--------------------------------------------------------------------------The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck - Episode 12 --------------------------------------------------------------------------UNCLE $CROOGE #296 -- "The Life and Times of $crooge

McDuck -- The Richest Duck in the World" (Christmas Day, 1947). [Cover 296] COVER: As always, Susan colored this scene very nicely, and the @#$% coverless-cover paper again actually works well by showing no gloss in this nighttime scene. My original idea for this cover was to have an old, limp, defeated $crooge in Grandpa Beagle's grasp, but we decided that looked too morose -- $crooge actually looked deceased, and not simply winded after a long squawk. So, we decided on a more characteristically ornery $crooge... the best kind! I know it's not clear, but the one nephew is supposed to be indicating to Unca Donald that the bag of money the one Beagle is carrying actually belongs to that poor old Duck there (they have never met $crooge at the start of my story, and don't really know how rich he is). And Donald's butt is too small again! Drat! * *D.U.C.K. SPOILER*: the dedication is in the 4 coins below the dollar bill in the open money sack. --------------------------------------------------------------------------CHAPTER XII: - Conclusion - 16 & 19 pages: And there you have it. I end with the same scene with which the series opened, 212 pages ago. That's just the sort of corny thing we writers (and writer/artists) like to do! Byron's choice for the European title for this story was "The Recluse of McDuck Manor", which is a good title, but I'd just had my little heart set on my title for 2 1/2 years. And it was, believe it or else, the sheerest coincidence that this story appeared in a Gladstone issue precisely in time for Christmas! It's a Christmas story, to be sure, but it was never specifically timed when I first did it to appear in a Christmas-issue comic -- that's just the time-setting that chapter XII had to have to tie into Barks' original $crooge story. Some countries delayed publication of the story until Christmas, but when Gladstone started with episode I in early 1994, they didn't know that the setting of chapter XII would make their printing of it seem timed perfectly. Though I've made passing references to CITIZEN KANE in other $crooge stories over the past 8 years, such as in my "Last Sled to Dawson" and "His Majesty McDuck", this time I pulled out all the stops since this final chapter seemed to scream for the same newsreel opening as in that classic film. Of course, when I drew the first frame of the newsreel, I had no choice but to omit the title "NEWS ON THE MARCH" since I'm primarily working for non-English-speaking audiences. But how delighted I was when I bought this Gladstone printing and saw that, without being instructed to do so, Todd master-letterer Klein took it upon himself to check a videotape of CITIZEN KANE and add the newsreel logo exactly as in the film! Wotta guy! Do I really see $crooge McDuck as Charles Foster Kane? No, not at all, really -- Kane inherited all his wealth while $crooge worked for every cent of his. Still, one can't avoid the similarity in the two impossibly wealthy, yet ultimately discontent characters. Kane seemed to spend his life trying to find out what his inherited wealth was good for, trying to use it to buy himself happiness and respect and love, and he lost all sight

of his "Rosebud" until it was too late. $crooge was never interested in what money could buy (obviously, since he never spends it!) and never lost sight of his "Rosebud"... that it's the memories and personal achievements behind his fortune that give it value in his life. And yet, the burden of protecting his fortune from the greedy hands of those who want it for all the wrong reasons will always prevent him from being as content as his nephew Donald, for whom a simple ice cream soda is complete happiness. That's the idea I always got from the last page of "Only a Poor Old Man", my personal nomination for the single best page of comic bookery of all time... and Barks did it all more eloquently in one page than I could in 212. Am I babbling? That's because there are so few Barksian references in this last chapter to discuss. Obviously, the major reference is to the first $crooge story, "Christmas on Bear Mountain" in DONALD DUCK / FOUR COLOR #178, which acts as the framework for my tale. My story fits in immediately before the last page of that original 1947 story. In other words, it happens after the night on Bear Mountain (which had been Christmas Eve) and before the Ducks attend a Christmas Day dinner at McDuck Manor. In my version, the Ducks had never met their Uncle $crooge before, but naturally knew of him... you'll see nothing in the original 1947 story to suggest otherwise. Still, I won't say my story fits too smoothly inside the original. In DD/FC#178 $crooge has stems on his glasses rather than a pince-nez, and a parted beard under his chin rather than his later sideburn-whiskers. Though I tried to draw certain aspects of my story to match the original, I still opted to give $crooge his later appearance rather than his 1947 look. And I don't have him in the same ebullient mood as when he departed Bear Mountain after spying on his nephews -- the logic of my story depended on $crooge being back in the same sour state as at the beginning of that 1947 tale... perhaps he's cranky after not getting any sleep the previous night? Oops! -- John the chauffeur looks rather different, but that's an error I made in the new pages I did just for Gladstone's printing (more on that later). Anyway, trying to dovetail the conclusion of this whole series into "Christmas on Bear Mountain" was my intention from the start and part of the fun of the whole project, and this was my way of handling it. There are other quirks about this tale which I saw as part of the fun of trying to explain that which did not need explaining, which is how you might describe the entire series. F'rinstance, why had we never heard of $crooge prior to late 1947? Perhaps he was in seclusion, and no one really knew the extent of his wealth? I also wanted to clarify a part of the McDuck "legend" that I think has gone seriously astray in the last 30-odd years -- the idea of his #1 Dime being a "lucky dime". That notion goes against the most fundamental truth behind the McDuck greatness -- that he owes not a penny of his wealth to mere luck! Every cent has been earned by hard work and savvy! Now, about those "new pages": prior to Gladstone's 19-page printing, this story had appeared around the rest of the world in a 16-page form. I always thought that version was very abrupt in several spots -- and I had already begged a 16th page onto my usual 15 page limit for that original version. But for Gladstone I added three extra pages, not all at once or even as pages, but as tiers of panels spread throughout the story (which got rather complicated). For those who are interested, I'll try to describe to Gladstone readers which panels were the new additions, and do it in such a way so European readers of these syllables will know which scenes were expanded upon. (Skip ahead if you have a low boredom threshold... or if that's true, you shouldn't be here at all, eh?).

