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The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck - Episode 10

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UNCLE $CROOGE #294: "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck --The Invader ofFort Duckburg" (1902) "

[Cover 294] COVER: Well, yeah, dash it all -- this is the issue whenGladstone was forced to go to "self-covered" comics due to the

rising cost of paper and the loss of the o-so-sweet distribution deal withMarvel, which also compelled them to start putting that #@%& UPC code thingon the cover! Ah, well...

This is also the first of two covers which I did not do just forGladstone's presentation of this series. I did this cover a year earlierfor the German "Don Rosa Album" series, but in order to fit the ovalportrait (which is new) into the upper-left, Gladstone flipped the art overinto a mirror image of itself... and the portrait covered only a Beagle Boybeing blown sky-high by an artillery shell. They then also redrew theBeagle Boy's prison number so it wouldn't be bass-ackwards. However...

* *D.U.C.K. SPOILER*: ... they didn't redraw the dedication. That's whywhen you look in the dollar bill at bottom-center, you see thededication as if in a mirror.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------CHAPTER X:-- 15 pages:

This chapter X has always struck me as perhaps the most enjoyable in theseries, and that's probably because the plot does not seek to cover umpteenyears for a change, but simply picks up almost immediately after the end ofthe previous episode and tells of the events of two days in $crooge's life.I don't think any other chapter has so much action and logical interplay of"Barksian facts". But you want to hear them annotated, right? Let's takethem in order...

Each chapter has opened with a map -- therefore, this chapter must show thelocation of Fort Duckburg. Thank your lucky stars that I didn't inflictthat map with as many Duckburg landmarks as I could have, but I did stickin a few personal favorites. The Black Forest is mentioned in WALT DISNEY'SCOMICS AND STORIES #227; "Old Demontooth" Mountain is from WDC&S #157; theTulebug River is mentioned in the back-up story in UNCLE $CROOGE #15; andthe state of Calisota is mentioned in "The Gilded Man" in DONALD DUCK /FOUR COLOR #422. I won't bother to say precisely where I situated Duckburgand Calisota on America's west coast... it's not important. But if you getout a good map and compare the coastline, you'll see that I stuck the oldgold-prospector's adopted hometown directly across the bay from a veryappropriately named actual city.

All the details about $crooge's Rolls-Regal horseless shay, including itsfeatures and storage location, can be found in "The Chugwagon Derby" inUNCLE $CROOGE #34.

I showed $crooge buying Killmotor (Killmule) Hill from Casey Coot in my own"Last Sled to Dawson" in UNCLE $CROOGE ADVENTURES #5. The name of KillmotorHill was first given in the Barks 10-pager in WDC&S #135, the first storyto show the Money Bin.

 

Now we need to deal with some Duck family members and where they come from.Grandma Duck's first name was never given in any story by Barks, but it wasmentioned in the "Grandma Duck" feature in WDC&S #121. This is not a"Barksian fact", but Grandma is not a Barksian character, so I had noreason to ignore the name, as long as it was suitable. Donald's fatherQuackmore and Gladstone's mother Daphne were only mentioned the same place$crooge's sisters Hortense and Matilda were -- in that Duck Family Treethat Barks had done in the 50s for his own reference. But this is the firsttime they'd been put into "official" use. And Donald's Uncle Eider wasmentioned 'way back in WDC&S #47!

To me and probably lotsa other old Duck fans, the identity of Donald'sparents has been a well-known fact for decades, and was not even meant tobe anything but a background detail in this series, hidden way over here inchapter X. But what a sensation their identities caused in Europe...particularly Italy! In that country where the Disney Ducks are such anational institution, this was treated as a major revelation that literallymade front-page news and network TV for weeks! I was absolutely astoundedhow the Italian press picked up on that item. One should neverunderestimate the fame and popularity of these Ducks (as well as, perhaps,the promotional efforts of a few Italian Duck fans?)!!! These are truly theworld's most well-loved comic characters (though you'd never know it fromAmerica, unless you hopped in a time-machine and jumped backwards about 40years). Wow!

Anyway, my revealing the contents of Barks' old Duck Family Tree causedother problems with European translators and Duck readers. Barks' Treeclearly shows that $crooge and Grandma Duck are not related, and there areseveral reasons why that would obviously be true. Yet, unbeknownst to mewho grew grew up on American Disney comics, European comics have alwaystold of $crooge and Grandma being brother and sister, making GrandmaDonald's mother! I'm sorry to accidentally disrupt that tradition... butthat's just not the way it's ever been in American comics.

