even believe it. Now, is there any other
line of comic books that can boast of such consistancy?

Nils Smeby