The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

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"The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck"
Life&TimesofSMcD HC cover.jpg
Cover of the collected edition published by Gemstone Publishing in 2005
Publisher First: Egmont Publishing - First US: Gladstone Publishing
Publication dateFirst: 1992–1994 (Egmont) - First US: 1994–1996 (Gladstone Publishing)
Genre Adventure
Funny animals
Title(s)
First: Anders And & Co. (Egmont)
#33 B-1992
#45-1992
#2-1993
#11-1993
#18-1993
#24-1993
#29-1993
#30-1993
#31-1993
#45-1993
#10-1994
#15-1994
#16-1994
#17-1994
#22-1994

First US: Uncle Scrooge (Gladstone Publishing)
#285–296
Main character(s) Scrooge McDuck
Creative team
Writer(s) Don Rosa
Artist(s) Don Rosa
Letterer(s) Todd Klein (US edition)

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (Lo$) [1] is a 12-part comic book storyline written and drawn by Don Rosa, lettered by Todd Klein (American editions), [2] first published by the Danish publisher Egmont in the magazine Anders And & Co. from 1992 to 1994 and later in English in Uncle Scrooge #285 through #296 (1994–96). It follows the life of Scrooge McDuck from 1877 to 1947, the year of his real-life debut, working in almost every event about his past referenced in stories by Carl Barks.

Contents

Rosa earned the Will Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story in 1995 for this story. [3] The trade paperback collection was also a top vote-getter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Novel/Album for 1997. After being out of print for several years with high demand, the book was reprinted under the BOOM! Studios label in two deluxe hardcover volumes, and again under Fantagraphics Books.

The Finnish composer Tuomas Holopainen released a concept album based on the book, titled Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge . Don Rosa illustrated the cover artwork for the album. [4]