Fort Duckburg being on the future site of the Money Bin comes from "TheMoney Well" in UNCLE $CROOGE #21. Occupying the old fort in my story arethe first three Junior Woodchucks, and references to them in this tale arepartly gleaned from my own "Guardians of the Lost Library" in UNCLE $CROOGEADVENTURES #27. In the Woodchuck Museum in that story you'll see that bigol' Guidebook and a display mentioning the tall kid, Fulton Gearloose(Ratchet's son and Gyro's father).

We saw this Beagle Boy gang back in chapter II; note again that thesearen't the modern Beagles -- these are their parents (and grandfather) whomBarks used in the old Dell giant UNCLE $CROOGE IN DISNEYLAND. The fact thatGrandpa Beagle had this homestead on section 26 of the Tulebug Rivershoreline comes from "The Money Well" story mentioned above.

The previous meeting of $crooge and Teddy Roosevelt was in chapter III ofthis series. And the Transvaal story $crooge is telling Teddy was firstrelated in "The Looney Lunar Gold Rush" in UNCLE $CROOGE #49. I never dealtwith that event in the African episode since it smacks of a tall tale that$crooge might pull out to regale listeners (similarly, he once claimed tohave sold road-maps to Marco Polo).

That brings us to the matter of when the Money Bin was built. A fewEuropean readers claimed that my date of 1902 contradicted the 1951 storyin WDC&S #135 where Donald visits $crooge's "new Money Bin". I contend thatBarks created $crooge gradually between 1947 and 1952... we all know that$crooge McDuck was originally intended to simply be a one-shot character

 

and that no one, Barks included, ever suspected $crooge would eventuallysurpass even Donald in popularity, particularly in American comics! WDC&S#135 was simply when Barks first came up with the classic idea of a MoneyBin, but thereafter he treated the Bin as though it had always been around.As proof of that, and for further corroboration on the matters of the Fort,the river and the fact that $crooge's presence was the catalyst forDuckburg's growth, check the untitled back-up story in UNCLE $CROOGE #15for these comments by $crooge/Barks: "I bought this land when there wasnothing... but a fort on the Tulebug River". "I built my fortune here andwatched the city grow up... around me." "My Money Bin and I have been here(on Killmotor Hill) for 70 years!" This actually places the building of theBin not in 1951 or even in my 1902, but in the impossibly early year of1886. But I regard this as an indication that Barks' ultimate intention wasthat the Bin had been in Duckburg as long as $crooge had, ergo my decisionon 1902.

* INSANE DETAILS TO NOTE:

I made a few changes from the original script -- we'll present the originalscript pages here in an attempt to bore you silly.

I wrote this story during the last presidential election. That explains whyGrandma Duck's father is named Clinton Coot. My making Grandma into agranddaughter of ol' Cornelius Coot would explain a lot of things and makefor some nice story possibilities... but it's not a "Barksian fact".

Political correctitude rears its ugly head on page 5, panel 2: "attacks byinsurgents" was "attacks by bloodthirsty Indians and Mexican insurgents" inmy original script.

Copyright infringement fear rears its ugly head on page 8, panel 6: I'dsaid "Lone Ranger", natch. And "Tonto" on the next page. But no big deal.

What a shock I had when I saw Gladstone's page 10! When I made my research,and needed to give coloring notes to Egmont, I can't tell you the trouble Ihad finding COLOR pictures of the Rough Riders' uniforms or the Americanwarships of 1902! But I tracked it down after calls to various militaryexperts, and gave the proper coloring notes to Egmont, and the instructionswere followed in Europe. I can't recall off-hand exactly how the RoughRiders' uniforms were supposed to be colored, but Gladstone has anythingthat is supposed to be brown, blue... and vice versa. But the tragedy isthe warships! American warships of 1902 had snow-white hulls with red atthe waterline, and a tan superstructure above. Gorgeous! But in theGladstone issues they're "battleship gray". Blah. But it's not Susan'sfault -- Egmont didn't send any coloring notes, as usual. If I had onlyknown (sob)...

Animal rights rears its ugly head on Page 11, panel 7: I had some horselegs sticking out of the rubble, with the people legs. But the horse legsare gone. Cruelty to animals, I guess. Fair enough...

Speaking of how this issue looks, it frankly was quite a disappointment allaround. First the cover, then the coloring... but especially the rathermuddy printing. Gladstone can't control this as they'd like... but thealbum reprints should have much sharper images.

Movie buffery rears its ugly head on page 14, panel 3: "...and I hacked myway through a wall of human flesh, dragging my canoe behind me!" is aW.C.Fields routine from DIXIE with Bing Crosby. Actually, I'm stillsurprised it got through.

 

* *D.U.C.K. SPOILER*: the splash-panel dedication is in the valentine'sleft frill.

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