Character
Ludwig Von Drake comes from Vienna, Austria and has a fascination with knowledge. Since his youth, he has been trying to obtain as many diplomas, in any science, as possible. When he is consulted by other family members, it is a running gag that he almost invariably turns out to have a university degree relevant for whatever information they are seeking. He is often shown as having little social competence, however, and is often portrayed as being very forgetful, sometimes even somewhat senile. In the comics, Ludwig usually visits with Donald Duck and Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. On occasion, Daisy Duck will coax (or even trick) the professor into giving lectures and tours for her ladies' club. Ludwig can play the piano and acoustic guitar, as shown in a few television specials and more.
In the Wonderful World of Color episode The Hunting Instinct, Walt Disney states Ludwig is Donald Duck's father's brother. According to Walt Disney, Donald decided to adopt his maternal surname, Duck, when he got into show business, [8] and that is the reason why he is not popularly known as Donald Von Drake. In the comic strips by Bob Karp and Al Taliaferro, Donald and his nephews usually call Ludwig 'Uncle Ludwig', and Daisy Duck refers to him as 'sort of an uncle' of Donald's in the first Sunday strip where his name is mentioned. [9]
In the Wonderful World of Color episode Kids is Kids, Ludwig says, "Of course, I don't need any help raising children. I'm a bachelor." [10] [11] Besides, he has been shown to be a member of the Absentminded Dating Club, [12] where he is the suitor of a duck woman called Alice. [13] This is contradicted by Don Rosa's private (and unpublished) Duck Family tree which shows Ludwig married to Donald Duck's mother's sister Matilda McDuck. The same family tree also states this is the only relationship between Ludwig and Donald Duck; thereby contradicting Walt Disney's statement.
In the story "Duckburg, U.S.A.", [14] published in Ludwig Von Drake #1 (November 1961), Professor Ludwig Von Drake arrives in Duckburg by train, and it is shown that Donald Duck had never seen this Austrian relative before, not even in a picture. Grandma Duck, Uncle Scrooge McDuck, Daisy Duck, Gladstone Gander, Huey, Dewey and Louie, Gus Goose, and Gyro Gearloose also appear in this same story waiting to know Ludwig at the train station, and Grandma enthusiastically exclaims, "Professor Ludwig Von Drake! Such a nice-sounding name!". [15] In some old comic stories where Ludwig visits Grandma on her farm, it is clear that they have a close relationship, as shown in the story "Message From Space", [16] where Grandma exclaims, "You need rest, dear boy!", after thinking he had a kind of nervous breakdown. [17] In "Pigeon Panic" [18] Ludwig exclaims, "Ho! You know you can depend on me!", after Grandma warned him to be careful with her smartest homer. [19] There is an enlightening sequence of two panels in the story "The Rural Eggs-pert", [20] where Ludwig is resting in an old chair of Grandma's house when an antique buyer asks Grandma to sell him "this fine old specimen" (the chair) and she answers, "Well, it's been in the family for years, but I could do without it!", making Ludwig astonished, since he thinks she is referring to him as if he was a livestock. [21] He would not have reacted this way if he was not her relative. In the last panel of the story "Barn Dance Doctor", [22] Grandma refers to Ludwig as her "cityfied cousin". [23] Since it was stipulated by Don Rosa that her father was a Coot and her mother was a Gadwall, it is not clear if Ludwig Von Drake is related to Elvira Coot through her father or her mother. Grandma Duck could have an Austrian ascendancy to explain her kinship to Ludwig.
