#i love how they draw hands in the Donald duck comics

[daily-ethoslab]

[462] License....

[cathalbravecog]

Hi! I'm kinda shy but I love your vintage finish on your work. Would you consider offering pointers for how to achieve that vibe?

oh, absolutely!! i love that sort of style and i think more people should be able to achieve it if they want!! shouldn't gatekeep art stuff ^^ i don't really do vintage style stuff a lot, and i take more comic book/print/retro inspo than anything. but, these go hand in hand!! please know i am still learning, too! this is just how i do it.

also, there's a lot of guides for this online and tools... that you have to purchase. i can assure you everything listed here is free! (including my pirated SAI2 copy!) some things have donations available towards the artists that made them, so you can do that if you want to support an artist :D

i'll go over basically everything i know, so this WILL get long! i also spent hours going over several days searching for resources, so i'll list everything so you don't have to ^^

(PART 1/2 BECAUSE OF IMAGE LIMITATIONS!!! PART 2 SHOULD BE WRITTEN SOON AFTER THIS ONE!! reblog THAT once it's done!)

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THE ART ITSELF / INSPIRATIONS:

for the ARTSTYLE and WHAT you draw: you can just draw whatever!! really, do your own thing! twist this style in your own way, it doesn't have to be a 100% accurate!! i literally used these same vintage look effects in a drawing drawn in my usual style of high roller. you can draw anything you want and you don't need to copy comicbook styles or all that!!

or - you CAN take inspo from vintage comic books / artwork or other printed comics! (for me tom and jerry comes to mind as something with a toony style, since it's what i read as a kid. also donald duck comics! no need to follow this but if you wanna be extra you can! ^^ looking at inspo is good.)

however you will need to look at examples aside from just the Artstyle, to achieve the actual Look!!

here's some examples pics i took of some comics i own laying around in a shelf. these are mixed ages, the asterix and ducktales comics being older and the tom and jerry comic being newer. i have some oldies since i got them passed down! czech text + asterix jumpscare, sorry.

to move on from the artstyle talk fully and more to the general style/look part - notice how the tom and jerry has brighter colors, less dirt, and an overall better quality!!

one thing i want you to note, in older prints there's obvious color misprinting and imperfections! you may chose to do this, or don't! depends what kind of era or printing you wanna reference. of course, also keep in mind the veeery limited CYMK colors they had Back In The Day. also note the dirt!!! how some parts are lighter and more chipped and how it isn't a full block of color!!

a lot of this does parrot posessedpasm's own guide, which i HIGHLY recommend! it's where i got a jump-start on things. there's other things listed on their post, which you should give a read! goes over history of some things that will let you have a better understanding of stuff.

speaking of inspo and on the topic of posessedpasm, before we move on - they're one of my biggest inspirations for this! their art is incredible and i think it's important to look at other artists' take on these styles. go out there and look at other artists who draw in a similar style achieving the same retro look!!! (no but genuinely i could look at posessedpasm's art forever... i love just looking at it and studying it!! i want what they have... but i'm not gonna gush now!)

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ACTUAL TECHNICALITIES / HOW THE FUCK DO I DO IT ???:

FIRST, LINEART!!: i choose a brush that's somewhat fluttery and resembles ink at least a little bit, instead of a basic round brush. here's the brush i used, for any sai2 users. i'll show my krita faves after!!

(note brush size, gets fuzzier the bigger it is)

and the krita alternatives! i don't do inking / lineart in krita in 99.9% of my art unless i'm experimenting. but there's some great brushes you can find online to use! here's links to the ones on screen

tomb of null

buck a. brush

ramonm inktober (he just presents it but since it's his post i named it that) (download link is on the video!)

that alone already gets the lineart look just a bit. but it's not all! krita is especially useful for this, as sai doesn't have this function. (but i find my way around it

here's a WIP screenshot i took while drawing that piece VS the final piece!

you may notice the lineart is "chipped" away in some spots. printing always wasn't perfect and created some imperfections, that may smudge and chip away as time goes on.

HERE'S A GUIDE FOR IMITATING THAT!!!!

what i do, is simply create a clipping layer on the lineart. (typically i do the lineart, then color, THEN do lineart effects, but this is just for show) (i also usually have a set, typically orange/yellow background color picked already, but i haven't done that here for Whatever Reason)

set it to "erase" layer mode... (and click the little "a" to actually clip it to the layer. you could also just make a quick clipping group that does it for you!)

and draw over the lineart! (preferably with a highly textured "dirty" brush!) the erase clipping layer will only erase the lineart, and nothing underneath it. you can change the opacity up and down to adjust the erasing... you can add more erase layers to play with the effect a little!

what i then do (sometimes), i ctrl+e the lineart group to one layer. i copy it. i ctrl+z to go back to keep the group if needed. i paste the copied lineart underneath it. i add a blur filter, shift it to be slightly off from the lineart by a few pixels, and set it to "burn". i may change the color to be a very dark orange-ish brownish color. gives an effect of the lineart bleeding a little!

COLORING!!:

color: okay so for this part i just kinda bullshit it and either pick whatever colors i want, or i color pick them from this image below then slightly alter if i need a different color. i do not have the patience to do my own cymk layer management digitally, just adding my effects can take OVER an hour and i have a way that looks nice Without It. i either fake my color misprints later or i just don't do it. still stuff to consider!

(taken from posessedpasm's guide! this is how i colored my sticky lou drawing. usually i will just pick my own colors and yellow them/dim them slightly.)

how do i do it: i color in sai using my usual brush or the one i showed previously. if i color on krita i use a different fuzzy kind of brush...

some colors i do on different layers and i move them slightly to make the misprinted effect. then i may erase small bits of it to make it look a bit better if i want.

if you really want the funky color mixing that may not be Extra Accurate anyway - draw using different colors on different layers. the layer overlapping with the bottom layer... set it to "multiply" and eyedrop the color where the two colors overlap. set the layer effect back to "normal". lock your opacity so you draw only on the Already Colored Parts and color the overlapping area using the eyedropped color! neato !

ONE THING TO NOTE!!! if something is white, you should leave it uncolored/transparent. unless you stylize it to be a different color entirely, if so... go ahead! but if it's WHITE white - just don't color it at all!!!

and now, to my Favorite part - the halftone overlay effect!!! here's where things can get fairly convincing already - plus, i use this effect / similar even in my normal art!

before ANYTHING!! at least, for krita - to achieve the best look i use the newspaper plugin!

newspaper plugin for krita

FIRST, i merge the color layer into one layer and then add it into a clipping group. i then copy the color layer and paste it OUTSIDE the clipping group.

then, select your PASTED color layer (named on the screenshot so u know what i mean) and go to tools>scripts>newspaper (once you install the plugin!)

i then play with the settings a bit. i typically don't touch everything - i just change the mode to Four color (CMY+K Pictures) or Four color (CMYK - Pictures) (this one usually looks better imo)

i also change the size to be smaller, usually around 4.00px.

click OK! it'll generate cymk halftone layers IN a clipping group! don't worry about the black, you can rid of it easily ;]

just close the group and move it to be inside of your color group below! clip the whole cmyk group over the color layer... and BOOM!

but that's not it! set the newspaper group's layer effect to luminosity (or whatever you find works best...!) adjust the opacity to around 50%-30% and BOOM!!

though, that's not all! do the same things we did to erase up the lineart earlier to the coloring, too. same steps! in the same clipping group! just make sure it's above the cmyk newspaper group.

you can then group both lineart groups and color groups into ANOTHER group that will contain them both. with that you can then make an erase layer over them both so they both get affected by it and make it look like both got chipped away, and not like they're separate entities. ^^

you can then use this for backgrounds... text... other things!

one important thing is also getting those papery, dirty effects... which i'll cover in a reblog! (image limit :,]) alongside that, i'll list all my resources for download there!!!

[ducktoonsfanart]

April May and June Duck as teenagers - Quack Pack AU and Quack Pack Reboot - Quack Pack Week - Duckverse and Ducktales 2017

I should have done this a long time ago, but here I am regarding one of my favorite characters in the Duckverse and the characters I'm sure should be in the Quack Pack (either as a sequel or a reboot) are definitely Daisy's nieces, April , May and June Duck. They might look like the Chipettes from Alvin and the Chipmunks, but to be honest Daisy's nieces came before the Chipettes so Daisy's nieces have the upper hand. Anyway, I did two versions, one related to the Quack Pack AU and the other to the Quack Pack reboot (if it was a sequel to Ducktales 2017).

I know that in the Ducktales 2017 finale April, May and June are clones and that Webby is April, but since I don't like them being really Daisy's nieces, I added my own way of how they would look, especially in the Quack Pack reboot (see second drawing) and I got my inspiration from here: https://ducktalks.com/2018/07/04/april-may-and-june-duck/

And took inspiration from fanart by @avespecora.

April, May and June would really be Daisy's nieces and act like Donald's nephews. April would be like Huey, May would be like Dewey, and June would be part Louie. Plus I added their clothes so they don't look the same, and drew them in my own way. And let's face it, I have nothing against Webby, May and June, I just wish they hadn't collapsed the duck family tree like that, and both DT17 May and June were really good characters in the end. It would be interesting to see people with the same names get to know each other. For other characters from the Quack Pack reboot, see here: https://ducktoonsfanart.tumblr.com/post/742447670629744640/quack-pack-week-quack-pack-original-vs-quack

For the second drawing (more precisely the first) is my redraw of April, May and June as teenagers in the Quack Pack pose as well as Donald's nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, with the fact that I think that pose would suit Daisy's nieces more than Donald's nephews. That version would be in my Quack Pack AU or the Quack Pack reboot if it was based on the Donald Duck comics. April, May and June would be like Donald's nephews, in terms of personalities, but they would definitely be ordinary girls, but not too "cool" or too feminine. And I drew in my own way, combining from the Dutch comics as well as from the series The Legend of The Three Caballeros, so here you can see the combined colors of the clothes as well as the hair they wear. May would be like Huey, June would be like Dewey, and April would be like Louie. And yes, they would cause a lot of trouble for their Aunt Daisy.

I hope you like these drawings and these ideas as well as these versions that I drew in my own style. Also this is my present for my friend, @nuvemzinhacorderosa, who loves Daisy's nieces very much. And this is also dedicated to @quackpackweek, even if I'm late. Sorry!

Feel free to like and reblog this, if you like this, just don't copy these same ideas and versions without mentioning me! Thank you!

[popculturebuffet]

Pirate Month III: Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold!

Ahoy me hearties and welcome back to pirate month, my celebration of all things piratey! Today's review is a bit special. See this blog was founded on duck rviews: I started with Ducktales Season 3, seeing it thorugh to the series end, and never really stopped covering other classics like life and times, recently finished and with a look at the extra chapters and other related works next year

but until this year it'd slowed down. But with both the end of said retrospective and donald's 90th birthday I got my fire back, and thus when it came to said birthday I had a few ideas. Ultimately I went with mr duck steps out, my faviorite of the classic disney shorts , the debut of daisy and one of many masterminded by Donald Duck's real dad Carl Barks

But it wasn't the first Carl Barks work I considered. Given how much the comics shaped donald and how much barks defined him I had another idea in mind at first before pivoting to Mr Duck Steps Out. See there's something I simply never thought about, something so basic to cover for a creator yet i'd never looked it up: What was Carl Barks FIRST Donald Duck Story? The Answer? Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. And since I just so happened to have pirate month every year, I decided to save this treasure. It's still one I was fascinated to read though both for starting one of the best careers in comics.. and for being the first american donald duck adventure story, yet never really being talked about. While Don Rosa went all over scrooge's story he didn't , as far as I can tell at least, refrence Donald's own adventure stories often. It's somethign that dosen't get as much love and something I was all too eager to give some to since my reaction to almost anything iwth donald duck is

Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold actually started as an idea for a shot, then starring Donald, Goofy and Mickey, who'd go up against pete in a quest for pirate treasure. For whatever reason the short didn't happen, but the materials found their way into the hands of Del Comics. Del was allowed to use Disney's research materials, per disney historian Jim Korkis, he's quote din a story done for mouse planet you can find here, and thus tapped Jack Hannah and Carl Barks, animatiors at disney, to draw the story as they wanted a big 64 page comic for their four color series.

As Hannah Recalled via interview in said article: " Story Research Director at the Disney Studio, "took us to meet Eleanor Packer who I believe was in charge of Whitman/Western Publishing. They wanted us to draw 64 pages of a Donald Duck story. I suspect the reason we were chosen for this assignment was that it was a more story related project. We were doing all the Donald Duck stories for the shorts and doing all the story sketches at the time so I'm just guessing that they probably felt we could work out this story as well, maybe even add in a few touches to help it flow properly."

Barks would reflect on the process of making that in another interview " "Jack and I looked the script over and decided which pages we would like to draw. After we had drawn a few pages, we decided that I should draw all of the stuff that was involved with the ducks outside on the deck of the boat or on the island, and Jack would take care of the inside stuff."

The result is a gorgeous story light on words at times but heavy on expression, with both Hannah and Barks bringign their a game. Hannah would continue in comics but unlike barks never went full time, staying with animation but it's the combination of these two titans and a solid script by Bob Karp that makes this something special. Pirate Gold may be one of the first Donald stories.. but it's also easily one of my favorites and i'd like to share with you why under the cut

We begin with a shot of the Bucket O Blood Seafood Grotto, donald's latest hustle and I find it fun that even just starting his career, even in a plot he didn't come up with... we still have Donald working a random odd job and still have a lack of money being a major plot point.

In this case Donald is catching his own fresh fish with the boys during a big wet rainstorm when they nearly die and loose their nets.

I love this little gag though it points out something neat about this one: the boys often finish each others sentences. This feels like the biggest giveaway this was supposed to be a short and barks and later writers woudl do away with this gimmick in print.

The boys find another way to be annoying though: pestering donald about loosing their nets... while he's trying to batten down the hatches so they all don't die in this massive storm.

They get a knock at the door.. thankfully i'ts not dave bautista and rupert grint trying to get them to murder themselves to prevent the apocalypse, but Yellow Beak, a character I don't see much in disney comics but had heard of and i'm shocked was in first carl barks story. Yellow beak is a diminutive parrot with a bossy attitude and a craving for Slumgullion. Slumgullion is a type of goulash, an american based one using pasta, red sauce and ground beef that honestly sounds delightful. I only know it exists thanks to this comic and now having some is a personal dream of mine.

For now though i'll just have to watch Yellow Beak have some as he thinks he's safe

I'm going to get SO much use out of this panel. I love a good goofy golden age panel, a love I recently discovered binging 80 pounds of batman.

Anyways BUT OUTSIDE is Pete. Yes that pete. As for why he's the antagonist for this : He was born to cheat and lie, he's a mean rotten guy, if you ask him why he's nasty here's his reason why: at a stork delvery his mommy screamed "Woe is me, such a dork hey mister stork behold my misery! Peteys Ghastly, pete's a blob, pete's a nasty nutty slob" can it sister because he's the mister who will get the job. In this case it's sadly not becoming king of france, but it is trying to become king of the pirates, which is even better and means you get to fight a rubber man who can become a rubberhose cartoon god if your lucky.

For now though Pete is trying to find yellow beak and we get one of my faviorite panels of the comic, only second to one i'll talk about more later.

I really wish Barks got to draw pete more often. His pete is incredibly expressive , meanacing and when neeeded hilarous.

Pete knocks on their door and Yellowbeak hides the map he's after with donald, agreeing to cut him in for the treausre. Donald only agrees after A) Being assured this isn't the police as he'd happily turn him in and B) being reminded about those gosh dang nets they need.

WE get a fun scene of Pete going around the place, even going into the kitchen because he's "very hygenic"

God I love that line.And hannah's art's also great nice and expressive.

Pete leaves but makes sure to listen in real good as Yellow Beak, thinking the coast is clear confides in the ducks

Pete in this story is just such a delight. He had me thinking about something i'd considered before when I thought about a fanfic adapting the quackshot video game but following donald , daisy, and the twins on their world tour. Donald and Pete.. are good mirrors to each other. Both are impulsive, prone to chasing an easy buck, hot tempered, and in some versions family focused. But Donald tends to barely scrape by as the underdog, while Pete tends to find or steal his way into authority. Donald is batted around by the system while pete either makes it work for him selling used cars or what not, or slips into the cracks doing crimes. Donald's tiny yet scrappy, pete's big lumbering and imposing. I honestly wonder WHY the comics dont' have them throw down more often: Yes Pete is one of mickey's arch villians, but I don't see the need to so evenly seperate the Duck and Mouse comics. In the comics Pete was born to steal and lie he's a mean rotten guy, a criminal who engages in various schemes.. so him alternating between mouseton and duckburg when it one gets too hot makes sense and he makes a good foe for Donald and for Scrooge, being the kind of skeezy criminal Scrooge fights regularly.

