List of Donald Duck universe characters
The following Disney cartoon and comics characters in the Donald Duck universe typically appear with Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck, but are not related to them. For relatives of Donald and Scrooge, see Duck family or Clan McDuck. For characters exclusive to the DuckTales franchise, see List of DuckTales characters.
Main characters
- Donald Duck
- Daisy Duck
- Huey, Dewey, and Louie
- Scrooge McDuck
- Ludwig Von Drake
Relatives
- Duck family
- Clan McDuck
Duck characters
Donna Duck
Donna Duck is the first love interest of Donald Duck. She was later replaced by Daisy Duck. According to some sources, Daisy was introduced in 1937 as Donna Duck, yet there is conflicting evidence as to whether Donna was an early version of Daisy or a separate character entirely. However, the fact that The Walt Disney Company released a collector's pin in 1999 which states, "Daisy Duck debuts as Donna Duck 1937," solidifies the fact that Daisy Duck and Donna Duck were, in fact, one and the same.Donna made her sole animated appearance in the short film Don Donald, directed by Ben Sharpsteen. It was the first installment of the Donald Duck film series and was also the first time Donald was shown with a love interest. In the story, Donald travels to Mexico to court a duck who is largely a female version of himself. She is portrayed with the same feisty temperament and impatience and was even voiced by Donald's voice actor Clarence Nash. At the end of the story she spitefully abandons Donald in the desert after his car breaks down.
Some sources consider Don Donald, Daisy's debut. These include The Encyclopedia of Animated Disney Shorts, and the Big Cartoon DataBase. In addition to this, Don Donald is included on the Disney-produced DVD "Best Pals: Donald and Daisy." Donna's identification as an early Daisy is aided by the fact that other Disney characters, such as Goofy, were also introduced under different names, appearances, and mannerisms. "Donna" in Italian is also the equivalent of "Don," a title Donald takes in the film's title.
However, in 1951 the character of Donna was retconned in a newspaper comic strip where she appeared as a separate character from Daisy, and as an unwitting rival for Donald's affections.
Gladstone Gander
Gladstone Gander is Donald's lucky cousin who is always flirting with Daisy Duck. Gladstone first appeared in "Wintertime Wager" in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #88, written and drawn by Carl Barks.April, May, and June
April, May, and June are the triplet nieces of Daisy Duck. They were created by Carl Barks and were first used in the story "Flip Decision", published in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #149. According to their debut story, they live in Duckburg with their parents, though they do not appear in the comic. Their mother is a sister of Daisy. When they appear at family gatherings their parents are never present and they usually accompany Daisy.In some stories, mostly Dutch, they live along with their aunt, but in other comics, such as the comics by Barks, they are only visiting Daisy. The triplets act as Donald's nephews' female counterparts, occasional rivals, occasional friends, and occasional dates. They are members of the organization The Junior Chickadees, who serve as The Junior Woodchucks' female counterparts. Unusually for children of their age, the girls routinely wear high-heeled shoes.
Like the nephews, April, May & June usually wear the colors red, blue and green, but unlike them, a color assignment has never been established. The girls also frequently wear yellow, purple and orange. However, one might consider "blue" to be April's color since that was the color she wore when she appeared solo in "Dell Giant" #35. It is also unknown which nephew is paired with which niece when they double date with their Uncle Donald and Aunt Daisy.
In 1998, the editors of the Dutch Donald Duck weekly magazine decided the three girls should be modernized, and they got permission from the Disney Company to do so. Dutch Duck comic artist Mau Heymans designed a new hairdo and new wardrobe for April, May and June. The three now have distinct appearances and do not have the "girly" occupations that they had when Barks created them. In some Danish Egmont-produced stories, the new hairdo has been copied by other artists.
April, May, and June were not seen in animation until they were given a special cameo appearance in the House of Mouse episode "Ladies' Night". They would later appear as regular cast members in the 2018 animated series Legend of the Three Caballeros.
The 1987 television series DuckTales, the character Webby Vanderquack resembles April, May, and June in appearance. This would be referenced in the series finale of the 2017 DuckTales series "The Last Adventure!", in which the real name of its version of Webby is revealed to be April, while the series versions of May and June are clones of Webby, who is in turn a clone of Scrooge McDuck.
April, May, and June returned to American comics in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #698. The story had them retelling "Little Red Riding Hood" with the girls as Red and the Beagle Boys as the wolf.
