Casey Coot:
>>>>>One thing that I'm really curious about is the coloring. ...There is one coloring that I'm really not sure about, and that's bugging me all the time, and that is the one of the male Ducks' hair. You have said, several times, that all male Ducks should have white hair just like Donald and $crooge,
I should amend that to "all male Ducks whom *I* created should have white hair by default". I have always bowed to the ideas and visions of the writers or artists (or colorists) who came before me... well, the American ones, which are the only ones I can know about. I even also bow to the fan writers who came before, like Mark Worden who created a Barks Duck Family Tree about 15 years before I did.
If Ducks are sometimes shown with colored hair, then that makes Donald look bald, which I don't think he should. He just has short hair. This does not conflict with my affirmation that these are human caricatures rather than talking ducks, even though I would agree that it seems like I should want ALL their hair colored if I see them as humans. Well, we can't all explain our gut feelings.
But one thing I can say is that when the first chapter of my "Life of $crooge" appeared in America, the colorist (with no input from me, as usual) gave little $crooge a head full of fluffy brown hair. This staggered me! It looked totally wrong! Really, really wrong. (Besides, his whiskers were still left white, and that didn't make sense.) I explained that to the publisher, but it was too late to change it for the following chapters. But the colorist had a brilliant idea, at least to fix that series of printings -- in chapter 4 when $crooge sticks his finger in a lightbulb socket in 1882 (er... you had to be there), the shock bleached his hair white. Ha!
>>>>>but still, in the debated "Jamie Hawkins" family tree,
Sorry -- "debated" how? The colors? Or...?
And please don't call it the "Jamie Hawkins" Family Tree. I have written perhaps over a hundred fans' names on copies of that Tree... it's only that one guy named Jamie Hawkins put his copy onto the Internet somewhere. But you knew that was the case, right?
>>>>>they all have very different colors. Once and for all, which are the real colors for the male Ducks' hair? Are they all white, and in that case, are there any exceptions whatsoever when it comes to the Ducks in the family tree, according to you?
That Family Tree that I have copies of at American comics shows, the one that correctly includes Ludwig Von Drake, is one that I drew for a friend some years ago. He wanted it to be colorful, so I colored most Duck's hair -- I did not foresee that anyone but HIM would ever see that Tree -- it was years later that I started making copies from my file copy to take to American comics show. Otherwise I would not have colored any male Duck other than (as I say above) those which had already appeared with colored hair in past comics.
Any published versions of the one I created for Egmont 20+ years ago has been colored by someone else without any input from me.
>>>>>What about Cornelius and Casey Coot? They always seem to be blonde.
Grandpa Duck is often brown-haired (though I don't like it).
I agree about Grandpa Duck's hair. And I'd prefer to see Cornelius and Casey Coot's hair white also. But it doesn't matter much -- it's doubtful that these characters will ever appear in comic stories again.
As for other Ducks... let's see. I think I like Gladstone's hair with some color -- he is a fop and he probably dyes it. Who are other main Ducks you're wondering about?
The lady Ducks should have colored hair for no other reason than just so they look pretty... after all, how could Glittering Goldie ever NOT have golden hair?!?
>>>>>One matter that we've been discussing over at Swedish
www.kalleanka.se is the color of Eider Duck's hair. Is it white or brown?
Why Eider in particular?
Well, eider down is usually thought of as white, from the white breast of an eider duck, so I think that I would think "white" just from hearing the name "Eider Duck". But as I say they are not really talking ducks, so that shouldn't matter. (And besides, eiderdown is usually grayish, being a mixture that includes some eider ducks' black feathers.)
>>>>>And lastly, HDL's father. We don't know his name, but is his face the one in the family tree according to you? In that case, is he supposed to have brown or white hair?
I copied that face off the old Mark Worden Tree, but that Tree was in b&w. So I guess you'd need to ask Mark what he thinks. (Don't ask me where he is.)