Yellow Beak reveals the map is actually in the restraunt, retracing steps he hold from an old mate who talked to the ghost of captain morgan who had nothing but wisdom for him

They find the map.. and not knowing their evesdropping Yellowbeak reveals they need to buy a boat. Why not just rent one is beyond me but i'm not up on 1942 economics. So pete goes off to plot

After a breif comedy bit of donald buying a fancy hat and Yellowbeak not letting him be captain, which I thought was harsh at first but honestly fair.. I mean he shoudl've let him keep the fancy captains hat, but I get that since Yellowbeak brought them the mission, he should get to lead.

I also get shades of their future dynamic with scrooge: a curmudgeonly seasoned adventuere, a frequently complaning donald as the lancer and the boys as eager assitants who are oftne key in saving the adults necks with their canny observations. The script wasn't by barks, but I wouldn't be suprised if he remembered how well it worked from before, with Scrooge being easier to squeeze into stories. After all Donald's rich dynamic uncle who always is after another rainbow is a bit easier ot set up adventures for than "a pirate parrot donald knows and dosen't like all that much"

SO pete's scheme is clever. He actually bothers to disguise himself as a greeving widow, shaving up nice and putting on a wig. As per 40's cartoon logic this works perfectly and he cons them into renting the boat instead of buying it by pretnedin gher husband the captain died. I again like seeing pete like this: he can be short sighted but I like him with a good scheme: it's part of what made Goofy Movie and Three Musketeers work so well: he CAN plan or think he's a master of psychology, but he's too arrogant to win.

We get a LOT of good gags in this comic as pete's goons, two mice wheel in tons of heavy ordanance while Donald is understandably worried. He brushes it off as a hobby but their undrestandably not convinced.

We get another fun sequence as Pete tails Yellowbeak after he gets a letter.. only to find it's agrocery list. This leads to my favoirite panel of the whole comic

Everything about that panel to the right is perfect, from the facial expression to the clouds that weren't exactly necfessary but add to the scene. It's just such a perfectly donald expression, so "what the hell did I do" so baffled. While it was only his first comic... Barks already got how to perfectly put donald in panel. It's expressive, funny and great to look at.

The next two pages are some antics as Pete tries to get the map since it's hidden. And their good antics: he goes in at night to try and find it and gently hangs donald on a hook

His minons suggest he just "cut dere throats and take the map" but pete TRIES to play it subtle and just get it when they take it out to plan.. but it's their plans for AFTER they get the map.

Finally Pete decides to take their advice to heart and just cut dere throats. Luckily the boys spot him and dump him aboard. While there's some good dialoge in this one, a lot of the comedy is more slapstick, as this WAS supposed to be a cartoon and it's easier to animate actions rather than talking. It still works in comics just as fine and Hannah and Barks art is super expressive, it's just neat to contrast to Barks more heavy use of dialogue in the rest of his career.

They dunk Pete and call "Woman overboard".. so Donald and Yellow beak see him sans disguise. The gig is up and a fight begins, with some beautiful actions and the boys being thrown in the brig..w hich they easily escape. This comes in handy as whlie putting up an impressive fight, complete with a little sword action as any good pirate adventure needs, Donald and Yellowbeak are cornered and forced to walk the plank.

Thankfully the boys built a raft offscreen so our heroes ar esaved by plot convience and a daring rescue and are already off in the distnace by the time pete realizes> he plans to just let the sharks have them.. only to find out Yellowbeak cut out the center of the map, the part both parties need next.

So out to sea Yellowbeak doles out rations

Now to be fair we don't KNOW that shark had self respect. I mean most people love pringles, but I woudln't cal lme wolfing down a can of all dress pringles in one sitting self respecting. I would call it delicous. Their new to the US and their a delight. Need to get me more. THEY CONSUME ME, THEY CONSUME ME

Anyway our heroes reach the island with yellowbeak having remmebered some steps and not letting the others eat because he's a bit of a dick. They find the cove.. and pete monotring it so they break into his boat at night.. only to find he's already out searching for treasure. If this sounds a bit circular that's because.. it is> This small section feels like not a lot happens.

Thankfully it picks up soon as our heroes head to a pirate cave and find a ghost! Before donald can deal with it in his usual way

The ghost gives them the rest of the mask and they ask no followup questions despite it obviously being pete in a bedsheet, who gave them the map back to lead him to the treasure.

So we're at the climax: our heroes dig it up, the boys make themselves scare and pete understandably waits until the two idiots have done all the work for him to strike. The boys once again prove to be the only compitent ones here, and strike back with some coconuts

Once again Pete is cruelly denied becoming knig of france. They quickly take out the two mooks and since this is their swan song I love the designs of these guys, the buck teth, big ears. Reminds me of mortimer. Maybe he has a twin brother or two, who knows.

We end with our heroes taking the bad guys back to the ship. Donald and Yellow Beak argue about whose the captan now only to get a rude awakening to end the comic

You know I never thought I'd see a story that ended with the boys holding Donald Duck and a modern day pirate who still acts like a goldena ge one at cannon point but i'm glad I lived to see it.

Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold is a fun story, expressive, full of great jokes, and with a nice sense of swashbuckling adventure. I wasn't sure how much of a pirate story this was going to be but I was delighted that it kept the feel. Pete tends to be the real star with tons of great expressions, gags as he tries to outwit the heroes and some genuinely clever planning. While it was barks first story and he didn't get to write it, I was shocked by just HOW good it is. While some comic writers artists do start firing on all cyllenders, most take a bit to really lock down their style. And while barks did have some stuff to figure out, when it came to drawing comics he was fantastic and got the medium from the start. True he'd been an animator for this so he wasn't a complete newbie.. but it's still a hard medium to get just right snf hr killed it on his first try. Jack Hannah's work also can't be understated: a lot of the great pete art is his and he gets the slapstick down to a science.

It also feels like, as I mentioned before, a blueprint to barks other stories: while yellowbeak would be swaped out for scrooge a lot of the comedic beats, the skeezy protaganist of the day, and the comedic ending all fit his scrooge adventures. This comic is utterlyf antastic and since Disney hasn't repinted it recently you can find it here on archive.org

Thanks for reading and happy pirate month. Yarrgh

[thevaudevilledemon]

Duck Musings - Of Duck and Gander

Previously I mused on Donald’s parents, and why we liked to headcanon them as deceased. It is kind of amusing, because on some level we do know some things about both Quackmore and Hortense, this makes them the Duck parents we know most about. We know how they met and why they developed feelings for each other, Duck family rage and McDuck family rage, match made in heaven. So, this has led me to question, what about Gladstone’s parents?

The most we know officially about Gladstone’s parents is that they died. That is it, other than the fact that Gladstone’s mother, Daphne, is Donald’s aunt. This is interesting, because every iteration of Gladstone’s father, Goostave Gander, that I have seen has made him look a little bit more upper-class than the family farm owners of the Duck family. So, what drew Gustave to Daphne?

It’s easy to just assume that he fell in love with her because she was pretty, and her luck just so happened to make him someone she liked too, but if that were the case, why do we characterize Goostave as being nearly head-over-heels for Daphne? One fan-comic that sticks out to me is this one by Leoruby-Draws, where Daphne takes some offense at an off-hand remark Gustave makes and wants to change her hairstyle. In the end, Gustave says she looks “perfect, as usual”. I would also be remiss to not bring up Modmad’s comic “The White Balloon” which has a little at the start about how Goostave and Daphne met, and has a bit with Goostave getting into an argument with his mother about marrying Daphne. In the end, both these fan-comics have characterized Goostave as truly loving Daphne, beyond her luck.

Daphne is often characterized by fans as being a truly loving person, someone who really just loves the people around them. It is not difficult to thin that Goostave was smitten by this love and kindness, which makes me wonder, who exactly is he? Who is his family?

I’ve had a story idea for a while where Donald, Gladstone and Fethry crash into the Gander manor, Gladstone’s grandparents. Not a lot has come of that idea, mostly because I am a very distracted writer. I mention it because, I would find it very interesting to read about what the Gander family is like, what happened after Goostave died, how would they treat Gladstone. Who they see him as Goostave’s son, or would they see him as part of the Duck Rabble? I would especially love it if they had some rivalry with the McDuck family.

In some ways, I get why this is how the fandom sees Gladstone’s parents. It all ties back to the tragedy of Gladstone, but I find it fascinating to think about what their lives were like. Also, who gave Modmad permission to break my heart with The White Balloon?

[linlin-artpage]

Dnagit. I reblogged stuff on this page even though I was on my normal tumblr page. Oh dang. it'll have to stay here for a while.

Might aswell add to it that W.i.t.c.h was a big influence on me as young artist in the early 2000. It was right in the so called Swedish Mangaboom too and this was the only thing that came close to a manga that geared toward gorls that was easily accessable and in Swedish.

It didn't hurt that it was very pretty illustrated either. The story was so different from any other comic of the time. Usually I birrowed books from the library, it was sometimes Donald Duck comics (library edition books) and Valhalla (I really do love the Valhalla comics still), Yakari, Nofret and I even read aome Tintin and Spirou books comics but none of them was geared toward teenage girls (if I only had known then about the manga that existed in Japan, and that aome were translated into English and sold in special stores here in Sweden...although they wern't easily accessable.)

So when W.i.t.c.h started to get advertised in regular Donald Duck comics I was in love already way before it was published. The first issue came out and me and my friends read it to pieces (my poor magazine;_;) We analyzed all the pages, all the art, wondered why there was a picture of Cornelia with branches in her face on the quiz-pages (It was just some illustration conceptual art I suppose).

We started draw and copy the artstyle as best as we could, by hand might I add, this was back in 2001, we didn't have our own computers and sure as heck, no good artprograms, we barely knew how to use Word and MS Paint.

Aaah those were the days.

It was end of Summer when it was released here if I remember correctly because me and my friends was having a sleepover in a tent. As our tradition was every end summer. It was the last time we did that, only we didn't know it then. We were 16.

[giuliadrawsstuff]

Hi Giulia! I hope you're doing okay! I just wanna say that you have a very solid art style--I can definitely distinguish it whenever it appears on my dashboard. Do you have artists or references that influence your very own art? I guess I just wanna ask, what's your artistic process? Thanks and take care!

Hi RK! Aww thanks you're so kind 💜💜 it really means a lot 💜

Mmm I think my greatest influence was Disney, the cartoons obviously but also some Italian comics, in particular W.I.T.C.H. (five highschool girls that obtain superpowers and can communicate with the four elements) and Topolino (various stories of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and all their friends) and I used to copy every possible drawing available hahha All the various issues are drawn by different artists, so I got to see a lot of variety of styles and pick the ones I preferred or better even pick the bits of each I liked and make them mine. Topolino in particular has multiple stories in a single issue and comes out weekly, so I had lots and lots of material to look at. I had my subscription until 2 years ago honestly hahah but I stopped for lack of shelves in my room 😂

And then during university so like 4/5 years ago I bought some video tutorials by Disney artist Aaron Blaise (he's the director of Brother Bear but he worked on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and other movies) and those really were a booster because I got to study anatomy and character design and drawing lots of animals. I still buy his stuff whenever he adds something interesting, he's an excellent teacher. And I get to watch them all the times I want so I can review weak spots or more difficult points.

As for the drawing process, well first I try and find a pose, I collect everything available that inspires me from stars Instagram posts or tweets, to drawings of other artists (obviously if the pose I finally make is identical to the original I add the reference to the post) to movie GIFs on Tumblr or official art. Oh and Pinterest too, that’s a goldmine, but I always end up finding new stuff that distracts me and not what I was originally looking for haha

Then I sketch on paper or on Photoshop depending on the mood and time, lately I can't even watch a movie in peace because my hands itch because I need to draw. So in this case I use paper.

Like these new ones look what a mess they are and very unfinished. It mostly to just jot down the idea so I don't forget it.

And since I always make a mess of it, Photoshop is a blessing. I allows me to change stuff how many times I want, for ex if the head is too big I can select it and make it smaller, it allows me to flip the drawing which is one of the most useful things ever because watching your drawing mirrored makes all the horrors pop up, I've lost count of how many wrong eyes or super long arms I had to correct. Plus I can work on different layers so I usually have one layer for the head (even 2 or 3 like for Hange because they have bangs and ponytail that are tough and glasses) then one torso, two for the arms and so on. I only merge all layers into one lineart when I'm sure it's good to go.

And then I add flat colours and logos and stuff if needed (like the wings of freedom patches or blood).

Like this is flat colours (I know you know Bojack from your Diane profile pic, which I've always loved from the first moment I saw it btw 💜 I love that show). This one stays like this because Bojack has a very simple line and pretty much no shadows unless needed. But otherwise I always add them.

But before making the shadows I tend to decide a background if needed or if I hadn't already one in mind. And the shadows colour tends to pair with the BG, but the general one is brownish (I use the same colour I use for Levi's bags under his eyes 😂 but set it to multiply so it gets darker but you can still see what's beneath).

Like this below.

I don't do many backgrounds by hand, i made one for my Secret Santa but usually I use photos or pictures (AOT is perfect for example because being a cartoon it fits with my style, with real photos I have to be more careful because it might collide instead of becoming part of the drawing) unless there's an object in real interaction with the characters.

For example this one below. The tree on which they sit was already in the frame (that's actually what gave me the idea of putting them on the branches) I tried using it like that but there was too much difference so I drew the tree myself. The rest is the real shot but blurred. Helps focusing on the characters.

Puff I think I'm done hahha sorry it came out longer that expected 😂😂 I hope the drawings make it less boring hahhaha

Anyway thanks for asking 💜💜 and if you have suggestions be sure to drop them by 💜

[kildarecoots]

i dont know a lot abt kildare, but i love your drawings of him and would love to know more abt him/ur version of him ! also some good comic recs with him in them would be appreciated if you got em :vD

hello!!!! thank u sm!!!!

my version of him is basically; if og comic kildare was rebooted and appeared in the ducktales 2017 reboot:

this image comes from the ducktales comic countdown to termination (2018). this background character isn't offically confirmed to be Kildare but after seeing this character listed as Kildare on a wiki i completely ran with it & as others have said, the resemblance seems more than intentional (eyes, beak shape, hair, the way he's drawn, even the clothing choice makes complete sense to me personally).

-------

i've thought about him so much that tbh its hard to like dump everything about him because its just so much lool but here r some main points i think

• Kildare is the son of Cuthbert Coot.

•During his childhood he mainly spent time with his cousin Fethry. they were really close and played all the time despite them living quite far away from each other

•in his original source he is never given any specific diagnosis despite mental illness being a central part of his initial characterisation. i interpreted this as like.......not every random needs to know yknow. it's kinda private. He has an illness that involves experiencing psychosis and irregular moods but you don't really need to know unless you're Fethry or Donald or Della or Gladstone or Gideon or one of his close people yknow? I hav my specific headcanons and u hav urs <3

•he practices natural horsemanship, loves the family ranch's horses and horses in general. He thinks they are so cute and wonderful. He hates seeing them & animals in general get mistreated. it upsets him so much. he truly has a real friendship with the horses. His favourite and most trusted horse is called Sweetheart.

•he loves making music!! music is so important to him. Him, Donald and Fethry were in a band called "Ducking Work" when they were like 18-20. he has always enjoyed writing and composing music, finding it a great outlet! he loves rock and country. he's a good drummer.

•he is Fethry's best friend and i cannot stress this enough

•never lost his southern accent

•super extroverted and loves to make friends, meet new people and explore new places.

•he is also rlly close with Della and the grief he felt after she disappeared & was presumed dead definitely contributed 2 one certain hospitalisation.

•he has always helped out as a ranch hand as expected and even when he's an adult he still helps his dad out with the ranch despite not living there anymore

•Gideon is Kildare's favourite uncle!

•He often stays with his grandma Elvira and cousin Gus and helps out there as well....even though they tell him he doesn't have to. But he literally finds it so fun. Who are they to stop him feeding every cow and learning their personalities and hauling bails of hay on his back every day.

•he is very compassionate and empathetic and is always there for his family and friends. he has been through a lot in his life and it's made him super good at comforting others and understanding people and is always ready to sprint to try & cheer his family + loved ones up. they love and appreciate Kildare so much.

•Gideon McDuck had partial "guardianship" over him. Kildare also works at Gideon's newspaper The Cricket as a reporter!

