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Look out kids, here comes "Big Bad Bertram"!
We've got a bounty of Bertrams in store for future installments of "In Search of Ancient Bertrams", so do come on back! 
But where did my fondness for the name come from? Well, it was first seen a comic from "my sainted sixties" of course - and, I'll identify it at some point - but for now "In Search of Ancient Bertrams" will spotlight various uses of "Bertram" in vintage comics that would eventually result in making the name a standard of my comics writing work!
Today's "Bertram" is courtesy of MARCH OF COMICS #81 (Western Publishing, 1952) Oswald the Rabbit! Art by Lloyd White.
Tired of the rabbit-routine, Oswald's adopted sons, Floyd and Lloyd, try living as birds. Unfortunately, they still look like rabbits - and that attracts the hungry attentions of Bertram Buzzard, and his wife Beulah.
Look out kids, here comes "Big Bad Bertram"!
I'd venture to guess that Bertram might be a cousin (or something) to another, more famous Walter Lantz character... Woody Woodpecker's regular foe, Buzz Buzzard!
Note the family resemblance!
Barely escaping, as all little comic book animals are wont to do (...and wouldn't we be sad if they didn't), Floyd and Lloyd do not fare well in the roles of fish or bears either!
And, as expected, they resign themselves to being just plain rabbits, much to the relief of Poppa Oswald!
Thanks in part to another "Ancient Bertram"... Bertram Buzzard!
...Come for the "Bertram"... Stay for the "Burgers"!
14 comments:
It wouldn't count as an "ancient" Bertram, but in a 1980 Tom and Jerry cartoon by Filmation, "Say What?", Tom and Jerry met a talking parrot named Bertram.
Well, Deb… If Donald Duck could have a Not-So-Ancient Mariner, why can’t WE have a “Not-So-Ancient Bertram”?
Let us not forget "At Bertram's Hotel" by Agatha Christie. One of the later adventures of that great detective Miss Jane Marple. My mother read this book when I was very young, and the cover of it used to spook me--until she explained that murder mysteries are not generally as scary as they may appear at first. Of course, in my teens I got hooked on mysteries, and she loaned or gave me many of her Agatha Christie books. I still have several. But I never forgot the chills that cover gave me.
Your fascination with "Bertram" is somewhat like my fascination with "Alonzo," a name that recurs in my fiction quite often. I can't explain why. There was no one among my family or friends with that name. But that might be the very reason it appeals to me--I have no personal association with the name. Another favorite name of mine is "Bryan" spelled with a "y." Two of my best and most interesting characters have this name. And as for female names, my universe is populated with numerous characters named Anna, Angela, Angelina, or Jessica, all tributes to my mother's--and my--favorite actress Angela Lansbury.
Just as a side note, the name "Mary" crops up often in the writings of Dickens--very likely a conscious or unconscious tribute to his late sister-in-law of that name who died very young in the early months of his marriage.
Names are fascinating. You can build a whole character around one. I often tell my students that as a writer I "collect" names, and often I will name a character for one of them. No one has yet objected to having a fictional counterpart for a namesake!
I look forward to more "Bertram-isms" in the future! And hopefully more "Adventures in Comic-Boxing" and "Separated at Mirth" as well.
Scarecrow:
I love learning about “what-other-writers-do-and-why”, so this little peek behind your “writer’s curtain” is both welcome - and fascinating!
Names, and the associated “origin and use” process by writers, are a most interesting subset of this! And, you just can’t escape ‘em! Names are everywhere!
There’s “Alonzo P. Tucker”, alien-abduction victim, turned space pirate who appeared in two episodes of LOST IN SPACE. And, while a surname, there’s New York Mets star Pete Alonzo. Bryan is the (first) name of our financial planner - and Mary was my mother! I’ve never actually “met” anyone named Bertram, but the name can be found in many places - thus, the basis for this subset series!