Chapter list

Original storyline

Part #Chapter TitlePagesStory codeFirst publication in United States
1 The Last of the Clan McDuck 15 D 91308 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #285
1877–1880Scrooge McDuck is born to a poor family in Scotland in 1867, where their once royal legacy has been diminished and their old castle, located in Dismal Downs, has been taken over by the Whiskervilles, who used a hound costume to scare them off the property. On his 10th birthday, Scrooge receives a shoeshining kit as a gift, but his enthusiasm at earning money of his own is sabotaged when a customer pays him with an American Dime, useless in Scotland. This incident teaches him to be smart and cunning, and to make his money square. While gathering peat to sell to the wealthy, he gets chased into the castle by the Whiskervilles, where he meets the castle's caretaker. After scaring off the Whiskervilles with a knight filled with burning peat, he heads for the United States on a cattle boat.
2 The Master of the Mississippi 28 D 91411 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #286
1880–1882Scrooge makes his way to Kentucky in search of his uncle Angus "Pothole" McDuck. Angus wins Porker Hogg's steamboat The Dilly Dollar and reveals that he knows the location to the Drennan White, a steamboat carrying gold that sunk in the Mississippi River, where he was the sole survivor. Porker Hogg, wanting the gold for himself, hires the Beagle Boys to take down Angus' steamboat and steals water purification pills from Ratchet Gearloose. Angus hires Scrooge and Ratchet to get the treasure as well, and the two race to the Mississippi River with their boats. Angus and Scrooge discover the ship and the gold buried under mud carried by the river, and while the Beagle Boys take it, their ship is stopped by a river sawyer and they are arrested. Angus gives Scrooge the Dollar, and it is destroyed in another scheme by the Beagle Boys to steal gold. Scrooge decides to head westward to become a cowboy.
3 The Buckaroo of the Badlands 15 D 92008 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #287
1882–1883Scrooge becomes a cowboy and winds up having to recover a prize bull for his boss Murdo MacKenzie, then meeting future President Theodore Roosevelt while doing so.
4 The Raider of the Copper Hill 15 D 92083 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #288
1883–1885Scrooge moves to Montana where he hopes to take up prospecting. He moves to a plot of land in Butte, Montana after learning of valuable copper reserves, but struggles against the nearby Anacona Copper Mine. He takes prospecting lessons from Howard Rockerduck, and by chance hits the tip of one of the Anaconda Hill Copper veins, which through Apex Law would make him the owner of the entire mine. Scrooge fights off the townsfolk hoping to get on the land and wins ownership for himself. However, a letter from his family telling him to come home forces him to give up the mine and take a check for $10,000.
5 The New Laird of Castle McDuck 15 D 92191 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #289
1885When Scrooge returns to Scotland and reunites with his family, he learns that Castle McDuck is under threat of being bought out by the Whiskervilles. Scrooge laments that his bank draft would pay off the overdue taxes but make him broke again. The Whiskervilles challenge him to a duel, hoping to steal the draft. Scrooge wins with a sword enchanted by one of his ancestors, Sir Quackly, but a lightning strike sends him into the moat, knocking him unconscious. In the afterlife, Scrooge learns that he accidentally interfered with the intended events and would have to join his ancestors, but they send him back after learning he would become "the cheapest, stingiest, most miserly, turnip-squeezingest, penny-pinching tightwad on Earth". He uses his number one dime to unscrew his armor and take back the bank draft, as the Whiskervilles are chased off by visions of his ancestors.
6 The Terror of the Transvaal 12 D 92273 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #290
1886–1889Scrooge travels to the South African Republic to dig for gold and diamonds, but faces stiff competition. After being chased out of the diamond pit, he encounters a young Flintheart Glomgold, who he offers to give a ride back to town. However, Glomgold steals all of his gear and leaves Scrooge to the wilderness. Realizing thieves like the Beagle Boys will exist anywhere, Scrooge fights off the African wildlife and publicly humiliates Glomgold in the middle of town. With the possibility of striking gold fading in Africa, Scrooge packs up and leaves for Australia.
7 The Dreamtime Duck of the Never-Never 15 D 92314 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #291
1893–1896In Australia, Scrooge finds and saves an Aborigine shaman from a robber. The shaman follows Dreamtime beliefs and takes Scrooge to a cave, where a painting tells a story of an egg that gets stolen by a dingo. True to the prophecy, the robber returns to take a precious opal in the cave, and Scrooge gives chase. Scrooge retrieves the opal before a flood traps him in the cave. Before escaping, he decides to put the opal back where it belongs. Scrooge finds the shaman resting in a cave, where he finds his Number One Dime, which got washed up in the flood. He concludes that he is destined to be with the dime, and decides to head back to America to find new riches.
8 The King of the Klondike 24 D 92514 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #292
1896–1897Scrooge makes it to the Yukon, where he has garnered a reputation for his adventures. After losing his money in a barfight, Scrooge is forced to take a loan from loan shark and gambler Soapy Slick, as he becomes one of the first participants of the Klondike Gold Rush as Goldie O'Gilt observes his journey. Scrooge discovers an unexplored valley behind a glacier and makes a cabin near White Agony Creek, but gets kidnapped by Soapy after filing a claim for it, which he intends to steal. Scrooge destroys Soapy's casino boat and turns him in after he makes fun of his family, and he returns to White Agony Creek, where he finds a giant nugget of gold and becomes rich for the first time.
9 The Billionaire of Dismal Downs 15 D 93121 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #293
1898–1902After becoming a billionaire, Scrooge goes back to Scotland only to realize that he doesn't really belong there anymore, and so returns to the United States, accompanied by his sisters Matilda and Hortense.
10 The Invader of Fort Duckburg 15 D 93227 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #294
1902Scrooge and his sisters move to Duckburg, Calisota, United States and meet the Duck family and the founding three members of The Junior Woodchucks. Scrooge has his first run in with the Beagle Boys since his riverboat days and is reacquainted with President Theodore Roosevelt.
11 The Empire-Builder from Calisota 24 D 93288 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #295
1909–1930Scrooge spends the next 7 years traveling the world and building his empire, with Matilda and Hortense managing the business in Duckburg. He has begun to grow mean and develop dirtier tactics to earn money. On a trip to Africa, Scrooge destroys the village of a Voodoo tribe and forces its leader Foola Zoola to sign away the land for a rubber plant. As revenge, Foola summons Bombie the Zombie to constantly haunt him. Scrooge spends 20 more years traveling the world, finally ridding of Bombie by imprisoning him on an island in the South Pacific. He returns to Duckburg rude and bitter and disowns his family, to which a young Donald Duck kicks him in the back. Although he experiences a bout of remorse, he throws that out of his mind upon learning he is now the richest duck in the world.
12 The Richest Duck in the World 16 D 93488 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #296
1947On Christmas Day of 1947, one night after the events of Christmas on Bear Mountain, Donald and his grandnephews are invited to his mansion for Christmas Dinner. He reveals his money bin to them, running 100 feet deep and containing "3 cubic acres" of gold. A new generation of Beagle Boys disguised as street Santas arrive to steal the money and his Number One Dime, causing the ducks to give chase. Scrooge decides to start adventuring again, jumping into his money bin to relive old memories, while Donald remarks that his money is useless if he never spends it.

Companion stories

Part #Chapter TitlePagesStory codeFirst publication in United States
0Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies15 D 91249 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #297
1877 Magica De Spell travels back in time to steal Scrooge's Number One Dime before he earns it. She convinces who would be Scrooge's first customer to hand over his dime to her in exchange for 2 shillings, which he uses at a nearby bar. Realizing that the dime would have no worth if Scrooge never earned it, she quickly places it back in his hand before returning to the present.
3B The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark 24 D 98045 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #318
1883Scrooge imports cattle to the Dutch East Indies (present Indonesia) aboard the Cutty Sark but encounters a thief and meets his old friend Ratchet Gearloose from his Riverboat days, who helps the Cutty Sark survive the eruption of Krakatoa.
6BThe Vigilante of Pizen Bluff24 D 96089 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #306
1890Scrooge returns to the United States and joins with Phineas Taylor Barnum, his Uncle Pothole, Geronimo, Buffalo Bill, and Annie Oakley on a mission to recover stolen money from the Dalton Gang.
8B The Prisoner of White Agony Creek 33 D 2005-061 at Inducks The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion
1897Scrooge takes Goldie O'Gilt to his property and makes her dig for gold. This was shown in the uncensored Barks-classic "Back to the Klondike".
8CHearts of the Yukon24 D 95044 at Inducks Walt Disney Giant #1
1898Scrooge is falsely accused to the Mounties of tracking mud in Dawson. He plans to clear his name by any means and thinks that Glittering Goldie O'Gilt is the one that framed him.
10B The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut 26 F PM 01201 at Inducks Uncle Scrooge #332
1906Scrooge and his sisters, Matilda and Hortense McDuck, are prospecting for gold in Panama. Their search inadvertently interferes with the construction of the Panama Canal, at the same time President Roosevelt is visiting the country to oversee the project.

