A mirage sequence drawn by Barks, for the unproduced cartoon «Lost Prospectors», probably shows the first true prototype of Daisy Duck.
Daisy did not appear on the screen until the 1940 cartoon «Mr. Duck Steps Out». "I had nothing against Daisy appearing in Donald Duck cartoons," Barks has commented in April 29, 1987 notes. "If business could be invented that would make her role funny and interesting, she was as welcome as sunshine. Seriously, though, neither Daisy nor Minnie was basically funny. We wasted little time trying to include such females in the rough-and-tumble heroics of cartoon humor."
Naturally, what made Daisy and Minnie less interesting was the cultural assumption that women had to be more delicate and sedate than men. Even in her premiere screen appearance, Daisy was not a major character. She functions as a prize to be won in a competition among Donald and the nephews. Barks never used Daisy again in the Donald cartoons, though she gradually joined the cast of his comics. An unnamed girl duck appears in the lifeguard story of WDC 33, and Daisy herself has a walk-on part in in "The Mighty Trapper" (WDC 36).
Daisy did not become a permanent fixture until the temper resolution story of WDC 64. In his April 29, 1987 notes, Barks admits that he had delayed using Daisy because he "still regarded her as a diluting influence." Daisy began to appear more regularly in the Donald Duck ten-pagers thereafter.
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