Working, as I do, with “aptly-named funny animal characters”, I rarely get to select “normal (or semi-normal)” names for incidental characters - instead stretching my brain to often absurd lengths to create names like “Handlebars McTwirlsneer”, or less extreme but descriptive names such as the single-eyed “Commander Iris-One”.
When I needed a name for a restaurant sign that parodied the once-popular “Beefsteak Charlie’s” chain, “Bertram” just popped into my head as a more humorous sounding alternative to “Charlie”. Can’t say why, it just did!
Only afterward did I begin recalling other “Ancient Bertrams” that I’ve encountered in comics - with many of them the product of long-time writer Carl Fallberg. The name was funny enough to me that I plugged it into another story… and another… and another…
And, yes, there will be more Bertrams to come… culminating (at some point) with the revelation of “Bertram Prime” - the character and story where little me first encountered the name and filed it away for a much-later-in-life second career in comics writing/scripting that little me could never conceive of having!
You know — this is going to sound like I'm making it up, because it's too perfect, but one of many potential main characters I toyed with for comics of my own as a kid was a knight called Bertram! Usually I'd name characters myself, but on that occasion, for some reason or other, I'd asked my father for a suggestion, and he suggested Bertram as a suitably medieval, Germanic name.
I'm sad to say the Adventures of Bertram never really got anywhere, even by the standard of preteen scribblings never meant for any kind of serious publication. I couldn't even tell you what the plot was supposed to be, anymore, because I committed very little of it to paper. There was, I believe, something about a dragon (isn't there always?).
By the way, Lupan and I's “The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids” series has yet to introduce a Bertram, but please believe that this is not an oversight! We're just saving it for a special occasion. Joe, if you have any thoughts about what the Clockwork Cherub Bertram might be like, I'm all electronic ears!
It's true that Bertram Buzzard might well be related to Woody's Buzzard, judging by appearance. Then again, while some heretical German canon might occasionally suggest a distant relationship between Donald and Daisy Duck, Mickey and Minnie Mouse surely come from two unrelated Mouse lineages… and neither of them can possibly be related to Mighty Mouse! It must be tricky living in these funny-animal worlds and hearing "Mr [Animal Species]!" yelled in the street. They could be talking to you… or to anyone of your "ethnicity"!
(Here's a joke which might be difficult to find a good spot for, and even more difficult to get past a Disney editor, but which I long to see in a classic-style funny-animals comic someday: have one of the token non-animalistic cartoon humans sometimes shown to exist in Duckburg and the like, be named something like “Harry Human”. Possibly with a girlfriend called “Harriet Human” who is not in any way related to him.)
Achille:
You know — THIS is going to sound like *I'M* making it up, because it's too perfect, but I HAD considered “one of the token non-animalistic cartoon humans sometimes shown to exist in Duckburg and the like, be named something like ‘Harry Human’.” …Or “Hugh Human”, which I like better still. …But such things always happen when two great minds find a way to meet!
Some of my “preteen [and early-teen] scribblings” still exist, but I’ll keep them locked away like Gladstone Gander’s “Terrible Secret” of the dime he once honestly worked for. It’s better for all of us this way!
And, of course “The Bertram Knight” aka “Sir Bertram” had “something about a dragon”... What knight DIDN’T? It’s like being a lead character and not “meeting your double”, or “not saving Christmas”, or sumpthin’!
Finally, I wouldn’t dream of impinging on the character development of the Clockwork Cherub Bertram! He is all yours for better (...and not for worse)! I’ll just be satisfied with merely helping shape Rockerduck!
The troop leader of the Chickadees in the 1990's Italian Giovani Marmotte comic is named Clarissa in Italian...she has no dognose, she could be Hayley Human if any of those stories ever get localized! (She looks more like a Hayley than a Harriet to me; you can see her on her character page on Inducks. Plus it would be a shout-out to the many Disney live-action movies starring Hayley Mills.)
True, Hugh Human is better! Your superior instincts win out. (But what would the last-name-sharing non-related girlfriend character be called? Hmm.)