* NEW ADDITIONS: Page 4, panels 8-10 (a walk through $crooge's trophy collection). Page 5, panel 5 ($crooge meets his nephews) is redrawn, and the following original panels are widened to fill out the next few tiers. Page 6, panels 8-10 (back in $crooge's trophy room). Page 11, panels 9 & 10 (carrying $crooge's memorabilia trunk out and hopping aboard for a slide). Page 12, panels 5-9 (the Ducks give chase and the Beagles see them coming). Page 14, panels 3-6 (more hijinx during the chase). Page 15, panels 1 & 2 (ditto). Page 16, panels 5-7 (psycho-drama back at the Bin). Page 17, panels 8-10 (the best addition -- $crooge gets revenge for his first encounter with Donald). ...In these new panels I made an addition of a Barksian reference that was missing from the series since it had taken place during a year that the series hadn't touched on, 1908 ... I refer to the painting (photo?) in $crooge's trophy collection depicting a scene from "Black Wednesday" (WDC&S #230). I also added another trophy to $crooge's collection which would have been sorta impossible for 1947 -- the 1995 Eisner Award that all concerned with this series won in America for "Best Serialized (long) Story" of the year. I'm somewhat torn about the addition of this -- there's no denying that it's a cute gag, but it steps out of the realistic framework that I so carefully create around my stories. But perhaps my attitude is sorta like that scene in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT where Roger was unable to slip his "toon" hand out of some handcuffs until such time as it was funny to do so. Same with me, I guess; I take my Duck comics far too seriously and I will never, never, never compromise the realistic aspects of my $crooge stories, ever, not no time, not no how... until it's funny to do so. But the Eisner Award is hanging on a wall, right? And those background pictures hanging on the wall in Donald's home in the old Barks stories have frequently had impossible things happening in them, right? So, the precedent was already set! Yeah! * INSANE DETAILS TO NOTE: I wanted to do something sorta special for this final splash panel, so I drew a scene of a jumble of coins in the Money Bin... each coin, and I mean every single coin, drawn with a different hole in a different template. This might be the most insane single detail in the entire series! My original script called for the splash panel caption to say "Christmas Day, 1947", and for the sign in the shop window on page 3 to say "SALE! BRAND NEW 1948 MODEL TV SETS"... but they just won't allow the years to be mentioned in these stories... and that's okay, since it would confuse the kiddies. Nice of the coloring to go off-register in the Gladstone edition just in time for the big scene where $crooge and his nephews first meet. Oh, well...

Movie buffery rearing its ugly head again on page 7, panel 3: "If you'll just lean forward a bit, I can crack you on the skull with this cane" is one of many classic lines spoken by Clifton Webb, this one from his very first film, LAURA. And I see another movie line on page 8, panel 2: "thimble-headed gherkin" is what Prof. Fate calls Max in THE GREAT RACE. And what $crooge says about his Goose Egg Nugget on page 15 is what Humphrey Bogart said about the black bird in THE MALTESE FALCON -- gad, I constantly have movie dialogue floating around in my head! Get it out! Out!!! Speaking of Rosebud, Donald is finding it in a trunk on page 11, panel 1. Don't ask me to explain. Whew! So many too-small Duck heads with too-big eye pupils here! (sigh) $crooge is fibbing about being Wild Bill Hickok's teacher. Wild Bill was dead before $crooge ever came to America, and was certainly "educated" long before $crooge was even born. In Europe, they couldn't use the gag concerning the "12 Days of Christmas" song and the other comment about the police looking for rogue drummers drumming. But they couldn't remove the background of panel 3 on page 16 with the cop chasing the drummer. What did European readers make of that, I wonder? That last page I had planned all along, and as a full-page. How many full-page illustrations have ever appeared in a Disney comic? Barks did two that I recall, both in Dell giant comics. Any others...? Page 14, panel 3: the word "ransome" was inserted by guest-letterer Dan Quayle. * *D.U.C.K. SPOILER*: the splash panel dedication is written on the wad of bills in the upper right. --------------------------------------------------------------------------[Pencil Page] [Black and White Art] [Home]