The King of the Klondike

Last updated
"The Argonaut of White Agony Creek"
Life&TimesofSMcD Issue08 cover.jpg
Original cover of King of the Klondike. Art by Don Rosa.
Story codeD 92514
Alternative title"King Of Klondike"
Story Don Rosa
Ink Don Rosa
Hero Scrooge McDuck
Pages24
Layout4 rows per page
Appearances Scrooge McDuck
Goldie O'Gilt
Soapy Slick
Casey Coot
First publication Kalle Anka & C:o #1993-29
July 19, 1993

"The King of the Klondike" or "The Argonaut of White Agony Creek" is a 1993 Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa. It is the eighth of the original 12 chapters in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck . The story takes place from 1896 to 1897 and deals with Scrooge McDuck who participates in the Klondike Gold Rush. It takes place before The Prisoner of White Agony Creek and The Hearts of the Yukon .

Contents

The story was first published in the Danish Anders And & Co. #1993-29; the first American publication was in Uncle Scrooge #292, in June 1995.

Plot

Arriving at Skagway, Alaska, Scrooge begins on his journey to Dawson City, Yukon, during which he meets Wyatt Earp, and they go to a saloon for a drink. Wyatt gets into a brawl with a thug who tries to mug the two, and Scrooge is forced to pay for the ensuing damage, leaving him broke again. He gets a loan from Soapy Slick, who leaves their contract open enough to get more money from him via a 100% interest rate.

Scrooge takes part in the Klondike Gold Rush, being mocked by Soapy along the way. However, he gets ahead of Soapy by using a makeshift didgeridoo to get to Dawson first. Hoping to best Scrooge, Soapy rents some space Glittering Goldie O'Gilt at her saloon for a loan-shark operation. She invites Scrooge in, but he blows her off.

Scrooge comes across a glacier, which contains an ice cave that he is told is by Casey Coot is too cold and dangerous to be safely traversed. He proceeds to do so, discovering inside a dead woolly mammoth. This takes him to White Agony Creek, where he begins his search for gold. During the winter, he goes to Dawson to buy tools to make a shed and a mine shaft. He finds Soapy doing business there and uses the gold he had found so far to pay off his interest, still unaware that he is working with Goldie. It is from here that Scrooge's harsher personality shades begin to develop, as he begins to speak to himself of destroying the creek for gain.

When Scrooge again goes to Dawson, now a bustling city, in Spring, he files a claim and finishes paying Soapy, ignoring the chaos going on around and the people shouting at him.

On his way back, Soapy knocks him out and takes him to his venue, where he wakes up chained and is taunted by Soapy and his henchmen. To further add salt to the wound, Soapy reads two letters from Scrooge's family: one from Downy, which reveals that the family has lost money and she is ill, and a second from Fergus, revealing that Downy has died. Enraged, Scrooge breaks free from his chains and destroys the entire venue. The entire city (including an impressed Goldie) watches in shock and silence as Scrooge personally drags Soapy all the way to jail for claimjumping, where he will be deported to Alaska and never allowed back in Canada.

After returning to White Agony Creek, Scrooge deals with some miners trying to steal from his shaft. To scare them away, he picks up a rock from his sluice, which feels surprisingly heavy, enough to be solid gold. Before he washes the mud off, he hesitates, knowing that if it is gold, he will be rich and his life will change forever. He wonders if he will be the same person, or if he will lose his respect for hard work and his appreciation for simple pleasures: "Do I really... want to be rich?" Deciding the answer is yes, he plunges the rock into the sluice, and is amazed to see it is a solid gold nugget, "as big as a goose egg!". As Scrooge's yells of triumph echo across the valley, the final panel shows a caption saying not "The end", but "The beginning...", signifying that Scrooge's quest to make his fortune has come to an end, to be followed by his quest to become the richest person in the entire world.

Production

The original title of the story was "The Phoenix of White Agony Creek", but Rosa changed it before publishing to "The Argonaut of White Agony Creek", which was used in Europe. For the later American publishing, he used the new title "King of the Klondike". [1]

The story uses "facts" from two stories by Carl Barks, Back to the Klondike and North of the Yukon . Otherwise most of the story uses real historic facts about the Klondike Gold Rush. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scrooge McDuck</span> Disney comics character

Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 for The Walt Disney Company by Carl Barks. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-born American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew, Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats varying in color. He is portrayed in animation as speaking with a Scottish accent. Originally intended to be used only once, Scrooge became one of the most popular characters in the Disney comics world, as well as Barks' signature work. Scrooge is an extremely rich duck who lives in the fictional city of Duckburg in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, whose claimed location is in California in the real-world United States.