• ↑ Cuthbert wasn't able to cope with looking after Kildare alone

•a lot of the original comic content involves his family just endlessly getting annoyed with him & that's one thing i love to reverse with my version of him. Donald especially i feel would be way more understanding of Kildare and not treat him anywhere near how he's written treating him in the original comics. Donald in Dt'17 literally starts going to therapy himself. like. Kildare would probably wear Donald down a lot at times bc of his energetic nature/mania sure but he would never be ableist to him on that level ever like being ashamed to be related to him & badmouthing him to the triplets. trust me i know him personally

•he also loves cooking. and baking. he learned from the best (Elvira Coot).

↓

the best collection of kildare featured comics is here compiled by @fethrybestduck !!

[davidanderson7162]

Cartoons for Everybody

It is not true that just children take pleasure in cartoons. Cartoons have been showing up in print media as well as television for decades. They are extremely entertaining and also are suitable anxiety busters for the worn grownup. For youngsters, animes can be academic in addition to enjoyable. It holds true that there are some that are violent, those are best prevented. It would certainly make good sense to pick intelligently what you desire your children to see Kids TELEVISION Online.Kids TV Network

Exactly how do they profit your youngsters?

- Some animes carry messages in social understanding. Cartoons almost always have stories that centre round a hero. The hero is always combating evil as well as victories. Happy endings are constantly great to have.

- There are those that develop vocabulary. Kids learn new words as well as enhance in their speech.

- An added advantage is that, those youngsters watching programs like these find out to focus. This helps them focus as well as educates them the ability to follow consecutive episodes.

- They learn life lessons, they discover sharing and exactly how to recognize right from incorrect. They find out that it is not always the large and also the solid who constantly win.

- Animations constantly obtain stored away as terrific memories and those pleased associations are carried appropriate into adulthood.

How do they profit adults?

- Viewing an anime when you're ill in bed is a splendidly recovery exercise. Remember those times when, as a youngster you did precisely that?

- Researches reveal that viewing cartoons lowers the danger of anxiety associated illness in adults. A great laugh launches endorphins in the mind. These endorphins make us really feel far better mentally and physically and are the best de-stressor that money can't purchase.

- Individuals like these find they associate better to kids as well as have a much better understanding of them.

- Obviously, this is a great way to kill time as it keeps individuals out of mischief. The still mind, as they claim, is the devil's workshop!

Throughout the years animes have actually advanced from one dimensional characters on the screen as well as paper to a three dimensional one. Modern technology has made cartoon personalities realistic. Both adults and children connect to the story Children TELEVISION Online.

Anime Vs Cartoons: What's the Difference?

In the "Anime" neighborhood, for most fans as well as fans, "Anime" is "Anime and also "Cartoons" are "Cartoons". For them both of the things are truly different from each various other.

Firstly, many individuals obtain puzzled between an Anime and also an Anime, even if both are animated that doesn't imply that they both are very same. There are a lot of differences in Anime as well as Cartoons. While both are caricatures that might be computer animated, anime generally has visually distinctive functions for characters. So, below I will certainly now clarify the difference in between these 2. Anime are Japanese computer animated production, that are available in various layouts like, television series such as dragon sphere z, Naruto, one piece etc., computer animated brief films, and also full-length films. However animations are two-dimensional illustrated visual art, non-realistic or semi-realistic illustrations.

Anime characters have distinct facial and also physical features that are extremely comparable to truth, their large eyes and tiny mouth are developed due to cuteness. On the various other hand, cartoons physical features are very much from reality than anime. Anime characters additionally reveal various kinds of distinguishable faces whereas animes do not.

Cartoons are normally made to make people laugh, so the style mostly is funny. Yet there are likewise several animes that are academic, showing something good to mainly young children and also youngsters in an enjoyable, interactive way. For example, mickey mouse, Donald duck, pests bunny and so on

. Unlike cartoons, anime does not adhere to just one or more genres. Anime programs and also movies are all based on some sort of story which proceeds through the whole series, for instance, bleach, one item, Naruto, etc. Anime is based upon real-life problems or something that are closer to human feelings and also have a lot more categories than cartoons such as, dramatization, school life, slice of life, love, activity, and so on

. However if you check out both of them as different entities, or as same, you will not be able to locate a clear difference between the two, which is why a lot of the people get puzzled in between both and wind up calling anime as well as animes are very same Children TELEVISION Online.

The initial animation was stated to be generated in 1499. It depicted the pope, holy Roman emperor, and the king of France as well as England playing the game of cards. However, Japanese animation began in the very early 20's, when Japanese filmmakers were trying out various methods. By 1930s, as an alternative to the live activity sector, computer animation was established.

As anime are two-dimensional numbers drawn and utilized in animations, as caricatures in papers, and also publications. If we were to define what Anime is after that the basic suggestion of several of the common as well as agreed upon notions would certainly be "Japanese, animation, vibrant layouts, as well as hand-drawn" would certainly be primary buzzwords.

Today, Anime only appears to refer "animations just from Japan" to make it extra understandable for individuals. After all this is human nature to like the important things which are conveniently understandable and conveniently categorized.

To make the distinction more clear, let's take the example of the tom as well as jerry and dragon sphere z. So, you may believe what's the difference in between both when they both are computer animated and have excellent visuals, histories, sound impacts as well as even the computer animated drawings behave. But, there are lots of distinctions in them which differentiate them from anime to animation. Like, their principles are absolutely different, as you know every episode of tom as well as Jerry is various as well as is not associated with any of the previous episode or continuing some sort of tale from a point but in dragon sphere z every episode is connected to the previous one, and proceed the story from where it stopped in the previous episode. And their categories are various too, as tom and also Jerry is purely based upon a pet cat and also mouse battle and made to make people laugh and their watch time enjoyable. On the various other hand, dragon sphere z is sort of a journey of a saiyan to conserve the Planet and also the universe from several dangers, he defends conserving every person, with the aid of his family members, close friends and fellow saiyans. Dragon ball z is can be categorized in various categories, like activity, experience, comedy, very power, etc

. An additional thing in which some individuals may unique anime as well as cartoon would certainly be that cartoons are for youngsters whereas reach of anime can be extended to many various other age and other locations Kids TV Online.

However what I believe is, cartoons are not simply children product, because as we can see in the newspapers, as well as on television also, there are many cartoons containing as well as targeting lots of political, spiritual sights. Most of these messages are concealed as well as indistinguishable for kids, to ensure that grownups can appreciate viewing them with youngsters. Whereas some of the anime consists of high grown-up material and thus are not secure or good for little kids to see. Those type of anime are made completely concentrating on adult target market. But there are likewise some anime collection which are definitely risk-free to enjoy with children. However nowadays, even normal anime's might have some scenes which are not meant to be enjoyed by kids.

So, I think, where cartoons are secure for kids to see, anime shouldn't be thought about secure sufficient for them. But despite just how old you obtain, you can still appreciate it as it is.

I really feel that, anime has much deeper thought in them, well created characters, broad story-line, a solid style, sensible background animation, the real world scenarios, discussions, expressions, etc. all of these things bound us together to view all the episodes (whether there are 12 or 24 or more than a thousand of episodes) of the anime collection. Whereas on the various other hand, animes, regardless of whether they are telling a story or simply going for funny, have superficial characters and themes.

Cartooning for Kids: 3 Books That Can Help You Get Started

Many children I understand love to attract eventually. Several of them love it a lot, they take place to produce video games, comics, cartoons, and comics. If you are seeking some exceptional books on cartooning for youngsters, below are three that can aid you get going.

Among the outright finest general intros allows Publication of Cartooning by Bruce Blitz. He starred in a public tv program for years, and I was able as a young person to learn from his techniques.

Guide covers whatever from basic cartooning abilities, like integrating various facial forms, features, and hairdos, to make various characters. It likewise demonstrates how to attract bodies and also add motion to them so they are funny and also dynamic, and not just stalling.

He does a terrific work of introducing animation results as well as devices. Those are the kinds of things that make animes enjoyable and bring them to life, like the wavy lines appearing of a piece of pizza, to show that it smells excellent. Or the lines on a pool of water or a mirror, to reveal they are reflective. And also one of the most enjoyable of all, those little grains of sweat or activity lines, like when someone has actually just thrown a sphere Children TELEVISION Online.

There is also a great deal of mention on just how to create cartoons, consisting of how to lay them out, invent jokes, as well as do your lettering. For kids who wish to attempt their hand at superhero-type comics, he covers different means to make your male go from dopey to wonderful, from absolutely no to hero. Likewise included are numerous positions you might utilize, like training, taking off, flying, and also boxing.

This extensive work additionally has an area on animation portraiture or caricature. In this way you can draw funny pictures of on your own, good friends, family members, as well as teachers, and offer those away as presents. You may even wind up offering your job!

An additional outstanding summary is Everything You Ever Wanted to Know concerning Cartooning yet Hesitated to Draw. The writer is a Disney-trained musician, so it's a perfect recommendation if you like that design. Yet it too covers every little thing from expressions and also drawing action presents, to cartoon format.

One specific area I such as is exactly how to attract your animes from various camera angles, like way down reduced. That way, if you are trying to attract something from the viewpoint of a very tiny character, like a computer mouse seeking out at an individual, you can obtain an excellent funny aim to your job.

Art for Children: Cartooning: The Only Cartooning Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You have actually Constantly Intended to Be motivates youngsters to try out various techniques to obtain their own designs. The design hangs and also open, so it's easy for kids to comply with. There is also info on composing jokes as well as developing panels Children TV Online.

So if you have an interest in cartooning for children, these 3 books to help you get going are perfect. You will have 3 completely different designs to examine, and you will have great deals of suggestions on attracting fundamentals, plus information on how to put whatever together into your own anime creations. Delighted cartooning!

8 Memorable Youngsters' Anime Adaptations to Motion Picture

When a well enjoyed children's TV series makes the change from the little to the hollywood it normally spells a break from tradition and also an attempt to interest an entire new target market. Computer animation resorts to live activity, rough-and-ready image resorts to CGI, obscure commentary artists are replaced by prominent Hollywood stars as well as puppets are switched for real-life actors. To commemorate the incredible brand-new film of eponymous cult TELEVISION series Stories of the Riverbank [talesoftheriverbank.co.uk/ trailer], here are some motion picture gems that really improve their kids' TELEVISION starts, and also some stinkers that ought to have adhered to what they're best at:

Garfield (2004 )

On the one hand, Bill Murray seems like he's constantly been the voice of Garfield - his effortlessly sarcastic wit seems completely suited to the lasagne addicted fat feline. On the various other, pretty much whatever else regarding this movie sucks. The performing's not up to much and also the animation's nothing short of tragic. The initial comic strip as well as anime series didn't endeavor to far from Garfield's litter tray, so this attempt to stretch things to more than an hour just ends up a mess.

Little understood fact: Bill Murray recorded a lot of his audio for this in Italy while shooting "The Life Aquatic" on a watercraft.

Authorities Garfield website - garfield.com/.

Tales of the Riverbank (2008 ).

Though not a cartoon, this new motion picture is absolutely worth a mention: when Johnny Morris initially placed his voice to these shore pets in the 1959 TELEVISION collection of the same name, it could have been debatable. However it turned out that making pets appear like they were chatting was a huge success. Today the adorable Hammy Hamster once more joins GP, Owl as well as buddies in a fracturing feature length waterfront prance. With a winning, British voice actors and also an innocently jolly story, this motion picture is set to become a company family members favourite. Little understood fact: In the '60s TV program, the animals were adjusted to look like they were speaking utilizing peanut butter on the roofing of their mouth.

Official Website - talesoftheriverbank.co.uk/ trailer. TOTR on IMDB - imdb.com/title/tt1043748/.

Teen Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990 ).

There were the Samurai Pizza Cats and after that there were the Bicycle Rider Computer Mice from Mars - yet both were bad copies of what was undoubtedly the supreme animal/mutant based cartoon activity collection embeded in a drain ... including a speaking rat. "Teen Mutant Ninja Turtles" was a computer animated TELEVISION show in the 80s, a trilogy of live-action films in the 90s as well as more lately a computer system cartoon animation (TNMT). The films are mainly dreadful - however watch out for an instead snazzy-looking Vanilla Ice in Adolescent Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Glop. Traditional. Little recognized fact: In the UK the TELEVISION series was called Adolescent Mutant Hero Turtles as the word "ninja" was considered as well terrible.

Scooby Doo (2002 ).

Among the much better remakes, this is about as close as you're going to get to the original collection without returning to full animation. All the one linings are there, as are all the trademarks that made the original such a smash hit. There's additionally a healthy and balanced dosage of self mockery to make certain the grown-ups can enjoy it as high as children. Any person that located Scrappy Doo more than a little bothersome in the original will enjoy the spin at the end. The only secret that still remains is this - what worldwide IS a Scooby Snack ?? Little recognize truth: In a very early version of the film, a certain Jim Carrey was connected to play Shaggy.

Official Scooby site - warnerbros.com/sd_brand/index.html.

Thunderbirds (2004 ).

The initial puppets had lots much more magic and also personal appeal than the 'live' actors in this substandard remake. Creator of the initial TELEVISION series, Gerry Anderson, also contradicted a $750,000 deal to write an endorsement of the film for its launch. A substantial flop. Enough stated.

Little bit understood truth: The motion picture is routed by Jonathan Frakes that played Riker in Celebrity Trip.

Flintstones (1994 ).

Translating a computer animated classic right into a live-action film using the real world actors isn't always simple. Perhaps the most essential item of the jigsaw is the spreading. In the case of 1994's Flintstones they soooo really nearly got it right. John Goodman as Fred Flintstone - place on. Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma - made for the duty. Rick Moranis as Barney Rubble - all good. Rosie O'Donnell as Betty Debris? - Um ... intriguing. At the very least the sound-track (courtesy of the BC52s) appears wonderful!

Little bit recognized fact: Halle Berry plays a character called Sharon Stone (obtain it!?).

Transformers (2007 ).

Hardcore Transformers fans who bear in mind the 1980s hit cartoon show may really feel a little peeved that, in a separation from the original collection, Spielberg as well as co. have decided to opt for some more modern-day automobiles. So Bumble-bee's no longer a huge yellow VW Beetle! Boo! Nevertheless, those that can not bear in mind the initial (virtually anybody under the age of 30) will enjoy the continuous robo-action.

Bit understood fact: The 1986 "Transformers the Movie" was one of Orson Welles last ever movies - one of his very first was Person Kane.

Tom and also Jerry the Granddaddy of Kids Cartoon Movies.

Everyone has their very own preferred animation flick or tv show; as a matter of fact animations are now a big component of a youngster's very early years as well as in addition to enjoyable to adults too. If you were young in the 60's, 70's or 80's after that you'll have been lucky sufficient to have actually enjoyed the initial hand attracted animated standards, like the Flintstones, The Jetsons or among the most prominent as well as lengthiest running, Tom and Jerry.

The Tom as well as Jerry reveal begun as a TV series and then took place to become a number of feature movies; it has been running given that the 40's and also has because won 7 different Oscar awards for ideal animated short. Back then you needed to await the program to come on at a specific time, though today were fortunate enough to be able to purchase a Tom and also Jerry DVD set anytime we like and also relive the magic in our very own houses.

The characters are easy Tom a troublesome house cat with a preference for mice and also Jerry a reluctant mouse with a kind heart; both are friends at heart, however constantly wind up attempting to win one over on each various other generally with Jerry winning the day. The simple as well as funny slapstick comedy of this crazy duo is what's made it so popular in nations around the world; you'll find the preferred films playing in practically any kind of resort area on all continents.

So where did it all start? Most individuals do not understand that Tom and also Jerry has had more than one maker in over 50 years of broadcast; the initial 2 were the gifted William Hanna and Joseph Barbara. They came to the MGM workshops in the 40's with their concept and Tom as well as Jerry became a reality in individuals's houses. After a brief time the program was reduced and the team broke up until the 1960's when MGM made a decision to reboot the project, they hired Gene Deitch for 2 years, but his eccentric imagination didn't mix well with the program. In 1963 the workshops employed a new director Chuck Jones who became the next creator of the motion pictures.

An instance of an especially excellent film is the magic ring which came out in 2002, it was composed and also routed by both of the original makers as well as additionally worked together on by Chuck Jones. If you're a fanatic of the lovable pet cat and also mouse duo after that you'll love this movie, it would certainly also be a wonderful introduction to the personalities for your very own youngsters.

[transdonaldduck]

Hi I love ducktales and duck avenger and the comics too but I can't draw them for the life of me dgsjs can I ask how you draw beaks?