You'll be happy to know this year's “Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids” December serialized story involved one of our characters Saving Christmas! (From the Norse God Loki, in this instance.) No evil duplicates as yet, but I'm sure we'll get there.
Rockerduck, you say… Is that a random example, or are you working on something specific, top-secret, and Rockerduck-featuring?
Elaine:
“Hayley Human”? I think that’s a good idea! In the unlikely event that I ever get one of these stories to work on, I’ll have to file that one away.
And “Clarissa” was Daisy’s friend (along with Clara Cluck) before someone at Disney mandated a forced “public-facing friendship” between Daisy and Minnie - who should really have little or nothing in common.
Achille:
“Hugh Human” just has a funnier vibe to it, not to mention that I’d wring an almost infinite number of jokes out of the phrase “Hey, you!” Always thinking of the gag, that’s me!
And let’s throw another December log on the “character saves Christmas fire”! …It’s gettin’ warmer all the time!
Finally, nothing all that noteworthy on Rockerduck… just referring to the aspect of his personality that Scarpa originally planted the seeds for, and I bolstered (in stories like “Mummy Fearest” and “Scrooge’s Ark Lark”) where he is more concerned with aesthetics rather than “being the richest duck”. This to better differentiate him from Glomgold.
Wait--what are you thinking of when you say a "Clarissa" was Daisy's friend along with Clara Cluck? Could you possibly be thinking of Clarabelle Cow, who palled around with Daisy a fair amount? There's no "Clarissa" listed in Inducks' character list other than the Italian Chickadees troop leader. The only other recurring member of the club I'm aware of is the female Duck named Dora.
I entirely agree, though, that the friendship between Daisy and Minnie is a fake relationship of corporate manufacture.
Elaine:
As they say in detective or adventure films… “You have me at somewhat of a disadvantage!”
I can’t access my collection to prove the existence of “Clarissa”, but it was a name of a friend of Daisy’s that I’m sure was used more than once - because it became cemented in my head during childhood.
One of the issues I can recall (but not with absolute certainty) for “Clarissa” would be WDC&S #315. GCD did not list characters beyond Donald and Daisy (I’ll have to get around to fixing THAT!), and I.N.D.U.C.K.S. lists a character named “Dora”.
“Clarissa” was a female duck with a full head of hair (unlike Daisy) and so, according to I.N.D.U.C.K.S, was “Dora”. Therefore, my feeling is that “Clarissa” and “Dora” were one and the same… and that Bob Gregory (or Vic Lockman, or whoever was writing those stories) didn’t keep track of those things to the extent that we now do.
…Oh, and behind the scenes, Minnie and Daisy probably despise each other! :-)
Oh, that explains it! Inducks says Dora's name was used rarely, they're only aware of one instance where she's named: Fibber Flipper, from One Shots 1247 Daisy Duck's Diary (cover has Daisy holding a denuded "loves me/loves me not" flower over her open diary). That story was written and drawn by Bob Gregory. The story you remember with this character appears to be Gentlemen's Disagreement, art by Strobl/Steere. Strobl drew most of this character's appearances; it's quite possible Gregory used a Strobl design for a friend of Daisy's without realizing her name was Clarissa. Or maybe she didn't have a name in her appearances pre-OS 1247 and she was named Clarissa after OS 1247 by a writer who didn't know Gregory's story! Anyway, I will await along with much-more-eager-you the completion of construction when you can access your collection and verify the locale of the "Clarissa" you encountered as a kid. If the name was used more than once for this character, though, it's rather surprising that Inducks didn't pick up on that.
Elaine:
I think we’re both on the right track, regarding “Clarissa”. I’d narrow down the possible occurrences to non-Barks stories in issues of WDC&S or DONALD DUCK FROM 1964-1967, if anyone’s up for an archeological dig.
Perhaps I should institute an “In Search of Ancient Clarissas” subset feature?
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