Censorship

In February 2023, The Walt Disney Company instated a worldwide ban from reprinting two of Don Rosa's duck stories; "The Empire-Builder from Calisota" (listed as "The Richest Duck in the World" in the announcement) and "The Dream of a Lifetime". [5] [6] Both stories were noted by Rosa to feature the character Bombie the Zombie, a zombie sent by the leader of a Voodoo tribe to haunt Scrooge, making future collections or reprints of Lo$ impossible as Rosa views the character to be integral to the story.

Scrooge McDuck timeline according to Rosa

Historical figures appearing in the work

Several notable historical figures appear in the series:

Other notable historical figures mentioned include:

Collected editions

Collections
Publication dateTitlePublisherFormatNumber of volumesIncluded contentReproductionISBNINDUCKS link
1996The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Gladstone Publishing Deluxe hardcover album

8.75 × 11.25 inches
223 × 286 mm
1Chapter 1 - 12Color
July 2005 - September 2006The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck [9] [10] Gemstone Publishing Softcover

6.5 × 10.1 inches
165 × 257 mm
2Vol .1 - Chapter 1 - 12
Vol. 2 - Companion chapters
ColorVol. 1 0-911903-96-8
Vol. 2 1-888472-40-5
Vol. 1
Vol. 2
March 2010 - December 2010The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck [11] [12] BOOM! Studios Hardcover

7 × 10.5 inches
178 × 267 mm
3Vol. 1 - Chapter 1 - 6
Vol. 2 - Chapter 7 - 12
Vol. 3 - Companion chapters
ColorVol. 1 978-1-60886-538-3
Vol. 2 978-1-60886-542-0
Vol. 3 978-1-60886-653-3
Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Vol. 3
June 24, 2015 [13] The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Artist's Edition [14] IDW Publishing Hardcover

14 × 22 inches
356 × 559 mm
1Vol. 1 - Chapter 1 - 6Full color scans of original Black-and-white artworkVol. 1 978-1-63140-301-9 Vol. 1
April 9, 2019 - October 29, 2019The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck [15] [16] Fantagraphics Books Hardcover

8.5 × 11 inches
216 × 279 mm
2Vol. 1 - Chapter 1 - 12

Vol. 2 - Companion chapters
+ Last Sled to Dawson ,
The Dream of a Lifetime ,
Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies ,
A Letter from Home
ColorVol. 1 978-1-68396-174-1
Vol. 2 978-1-68396-253-3
Set (Vol. 1+2) 978-1-68396-254-0
Vol. 1
Vol. 2
November 16, 2021The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Deluxe Edition Fantagraphics Hardcover
(with slipcase)

10.75 x 14.5 inches
273 × 368 mm
1Chapter 1 - 12
+
Companion chapters+ Last Sled to Dawson ,
The Dream of a Lifetime ,
Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies ,
A Letter from Home
Color 978-1-68396-465-0

The series has also been collected in volumes 4 and 5 of The Don Rosa Library, as "The Last of the Clan McDuck" and "The Richest Duck in the World"

References

  1. 1 2 "Don Rosa on himself". nafsk.se.
  2. Todd Klein 'Don Rosa and Uncle Scrooge', Retrieved 2019-06-04.
  3. "Eisner Awards: Past Recipients: 1990s". Comic-Con. 2 December 2012. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  4. "Lords of Metal interview with Tuomas Holopainen". lordsofmetal.nl. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  5. Schreur, Brandon (February 14, 2023). "Disney Reportedly Permanently Bans Two Don Rosa Uncle Scrooge Stories". CBR.
  6. Schreur, Brandon (February 28, 2023). "Don Rosa's Banned Uncle Scrooge Comics Prices Spike in Price". CBR.
  7. Don Rosa's drawing of Scrooge's grave at the INDUCKS
  8. 1 2 "The Times of Scrooge McDuck: The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark". Never Was Magazine. 13 December 2020. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  9. The Comics Journal review: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  10. Chapman reviews The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Retrieved 2019-06-03
  11. CBR Comic Book Previews - The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion, Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  12. Publishers Weekly, fiction book Review: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Vol. 1, Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  13. "Don Rosa's the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Artist's Edition, Volume One | Artist's Edition Index". 30 May 2016.
  14. Artist’s Edition Index review: Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Artist’s Edition, Volume One, Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  15. You Don't Read Comics review The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Volume 1, Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  16. The Comics Journal review: The Complete Life and Times of $crooge McDuck, Retrieved 2019-07-09.