I’ll try and break it down for you (lucky for you I had a teen donald drawing I wasn’t planning on finishing thats perfect to demonstrate w)

There’s three main parts I tend to categorize the beaks into is the... Snout? and lower jaw (red,) the upper lip (blue), and the cheek/bridge of the nose (yellow.) To help myself visualize the 3D aspects of the beak I think of it sort of like this? By looking at my actual hands I can visualize how the width of the beak works perspective wise.

I draw each piece seperately, usually in the same order. In most drawings i’ll Overlap the top lip enough that you cant see much of the snout, so it’ll have a shortened/smushed look. I normally draw the top lip first and then the mouth shape (normall a wide wide v) then the nose bridge and cheek, then the lower jaw last. i also made a gif to demonstrate bc im extra

[buzzdixonwriter]

My Five Most Influential

Someone asked:   Who are the most influential writers in your life?

Good question.

The broad answer is that one gets influenced many different ways by many different sources.  I enjoy poetry and song lyrics because they find ways of conveying the strongest emotional content in the most concise manner, music brings a sense of dramatic rhythm and fulfillment, the visual arts suggest ways of subtly adding many insights to a single strong idea, etc., etc., and of course, etc. (and that is also an example of a creative influence in my work).

But…to boil it down to those whom I most consciously made an effort to emulate, we find ourselves facing five creators that primed the pump.

This is not to say others whom I began following after them didn’t wield a lot of influence (thanx, Ernie, Bert, Jack, Bob, and Hank!) but these are the foundation of everything I’ve done in my career.

(And to those who notice a lack of diversity, I know, I know…but to be honest I have to acknowledge the truth, and the truth is for whatever reason, by chance or by choice, by fate or by fortune, these five dominated my sensibilities.  I trust that I’ve grown and expanded my horizons since then, but they’re the hand I got dealt.)

. . . 

Carl Barks

I loved ducks as a kid and my grandmother and aunt would always bring me a passel of duck-related comics when they came to visit.

There were some Daffy Duck comics mixed in there but while I know I looked at and enjoyed them, none of them stick in my mind like the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories of Carl Barks.

Typically my grandmother would read these comics to me and I’d imprint the dialog and captions in my brain, replaying them as I looked at the pictures over and over again.

Barks never wrote down to his audience, and his stories covered a vast array of genres, everything from straight domestic comedy to oddball adventures to screwy crime stories.

Donald and his nephews encountered dinosaurs more than once (another big favorite of mine), and Uncle Scrooge setting out to explore the asteroid belt in order to find a new home for his fabulous money bin was another tale I loved literally to pieces, but A Christmas For Shacktown remains my all time favorite graphic novel.

I’ll concede there are better graphic novels, but none of them warm my heart the way that Christmas story does.

Barks showed it’s possible to combine heart (not to be confused with sentimentality or =yuch!= schmaltz), vivid characters, and strong, intricate narrative.  His plots where typically filled with unexpected twists and turns but his characters were always deeply involved in them, not just along for the ride.

He’s one of the greatest storytellers in the 20th century, and his work remains timeless enough to last for several centuries to come.

. . . 

Ray Bradbury

The first Ray Bradbury story I remember encountering was “Switch On The Night” in its 1955 edition, read to my kindergarten class towards the end of the school year.

This would place the event sometime in the spring of 1959.

“Switch On The Night” captivated me because it was the first story I’d ever heard that showed what could be seen in the dark that couldn’t be seen in the day.

Even as a child, it made me realize the night wasn’t scary, but contained wonders and insights we miss in the harsh glare of day.

I don’t recall if the kindergarten teacher told us the name of the author, and if she did it didn’t stick, but boy howdy, the story sure did!  Did it open the doors of the night for me, or was I already inclined to be a night person and it simply confirmed that as a valid identity?

I dunno, but I’m typing this right now at 12:24am.

And the thoughts Bradbury planted in little Buzzy boy’s brain stayed and grew and flowered, as you can read in my poem, “The Magic Hours Of The Night”.

The next time I encountered Ray Bradbury’s writing was in grammar school, certainly no later than junior high.  I was already interested in science fiction by that point, and had read “The Pedestrian” in one of my school English books (we weren’t taught the story in class; the teacher skipped over it for whatever reason but I read it anyway then re-read it and read it again and again).

Anthony Boucher’s ubiquitous 2-volume A Treasury Of Great Science Fiction was in my grammar school library and in it was Bradbury’s “Pillar Of Fire” (which I would later learn was one of his alternate Martian Chronicles and a crossover with Fahrenheit 451) and in that story he offered up a veritable laundry list of outré and outlandish fiction to be tracked down and read, authors to dig up and devour.

Oh, man, I was hooked.

So of course I began looking for all the stories and writers Bradbury listed in his short story but I also began looking for Bradbury’s own work and before you could say, “Mom, can I get a subscription to the Science Fiction Book Club?” I’d read The Golden Apples Of The Sun and A Medicine For Melancholy and R is For Rocket never once dreaming that at some point in the future the roadmap Ray plopped down in my lap would eventually lead to us being co-workers (separate projects, but the same studio at the same time) and friends.

There is a beautiful yet deceptive simplicity to Ray’s work, and even though he wrote his own book on writing (The Zen Of Writing) that has lots of good insights and professional tricks & tips, he himself wasn’t able to explain how he did it.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good Ray Bradbury parody.

I’ve seen parodies that clearly are intended to evoke Ray Bradbury, but only in the same way a clumsy older relative might evoke Michael Jackson with a spasmodic movement one vaguely recognizes as a failed attempt at a moonwalk.

But, lordie, don’t think we didn’t try to emulate him, and while none of us fanboys ever came close, I think a lot of us did learn that less is more, that the right word carries more impact than a dozen paragraphs, and that there’s magic in even the most ordinary of things.

And of course I discovered the film and TV adaptations of his work, and in discovering them I also discovered that there are some things that just can’t be translated from one media to another, and that the light, effortless appeal of Ray’s work on the page (paper or pixel) can at best be recaptured with a good audio book reader but even the best dramatic adaptions -- even those by Ray himself -- are cold dead iron butterflies compared to the light and lively creatures flying about.

So eventually I stopped trying to write like him, and instead picked up the valuable lessons of mood and emotion making an impact on a story even if the plot didn’t make much logical sense.

Decades later I would become a fan of opera, and would learn the philosophy of all opera lovers:  Opera doesn’t have to make logical sense, it just has to make emotional sense.

Ray Bradbury, opera meister.

. . . 

H.P. Lovecraft

As noted above, Bradbury’s “Pillar Of Fire” tipped me to numerous other writers, first and foremost of which turned out to be Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

Okay, before we get any further into this, let’s acknowledge the woolly mammoth in the room:  H.P. Lovecraft was a colossal asshat racist.

He was a lot of other terrible things, too, but racist is far and ahead of the rest of the pack.

It’s a disillusioning thing to find people one admired as a youngster or a teen later prove to have not just quirks and eccentricities and personal flaws, but genuinely destructive, harmful, and offensive characters.

I’ve posted on that before, too.

How I wish it were possible to retroactively scale back that hurtfulness, to make them more empathetic, less egregiously offensive (in the military sense of the word), but that ain’t so.

We have to acknowledge evil when we see it, and we have to call it out, and we have to shun it.

Which is hard when one of its practitioners provides a major influence in our creative lives.

Here’s what I liked about Lovecraft as a kid:  He was the complete opposite of Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury’s instinctive genius was in finding the right word, the simple word that conveyed great impact on the story, drawing the reader into the most fantastic situations by making them seem more familiar on a visceral level.

Lovecraft achieved the exact opposite effect by finding the most arcane, bedizened, baroque, florid, grandiloquent, overwrought, rococo verbiage possible and slapping the reader repeatedly in the face with it.

If Bradbury made the unreal real, Lovecraft made the weird even more weirder.

And let’s give this devil his due:  The Strange Case Of Charles Dexter Ward and The Dunwich Horror are two masterpieces of horror and serve as the bridge between Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King, not to mention his creation of Cthulhu and other ancient entities existing beyond the ken of human knowledge…

…oh, wait, that’s where the story simultaneously gets messy yet provides a convenient escape hatch for fans.

While Lovecraft created Cthulhu, he did not create the Cthulhu Mythos.

That was primarily the invention August Derleth, a writer / editor / agent and H.P. Lovecraft’s #1 fanboy.

Lovecraft had some loosely related ideas in his stories and several themes he revisited repeatedly (in addition to racism).

He also had a circle of fellow writers -- including such heavy hitters as Robert “Psycho” Bloch and Robert E. “Conan” Howard -- who picked up on his ideas and, as way of a tribute, incorporated them in some of their stories.

Derleth took all this and Lovecraft’s unfinished manuscripts and short ideas he jotted down and turned it into a whole post-mortem industry, linking all of Lovecraft and other writers’ tales.

And he did a damn fine job of it, too.

So much so that the Cthulhu Mythos has taken on a life of its own, and pretty much anybody can play in that cosmic sandbox now (including Big Steve King and a ton of Japanese anime) and so Lovecraft’s works have an enormous influence on pop culture…

,,,but Howard hizzowndamsef can be -- and is -- cancelled.

Derleth and various biographers downplayed Lovecraft’s virulent racism for decades, and I don’t think Ray Bradbury was ever aware of the scope and tenor of Lovecraft’s bigotry when he name checked him in “Pillar Of Fire” and other stories.

In a similar vein Bradbury didn’t know -- because thanks again to overly protective literary executors, nobody knew -- just how big a racist asshat Walt Whitman was, either.  It is one thing to call shenanigans on a Bill Cosby or a Harvey Weinstein or a Donald Trump because their egregious behaviors were noted long before they were held accountable, but quite another to do so on a creator who died while hiding their most awful behavior from thousands if not millions of fans who felt inspired and uplifted by their work.

It’s one thing to call out a contemporary bigot and not support them by not buying their work, it’s quite another when their bigotry has been shielded from view and fair minded, decent people have used their work to draw inspiration into their own creativity.

Of course, I had no way of knowing all this when I was in junior high and seriously began tracking down Lovecraft’s work.  

He possessed a flair of the horrific and unearthly that to this day is hard to match (but easier to parody).  He was a tremendous influence on my early writing (truth be told, I zigzagged between Bradbury’s stark simplicity and Lovecraft’s overarching verbosity, giving my early oeuvre a rather schizophrenic style) and the ideas he sparked still reverberate to this day.

If only he hadn’t been such a giant %#@&ing asshat racist …

. . . 

Harlan Ellison

In a way, I’m glad neither Harlan nor his widow Susan are alive to read this.

I cherished Harlan as a friend and greatly admired his qualities as a writer.

But damn, by his own admission he should have been thrown in prison for aggravated assault on numerous occasions (he was courts martialed three times while in the Army).

We’re not talking about arguments that spiraled out of control until a few wild punches were thrown, we’re talking about Harlan by his own admission stalking and ambushing people, knocking them unconscious or causing grievous bodily harm.

We’re talking about sexual abuse and humiliation.

We’re talking about incidents he admitted to which if true put people in life threatening situations.

And yet ironically, in a certain sense Harlan (a bona fide Army Ranger, BTW) was like the U.S. Marine Corps:  You’d never have a greater friend or a worse enemy.

I became dimly aware of Harlan in the late 1960s as I started diving deeper into literary sci-fi, transitioning from monster kid fandom to digests and paperbacks.  Harlan first caught my attention with his macho prose (years later a similar style also drew me to Charles Bukowski) in stories like “Along the Scenic Route” (a.k.a. “Dogfight on 101”) in which Los Angelinos engaged in Mad Max motor mayhem but soon it became apparent the macho posturing was just a patina, that the heart and soul of much of the work reflected great sensitivity and often profound melancholy (ditto Bukowski).

Harlan was a fighter, and again by his own admission, he acknowledged in his later years that he was not a fighter because his cause was just, but rather sought out just causes because he knew he would be fighting regardless of his position, yet possessed a strong enough moral compass to point himself in the direction of a worthy enemy…

…most of the time.

He hurt and offended a large number of innocent and some not-so-innocent-but-certainly-not-evil people.

He also helped and encouraged a large number of others, people who had no idea who he was, people who had no way of adequately reciprocating his kindness and generosity.

He defended a lot of defenseless people.

He also mistakenly defended a lot of terrible people.

If someone tells me Harlan was a monster, I’ll agree:  Monstre sacré.

What made his writing sacred was that no matter how outlandish the situation, Harlan dredged up from the depths emotions so strong as to be frightening in their depiction.

Skilled enough not to lose sight of humanity, outlandish enough to conjure up ideas and emotions most people would shy away from, Harlan hit adolescent Buzzy boy like an incendiary grenade.

Unlike my first three literary influences, Harlan was and remained active in the fannish circles where I was circulating at the time.  He regularly wrote letters and columns for various fanzines, including a few I subscribed to.

In a literary sense he stood, naked and unashamed, in full view of the world, and that willingness to go beyond mundane sensibilities is what made his work so compelling.

He certainly fired me up as an adolescent writer, and proved an amalgam of Bradbury and Lovecraft that got my creative juices flowing in a coherent direction.

I don’t think I ever consciously tried to imitate him in my writing, but I sure learned from him, both in how to charge a story with emotion and how to fight for what’s right regardless of the blow back.

I loved him as a friend.

But, damn, Harlan…you could act so ugly...

. . .

H. Allen Smith

Who?

Most of you have never heard of H. Allen Smith, and that’s a damn shame.

I’d never heard of him either until I stumbled across a coverless remaindered copy of Poor H. Allen Smith’s Almanac in a Dollar General Store bin in Tennessee in the late 1960s (it was a memorable shopping expedition:  I also purchased Thomas Heggen’s Mister Roberts and Let’s Kill Uncle by Rohan O'Grady [pen name of June Margaret O'Grady Skinner]).

Reading Smith’s editorial comments (in addition to his own essays and fiction he edited numerous humor anthologies) I realized I’d found a kindred soul.

Smith had a very conversational tone as a writer; his prose seemed off the cuff and unstructured, but he slyly used that style to hide the very peculiar (and often perverse) path he led readers down.

He sounded / read like a garrulous guy at the bar, one with a huge number of charming, witty (and delightfully inebriated) friends in addition to his own bottomless well of tall tales, pointed observations, and rude jokes.

Of all the writers mentioned above, that style is the one I most consciously tried to emulate, and one I seem to have been able to find my own voice in (several people have told me I write the same way I talk, a rarity among writers).

Smith was hilarious whether wearing an editor’s visor or a freelancer’s fool’s cap.  If you know who H. L. Mencken was, think of Smith as a benign, better tempered version of that infamous curmudgeon (and if you don’t know, hie thee hence to Google and find out).

Compared to my other four influences, Smith didn’t need to add the fantastic to his fiction:  The real world was weird and wacky and whimsical enough.

A newspaper man turned best selling author, Smith became among the most popular humorists of the 1940s-50s-60s…

…and then he died and everybody forgot him.

Part of the reason they forgot is that he wrote about things that no longer seem relevant (TV cowboys of the early television era, f’r instance, in Mr. Zip) or are today looked upon askance (and with justifiable reason; the ethnic humor in many of his anthologies may not have been intended as mean spirited, but it sure doesn’t read as a celebration of other cultures, viz his succinct account of an argument following a traffic accident between two native Honolulu cabbies rendered in pidgin:  “Wassamatta you?”  “’Wassmatta me’?!?!?  Wassamatta you ‘Wassamatta me’?  You wassamatta!”).

I’m sure I picked up a great many faults from Smith, but Smith also had the virtue of being willing and able to learn and to make an effort to be a better person today than he was yesterday, and better still tomorrow.

I’ve certainly tried applying that to my life.

Smith’s style was also invoked -- consciously or not -- by other writers and editors, notably Richard E. Geis, the editor of the legendary sci-fi semi-prozone, Science Fiction Review (among other titles).  Smith died before I could meet him, but while I never met Dick Geis face to face we were pen pals for over 40 years.

Geis certainly sharpened specific aspects of my writing style, but the real underlying structure came from H. Allen Smith.

Smith’s work is hard to find today (in no small part because whenever I encounter one in the wild I snap it up) but I urge you to give him a try.

Just brace yourself for things we might consider incorrect today.

. . . 

So there’s my top five. 

With the exception of Carl Barks and Ray Bradbury, none of them are without serious flaw or blemish (though Smith seems like a decent enough sort despite his fondness for X-rated and ethnic humor).

In my defense as an impressionable child / teen, I was not aware of these flaws and blemishes when I first encountered their writing (primarily because in many cases efforts were made to hide or downplay those aspects).

