I was inspired by Achille Talon’s comment last week, talking about Donald and Daisy’s relationship. As we are all aware, depictions thereof are very frequently marred by tired old gender politics, but, as Achille says, “I like to think there’s a real camaraderie and intimacy to the pair (indeed, perhaps one that they would realise is more platonic than romantic if not for for the force of mid-20th-century social conformism).” Is this making things up out of whole cloth? Maybe, but I want to believe it too.
So can we find some other stories that we might think are okay in this regard? I wondered. And I thought back to a little story called “The Vat Man” that I covered a few years back. It’s a late seventies Bob Gregory story, so your expectations might not exactly have been sky-high, but it was kind of charming in its own way, and not depressingly regressive. So I decided to return to that well, and here we have a few more Daisy and Donald Gregory stories that I find to be Not Too Bad. I mean, obviously you can’t expect TOO much from Gregory material of this era, but…well, let’s check ’em out!
Look, I’m not going to comment much if at all on the art here, because it is what it is. I can’t help but note how weird-looking that woman on the sign is, though. So I guess that first sentence was a lie. Sorry!
But anyway, there’s this, which sorta-kinda makes it look like one of those Barks stories with Donald and Gladstone competing for Daisy’s favor, but in reality it’s…kind of not. In fact, this whole “contest” thing is a bit of a red herring, having very little to do with the actual thrust of the story.
The rather confusing idea, however, is that Gladstone’s going to use luck to make Donald do sports (???), and in return, he gets to have lunch. I mean, fair enough; his efforts to win Daisy’s affections never feel very deeply-felt anyway. It goes without saying that the aforementioned Barks stories are more psychologically acute than this, but it’s kind of entertaining to see the pretext stripped away.
Wow, Donald’s already big into tennis! What a surprise, but great news for the picnic! It’s a good thing there isn’t going to be any kind of twist here!
Frickin’ eh! Donald’s got himself a Magnavox Odyssey! I have to admit, though I AM writing about these so we can see some semi-interesting stuff about Donald’s and Daisy’s relationship, the final impetus was THIS. I’m a bit of a videogame history nerd. Sure, there are later stories that feature games, but somehow those always feel inauthentic to me–I get the impression that the writers don’t actually know about the subject; they’re just trying to give The Kids what they’re putatively into. Whereas here, I dunno–it’s interesting to see a comic depicting the earliest days of the form in what seems like an authentic way. I like it! A lot! If I wanted to be a massive nitpicking asshole, I’d point out that this story was published in 1978, and he should PROBABLY have an Atari 2600. But that way lies madness. Also, Activision’s 2600 Tennis game, though quite fun, wasn’t released until 1981. So. Anyway.
Okay, so the exact nature of the misunderstanding may be a bit novel, but it’s really just the usual thing, isn’t it? Well…yes and no, as we’ll see. I have to say, I do enjoy the misunderstading here. WHY does Daisy think he has a portable TV, I wonder?
I also kind of like Gladstone in this story. He’s not any kind of antagonist; he’s just sort of hanging around.
Re Gladstone, though, if we’re going by Barks, there’s clear evidence that, in fact, he considers concentrating to be too much work (which certainly says interesting things about his mental state). So, there’s that. Do we think Daisy’s concentration caused the battery to die? Unclear.
See, this is the kind of thing where you’d think, oh, great, this is going to end with Daisy hurling stuff at Donald in a jealous rage. But is she? Well, given what I’ve said earlier, you can probably guess the answer. But please just play along, okay?
Here’s Clarabelle, abruptly popping up out of nowhere! Which seems a bit weird, but she actually appears in a lot of Gregory’s stories of this era. “He’s shagging balls for Dolly Darling” sounds unspeakably filthy, and we will say no more of that. Hey, anyone’s going to be a bit annoyed seeing their significant other flirting with a celebrity, but here her reaction seems more normal than you’d often get.
And seriously, don’t you fuckin’ LOVE that it ends with them happily playing Pong together as Gladstone eats an entire cake? Everyone’s a winner (making our fame). I apologize if I just put an earworm in your head.
Anyway! Onward to “Fun Times!”
On the one hand, talking about “shipping” Donald and Daisy seems inherently silly, inasmuch as they’re generally assumed to already BE in some kind of relationship, even if its specific contours vary. On the other…I think you know what I mean when I talk about it, and this is a good example of fuel for that kind of thing.
Usually, when there’s a story where Donald’s looking for a job, either he’s overconfidently jumping into something he’s obviously going to screw up, or else someone’s pushing him into something because they’re ashamed of him in some way. But here, things are much more chill, as you can see. We’re all having a pleasant morning perusing the paper. They’ve probably done the crossword together. Fun times indeed!
Ooh! A bookmobile! That takes me back. Not that they aren’t still around, but I do remember one could periodically show up at the preschool/kindergarten I went to and we’d check them out. I don’t specifically remember checking anything out, but maybe that’s because we also had a normal-ass library that I’d be taken to often. And, of course, they are predate this story; still, I wonder if they were having a particular resurgence in popularity that caused them to pop up here.
And again, look how good-natured everyone is! Daisy coming along just for kicks. And you might expect, in a story like this, that their country fun vs city fun stuff might lead to some sort of violent disagreement, BUT…
Nope! Just an amicable argument, if you even want to call it that. It’s obvious that neither of them is super-committed to one side or another, so it’s all in good fun.
Now, granted, the bulk of this is just Daisy suggesting that a country thing is better and Donald countering it, in a way that may get a but repetitive and not be overly fascinating. But I’m not gonna lie to you foax; I’m still enjoying it a lot.
See this kind of silliness. What does “we have bridle paths” mean, anyway? I mean, I know what they are, in theory, but even if there are certain specific urban places where you can ride a horse, I don’t think that means you can to work. Such is my feeling. Also, man, you can nap out here, too; the horseshoe thing just means you have more options. So okay, this is all a bit silly. But that was a given, and if you can get past that or learn to revel in it, you’ll have fun.
Here’s this guy. I dunno; maybe it’s just from Deliverance that I expect backwoods types like this to be sinister, but her definitely is not! Just a friendly guy having fun.
…and borrowing a copy of Jane Eyre (I assume)! And plying Donald with buttermilk! Huzzah! Is Donald sort of weirdly brandishing an empty cup in the direction of his mouth? Well, sure, but that’s Gregory for you. What do you want? I’m not trying to pretend this is more amazing than it actually is.
And it ends in a not-overly-interesting way, as you’d probably expect, but, you know, it never gets mean or anything. We must take our small victories where we find them.
I dunno. Obviously I don’t want to oversell these stories, but I did like them! More than I’d expect! I have this fantasy where all the NBW writers would somehow combine their strong points and minimize their weak ones and create something truly dope. I realize that’s an insane nonsense thing to say, but…there you have it. Really, I can’t believe I’m being so positive about flippin’ Whitman stories. Have I been doing this so long that it’s started to melt my brain? It’s a possibilty, for sure. I’m pretty sure that when I started this blog (seventeen flippin’ years ago!), I’d’ve had nothing but contempt for stories like these. But now, hopefully I can appreciate them for what they are, in their own modest way.
