The Disney Nieces

Everybody knows that Donald Duck has three nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They've appeared in animated shorts, comic books, and they've even had two television series. And most Disney fans are familiar with Mickey Mouse's nephews Mortie and Ferdy, having also appeared in comic books as well as one brief screen appearance plus dozens of children's books. But a group of relatively unknown and low-key group of characters in the Disney universe are The Disney Nieces.

Yes, Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck also have young relatives whose exploits are not as well known as their male counterparts. Daisy Duck is actually "Aunt Daisy" to three feisty little gals named April, May and June. According to the official Duck Family Tree, the girls are daughters of Daisy's brother Fred. They first appeared in a 1953 story "Flip Decision" featured in issue 149 of Walt Disney Comics and Stories. As with many of the early Disney characters there seems to be no organized or pre-planned history and background of the characters. An entry from the website HooZoo seems to have best captured the girls history...

April, May and June first appeared as three unnamed nieces of Daisy Duck (WDC&S #149 in the "Donald Duck" Flippism story, Feb. 1953). April was the first to be named ("Dell Giant" #35 in "The Course in Confusion,"1960), and the others were probably assigned names in the "Dell Giant: Uncle Donald and His Nephews, Family Fun" #38 (1960) where they are clearly listed on the Duck Family Tree, as well as being in attendance at Grandma Duck's ranch house. While we do not know who their parents are, it can be assumed that they are probably the daughters of a sister of Daisy Duck's, as was shown in their first appearance. Even at family gatherings their parents are not present, and Daisy usually brings them with her. Unlike the Nephews, they do not live with their Aunt Daisy, though they do visit her quite frequently. The Nephews, their cousins, have a 'love-hate' relationship with the Nieces. Sometimes the boys are fawning over them (i.e., "Dell Giant" #35 in "The Course in Confusion,"1960 or Dell 4C "Daisy Duck's Diary" #1055 in "The Double Date," 1959), while other times the girls are fawning over the boys (i.e., Dell Giant" #38 in "Clubhouse Crashers," 1960); but most times they seem to dislike each other (i.e., "Dell Giant: Donald Duck, Merry Christmas" #53 in "Tough Sledding," 1961). The girls are members of the Junior Chickadee Patrol under the brawny mistress Captain Ramrod, and are often in competition with the boys in the Junior Woodchucks. Most of their adventures concern Daisy or the Nephews, but the have had their own adventures as well (i.e., "Dell Giant: Merry Christmas" #39 in "April, May and June: The Bewitched Dolls," 1960).

The folks at Disney also recognize Millie and Melody as two nieces of Minnie Mouse. They made their first appearance in the Gold Key Comic "Mickey Mouse Album" issue 1 from 1963. The name of the story was "The Late Show." It is also considered that Millie and Melody made their only screen appearance in 1983's "Mickey's Christmas Carol" as the daughters of Bob Cratchit.

There isn't a whole lot of information about Minnie or Daisy's nieces available as they are only bit-players in the grand scheme of the Disney Universe. Perhaps if you've got some old comic books you can do a little hunting and find some tales of April, May, June, Millie and Melody.

Free Comic Book Day

I thought I'd piggyback off yesterday's excellent Gyro Grearloose post over at 2719 Hyperion and offer up some fun news concerning the Duckburg inventor. Walt Disney's Gyro Gearloose will be one of the featured titles on this year's Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, May 3. If you can't figure it out from the name, Free Comic Book Day is a day where you can go to your local comic book store and pick up free specially produced issues of tons of different comic books. It's a great way for new people to discover the world of comics and for seasoned comic readers to try out some new titles. This years offering includes this Gyro book with stories by Carl Barks and Don Rosa. The official word on the book:

Scrooge and Launchpad join their gadget-man pal for a book full of inventive adventure! Gyro creates a super cheese in Carl Barks’ and Don Rosa’s “Pied Piper of Duckburg”; a money rescue system in “Cave of the Winds”; and several awesome — but not quite uncrashable — planes in William Van Horn’s “All Quacked Up!”

This exciting Disney freebie is known as a Silver Book, meaning that every store participating in Free Comic Book Day is not going to have it. Last year they announced a Mickey Mouse book as part of the offerings. When I showed up at my local comic shop they had not only the Mickey but also a Donald Duck book and an Uncle Scrooge title. So, it's worth the trip out just to see what they might have.

Other free comic books to be available on May 3 include The Simpsons, Transformers, Jughead, Gumby, and Superman among many others plus mini-figures from the world of Star Wars and Iron Man. Happy Comic Hunting!

Geppi's Entertainment Museum

Geppi's Entertainment Museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a jaw-dropping treasure trove of all things pop culture. From comic books, toys, and movie memorabilia, there is something in this museum that will make everybody say, "Hey, I had that!" Since no one has had a hold of popular culture so long as Walt Disney, stepping into Geppi's is the next best thing to a tour of the Disney Archives. There's plenty of Disney history and other goodies on display on every wall of this museum.

The museum's tour of all things fun over the last 100+ years begins with the largest comic book collection you've ever seen. The books featuring the first appearances of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Spiderman are all on display as well as the first Disney comic books ever produced and scores of obscure titles and movie-tie ins. The exhibits then move in a chronological order from the very first comic strip characters to be licenced and merchandised all the way up to Spongbob Squarepants. Along the way, you won't believe the amount of Disney stuff you'll find. This place is awesome! Here's a few of the sights you see:

One of the earlier pieces of Mickey Mouse merchandising, a tin Mickey circus tent and circus train. I never had one of these but just seeing it made me nostalgic for the old days. (Which is strange because I also didn't live through the 30's.)

Original one sheet for Halloween Hilarities, a 1953 theatrical compilation of Disney animated shorts - released by RKO shortly before they ended their association with Disney.

You'd have a hard time finding Professor Von Drake merchandise from today, yet alone from the original days of Wonderful World of Color.

Here he is! The infamous Little Orange Bird, the subject of many a blog post.

This exhibit piece displays nine panels of a comic book in crystal clear large images. The screens change every couple of minutes, and display the complete story of a few books. One of the stories is the classic Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. You can really appreciate all the detail and color when the frames are blown up in this fashion.

Geppi's Entertainment Museum is a real treat for Disney fans and anyone who likes cartoons, toys and all that good stuff. You could spend several hours soaking in all the museum has to offer. It's definitely worth a drive if you are in the surrounding area. They currently have a Uncle Scrooge exhibit in their temporary gallery space which I hope to get down to soon and report back on.

Comic Book Odds & Ends #1

Inside some of the older Disney comic books you can find some pretty off-beat stuff tucked in the pages between the main stories. Here's a one page quicky based on a True Life Adventure. This was taken from an early 70's reprint digest.

The Black Hole Comic Book Ad

The Black Hole has always humored me as a Disney film. After passing on the opportunity to distribute Star Wars, Mickey was sure he had a Star Wars-sized hit with The Black Hole. It was pretty much the first movie from Walt Disney Productions that really strayed away from "the Disney formula" quite a bit and just didn't feel like a Disney picture. Even though it's quite different from the studio's earlier products, it was still marketed just like every other highly-anticipated Disney flick. So even though there were Disney firsts like mild profanity and on-screen death, you could still buy your share of Black Hole action figures, Black Hole lunch boxes and (in my case) Black Hole pajamas. Here we have an in-house ad from Whitman Comics for their adaptation of the 1979 science-fiction flick. There was also a Sunday comics adaptation that appeared in newspapers to hype the film. The comic strip version has recently been reprinted in Disney's Comic Zone Digest.