The positive things I gleaned from them are not negated by the negative personal information that came out later.

I can, for the most part re the more problematic of them, appreciate their work while not endorsing their behavior.

Ellison can only be described in extremes, but his fire and passion -- when directed in a positive direction -- served as a torch to light new paths (his two original anthologies, Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, pretty much blew the doors off old school sci-fi and belatedly dragged the genre kicking and screaming into the 20th century).

Lovecraft I can effectively ignore while finding entertainment value in the Cthulhu Mythos.

But I must acknowledge this isn’t the same for everyone.

For example, as innocuous as I find H. Allen Smith, if a woman or a member of a minority group said, “I found this in particular to be offensive” I’d probably have to say, yeah, you’re right.

But I can still admire the way he did it, even if I can no longer fully support what he did.

. . . 

By the time I reached high school, I’d acquired enough savvy to regard to literary finds a bit more dispassionately, appreciating what they did without trying to literally absorb it into my own writing.

I discovered for myself the Beat generation of writers and poets, the underground cartoonists of the late 60s and 70s, Ken Kesey, Joseph Heller, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. LeGuin, and a host of others, some already alluded to.

Some, such as the Beats and Bukowski, I could enjoy for their warts and all honest self-reflection.

Yes, they were terrible people, but they knew they were terrible people, and they also knew there had to be something better, and while they may never have found the nirvana they sought, they at least sent back accurate reports of where they were in their journeys of exploration.

By my late teens, I’d become aware enough of human foibles and weaknesses -- every human’s foibles and weaknesses, including my own -- to be very, very cautious in regarding an individual as admirable.

While I will never accept creativity as an excuse for bad behavior, if a creator is honest enough and self-introspective enough to recognize and acknowledge their own failings, it goes a long way towards my being willing to enjoy their work without feeling I’m endorsing them as individuals.

It’s not my place to pass judgment or exoneration on others bad behavior.

It is my place to see that I don’t emulate others’ bad behavior.

Every creator is connected to their art, even if it’s by-the-numbers for-hire hack work.

Every creator puts something of themselves into the final product.

And every member of the audience must decide for themselves if that renders the final product too toxic to be enjoyed. 

    © Buzz Dixon

[ducklooney]

Finally, this is actually my first fanart, but in the traditional way. After a couple of hours, here's what I did. Okay, I didn't do it right with my legs and torso (especially around Donald) and I apologize for a little bad work, but in some ways it's better than drawing on a computer. Since I see that no one is drawing, and even the requests that I would like or want are not offered, I decided to take the matter into my own hands, so be it and let me decide to draw it. Let me be clear, I'm not a liar or a fraudster, as far as the earlier drawing is concerned, because I didn't really have the conditions for it, in part I don't even have it now, because I don't have a printer or scanner to put this picture and make it right and I apologize to everyone for that . This is how I painted over my mobile phone. Yes, this is my first fanart I have drawn in the traditional way since I was on tumblr, so this does not have to mean that this is final. When I'm perfecting drawing and coloring properly, then I'll be able to tweak this drawing a little too. Otherwise, I rarely have free time, so I don't know if I'll have time to draw the rest as it should. I apologize to everyone for that. Otherwise, this is in some way related to my fanfiction that I write, and about when I will link to this image, as soon as I link it to me. To return to the topic. I already see a lot of times the fanart related to Louie's mentor and how it's mostly Goldie, Scrooge or Gladstone and it's mostly related to Louie Duck from the Ducktales reboot. If so for Louie Duck from the Ducktales reboot, who could be the mentor for Louie from another universe, or Louie Duck (Quack Pack version)? And I think I know who he is. I've long wanted one of Donald's nephews to play Duck Avenger (Paperinik), or their uncle, and that it could have been anyone. There is already one version in the fanart where Huey Duck who plays Paperinik, and there is also one version in the fanart (fictional, it's not really in the comic, it's more fanfiction), where Dewey Duck also plays Paperinik,  but there is no version where Louie Duck is. In fact it does, though these are partly drawings related to Louie Duck from the Ducktales reboot. And that’s why I decided it was (at least in my fanfiction) Louie Duck, but its a Quack Pack version. Why? First, Louie Duck loves to read comic books, and he loves super heroes (he prefers Mantis Boy, if I'm versed in that), and he was also a super hero (Captain Muscle as a T-Squad member) as another. So why couldn't he be a super hero like his uncle, since I don't see a problem with that, besides, he and his brothers love extreme things, so that's exactly what their uncle does. And, he certainly needs a Duck Avenger and an assistant, and maybe a successor to succeed him. And yes, Louie Duck has, in part, similar personalities to his Uncle Donald. By the way, I have to thank to @stormvanari, who made a request a few months ago (for those who don't know, look here:https://ducklooney.tumblr.com/post/186404924289/hi-i-noticed-that-you-said-that-a-request-can-be) and gave me a great idea for my fanfiction story. Thank you very much. I apologize to everyone for that, but I couldn't resist this to finally start drawing. I hope to perfect and that the drawings will get better and better. I hope. Otherwise, you can comment whether you agree with me or not. P.S. Yes, I love the Quack Pack, for those who don't like that cartoon and I don't see what this series is so hating about, since it worked out right and I enjoyed it. By the way, that series is now on Disney+ and I wish it was a Paperinik-related series (Duck Avenger) that could include Donald's nephews, but in the Quack Pack version or some other version.

[nitr0glycer1ne]

Ducktober/Duckvember Day 12 - Fanfic scene

Hi! Temporarily skipping Day 11 because I feel more like writing than drawing atm, and I'm drawing a comic for Day 11 (so far I've drawn 1 page out of 3 woo) I interpreted the prompt literally, as you'll see :) I hope you'll enjoy! It was inspired by one of my favorite moments from "Friendship Hates Magic!" 

------

Darkwing was tied on the torture chamber's table, metallic restrains making sure the slightest movement was impossible. No matter how hard the vigilante tried to break free, the restrains wouldn't budge, the cold metal digging further and further into his feathers.

"Hahaha, Darkwing Duck!" an evil voice boomed in the room. Darkwing tried to see where it was coming from, but the room was plunged in darkness, and he could only faintly make out a silhouette. "End of the line!" The mysterious person made his way towards our hero, who gasped in surprise. He had thought his worst enemy was dead, but had apparently been wrong, for Evil Darkwing Duck was now standing in front of him. "Evil Darkwing Duck!" Darkwing Duck spat, not losing his cool even though he was in such a dire situation. "I should have known it was you. This case had your foul smell all over it!" "Ohoho, then it looks like I outsmarted you, dear brother!" "You're no relative of mine!" "Hahaha, why won't you admit the truth, my dear twin?" Darkwing Duck struggled once more against his bonds, the brave hero fighting against the immovable restraints with all his might. Meanwhile, Evil Darkwing Duck grabbed a chainsaw. It seemed that everything was lost, but then! "Stop right there, villain!" Someone jumped through the window, facing Evil Darkwing Duck. He was wearing a bomber jacket and an aviator helmet, and was also proudly wearing a Darkwing Duck pin on his scarf- it was none other than Darkwing's very own sidekick, Launchpad McQuack!

"Interesting way to introduce this character." Mrs Beakley approved with a nod. "A dynamic entrance usually makes for a memorable first scene."

Launchpad smiled with a childlike glee, delighted to see how much the housekeeper seemed to enjoy his Darkwing Duck fanfiction. He hadn't shown it to anyone else; he did have an account on a popular fanfiction website, but Launchpad mainly used the site to read other people's stories and had only posted a few one-shots there, none involving his self-insert. He knew self-inserts were generally frowned upon, so he kept this particular fic to himself, simply enjoying how happy it made him to work on it. Mrs Beakley didn't seem to be disturbed by said self-insert, though, which was a good thing. He had only given her his private Darkwing Duck fanfiction because he had been swept by the moment, by how joyous he had been to finally be able to find someone in real life who was as much into the masked vigilante as he was, that Launchpad hadn't really thought about it when he had handed her the thick notebook that meant so much to him.

Besides, he had no idea about Bentina's stance on shipping, and didn't want to introduce her to his more romantic stories before knowing if she liked Quackervolt - Launchpad was pretty open-minded when it came to shipping, but he didn't know if that was the housekeeper's case.

"Soooo... you like it?" the large duck grinned when Mrs Beakley delicately turned another page. "If I like it? Oh, Launchpad, I adore it!" Bentina returned his smile, her eyes leaving the notebook to find her new friend's. "You really have a knack for writing. It's too bad the show's over, I'm sure you could have submitted that script to them!" "Oh gee, that means a lot!"

Scrooge's driver blushed, nervously rubbing the back of his head. Darkwing Duck was everything to him; it had been a constant in his life, something that had always managed to lift his spirits when he was feeling down. Which was why if someone as cultivated and stern as Bentina Beakley deemed his work worthy enough to be turned into an actual episode, it made Launchpad's chest puff with pride.

"Is that all there is?" Mrs Beakley asked, sounding disappointed, when she reached the last page covered in the pilot's messy handwriting. "Or is the rest in another notebook?" "Nope, it's all there. I uh, I have lots of other ideas but I just haven't had time lately to put them on paper, what with all the adventurin' Mr McD had us doing. Not that it's a bad thing!" Launchpad was quick to correct himself. "Oh, don't worry, I see what you mean." Bentina nodded in understanding, carefully putting the notebook on the coffee table near the couch. "But if you do get around to writing a sequel, or perhaps several sequels, make sure to lend them to me!"

Mrs Beakley concluded by wrapping her arm around Launchpad's shoulders in an affectionate gesture, one the pilot was eager to return, almost throwing himself at the housekeeper. He loved physical contact, whether it be ruffling Dewey's feathers or holding Webby's hand when she invited him to tea parties in her room, or even hugging Louie that one time he had found him crying in the kitchen after a nightmare. It was just in Launchpad's nature to enjoy feeling the presence of people he liked, to convey how much he appreciated them by the slightest brush of a feather against a feather.

He was especially happy to be hugging Bentina now: unlike him, she was seldom seen giving physical gestures of affection, except to her beloved grand-daughter. Of course, Mrs Beakley had a heart of gold and was fiercely protective of the McDuck Manor's inhabitants; but she had vastly different ways to show her affection. It was embedded in the way she made sure Donald's room was always ready if the sailor was to suddenly want to sleep closer to his nephews, it was etched in the comfortable silence she offered Scrooge when his rants about mundane issues slowly turned into far more personal confidences. It was something delicate, woven into her attitude and acts so smoothly that you barely noticed it, the polar opposite of Launchpad's loud and bright shows of affection.

When Launchpad offered her a tight hug, Mrs Beakley couldn't help but smile; even though Scrooge's driver sometimes annoyed her or made a mess in a room she'd just cleaned, she couldn't stay mad at him for long. Launchpad never did anything maliciously - he was always true to himself, and honest in every sense of the word. The only thing she regretted was to not have taken the time to know him better before today, although she promised herself to spend more time with the pilot from now on.

“You know what, Launchpad?” the older duck asked, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes when her colleague finally let go. “We should film this. Right now.” “Really?!” the pilot exclaimed giddily. “Oh, this is gonna be awesome! Wait right here, let me get my DW costume and my camera!” “You have a costume?” the housekeeper inquired, curious. “Oh, yeah, wait- there it is!” Launchpad proudly exclaimed, taking a hat, a mask and a cape out of his closet. “Haven’t made the suit yet, but that’s already good!” “Did you sew this?” Bentina asked, getting up to see the costume up close. It was definitely handmade, but it was crafted expertly, and the seams were almost invisible. She couldn’t help but be surprised: she had seen the pilot be very clumsy, she had seen him crash planes and cars and even a lawnmower once, so she couldn’t have imagined Launchpad was that good at something that required patience and precision like sewing. “Sure did.” Launchpad beamed, flattered by the way the housekeeper admired his work. “They don’t do adult sizes, so I had to. You wanna try it on?” “Really? May I?” “Of course, I’m sure you’ll be an awesome Darkwing! And I’ll be a great Launchpad! Come on, lady, let’s get dangerous!”

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Dont hesitate to hmu on twitter @sarahnitr0 !

The sub plot with Launchpad and Beakley becoming friends was so good!! They're really good, they contrast each other and can learn a lot from the other. And seeing Mrs Beakley loving LP's script and be so excited to film his self insert fic was amazing so I wanted to do something with that :D Also it was my first time writing Beakley, I love her so I hope I did her justice :v

Side note LP is the kind of guy to leave lengthy reviews on every fic he likes lets all agree here (Also he ships himself with DW obviously >w<)

[popculturebuffet]

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: The Last of the Clan McDuck!  Review “It Was Worth THE Dime”

This is one of my faviorite comic book stories of all time. Given i’m a massive comics nerd, for both books and strips, that is the highest praise I can give this wonderful, epic, beautifully drawn and deeply emotoinal story. I first discovered it in the local library that had the second volume, and found the rest online at a now long dead fan site. And while it took me longer than I care to admit to really dig into Duck Comics, and even now i’ve only scratched the surface, I can say without a doubt this story is the reason I’m so deeply attached to Scrooge as a character, and that I was excited as  I was for Ducktales 2017. This comic showed me just what Scrooge McDuck should be at his core as a character, and showed me what a wonderful character that is. So with all that glowing praise as you can guess i’ve been wanting to cover this for years, and even considered though back when I was more primarily a comic book reviewer last year. Any time i’ve reviewed stuff before now, i’ve considered it, and with Scrooge’s Sisters Hortense and Matilda presumably and definitely debuting on Ducktales soon, and it’s about damn time, the timing could not be better or clearer to dig into this utter triumph.  But before we can take a look at the story itself we naturally have to take a look at the man behind it: Writer and Artist Don Rosa. Don Rosa is easily one of the best Duck Comics writer out there, seen by many as only second to his own faviorite duck comics writer and God of Ducks, Carl Barks. For those 1 of you who do not know, Barks was the man who created pretty much everything in the duck universe comics wise and a bit in animation too: He created Daisy, Scrooge, Gladstone, Magica, The Beagle Boys, The Junior Woodchucks, Gyro, Little Bulb, Glomgold, Rockerduck, and the list goes on. While he didn’t make EVERY duck, he made so many that it’d be impossible to imagine either version of Ducktales being possible without him.  So of course Rosa was a fan and while he took up the family buisness, he was also an artist and duck comics fanboy on the side. So when, even if it meant a paycut, the opportunity to actually write and draw them came up, he lept at it and thus became one of their publishers go to guys, even if said publisher published the stories overseas where the Duck Comics are far more popular and still going to this day, and ironically where most duck comics printed nowadays get their stories from. Rosa was known for his meticous historical research and gorgeous art that he took his time drawing to get just perfect and showed on the page. The man has easily some of hte best and most detailed duck art around and I still haven’t found a duck artist that can match him.. and if you have or found one close i’d genuinely love to see that. He is a genuinely talented, spirited guy who was sadly mistreated by disney and that, coupled with tragically failing eyesight, eventually ended his career. He’s still around and I genuinely hope to meet him some day as he still does conventions.  The man is not without fault: I don’t get his hatred of superhero comics, as while I get them overshadowing funnybooks and that around the time of his career they were in decline, but it’s just as unfair to write off Superhero comics as mindless.  garbage as it is for people to write off the Duck Comics as “only for kids” and I genuinely wish he’d see that and see how the medium has evolved so much since then. I also grumble a bit as his refusal to allow anything besides barks into his bubble, and having to be forced to include fethry on the family tree, but that’s more personal preference. I like using as much material as you got. IT’s why i’ve wanted to, and hopefully will eventually get around to, write a sonic fanfic using bits of all the various universes that for legal, ken penders being an absolute waste of a human being, and sega being stupid reasons can’t be used anymore. I like taking everything in a franchise and putting it in a blender and it’s why I love the reboot. But there’s nothing wrong with taking things as is, not stepping on toes canon wise, but still being awesome. We’re just diffrent people and that’s okay.  And a lot of his fanboy showing actually lead to REALLY good things: Goldie O’Gilt was a one off character, and while used ocasoinally overseas, didn’t really pick up as a character again until a combination of Ducktales 87 and Rosa’s work with her, as he always loved the character, and fleshing her out lead to her being used more, and gaining a sizeable fandom. He also gained the Cablleros an even bigger fandom by giving them two stories of their own, and fleshing them out a bit more.  And this very comic is the peak of that, taking EVERY mention of scrooge’s past from various backstories to set up adventures, every tiny scrap, and to his credit going to both Barks Himself and various other Barks Experts Rosa was friends with to check his work, especially difficult given he likey had to find these stories in issue or pullt hem from disney archives, and complied it into one long epic that not only uses all this info effortlessly, but spins a compelling story that gives us a clear vision of what Scrooge should be, how he became the man he is, and how he lost himself only to find himself again with the help of three precocious boys and a cynical 30 something duck. So taint all bad is what i’m saying.  As for how this got started, thankfully rosa himself provided the origin story for this project in the back of the volume of his works that contained the first 7 chapters of life and times, as well as detailed notes for every chapter. At the time Rosa was working for Egmont, the big european publisher who handles Disney’s much larger european comics market, hence why most of his stories appeared years earlier in Europe before debuting here. The american publisher at the time , and an old friend of his, called Rosa with an idea: A 12 issue Maxi-Series focusing on Scrooge’s history, since at the time they were all the rage.. and really even today mini series are still a viable market and many indie titles just have several minis instead of an ongoing. So it wasn’t a bad idea, Rosa just simply offered a tweak: He’d tell his publisher at Egmont about the idea, and let her get a crack team of writers and artists to do this proper, and thus Disney could publish it for free once it was done and for no extra cost. Rosa gave his publisher a fax detaling both the idea and the fact that it needed to be done right, given to the best person possible, and done with the greatest care. She agreed.. and naturally handed it to him, as he admits he hoped. She made the right call, a legend was born and here we are.  One last bit before the read more and before I get to the first story itself at last: Since barks wrote a lot of side stories that fit into the canon, I COULD slot them in between chapters, but have instead chosen to review the original 12 part story as was, and do the various side stories and two epilogues, the utterly fantastic “Dream of a Life Time”, easiliy one of my faviorite comics ever, and the also really great “Letter From Home”, which will likely on some level be the basis for the upcoming at the time of this review “Battle for Castle McDuck!”, after completing the story. In other words i’m probably going to be at this for years. so join me under the read more won’t you as I begin the journey of a thousand miles with a single step as we look at the humble start of a legend. 

