In Disney's fictional universe, The Junior Woodchucks are the Scouting organization to which Donald Duck's nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, belong. They have a uniform with a coonskin cap. The Junior Woodchucks were created by Carl Barks in 1951, in the story "Operation St. Bernhard" (Walt Disney's Comics and Stories # 125). Later stories introduced a similar organization for girls, Junior Chickadees, to which Daisy Duck's nieces, April, May and June belong. A hallmark of the Woodchucks are exalted titles and the awarding of buckets of badges, along with severe ideals as to decorum. In this way Barks poked gentle but pointed satire at aspects of the Boy Scouts.
The Junior Woodchucks also have Scoutmasters. This role is usually taken by Donald, or Launchpad McQuack in the Ducktales cartoon, where they also had a baseball team, which Launchpad also coached. In some Italian stories the scoutmaster is a tall, strong and wise (but that fears flight) goose called gran mogol (the great moghul), whose name is Bertie McGoose.
Junior Woodchucks always carry with them a copy of the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook, a fictional guidebook filled with detailed and pertinent information about whatever country or situation the Woodchucks find themselves. Its depth of coverage is remarkable, considering that it is a small paperback book.
Fans of Carl Barks's work take a dim view of versions of the Junior Woodchucks not written by either Carl Barks or his successor Don Rosa. For example, the Woodchucks often appeared in the television series Duck Tales, where their slogan, "Wokka-wokka-woodchuck!", was a very unBarks-like chant.
Don Rosa wrote and drew a story regarding the origin of the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook, "Guardians of the Lost Library", which Comics Buyer's Guide mentioned as possibly the greatest comic book story of all time. Rosa's later story W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N. tells of how Huey, Dewey and Louie came to join the Junior Woodchucks.
In 1971 Carl Barks drew a model sheet of the nephews, with some of the drawings showing them in their Junior Woodchuck uniforms, for the Disney studio's publications department.[1]
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Comic books
Most of the early Junior Woodchucks stories appeared in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. They also appeared in Donald Duck and in Uncle Scrooge. In 1966, they got their own title, Huey, Dewey, and Louie and the Junior Woodchucks, published by Gold Key Comics for 62 issues, and then continued by Whitman Comics for another 20 issues until 1983. The stories which Carl Barks wrote for this comic book, among the last comic book stories he scripted, were drawn by Kay Wright, John Carey and Tony Strobl. More recently Daan Jippes has been commissioned by Egmont to redraw these stories emulating Barks' style and drawing inspiration from the sketches of Barks' storyboard-like scripts.
Disney Comics published a Junior Woodchucks four issue mini series in 1991.
Today, their stories are printed in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, published by Gemstone Comics.
The Little Chickadees
The Little Chickadees is a female counterpart to the Junior Woodchucks. It is based to some extent on the Girl Scouts of the USA and the Campfire Girls. In the spirit of friendly rivalry, the Duckburg troops of the Little Chickadees and Junior Woodchucks once held a bridge-building competition, which ended in a tie.
Popular culture
In his TV show, comedian Jeff Foxworthy claimed to have been a member of the Junior Woodchucks in his childhood. In the show, his son - played by Haley Joel Osment - is also a Junior Woodchuck.
References
External links
- The Junior Woodchucks at the INDUCKS
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