Flintheart Glomgold
Flintheart Glomgold is Scrooge's archenemy and the second richest duck in the world. The character was created by Carl Barks in the 1956 story "The Second-Richest Duck".Fethry Duck
Fethry Duck is the son of Lulubelle Loon and Eider Duck and is the beatnik cousin of Donald Duck. He was created for the Disney Studio Program by Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard and was first used in the story "The Health Nut", published on August 2, 1964.Fethry has a rather unorthodox way of viewing and reacting to the world around him, as does his backwoods brother, Abner Duck. In 1982, the Brazilian Disney market created a young nephew for Fethry named Dugan Duck who tends to be quite a handful. Like Goofy and Donald, since the early 1970s Fethry has occasionally donned superhero garb and called himself the Red Bat. Occasionally Gloria, Fethry's girlfriend, would team-up with the Red Bat as another costumed crime-fighter called the Purple Butterfly. Even Fethry's nephew, Dugan, has donned a costume and called himself Red Bat Junior. Fethry often appears in Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck tales. In his earliest adventures he supposedly lived in another state, and with Donald's pet cat, Tabby.
Goldie O'Gilt
Goldie O'Gilt, a.k.a. Glittering Goldie, is Scrooge's secret sweetheart. Originally created by Carl Barks as a character in the story Back to the Klondike, Goldie's origins are as a music hall singer in Dawson City. In a flashback sequence, Scrooge catches Goldie in an attempt to rob him of his recent gold poke, and she is forced to repay the debt by helping him work at his claim at White Agony Creek. Some 50 years later, they meet again and it is revealed that Goldie is now poor and living alone at Scrooge's former claim in Yukon.Barks only used the character once, but Goldie and her relationship with Scrooge was later picked up and expanded by other creators. One of these was Don Rosa who used her in several stories, including The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck and Last Sled to Dawson, where it is implied that Scrooge and Goldie fell in love with each other, but never revealed their feelings of affection to the other one, and eventually drifted apart as Scrooge traveled across the world and became a trillionaire, while Goldie remained in Dawson.
Carl Barks drew inspiration for Glittering Goldie's character from Kathleen Rockwell.
Goldie is the owner of a wild bear called Blackjack trained by her to attack "prowlers", word used by Goldie herself in "Back to the Klondike".
Goldie is eventually used in Italian or Danish comic stories, but some of those ones show situations that may conflict with others previously showed in "Back to the Klondike". Some examples are her comic appearances in "Arriva Paperetta Yè-Yè" by Romano Scarpa, where she appears as a resident in a nursing home and as a grandmother of Dickie Duck, a girl who has recently completed her secondary education, and in a Danish story called "The Old Lady", where Donald ignores who is Scrooge's former love of Klondike when his uncle asks him to pick Goldie up at the train station, since she is coming for a visit. But Donald and his nephews knew Goldie personally in "Back to the Klondike". Curiously, Goldie appears taller than Scrooge in another Danish story, "After The Ball".
Goldie appears in the original DuckTales animated series, where her appearance is largely based on her comics origins. She has also been reimagined for the DuckTales reboot as a thieving adventurer that Scrooge has fought against and partnered with time and time again since they first met in Dawson. She also develops a brief mentorship with Louie Duck and reconciles with Scrooge by the end of the series.
Gloria
Gloria is the girlfriend of Fethry Duck, created by Brazilian comic artists in the early 1970s, when Fethry was starting to get very popular in Brazil. In her first story, "Paz, Amor E Glória", she was a hippie girl. But her look and behavior were radically revamped in later stories and her hippie side was quite softened. She still looks like a hippie, but she acts more like an eccentric and a bit neurotic urban girl. For example, she appears using a vintage hair dryer, wearing high heels or practicing jogging in some stories.Along with her boyfriend Fethry, Gloria was used in various Brazilian parodies of famous stories, especially during the 1980s. In the early 1980s she gained an alter ego called Purple Butterfly, as shown in "Nasce Uma Heroína... Borboleta Púrpura". Gloria's alter ego and Fethry's one, Red Bat, were shown working as a superhero duo in some stories, despite their mutual rivalry, and she proved to be a competent ally. Besides, Gloria was shown as a close friend of Daisy Duck in some stories, and in 1993 a Brazilian comic subseries called O Clube da Aventura showed Daisy, Minnie Mouse, Clarabelle Cow, Clara Cluck and Gloria as a group of adventurers.
Although Gloria may be considered as Fethry's greatest love, she was not his first one, since he was in love with another girl called Rita Gansa before knowing Gloria, but then Fethry decided to dump Rita for no apparent reason. Gloria and Rita met each other in the story "Quando A Glória I-Rita". Gloria, in turn, first fell in love with Fethry's alter ego, Red Bat, before becoming Fethry's girlfriend indeed, as shown in "Morcego Vermelho Conquista A Glória". Fethry has eventually appeared showing romantic interest in other girls, while Gloria has not had a full appearance in comics for many years. Nevertheless, she can be seen in a painting adorning a wall in Fethry's house in a Danish story called "Surprise, Surprise!" from 2014.
Gloria's mother is an Italian descendant called Pascoalina, who is the owner of a pizzeria in Duckburg, as shown in the Brazilian story "Genro À Bolonhesa". Mamma Pascoalina is portrayed as a sturdy woman with strong personality who does not approve her dear daughter's boyfriend, Fethry.