We begin, after a fun short teaser with present Day scrooge saying his past is no one’s buisness only to get hit with an oh yeah?,  with a scrap book title for the issue, something I want to bring up since while I got that’s what it was what I never got, and  must’ve glanced over when I first read rosa’s notes when I got this copy, was that it isn’t SCROOGE’S scrap book, but his sister Matilda’s who dutifully and happily catologued her brother’s adventures. It’s a really sweet moment.. and something that will hit VERY hard when we reach Chapter 11. If you haven’t read this story or heard of it.. .that’s this story’s equilvent of “Last Crash of the Sunchaser” and clearly Frank and Matt drew from that story a bit for it, but we can get more into the parallels when we get there. A smaller but fun note is that Rosa had specific coin drawing templates, for different indentions and what not he used, and used them for the coins in these intro bits. Yes he admitted he has a problem and yes that’s damn impressive anyway. 

It’s Scrooge’s 10th birthday, and his father Fergus has taken him up to see the family land, Dismal Downs to tell him of the mighty Clan McDuck and show him the ancestral lands, graveyards and Castle. He admits to having taken this long because the Clan McDuck currently lives in Glasgow so it’s kind of a long trip just to show your son “Hey look at the decay and rot that’s our ancestral homeland”. The Clan is on hard times, as a bad shipping deal, the backbone of a rather good barks story and I wont’ be interjecting for every barks reference as it’d get rather tiring though for what it’s worth Rosa provided tons of detailed footnotes in the back of each Fantagraphics collection, so good on him. Speaking of which though they do include 10 pages of Mc Duck family history that was supposed to open this story.. until Rosa’s editor wisely pointed out the story isn’t about them but scrooge and having read his roug draft, yeah.. there’s a good gag here and there, as well as “Dirty” Dingus McDuck, scrooge’s Grandpa and the reason Dewey is cursed with that middle name. Why anyone thought Dingus was a good name is beyond me, nor why Donald thought that was a good middle name back in 2009 is again, beyond me. Good on Don though for getting that past the censors.  But yeah with no money they can’t buy the land back and they were scared off it years ago by a mystical ghost dog, the hound of the whiskervilles. There is treasure in the castle, Sir Quackly’s gold, but he accidently sealed himself into a wall while sealing his treasure in there. Their interrupted by the town assholes, the Whiskervilles who have been grazing sheep on the land and are naturally behind the hound, using the sound of it to scare off Fergus once they realize he’s a McDuck. Because apparently you can keep a Scooby Doo style hoax up for Centuries if you don’t have meddling kids around. Who knew.  Back in Glasgow, we meet the rest of Scrooge’s family: His Uncle Jake, his sisters Matilda and Hortense, and his mother Downy. Jake hasn’t really been mentioned at all in Ducktales and I know next to nothing about him, which given I share a name with the guy you’d THINK I would. I mean I know a decent amount about this Jake. 

But nothing about who the hell Jake McDuck is or why he lives with his brother and his family. Here, you guys watch the dancing Jake, i’m going to probably do that for hours after this review is done, i’m going to go sort this out.  Okay one google and finding the Scrooge Mcduck wiki page on him, Jake shows up here likely because he was referenced in the story “A Christmas For Shacktown” and apparently borrowed from Scrooge and never paid it back. Otherwise.. there’s not a lot about him and unlike the rest of Scrooge’s family he really dosen’t do much that I can remember. Except like 2017 Scrooge, he apparently has become extremely long lived, as Scrooge and Donald STILL think he’s alive in the 1950′s.. and likely is STILL alive in some form in the Don Rosa stories, given his take place after Barks and thus in the 40′s and 50′s where Barks stories were set. Hence why unlike the Reboot, Scrooge isn’t inexpecilbly over 210. But Jake McDuck sure as heck is. Maybe this highlander is a highlander.. you know the movie and tv show type. Maybe someone cut off his head. That’s what i’m going with.

This does bring me to another point about this story: While Barks gave all of scrooge’s family their names, it’s where Rosa got them after all, it’s Rosa who really made them into characters. Fergus as a loving father ashamed his family legacy has fallen and wanting his son to do better than him, Downy as an equally loving wife and mother, Matilda as his sweet and caring sister and later her brother’s moral center, and Hortense.. well here she’s just a babbling baby but her character will become clear and glorious as we go. She is adorable here though and we do get some great bits with her.  Getting back to the plot now i’ve made my points, Jake is riled up wanting to understandably kick the Whiskerville’s asses with Scrooge, who even as a sweet innocent ten year old still has the family temper already, agreeing.. but Downy gently shoots them out pointing that two middle aged-ish men and a 10-year old just aren’t enough to fight an army of them and while she doesn’t mention it the fight would just tire them out for work and accomplish nothing as while it is the McDuck’s land the combination of the hound and the lack of money to move back means it’s pointless. She also mentions their younger brother Pothole, who went to America. This will be important later. 

Scrooge storms off and Fergus laments, in a scene that’s more painful the more I think about it, how his clan has fallen, with he and his brother lamenting their chances at glory are long gone.. but Fergus has hope his son can do better, and for his son’s birthday makes him a shoeshine kit in the hopes of inspiring him to greatness. This scene still resonates since many of us are poor, struggling and not doing so good money wise. I’m sure many parents have doubts and regrets about not being able to do more for their kid.

 Not only that but the story carefully avoids the trap of Fergus accidently being abusive by you know, pinning his family’s future on one 10 year old. While yes he is asking a lot of Scrooge, to restore their family name.. it’s very clear he mostly just wants his son to do better than him. Even if Scrooge was just slightly more successful, Fergus would likely be happy with that. He’s not using the legacy as a “This what you must be” like say the Gems in steven universe did for Steven with Rose’s Legacy, the kind where it sort of suffocates you till youc an make it your own. He’s just saying “this is what you can be” He believes his child can be great and simply once him to reach his full potetial and is simply giving him a means to hopefully do so, a simple home made shoe shine kit. While Jake scoffs, the narration notes the idea isn’t worth a dime.. it’s worth THE dime. The dime that would set Scrooge’s destiny in motion. 

The next morning, Fergus goes to check up on his son and his new buisness but Scroogey’s having no luck and about ready to just quit, the poor child. Also Matilda is dragging her baby sister around like a doll and it’s entirely precious as it is funny. 

But as for those Dorty Boots, Matilda wonders why her dad dosen’t just tell Scrooge that Burt the Ditch Digger is coming. Fergus tells her to quite and then explains his plan: he’s sending Burt to scrooge, with an American dime Fergus and Matilda found, to teach his son a lesson: By giving him a hard days work, he’ll teach him what hard work truly means.. and by having Burt “cheat” him with the American dime, it’ll give him the motivation to keep going and to nto be as wide eyed and trusting. It’s a well meaning if harsh lesson, and the kind you’d expect from 1900′s parenting and fits the origin well: Scrooge still earned his first money square, as he still did work.. but his getting cheated being a lesson dosen’t diminish what it taught scrooge, and helps flesh out what I talked about above, Fergus knowing his son has great potential he just needs inspiration to reach it. And instead of just telling him that he does a con job but it’s the 1900′s. This orign, and Fergus’ part in it would be entirely untouched in Ducktales 2017, the first scrooge based adaptation since this comic came out, and I bless them for it. Frank even said this comic was used as a bible by the writers and while theirs clear deviations, and we’ll get to that, they were mainly done for good reason, and it’s very clear that while scrooge’s history is very VERY diffrent in the reboot, the core of his past is still there. 

So the plan is on and young scrooge spends half an hour killing himself to get Burt’s shoes clean before getting his dime.. and realizing he’s been had, makes this proud decleration that will be the bedrock of his entire life and character. 

Scrooge being naturally stubborn as you can see takes his cheats a leson: There will always be hard honest work, and he will be there to do it and he’ll be tougher and sharper than anyone trying to cheat him out of his pay. Fergus’ plan has the intended effect, and Scrooge having learned a hard lesson now has the drive and determination we know him for. As for why it gives it to him.. I had to think on it a bit but it makes sense: For some a setback like this would make them quit.. for Scrooge it’s just proof he CAN find customers, he CAN do this job, or any at his hardest and instead takes this as a lesson to be prepared ot out think and outfight anyone who dares cheat him again, and to not earn his money by being the kind of guy who cheats a kid out of an honest days pay, but as a good honest duck like his father and his father before him. =He will make his money square so he can be the kind of person this seeming stranger SHOULD have been. Granted we’ll see Scrooge doesn’t end up as the best person at times but .. we’ll get there.  So with the fire inside turned from a spark into the flame Scrooge soon got to work, and by the next panel we see he’s eventually worked his stand up from a small box given to him by his dad, to a three seater shoeshining bench, who he wipes all at once by stretching one of his mother’s girldes over a light pole, a detail I didn’t get the first time around but now love. Naturally being a good kind boy much like his Nephews, Scrooge always gave his proud father a portion of his earnings, if with a full receipt for tax purposes. Because he’s still scrooge after all. His dad wonders he did too good a job while Hortense glxbit’s in agreement. 

As the years go on, a now tween Scrooge is eventually able to save up for a horse cart, and starts selling Fire Wood up in the city. He eventually realizes Peat, an earthy subtance found in bogs I only know about because I had to look it up for this review, is more profitable and with some snappy marketing moves into selling Peat for the rich instead, also showing the young lad already has a grasp of how to sell to obnoxious rich people. 

But while his business is booming, our young hero can’t resist visiting his family’s ancestral home and longing for it, hoping one day to have it for himself and in a nice show of how despite his temper and tenacity forged over the last few years he’s still at hear the kind, sweet optimistic lad he was just a few pages ago, he decides to tidy up the Clan’s Cemetary while he’s here. 

Unfortunately as proof that Donald and Della’s terrible luck comes from both sides of the family the Whiskervilles are sub-glomgold levels of human beings.. or Dogfaces in this case, and are digging up the McDuck Clan’s graves to hunt for treasure. Scrooge tries to simply do the smart thing and flee, but the asshole brigade catch sight of him and mistkaing him for a peat burgalar chase after him.. and spend WAY too much time and energy chasing a teenage boy over some fucking bog grass you clearly aren’t selling yourselves. I mean spare a thought for how dumb this is: They could easily sell of of that peat to put up a fence or chop down some trees to get the material if their really that concerned about someone getting in the bog. Then again this isn the 1800 and 1900′s where the child death toll was simply “Yes”, so they likely thought whose gonna notice one more dead child on our property?

Scrooge heads toward the castle and is gestured in by a friendly mystery duck who gladly shows him around and can tell he’s a McDuck just by look, showing the castle is still in glorious condition as the whiskervilles are too spooked to go in, hence why they didn’t chase Scrooge inside. I’d say being afraid of ghosts but not murdering a child is weird but these are the same guys who thought murdering a child was plan A. We’re not dealing with a brain trust is what i’m saying.  So the mystery duck shows Scroogey around, showing off some colorful stories about his ancestors recycled from that scrapped prologue I mentioned. THe mystery man, who brushes off Scrooge thinking he’s a McDuck asks Scrooge what he’s doing to restore the family glory and while Scrooge points out he’s already working on it, Mystery Duck points out he’s still missing something: He has the drive and the dream, but peat and shoeshining, while getting him good money for his family, aren’t the thing you can build a fortune or a future off of. He then points out where Scrooge’s dime comes from: America.. and that gives the boy the idea to head to the states. As for what he could possibly DO there to start, the mystery guy mentions his uncle pothole. So Scrooge has the dream, the drive.. and now a plan: Go to america, work for his uncle on the riverboats, and work his way up from there till he finds his fortune and restores his family name.  But while his future is settled, the present is still an issue and Scrooge wants to teach the child murder club a lesson and thus borrows, though MM wisely points out it’s all his property a horse and some armor, and stuffs the armor with peat. As for what his plan is.. welllll

That.. is fucking awesome. And far from the last fucking awesome moment in this thing. It also shows off even as not quite a teen yet, Scrooge is still a badass already, and while he doesn’t have his trademark strength or fighting skills quite yet, his ingenuity is already there.. and that will always trump both. The Whiskervilles run away and into some quicksand and Scrooge vows to return one day as laird and reclaim his family land. But that’s a story for a few chapters down the line. As for who the mystery duck is, he’s naturally Sir Quackely himself, or rather his ghost, who was simply guiding Scrooge and didn’t give him the treasure as simply handing him the money wouldnn’t restore their family’s good name or continue their bloodline now would it? 

For now Scrooge returns to work for a bit before finding his way to America: A cattleboat to New Orleans looking for a Cabin Boy. And so Scrooge bids farewell to his family. His Dad, feeling bad he can’t even give his boy shilling, gives him the family pocketwatch with jake pitching in with the family gold dentures. While Scrooge naturally refuses to sell the watch, he does plan to sell the teeth as soon as possible for good reason. We then get some sweet goodbyes with him, his sisters (With hortense uttering her first words to everyone’s astonishment) and loving mother as he wonders just what awaits him in America. 

And there he stands on the bow of a ship, heading for a new land, in New Orleans he can be a new man. And we’ll see just what kind of man he becomes as this series continues. For now this is the end of a chapter but the beginning of a lifetime. 

Final Thoughts on Last of the Clan McDuck:

This story is excellent. While there are even better chapters to come, this one is still one of the most memorable and most joyous, showing just how Scrooge became what he is, where some of his values come from, others will be instilled along the way , and beginning to flesh out his family. We see Scrooge’s love of wealth comes from starting from the bottom, growing up with a family that barely had anything and badly needed everything, but was loving and instilled fine morals in him. We also see a Scrooge far removed from the bitter old man he is in present day, an optimistic naïve young lad who only wants best for his family. It’s a nice stark contrast to who he’ll become, good and bad, and a nice way to both compare him to Huey Dewey and Louie and break your heart as his own hardens before briefly turning black later on.  The art, as is standard for this series and Rosa, is breathtaking, and the story isn’t lacking in good jokes, their just downplayed so the story itself can take center stage. There’s nothing really more to say: it’s an excellent start to an even more excellent tale and stands proud among an already stellar story as one of it’s finest outings. 

NEXT RAINBOW: Scrooge goes down to the mighty Missipi to work on the riverboats and meets one of his signature Rogue’s for the first time in their first form, as well as Gyro’s dad.. or grandpa.. or possibly both I don’t know his family tree. Point is, tune in next time for some riverboat hyjinks.  Until then if you’d like to comission an episode of any animated show, especially ducktales and the various other duck related disney shows, or another Duck Comics story you really like from Rosa, Barks or whoever you want really, I take commissions for 5 dollars a review, with 5 dollars off your full order when you put in for more than one episode or issue. You can also follow me on patreon.com/popculturebuffet and for just two bucks a month get access to polls (which i’ll start once we have at least three patreons), and my exclusive discord server. And if you liked this review be sure to reblog it to show off. My self promotion done until next time: There’s always another rainbow. 