<i>The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck</i> 1992–1994 Disney comics series

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (Lo$) is a serial of 12 comic book stories written and drawn by Don Rosa, lettered by Todd Klein, first published by the Danish publisher Egmont in the magazine Anders And & Co. from 1992–94 and later in English in Uncle Scrooge #285 through #296 (1994–96). The stories chronicle the in-universe biography of Scrooge McDuck before his introduction in 1947. The stories were later collected and published together in a single volume. Rosa later published additional stories which expanded on Scrooge's biography. These were released as The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan McDuck</span> Disney comics characters

The Clan McDuck is a fictional Scottish clan of cartoon ducks from which Disney character Scrooge McDuck is descended. Within the Donald Duck universe, the clan is related to the American Duck family through the marriage of Hortense McDuck and Quackmore Duck, Donald and Della Duck's parents, giving both of them partial Scottish ancestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klondike Gold Rush</span> 1896–1899 migration to Yukon, Canada

The Klondike Gold Rush was a migration by an estimated 100,000 prospectors to the Klondike region of Yukon, in north-western Canada, between 1896 and 1899. Gold was discovered there by local miners on August 16, 1896; when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of prospectors. Some became wealthy, but the majority went in vain. It has been immortalized in films, literature, and photographs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Back to the Klondike</span>

"Back to the Klondike" is a Disney comic book story created by Carl Barks, created in September 1952 and first published in March 1953 in Four Color #456. Scrooge McDuck returns to Klondike where he has made his fortune, bringing Donald and the three nephews along, to find back the gold he has left there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Pass</span>

White Pass, also known as the Dead Horse Trail, is a mountain pass through the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains on the border of the U.S. state of Alaska and the province of British Columbia, Canada. It leads from Skagway, Alaska, to the chain of lakes at the headwaters of the Yukon River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park</span> Four US sites commemorate prospector migrant routes to Yukon Territory, Canada, 1896–99

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park is a national historical park operated by the National Park Service that seeks to commemorate the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s. Though the gold fields that were the ultimate goal of the stampeders lay in the Yukon Territory, the park comprises staging areas for the trek there and the routes leading in its direction. There are four units, including three in Municipality of Skagway Borough, Alaska and a fourth in the Pioneer Square National Historic District in Seattle, Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soapy Smith</span> American con artist and gangster (1860–1898)

Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II was an American con artist and gangster in the American frontier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathleen Rockwell</span> American dancer and vaudeville star

Kathleen Eloise Rockwell, known as "Klondike Kate" and later known as Kate Rockwell Warner Matson Van Duren, was an American dancer and vaudeville star during the Klondike Gold Rush, where she met Alexander Pantages who later became a very successful vaudeville/motion picture mogul. She garnered notoriety for her flirtatious dancing and ability to keep hard-working miners happy if not inebriated. Before her death she appeared on the television show You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx December 23, 1954, at the age of 74. She died in obscurity after some minor success training Hollywood starlets in the 1940s.

"North of the Yukon" is a 24-page Disney comics adventure story featuring Scrooge McDuck and his nephews, Donald Duck and Huey, Dewey, & Louie. It was written and drawn by Carl Barks. This was his last story involving Scrooge's adventures in Alaska. It was published in September 1965, and later reprinted in May 1993. Gemstone Publishing later reprinted the story again in 2005 for a Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge graphic novel with another story inspired by this one called "Somewhere in Nowhere". The character of Barko was inspired by an actual sled dog named Balto, who participated in the 1925 serum run to Nome. Barks had read an article about Balto in an issue of National Geographic, and was inspired to create this character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Little Something Special</span>

"A Little Something Special" is a 1997 Disney comics story created by Don Rosa to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Scrooge McDuck's first appearance in Carl Barks's "Christmas on Bear Mountain" in 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Prisoner of White Agony Creek</span>

"The Prisoner of White Agony Creek" is a 2006 Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa. The story takes place between "King of the Klondike" and "Hearts of the Yukon" in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck making it part 8B. The story shows how Goldie O'Gilt was taken to Scrooge's claim by the White Agony Creek. As Don Rosa announced his retirement in June 2008, this is his last story to date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Master of the Mississippi</span>

"The Master of the Mississippi" is a 1992 Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa. It's the second of the original 12 chapters in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The story takes place from 1880 to 1882.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Billionaire of Dismal Downs</span>

"The Billionaire of Dismal Downs" is a 1993 Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa. It is the ninth of the original 12 chapters in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The story takes place from 1898 to 1902.

The Klondike Gold Rush is commemorated through film, literature, historical parks etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klondike Big Inch Land Promotion</span> American breakfast food promotion

The Klondike Big Inch Land promotion was a marketing promotion run by the Quaker Oats Company in 1955 and created by Bruce Baker, a Chicago advertising executive.

Thomas William O'Brien was a Klondike gold rush entrepreneur who was best known for his Klondike Mines Railway and Klondike brewery businesses. He was also elected as a member of the Yukon Territorial Council, and was the first president of the Yukon Order of Pioneers, Klondike Lodge.

<i>Klondike</i> (miniseries) 2014 television miniseries

Klondike is a three-part miniseries about the Klondike Gold Rush that was broadcast by the Discovery Channel on January 20–22, 2014. Based on Charlotte Gray's novel Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike, it is the Discovery Channel's first scripted miniseries. Klondike was directed by Simon Cellan Jones and stars Richard Madden as Bill Haskell, a real-life adventurer who traveled to Yukon, Canada, in the late 1890s during the gold rush.

"Last Sled to Dawson" is a 1988 Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa. It is Rosa's third full-length Uncle Scrooge story after The Son of the Sun and Cash Flow, both published the previous year. Last Sled is the first story in which Rosa delves into Scrooge's past life, on his journey to becoming the richest man in the world, and so acts as a spiritual sequel to Carl Barks's classic Scrooge story "Back to the Klondike", describing his experiences as a gold prospector during the Klondike Gold Rush.

References

  1. 1 2 Rosa, Don (2005). The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Gemstone Publishing. pp. 169–170. ISBN   978-0-911903-96-6.