THEAHEMAPPEARANCES

As we have all grown up with the Disney duck universe's primary duck and goose characters we hardly give it a second thought that their way of clothing themselves is, in reality, both provocative and downright indecent! They are naked from the waist down!!! When walking around the other fully clothed Duckburgians, they should feel utterly ostracized, but this is not the case at all. Everyone the primary characters meet, seem to accept their strange way of dressing without the slightest reservation. If we were to move to Disney's mouse universe things are considerably more normal in the way of clothing, as everybody wear trousers or skirts. This makes the obvious frivolity in the duck universe seem even more unintelligible, but, as mentioned, we have all grown up with the oddity thus finding the appearances quite natural.

Carl Barks took over the existing primary characters when he started drawing his numerous duck stories, and when he invented new characters he generally continued along the determined path with a few exceptions (Gyro Gearloose and the Beagle Boys are decently dressed). Still, fair is fair - although nothing signals Sex more than a partly undressed body, few of the stories have any undertones of that topic*.
This page aims to give you a few examples of diverse groups of strange forms of clothing (or non-clothing as the case may be). Bear in mind that all the stories are teeming with similar events...

* Barks was always a ladies' man in his work and countless drawings to that effect have left his drawing boards starting from his time at The Calgary EyeOpener. This website offers numerous pages from those days. Even in his duck story days Barks sometimes sneaked in a few sexy ladies (see more HERE).

MOC04 Maharajah Donald Several times we have seen both the Ducks and Scrooge stripped down to their undershirts - even when the reason was not connected with bathing. This is just one example.	WDCS166 'Midget Racers' Whenever the ducks leave their baths they cover up their lower bodies in their towels. Quite strange when you think about it. Here Donald is even flaunting this oddity in public...	U$06 'Tralla La' None of the male ducks wear shoes. Scrooge is the only one to wear some kind of footwear namely spats (he must wear them out at an incredible speed!!!). Here he is caught with them off...
WDCS264 Master Wrecker Only when it is very cold we may experience the ducks fully dressed.	U$31 All at Sea When in disguise the ducks are often fully dressed. Here we see Scrooge and Dewey.	WDCS280 Double Masquerade Scrooge (yes, it is he masquerading as Donald) surfing in a two-piece swimwear!
WDCS088 'Out Cold!' Strangely, when going swimming Donald always dresses in a full-bodied swimsuit! Here is an example from wintertime...	WDCS292 Instant Hercules Donald also dives in a full-bodied swimsuit. Notice that his tail feathers are always sticking out for some unknown reason.	WDCS129 'Swimming Pool Garden' At home Donald takes a more relaxed approach to his swimwear. He contents himself with the top of a bathing suit.
WDCS282 Bubbleweight Champ Here is a rare example of what might be referred to as Reversed Dressing - Donald's upper body is bare, lower body is covered.	U$60 The Phantom of Notre Duck The Junior Woodchucks' bloodhound, General Snozzie, is always naked apart from his dog collar...	U$26 Krankenstein Gyro Little Helper is naked as well apart from shoes. His imaginary girlfriend, though, is more decent.
WDCS064 'Temper Tantrums' Daisy wears no trousers or skirts, but it seems as if she has some kind of frilly feathers around her hips that resemble the lacy ruffles of old-fashioned bloomers. Even during winter she is underdressed...	FG1945 Donald's Best Christmas Just as Daisy, the old-fashioned and prudent Grandma wears no visible clothes on her lower body! But she started out in a skirt (but without shoes!) in Barks' first story with her.	U$48 The Many Faces of Magica ... Magica de Spell is, in fact, the only decently dressed female duck amongst the primary characters with a long gown! Observe, though, that her tail feathers are sticking out...
U$34 Mythtic Mystery Apparently, Donald does not feel the slightest embarrassed being half-naked before so many fully dressed women...	WDCS071 'Dishonest Swimming' The nephews never use full-bodied swimsuits. They just wear a swim top or their undershirts.	WDCS086 'Volunteer Fireman' This is an extremely rare sight - Donald totally naked. And he managed to be like that twice in the story!

Perhaps the most stubborn and widespread rumour about the duck universe is the recurring allegation that Disney duck stories were once banned in Finland, because Donald did not wear trousers. This claim with puritan overtones has been circulating since the 1970s, when it was started from a combination of circumstances that quickly got out of control. Through sensation-hungry yellow press journalists the story spread all over the globe like wildfire and another allegation was added out of the blue; Donald had a questionable relationship with Daisy!

This is the short, true version of the prosaic story: In 1977 the Finnish capital Helsinki had to make some budget cuts, and one of many suggestions was that the city stopped purchasing Donald Duck comic books for their youth centers and libraries. The suggestion was made by a liberal councilman, Markku Holopainen, and it was accepted unanimously by the council members. The decision, that was also influencing other magazines, had nothing to do with the contents of the comic books. It was merely an attempt to save money on the city's budget.
The following year Holopainen ran for the Finnish parliament and one of his opponents quickly labelled him as The man who banned Donald Duck in order to harm his candidacy. Only now the tabloid media smelled a story, and it was told in a manner that had nothing to do with the actual budget reasons.

So, although it may be considered a good story by some, it is nothing but a persistent urban legend:
The rumour is FALSE!

WDCS095 - August 1948	WDCS143 - August 1952	U$09 - March 1955
(WDCS177 - June 1955)	WDCS204 - September 1957	(WDCS220 - January 1959)
(WDCS231 - December 1959)	(U$30 - June 1960)	(WDCS238 - July 1960)