[sleaveheralone]

Some explaining to do and an apology

Since the new Ducktales started all most of Donald fans have done is constantly complaing on how Donald should appear more,getting waaaay too mad at the IDW Ducktales comics in the issues that showed Donald,Scrooge and Della's adventures just because Donald ended up getting the short end of the stick...just like it happens in several old Donald Duck comics,cartoons and recent Italian comics(Scrooge and others use him as living bait on a regular basis). Like,stuff like this has always happened to Donald but those fans cannot get over the fact that it happened in those comics. The weirdest part is that,most of those comics aren't even 100% canon or accurate to the show ,so they made a fuss over nothing. In fact the characters barely acted like they do in the show or nothing like that at all;Della didn't even have a personality in there compared to the show. What about how many acted after the funeral scene in "The 87 cents solution"? That scene reminded me of the earlier disney shows or comics where they used really dark humor,you know,those comics you guys always praise? Apparently that scene in the show was too far for you...even though they didn't do it to hurt Donald,unlike other comics or shows: remember when the triplets made Donald belive he died just because they didn't want to wash their hands? Or Daisy being so depressed that she wanted to commit suicide? How is this any worse? Someone even complained to Frank about it. And let's not forget how you guys reacted when Donald got stuck on the moon: my God,you guys wouldn't shut up about it,acting like it's the worst thing in the universe,even complaining to Frank about it. Some of you even thought that Della was gonna replace Donald forever. I mean,seriously: you guys seriously thought that they were going to remove freaking Donald Duck? One of the most popular Disney character,so important that the day of his birthday,they even talked about it on the news channel in my country? Imagine watching a show you like,wanting to enjoy it more in the fandom...only to find 90% of them constantly acting like Donald is Jesus and constantly getting mad that he had to share Scrooge's and the kids affection with Della,to the point that some even accusing Scrooge of prefering Della over him...yet when they see that Scrooge got mad at Della too and didn't approve everything she did they were still mad. Yeah, I was starting to get frustrated more and more. Then these fans started to act like Donald and Della were perfect and whatever flaw they had it was never their own fault but always Scrooge's...yet no one was responsable for Scrooge's flaws...nor his parents,his father in particular,whom he clearly takes a lot after(there was a whole episode about it),nor his anchestor who were cheap and loved hunting for treasure(even Bubba)...no,no,no: he was apparently born like that and he is the cause of everything and people barely talk about the progress he has made(opening up to his family,learning to trust the kids,learning from them,admitting how much his family means to him even in pubblic,admitting when the kids are better than him at something,be willingly to let his family escape in the season 2 finale even if that meant losing them again,etc...) and even when people do talk about it,it's only briefly. You guys claim that it's just pointing out his flaws but when you talk about Donald and Della's flaws you always act like they are victims. You guys seem to assume that Scrooge is a normal person who thinks like everyone else...he is not: the guy lived alone for years,became obsessed with making money as a child with no one teaching him to draw a line,had to basically raise himself...the guy doesn't know how normal people act and in case you haven't noticed he imoroved a lot thanks to Donald and Della and is improving thanks to the kids. Things are harder to learn the older you get. And you cannot compare him to Donald and Della: they are different people! There was a whole episode in the show where the moral was "Everyone does things their way" . The reason why I made so many rant about Donald is because I am fed up with you guys overanylizing even the scenes made for comedy: someone seriously still thinks Scrooge doesn't remember Dewey's name because of that one joke in "The Most Dangerous Game Night"...despite the fact that in later episodes he clearly remembers which triplet is who. I did it to make you feel like you guys made me feel and yes I was wrong. My intent was to show you that if we anylize even the smallest things we ruin the show for ourselves and for everyone else. I will delete them and I'm sorry about it. I shouldn't have made them.

[monkey-li]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: duckverse, DuckTales, Disney Duck Universe, Disney Ducks (Comics), Dimeshipping - Fandom Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Scrooge McDuck/Magica de Spell, Dimeshipping, Scrooge McDuck & Magica De Spell Characters: Scrooge McDuck, Magica de Spell, Donald Duck Additional Tags: Dimeshipping - Freeform Summary:

Who knows what he really desires deep in his heart? Magica finds out...

The mentioned story about the comet is this one:  "Comet Get It!"

The one where the Moonquarz comes from is this (MUST read for Dimeshippers!):  "Zio Paperone, Amelia & il patto della luna"

I translated it into english here:

Also see my Dimeshipping Masterpost in general here ^0^:

And if you say that Magica wouldn’t be soft and/or crying like this infront of Scrooge see this ^0^:

Enough said ^0^

Special thanks to @shewhowantsmouseears and @xmysticalnightxx for endless inspiration and support ♥♥♥

Also to @viviane-lefay cause you are there ♥♥♥

You can also read the story directly here, under the cut!

Magica woke up with a shock and didn't know where she was. That was not her hut on Vesuvius. The bed was far too big and comfortable. The whole room was too luxurious. Slightly panicked, she rose up in bed and looked around in the half dark. The clock on the bedside table indicated five o'clock in the morning. Her heart pounded like wild, where was she? Suddenly something moved beside her. She wasn't alone in bed?

"Magica? Whats wrong, beloved?"

Scrooge McDuck. She was in bed with Scrooge McDuck. He called her Beloved and oh my God, was he naked? Wait, was SHE naked? With a terrified outcry she hid under the blanket. Why, why was she in bed with Scrooge? Obviously in his room, in his Manor?

"Hey..." His voice sounded so infinitely tender as he bent slightly over her. He gently stroked her face with his hands, probably to calm her down, but her mind couldn't handle the situation. "Did you had a nightmare?" He continued to stroke her hair soothingly.

It felt...good, if she was honest, everything about this situation.

 But...  why was she in it?

 "Scrooge?" She asked carefully. Who knew if he was real or not?

"Of course it's me..." How could his voice sound like this when he was talking to HER? So full of... Love?

He leaned over her to turn on the bedside lamp, then he looked into her eyes that it made her dizzy. Had his eyes always been so deep and warm? A shiver ran down her back and her heart kept beating wildly, but now less because of panic and more because of... Him!

She was still so perplexed that she could hardly move, so she didn't fight back when he lay down so carefully that his elbows were supported next to her head, his body now sat very gently on hers. There was nothing sexual in that touch, it was more like a hug. He wanted to protect her.

"It's all good, I am with you..."

His face approached hers, did he want to...?

Awakening from her rigidity she turned her head to the side to avoid him, her face had turned red in the meantime. But she watched him from the corner of her eye. Shortly he looked... hurt? But then that soft glance came back into his eyes.

"It's all right, you know, I only touch you if it's all right with you. Was it a bad nightmare? You're all pale. Do you want to tell me about it?"

Talking, yeah, maybe it helped explain what was going on. He thought she had had a nightmare anyway, so it wouldn't seem strange to him if she sounded confused.

"I... I'm not sure, I have the feeling... well, why am I lying in bed with you? I mean... we, we are... Enemies... right?" His eyes widened briefly surprised, but then something like understanding scurried over his face. He smiled at her so tenderly that she couldn't turn her gaze away from him.

In the light she could now also see his face and upper body properly. He was really naked and.... he looked so good. She had to swallow, she became terribly aware that only a thin blanket lay between him and her, she could feel his warmth. She suddenly had the desire to put her arms around him to draw him closer.

"Did you dream of the old days? I know, it wasn't that long ago. Your subconscious probably plays tricks on you... that's normal, we both were really stubborn until we realized what we really are for each other." He reached under her blanket with his hand and she panicked and stiffened.

On the one hand she was delighted by the thought he would touch her, on the other hand she was afraid of it. Everything was so unreal. But Scrooge just carefully took her hand in his and raised it to his lips to kiss it.

No, what he kissed was...

He turned her hand so she could see her own fingers and there was a beautiful ring she had never seen before. Golden, shaped like a feather, it wrapped around her finger. But the most significant thing was the gem that pranced at the beginning of the feather. A small, polished piece of moon quartz....

The ring was beautiful but... was that...?

Again he kissed the piece of jewellery and then tenderly her hand.

"You see? Everything is fine. It may have been only one month ago, but you are my wife Magica, nothing will change that, unless you decide not to want to be at my side any longer".

Her mind had more and more problems following the whole thing, on the other hand there was a growing desire to just fall into his arms and accept what was happening.

Then he gave her, so to speak, the coup de grace.

 "I love you Magica."

 Slowly, so that she could protest at any time, he put his forehead to hers. "Tell me when you're reassured."

His look.... so intense, piercing, loving. He sighed softly. Not annoyed or exhausted, it was a small sound of contentment.

That it didn't bother him that her heart was beating under him like crazy…

"May I kiss you...?" His question was honest. She felt he would never give in to his desire as long as she didn't make it clear that it was all right. A feeling of comfort and protection flooded her.

Had she really only had a nightmare? Was this the reality?

Was she really in Scrooge McDuck's arms as his lawfully wedded wife?

 She had never felt such a wave of happiness that overcame her before, tears rose into her eyes.

 Immediately his facial expression changed to concern. Again he stroked her hair soothingly. "Sssshhht, don't cry, my love..." Now he sat up in bed and pulled her up with him into his arms.

The blanket slipped so that now their bare upper bodies lay against each other. But his touch was still nothing but tender and protective. If he desired her, he succeeded in suppressing this for the benefit of his care.

His hands stroked tenderly over her back and he swayed her in his arms. Carefully he kissed her temples and forehead. "I'm sorry that you had such a terrible nightmare..." He backed away from her a little, wiped the tears from her face and looked at her seriously.

"Do you want to sleep alone? Please, if you feel oppressed by me right now, you only have to say one word. Even if..." He had to swallow a little to say those words. "Even if you should have doubts about our connection... I love you Magica, I really love you".

His look reflected his honesty, Scrooge McDuck was always honest and stood by his word. "That's why the most important thing for me is that you are happy, even if it means... without me...I just want you to know that you can talk to me about all insecurities!"

The thought that he could leave her alone scared her. "No!" She called out a little too loud. "Please, don't leave me alone, don't let go of me." She pressed herself tightly against his warm body and her arms naturally wrapped around his neck.

Immediately, the situation had something more erotic about it but... In Circes name, never before had she felt as comfortable as she did now.

"When I woke up I was firmly convinced we were still enemies, I didn't even know where I was at first. She whispered into his ear while he continued to sway her tenderly in his arms. "But that's over, it's really over I..."

She laughed briefly because she could not suppress the joy that took possession of her. "I am your wife..." She looked deep into his eyes where she found nothing but affection.

"I love you Scrooge..."

 With that words she nestled herself even closer to him, nudged his beak slightly to make him understand what he should do.

His warm smile widened. Lovingly he caressed her beak before catching her lips in a tender kiss.

Magica got dizzy, she didn't expect it to feel so wonderful. A feeling of affection and satisfaction flooded her heart.

Why did all this seem so new to her? As if it were the first time? Or was it just him, was every kiss from him so uniquely breathtaking that it surprised her every time?

She didn't know, and if she was honest, she didn't care. Only one thing was completely clear to her, she wanted more of it.

Quickly the kiss deepened, became more passionate. She greedily absorbed every touch from him.

With one arm he pulled her even closer to him, while he leaned on the bed with the other to slowly lower them both back onto the mattress. The kiss became more and more intimate.

A lustful moan escaped her as they released briefly to take a breath. Embarrassed, her cheeks turned red, she had never made such noises before. But Scrooge just smiled contentedly and kissed her again.

She became infinitely hot, his tenderness felt so good. She cursed her nightmare, never again did she want to go back to being just his enemy and miss these touches, this feeling of being loved and desired by him.

Magica had always been greedy when she wanted something and just at that moment she wanted nothing in the world as much as this man.

"Scrooge please..." Still a little shy, she looked him in the eye. "I want you to..." Why was it so difficult for her to speak? "... to touch me..."

Everywhere, now!

To her astonishment his eyes widened surprised at her words "Really? Are you sure?" Again he stroked her cheeks so lovingly. "I don't want you to force yourself into anything, you were always so insecure because all closeness was so new to you. Even a kiss was foreign..."

His eyes so infinitely understanding and tender. "Please don’t do it only for me, I can wait. I would wait forever for you."

Maybe it was still a nightmare after all.

They had been married for a month and had never...? Was she still quite clear in her head? No wonder she didn't remember anything… There WAS nothing.

 "Was I really that foolish?" Now it was her turn to caress through his sideburns tenderly.

"I'm sorry, you must think I have no faith in you. Forgive me for letting you suffer so long..." She pulled him back to her to kiss him, making sure her soft breasts press onto his upper body.

"Believe me, I want to feel you. Nothing I want at the moment as much as that!"

Scrooges eyes became dark with lust as he understood that she was serious.

 "I love you, Magica McDuck..."

 He repeated before his hands and lips began to explore her body.

Magica McDuck... only the sound of these words caused her to burst into tears again for sheer happiness.

She closed her eyes delighted as his caresses wandered deeper down her body...

 She opened them again when he grabbed her rudely by the shoulder and shook her. What was that about? He had just been so tender. But as soon as she had focused the person in front of her, she screamed in shock.

Roberta sceptically raised an eyebrow at her friend's reaction: "Hey Magica, what happened? You suddenly groaned so much in the trance that I was afraid something had gone wrong." Checking, she placed a hand on Magica's forehead. "Besides, you're all red and hot in the face. Now tell me, how did it feel to finally get the Midas touch?"

For a moment Magica looked confused at her friend Roberta. Why was she suddenly in her hut, where was Scrooge?

But then everything came back to her mind. They had brewed a potion called "Heart's desire" that showed you the fulfillment of what you carrie as your deepest wish within you. It had been for fun, a foretaste of what would happen if she finally managed to trick Scrooge and take the dime.

Instead, the potion had done its job too well and really showed her what she didn't even dare to admit she wished for...

"No..."

She whispered, ignoring her friend's question. Everything had just been in her head. She looked at her hand.

No ring...

 She was overwhelmed by a terrible feeling of emptiness. As if a piece of her heart had simply been ripped from her chest. She felt infinitely miserable, how could she ever live normally again after experiencing what happiness felt like, just to realize that it was an illusion?

She burst into desperate sobbing.

Roberta was surprised and anxiously tried to comfort her friend. What had happened? Before, she had tried the potion herself. And knowing what it would feel like to reach her goal only motivated her to fight for it.

So why was Magica so upset now? It didn't suit her to give up. "Hey, don't cry now. I know it's frustrating to lose against this McDuck again and again. But now you know how great it will be if you win in the end. Take this feeling as motivation! Magica de Spell does not give up all of sudden! You'll get the dime for sure!"

But Magica only cried louder and buried her face in her hands. "I don't want the stupid dime!" She sobbed heartbreakingly.

"Exactly! You will... WHAT?" Now Roberta was completely perplexed. Magica de Spell did NOT want the first dime of Scrooge McDuck. These words just didn't fit into one sentence. At least not in this universe.

"But... why suddenly no more? What...?" But she was interrupted by Magica's desperate cry.

 "I want HIM. I want Scrooge!"

 Then she cried on. Just saying these words showed her how hopeless this wish was. Compared to that, the chance to get the dime was practically secured.

Suddenly, some kind of understanding scurried across Robertas face. "Oh I understand... the potion worked TOO well, right?" Gently she put one hand on her shoulder. "If I'm completely honest, I've been wondering for a long time when you'll finally realize that. But I didn't want it to cause you such pain. What exactly did you see?"

In her voice sounded honest regret. Magica was one of her very best friends and if she had insisted for the rest of her life that it was just the dime she wanted, she would have been by her side. But now, she had finally become aware of her feelings and suffered terribly from them.

Of course, as hard as she tried, even to her it seemed impossible that McDuck could feel anything for Magica. After all she had done to him.

With wet eyes and tears Magica looked at her friend.

„I was his wife…“

Now Roberta also had tears in her eyes: "Oh God, sweetie... I am so sorry... I didn't think you'd suffer from what the potion shows you..."

But then she pulled herself together again. No, that was not the end. With every other person maybe but not with her friend Magica! "You know... it is not proven that it is impossible before you have tried... you never let it stop you that you have countless times, miserably failed to get the dime. And now you just want to stick your head in the sand without at least trying?"

