Plot
In 1880, young Scrooge McDuck has travelled to America to seek his fortune. Making his way to New Orleans, he looks up his Uncle Angus "Pothole" McDuck, and helps him as a deckhand on his steamboat alongside the inventor and engineer Ratchet Gearloose, racing to be first to a site along the Mississippi River to salvage a shipment of gold from a ship that sank 30 years earlier while transporting it for the government. The Beagle Boys are also in pursuit of the gold and comes to fight Scrooge and Pothole about it.
After being caught by the Beagle Boys, Scrooge tricks them, and their riverboat is destroyed. In the end, no one gets the gold, as the government takes it back. Scrooge then takes full employment on Pothole's boat, and after a few years when Pothole retires, Scrooge buys it for himself. However, this just as the steam powered locomotives are gaining popularity as a mean of transportation and railroad is being laid across the nation, making riverboats somewhat obsolete.
During one later boat ride, Scrooge transports more government gold, when he comes across a lady giving away free firewood - a deal that Scrooge simply cannot resist. However, the lady turns out to be a Beagle Boy in disguise. The Beagle Boys takes the gold and locks Scrooge and Ratchet in the boiler room, after having loaded and locked shut one of the boilers full of pine knots and pitch - to make the boiler pressure overload and explode the boiler due to pressure. Scrooge and Ratchet seeks protection in the other boiler among loads of stuffed cotton.
In the meantime, the boat, only running on one boiler, makes a turn on the water and runs ashore, violently following the Beagle Boys across land. Upon reaching their hideout, the boiler - and with it, the boat - explodes. Scrooge and Ratchet, having hidden in the other boiler, are all right, while the Beagle Boys are taken to jail.
Since he no longer has a riverboat, Scrooge decides to move west, along the railroad and so he takes a job as a fireman on the Wabash Cannonball.
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.
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.
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.
Gyro Gearloose is a cartoon character created in 1952 by Carl Barks for Disney comics. An anthropomorphic chicken, he is part of the Donald Duck universe, appearing in comic book stories as a friend of Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, and anyone who is associated with them. He was also featured in the animated series DuckTales. Gyro first appeared in the Carl Barks comic "Gladstone's Terrible Secret", and was the regular lead character in 4-page backup stories in Barks' issues of Uncle Scrooge, starting with issue #13 and continuing through #41.
The Donald Duck universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting of stories involving Disney cartoon character Donald Duck, as well as Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Scrooge McDuck, and many other characters. Life in the Donald Duck universe centers on the city of Duckburg and is a part of the larger Mickey Mouse universe. In addition to the original comic book stories by Carl Barks, the Duckburg cast was featured in Little Golden Books, television series such as DuckTales (1987–1991), Darkwing Duck (1991–1992), and the DuckTales reboot (2017–2021), and video games such as DuckTales (1989), QuackShot (1991), Goin' Quackers (2000), and DuckTales: Remastered (2013).
The Beagle Boys are a group of cartoon characters created in 1951 by Carl Barks for the Donald Duck universe. They are a family clan of organized criminals who constantly try to rob Scrooge McDuck. Their introduction and first appearance was in "Terror of the Beagle Boys", although in this story they only appear in the last frame and have no lines. They appear again in the next issue in a similar fashion, in The Big Bin on Killmotor Hill.
John D. Rockerduck is a cartoon character created in 1961 by The Walt Disney Company for the Duck universe. He is one of Scrooge McDuck's main rivals in Disney comics. His name is a play on that of John D. Rockefeller, the American capitalist and philanthropist. Though a relatively obscure character in the United States, Rockerduck is an example of a character who has become notable in the foreign market, particularly in stories produced for the Italian market. He made his first animated appearance in 2019, in the second season of the DuckTales reboot.
Uncle Scrooge is a Disney comic book series starring Scrooge McDuck, his nephew Donald Duck, and grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and revolving around their adventures in Duckburg and around the world. It was first published in Four Color Comics #386, as a spin-off of the popular Donald Duck series and is still presently ongoing. It has been produced under the aegis of several different publishers, including Western Publishing, Gladstone Publishing, Disney Comics, Gemstone Publishing, Boom! Studios, and IDW Publishing, and has undergone several hiatuses of varying length. Despite this, it has maintained the same numbering scheme throughout its six decade history, with only IDW adding a secondary numbering that started at #1.
"Horsing Around with History" is a 32-page Disney comics story starring Scrooge McDuck, written by Carl Barks and drawn by William Van Horn. It was published in Uncle Scrooge Adventures #33.
DuckTales is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It originally premiered on syndication on September 18, 1987, and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four seasons, with its final episode airing on November 28, 1990. Based upon Uncle Scrooge and other Duck universe comic books created by Carl Barks, the show follows Scrooge McDuck, his three grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and close friends of the group, on various adventures, most of which either involve seeking out treasure or thwarting the efforts of villains seeking to steal Scrooge's fortune or his Number One Dime.
"Only a Poor Old Man" is a 32-page Disney comics story written, drawn, and lettered by Carl Barks. It was published in Four Color #386 as the first issue of Uncle Scrooge. Scrooge McDuck had already made his debut as a supporting character in the 1947 Donald Duck story "Christmas on Bear Mountain", and made several other appearances in Donald Duck stories in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, but "Poor Old Man" was the first comic book story with Scrooge as the main character.
"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.
Sport Goofy in Soccermania is an animated television special produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for The Walt Disney Company. It originally aired May 27, 1987, on NBC. During its television debut it was preceded by a mockumentary showing past Goofy cartoons of him always getting everything wrong and leading into the cartoon special where the audience is finally shown a competent, athletic Goofy who is the hero.
"The Richest Duck in the World" or "The Recluse of McDuck Manor" is a 1994 Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa. It is the twelfth of the original 12 chapters in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The story takes place on Christmas Day, 1947.
"The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark" is a 1998 Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa. The story takes place between The Buckaroo of the Badlands and Raider of the Copper Hill in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck making it part 3B.
"The Beagle Boys vs. the Money Bin" is a 2001 Donald Duck comic by Don Rosa. Rosa's inspiration for it was mostly to get a chance to thoroughly demonstrate the Money Bin, invented by Carl Barks.
DuckTales: Remastered is a Metroidvania-style platform video game developed by WayForward Technologies and published by Capcom. The game is a high-definition remake of DuckTales, a game released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989. It was released for multiple gaming platforms, including the PlayStation 3, Wii U, Windows, and Xbox 360, over a three-month period between August and November 2013, and later expanded to Android, iOS, and Windows Phone in April 2015. The game was temporarily delisted from digital storefronts in August 2019, but was relisted in March 2020.
"The Menehune Mystery" is a 32-page Disney comics story written and drawn by Carl Barks, and lettered by his wife Garé Barks. Mrs. Barks had grown up in Hawaii and suggested elements of the story to her husband. "Menehune" was first published in Uncle Scrooge #4. Characters in the story include Donald Duck, his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, the Beagle Boys, and Uncle Scrooge. The story has been reprinted many times.