In the story "The Family Tree Spree", [24] Donald scares of seeing Ludwig's specs on the floor and thinks about them as "Uncle Ludwig's specs". [25] In the end of this same story, it is revealed that Ludwig also appears in Donald's paternal family tree, wherein he and Donald both have an ancestor called Colombust Duck. [26] According to Carl Barks, Donald's father's surname is Duck, his mother's one being McDuck. Since Humperdink Duck (a.k.a. Grandpa Duck), Grandma Duck's deceased husband and Donald's paternal grandfather, [27] was probably almost contemporary with Ludwig Von Drake, it is possible to consider they were half-brothers, Donald being thus Ludwig's grandnephew. Ludwig reveals to Daisy and her friends in "Blown Up Genius" [28] that he came from a long line of glass blowers. [29] In "Winning Ways", [30] Daisy and her friends try to prepare Ludwig's favorite dish, called Wiener Schnitzel a la Weltschmerz, whose recipe belonged to Ludwig's great grandmother. Ludwig is really excited about it because he has not eaten that dish since he left Austria and came to Duckburg to know his relatives of Donald's paternal family. In "The Big Payoff", [31] it is revealed that he spent many months living in Donald's house since his arrival in Duckburg. Ludwig wins a TV chess challenge in this comic story, making Donald exclaim, "Yippee! He did it! Now he can pay all he's owed us (he and his nephews) for these many months!". [32] According to the story "The Jewels of Skull Rock", [33] Ludwig spent six months in Donald's house. [34] In the Christmas story "The Cuckoo Clock Caper", [35] Ludwig exclaims that he and Scrooge are "joined in good fellowship". [36] Ludwig and Gyro Gearloose competed as to who is the greater inventor in the comic story "I.Q. Bugaboo". [37]
Those twelve stories mentioned above were drawn by Tony Strobl, who was the cartoonist responsible for introducing Professor Ludwig into American Disney comic books. Actually, Ludwig's first comic book appearance was in a not previously mentioned story by Strobl, "The Scene Stealer", [38] first published in October, 1961. The events showed in this one presumably happened after the ones showed in "Duckburg, U.S.A.", which was published two months later.
Cartoon appearances (1980s–present)
Von Drake has appeared on several Disney animated cartoon series: DuckTales , Raw Toonage , Bonkers , Mickey Mouse Works , Quack Pack , House of Mouse , Mickey Mouse Clubhouse , Minnie's Bow-Toons , Mickey Mouse , Mickey and the Roadster Racers , the 2017 reboot of DuckTales , The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse , Mickey Mouse Funhouse , Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ and in numerous television specials. In all of these, Von Drake wears a pink shirt, black tie, red vest, and a lab coat.
In House of Mouse, Von Drake appears as a recurring character. In "Ask Von Drake", Mickey tries to prove that Ludwig Von Drake does not know everything. At the end, Mickey convinces him that during the headcount of all the Disney characters, he forgot himself. Also, in "House of Genius", Ludwig creates robot duplicates of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Pluto. At the end, when Ludwig brings in a robot duplicate of himself, Mickey tells the robot to send the real Ludwig packing.
In Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, he is a major recurring character, often helping the protagonists, or asking for help himself.
Ludwig appears as a recurring character in the DuckTales reboot as the head of spy agency S.H.U.S.H. [39]
Ludwig makes a cameo appearance between Walt Disney Animation Studios characters that take a group photo in the 2023 short film, Once Upon a Studio . [40]
Print appearances
The Disney studio encouraged the writers of Duck comics to introduce this new character in print, and already in September 1961, Von Drake started appearing in Al Taliaferro and Bob Karp's featured daily strips. However, aside from a solitary cameo appearance in a one-page story in Uncle Scrooge #54 (December 1964), the character was not used by leading Disney duck artist Carl Barks.
In 1961, Dell Comics launched a comic book series starring Von Drake and illustrated by Tony Strobl, [42] but it only lasted for four issues before being discontinued. The character made subsequent appearances in other comic titles such as Walt Disney's Comics and Stories and in the Donald Duck newspaper strip.
Ludwig also appeared in a 1962 sequence of the annual Disney Christmas Story comic strip. In "Sleeping Beauty's Christmas Story", the professor helps Princess Aurora break Maleficent's spell.
Professor Ludwig has often been used by Italian cartoonists, including in some of the long sagas inspired by famous books that they usually produce with the Duck Family, such as "La storia di Marco Polo detta Il Milione" [43] (free translation "The Million – A Story of Marco Polo") and "Paperino in: Il mondo perduto" [44] (free translation "Donald in: The Lost World"). As a result, he has achieved significant popularity in Italy (where he is known as Pico De Paperis). He is portrayed in Italian comics as a scholar with multiple degrees in different subjects (even the more improbable ones) rather than a scientist.