She pulled Magica from the chair she was sadly sitting on and pulled her in front of the mirror. "Look at that. You are Magia de Spell, the witch who doesn't even know how to give up. You and McDuck are so similar in many ways! Besides, he would have to be blind if he didn't see how beautiful you are! That's a good beginning! There are relationships that started with less. Don't just give up now! Fight! I stand behind you, and if necessary also Mim and Hazel. We support you, you are our friend!“

With sad eyes Magica looked up into the mirror and was shocked. Roberta was right, that wasn't like her giving up before she got the mitten. Sure, the illusion she had been shown might be utopian, at least for now. But who knew if Scrooge didn't have a little bit of affection for her? If she fell in love with the man who had stood between her and her magical mission for years, why would it be impossible the other way around?

They were similar, very much so. Even his nephew Donald had thrown this at their heads once. With new courage she turned to her friend. "You are right! Even though it might hurt, I have a better chance of success if I try it than if I give up immediately. And even if it is really impossible for him to feel something for me..."

Her heart contracted painfully as she thought of his soft eyes from the illusion, of his tender touches...

"... then I'd rather hear it from him myself than imagine the worst! I will go to him!"

 And that immediately!

 In record time she had arrived in Duckburg, now she hovered at some height above the money bin to not activate the witch defence and pondered what she should do. Maybe her decision had been a LITTLE too premature? What was she supposed to tell him? Would he let her have her say? That was a stupid idea, a foolish idea that had no chance of success!

 With this realization she landed in front of the money bin, now she was in known territory...

Still, she couldn't prevent her heart from beating like crazy and her cheeks from turning red. After all, this was no ordinary, hopeless attempt...

Shyly she looked up at the camera she knew was already pointed at her. Together with an overdose of garlic probably.

In the money bin, Scrooge was about to scold his nephew, who once again excelled at giving him a headache because of his inability. When his alarm system announced the arrival of Magica de Spell.  He took a quick look at the monitor to see that she was just standing in front of the entrance.

"At least someone here today who still knows how to stimulate my mind." He growled towards his nephew. " Of course they both knew that he basically loved Donald more than anyone else in his family. Maybe that's why he always got his uncles every bad mood.

Donald wondered a little how pleased his uncle seemed about the appearance of the witch. As if he could hardly wait to measure his strength with her. But as soon as Scrooge had looked at her picture properly in the camera, his face was worried. "Something's wrong with her..." He meant more to himself.

Donald looked over his shoulder, but for him the witch looked like always. "What should be?" Scrooge thoughtfully zoomed the picture closer. "She seems... desperately, the last time she came to me with such a face she had accidentally conjured up a comet that would destroy the world..."

Donald laughed. "Don't you think you're exaggerating a little? One could think that you care what's going on with the witch..." His laughter stopped when he saw the look of his uncle. Oh... he really cared...

But still everything could be a trick. "What do you want here witch?" Scrooge spoke brisk into the microphone.

As if that wasn't clear, but decency had to be.

She flinched as his harsh voice resounded over the loudspeaker. He was in a bad mood, great timing Magica...

Calming, she held her hands in the air. "Stay calm, I am unarmed I..." She faltered for a moment, should she really go through with it? But why delay the inevitable? Better she knew immediately where she stood.

"... I just want to talk to you..."

"Obviously...Not a single bit suspect..." Donald meant contemptuously.

"Shut your mouth nephew!" Scrooge interrupted him rough. "You have no idea! There are unspoken rules between us..." He looked into her face again, was mourning to be seen there? "... she tells the truth... Witch safety systems switch off!" On his word all anti magic shields were shut down.

"Come up, I'm in my office. And Magica.... you know the rules, if that's a trap I'll give you a load of garlic that even your ancestors will feel!"

Magica had to smile despite everything, she loved their disputes. The fact that Scroge found her a worthy opponent, filled her with pride and that he let her in without much fuss, only proved what a good heart actually beat in his chest.

In Circe's name she really got it hard...

Thank you..." She barely whispered audibly. Only Scrooge noticed, worried, his forehead wrinkled, what was wrong with her?

Of course they all had to stare as she walked through the building. Everybody was on alert despite the boss's orders, especially his secretary Mrs. Quackfaster, the faithful soul. But the worst moment was when she entered his office and his nephew Donald stood there.

The garlic loaded shotgun pointed at her was expected, but couldn't Scrooge McDuck be found without part of his family for once? She was looked at expectantly by two pairs of eyes. But how could she speak like that?

Impossible...

Scrooge immediately noticed how Magica recoiled when she saw that he was not alone. She could hide it good, but he just knew her too well. He sighed softly and turned to his nephew. "Donald, I believe you still have some work to do today, go!" His nephew stared at him. "I shall leave you alone with the witch? Have you already been bewitched, or what?"

It was nice that he was so worried, but why did you always have to tell him everything twice? "I have already told you that there is no danger and if there is, I am well prepared to defend myself. Go!... Please..."

Donald looked at him with big eyes that he asked instead of commanding was more than rare. He would never understand the dynamic between his uncle and the witch. Whenever he listened to them he had the feeling that the two would live in their very own world and understand each other without words. Very well, he was right, Scrooge knew how to take care of himself... mostly. With a nod he left the office, not without casting a warning glance at Magica.

She couldn't blame him and actually envied Scrooge for his loving family, how much she wanted to be a part of it...

When they were alone, Scrooge lowered his shotgun and put it aside. He instinctively knew when to trust Magica and when not. He looked at her standing silently and insecurely in his office, knowing how much it took her to be here.

"Just tell me one thing, is the world in danger?" Magica shook her head. No, only her own.

Scrooge seemed relieved and much more relaxed. "Come with me..." He meant briefly and marched towards the vault, he opened it, let her in and closed the door behind them. This unsettled Magica a bit until he spoke again. "Here we are really undisturbed, whatever you have to say will stay in this vault if you want. No one can hear us here."

His smile was almost as loving as in her vision, her heart was beating faster. Where did he get this charming composure? He sat down on the ledge and told her to do the same. Shyly, with a little distance, she sat next to him. "You are crazy to just let me into your vault, you know that, right?" She mentioned not without smiling.

Scrooge laughed, it wasn't gloating or condescending, no, he just sounded cheerful. "Magica, you are pretty much the only person I know who is not interested in my money. Or do you think I would have let you polish coins as penance here otherwise?"

Without looking at her, he put his hand on hers, which she had placed next to her. "I know when I can trust you and you wouldn't be here if you didn't trust me too... so tell me what's going on. No matter what it is. As I said, what happens in this vault stays in this vault" He winked mischievously at her. He simply had no right at his age to look so charming and young when he was like that.

Without wanting it she started to cry.

Immediately his facial expression changed to concern. He didn't expect that. He slipped closer to her and after a short hesitation he put his arm around her. "Has something bad happened? With Ratface, or your family?" She shook her head again. "The witch council?" Again, just shaking her head, although that might become a problem if the council found out what her feelings were like.

Now Scrooge was at his wits end, what else could have happened, that a strong woman like Magica burst into tears in front of her arch-enemy? Whatever it was, it seemed to affect her pretty hard personally. Taking all his courage together, he moved even closer and gently embraced her. His hands stroked tenderly over her back and he swayed her in his arms.

"It's all good, I am with you..."

He whispered into her ear in a soothing manner. Magica had the feeling her heart would explode in her chest so fast it was beating now. This gesture, these words... it was exactly like in her vision. That only made her sob harder.

But she took the opportunity to cuddle into his strong arms. Who knew if he would ever allow that again if she confessed to him what she...

Then she felt him kissing her forehead as light as a feather. These parallels made her desperate. She never wanted to leave this embrace and yet...

She knew she owed it to him, she was not allowed to take advantage of his kindness to satisfy her longing for him, without him knowing what he triggered in her.

That was unfair.

"Please Magica, talk to me, we're alone here, no one will judge you, no one will hurt you..."

She just couldn't stand his tender words anymore, which he only said because he didn't know what was in her heart.

"No one but you!"

She called desperately and pushed him away to hide her face in her hands. Her whole body was shaken by her sobbing. It hurt Scrooge so much to see her like that, he wanted to help her. If only she would understand what she meant to him... if only she would be interested in what was in his heart...

How could she assume that he would hurt her now of all times? She had already inflicted so much suffering on him and his family, had that ever disturbed him? Had he ever seen more than another adventure in it? No, so what had happened so badly that she thought he would despise her now of all times?

"You can't be serious." He began hesitantly. "You came here to talk to me. Because you instinctively know how much we resemble each other, that only I can understand you." He closed the gap between them again and gently laid his hands on her shoulder until she looked him in the eye. Such fear was reflected in them.

"Please..." He whispered once more.

Something in Magica broke. Every second she stretched it, would only make it worse.

 "I love you!"

 She sobbed out. "I love you so much..."

She jumped on her feet. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry that I feel that way." She couldn't stop crying. "I know you hate me. I know I'm ruining everything, but I just can't undo it anymore."

With all the courage she could muster, she looked him in the eye. He just stared at her stunned, of course, he had to think she was completely crazy.

"As soon as I realized what I felt for you, I couldn't think of anything else..." Again she hid her face, she was afraid to look at him again...

"Forgive me... please forgive me..." She repeated it again and again between sobs.

Suddenly she felt her hands being grasped and slowly pulled away from her face. Stubbornly she kept her eyes shut, she wasn't brave enough to see his contempt.

"Please open your eyes, look at me Magica..." Scrooge's voice sounded very soft.

She hesitantly complied with his request and looked directly into his beautiful eyes, which looked at her tenderly. Eyes exactly like in her vision, how cruel it was to be so close to her wish but to know that he only tried to be a gentleman about this. Because he just had to be such a damned, loving fool under his hard shell...

God how much she loved him.

Scrooge took a deep breath. It was visibly difficult for him to choose the next words. He kept holding her hands in his. "Magica, I swear, if this is a trick of yours, I will never speak to you again..." He waited briefly to give her the chance to admit such betrayal, because he knew the prospect of never being able to compete with him again would make her do it. But she only looked at him with big, wet eyes. Fearful and insecure. No, she was really serious about it...

He felt his cheeks turning red and his heart beating faster. Magica de Spell had feelings for him? Could that really be true?

A laugh came out of his chest and his eyes filled with tears as well. All of a sudden he pulled her firmly into his arms and buried his beak in her soft neck feathers. A suppressed moaning could be heard from her, which made him realize how intimate this gesture had been.

He looked at her again with a bright red head. "I'm sorry... I didn't wanted..." He lost himself completely in her beautiful, deep black eyes and suddenly all nervousness had disappeared.

"I love you Magica..." He finally said very gently. "I have been undyingly in love with you for many years."

She shook her head wildly "I know that, you don't have to apologize for the fact that you... excuse me, WHAT?“

Finally she looked up and into his eyes which were still loving, although a little amused, directed at her.

"You don't!" She meant with utter conviction. That was out of the question, but his tender smile remained stubborn in his face. "Are you making fun of me?" She asked unusually meekly with an injured voice, but looked him firmly in the eyes to see the lie in them.

She found none.

She couldn't help but have tears in her eyes again.

Soothingly he closed his arms around her and kissed her forehead. "I would never have dreamed myself that these feelings had a chance. I had already come to terms with the fact that I would always be your enemy... How... I mean, what made you realize it wasn't like that?"

Very slowly Magica understood that what was happening here was the reality, that she wouldn't wake up every moment. Carefully she put her arms around his neck and enjoyed looking into his eyes. When she was so close to him, she felt that his heart was beating as fast as hers.

Embarrassed, she began to tell him about the potion... but she couldn't get any further than to the point with the ring when he suddenly interrupted her. He grabbed her by the upper arms and pushed her so far away from himself that he could see her properly.

"What are you saying?"

It gave her a sting that he reacted so panically that she had dreamed of being his wife. Even though she understood that it was pretty much, all at once. But when she looked at him she noticed that there was nothing pejorative in his face but only bare astonishment. With his eyes wide open in amazement he looked at her for a while, pondering. Finally, he let go of her completely.

Immediately she became cold. She didn't want him to turn away from her now, wanted to lie further in his arms. Uncertainly she wrapped her own arms around herself and watched him pull something out of the inside pocket of his jacket. With a faltering voice he held the object out to her.

"Do you mean… this one?"

She was wrong. That HAD to be a dream. Because Scrooge held exactly the same ring in his hands that she had worn in her illusion. But... that was impossible. She reached out a trembling hand for the piece of jewellery, but did not dare to touch it for fear everything would vanish into thin air. "Yes, that... thats it... but how can you..."

She looked Scrooge in the eye, so many questions in her face but none wanted to get over her lips.

"Because I had it made... for me I have exactly the same, I always carry them in my pocket, close to my heart ..." Now he definitely seemed more embarrassed than she. "I knew of course, or at least I thought so, that my feelings for you would never be reciprocated, but still...

After our adventure on the Moonquarz Island, I had pieces of the quartz worked into the rings. I own the rings themselfs even longer... I thought you would like them, shaped like a raven's feather... just in case the possibility would arise to..."

It was visibly unpleasant for him to talk so openly about it. He had felt so silly to have let rings made for a woman who abhorred him, to whom he could never confess what he felt.

But here he stood now…

"Magic is really not to be underestimated if it even knew about these rings and showed them to you in your illusion..."

Shyly he looked into her eyes, shining with wonder. "Would you like to wear it?"

Then he noticed how that sound. "That doesn't mean that it must have the same meaning from your vision!" He quickly made clear. "Not immediately that is..."

He added a little bit hopeful. "Only, as a sign of the bond between us..."

 With this promising smile even Glomgold would have accepted the ring and Magica was already floating on cloud nine anyway. This time her new tears only reflected the extent of her joy. Laughing, she fell around his neck and he lifted her into his arms and rotated with her in a circle of joy, as if she didn't weigh the slightest bit.

He was ridiculously strong. But it was clear to both that only such strong arms as his could tame a fire like the one that burned in Magica.

Now they stood opposite each other, forehead to forehead and looked at each other happily for a while. Scrooge's heartbeat drummed uncontrollably in his chest. He still couldn't believe that his feelings were returned and she was so intoxicatingly beautiful that it made him dizzy at her sight.

Carefully he leaned forward and gently caressed her beak, looking into her eyes to see if she resisted. But Magica returned the tender touch and slowly her eyelids closed.

With a contented sigh he caught her lips in a tender kiss...

 Frightened Magica opened her eyes again and withdrew from him.

Not enough to release the embrace but to interrupt the contact of their lips. Immediately Scrooge had an apologetic look in his eyes. "That was too fast, I'm sorry Magica I thought you were okay with me kissing you..."

Honestly worried, he looked at her. But she shook her head quickly, her cheeks were so hot that it almost hurt. Soothingly she snuggled herself closer to him again and put her head to his chest. It calmed her to feel his heart beating as fast as hers.

"No, thats not it Scrooge. It was just... I thought it would feel like in my illusion..." Embarrassed, she buried her head in his jacket before she could look at him again. Astonished, she saw that Scrooge looked distressed.

"Oh… I see... I... I'm sorry if it wasn't that good..." He looked so damn cute when he was so embarrassed. "I fear... I have no special experience in that field..."

Wait, what did he say? Quickly she caressed reassuringly through the soft feathers of his sideburns and lovingly rubbed her beak against his. "No, Scroogie, I didn't mean that, but..."

This time, she kissed him. Longer and deeper than before.

"...but that it felt so much more beautiful, so much more intense, that it chased a shiver through my whole body...“ She looked down.

„That scared me a bit because, you know, I don't have ANY experience in it yet... it is new for me to be touched so tenderly. Please forgive me if I behave silly, I have to get used to the fact that the person I love, loves me back and wants to touch me..."

It was so embarrassing for her to have to admit that in front of him. There she lived for infinitely many years and was uptight like an old door...

In the meantime Scrooge's sorrow had completely disappeared from his face and in its place lay a tender love.

"Then together we will learn to understand, beloved... and I will never touch you if you don't want it. I promise you that!" Gently his arms closed around her, while Magica sank into them with a contented sigh. He had called her, Beloved. She could die happily.

 At some point they had to leave the undisturbed silence of his vault. Hand in hand they walked out of his office, the rings proudly on their fingers. For people who knew him well, like Mrs. Quackfaster, one look from him was enough and she understood. Smiling, she looked after the couple, her heart filled with joy to finally see her boss happy. She had been one of the few who had known about the rings. The rest of the staff would have to wait for an explanation.

Later, as they stood in front of his front door, still hand in hand, Magica shyly spoke.

"How will you explain this to your family?" She asked, not without fear in her voice. But Scrooge only smiled at her tenderly.

"I don't have to explain anything, it's my family. They will understand..."

He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the ring on her finger.

 "And you, are now a part of it!"