Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Appendix 1: Scrooge & Goldie

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

My earlier posts here on Don Rosa's magnificent epic, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck seemed to go down well, so I decided to spread the praise for the richest duck in the world a little further, and present some scenes from other important parts of Scrooge's life, stories that weren't included in the twelve-part miniseries but still fit into its continuity.

There'll be two "appendix" posts, both including snippets not only from Don Rosa's comics but also a bit from the late, great Carl Barks. And this first of the two is, of course, dedicated to Scrooge's one-true-love-that-almost-was, Glittering Goldie O'Gilt.


(Oil painting by Carl Barks)



If there was one big flaw in The Life and Times, it was the general lack of Goldie. However, Don Rosa later wrote and drew several "extra" stories about the young Scrooge, stuff that had to be cut from the original twelve-parter but still deserved some attention.

Only one epoch in Scrooge's life was deemed worthy of two extra stories, though; namely his time in the Klondike. And both stories further explore his relationship with Glittering Goldie and what might have been.

Before we get to that story, however, here's a little treat for you: The flashback scene from the original Scrooge/Goldie story, Carl Barks's classic Back to the Klondike from 1953 (32 pages). The story itself takes place mostly in modern times, where Scrooge and his nephews travel to the Klondike in order to find the aged Glittering Goldie.

Romantic? Not really. Scrooge's real reason for wanting to find her (or so he claims) is that she owes him a whole lot of money.

He does, however, take the time to tell Huey, Dewey and Louie the story of why Goldie owes him so much money, triggering a four-page-long flashback scene.


Life and Times timeline-wise, this scene takes place shortly after Scrooge finds the "goose-egg" gold nugget that finally makes him rich.











This flashback was actually removed from the first printing of Back to the Klondike, (the pages were re-drawn by Barks and restored to the story in 1981) because Barks's publisher (Dell comics) didn't like the implications of Scrooge's actions here. Of course, the worst part was that he'd kidnapped Goldie and made her live and work with him for a month... what did he do with her at night?



Don Rosa would expand on this story several decades later, in the story The Prisoner of White Agony Creek (33 pages), delivering a story that is quite probably the raunchiest of all the Disney Duck comics. If Barks had tried to tell this story in 1953, his publishers would have fainted -- because the implications and innuendoes are anything but subtle in this one.

It tells the story of what actually happened during that one month when Goldie was with Scrooge. And as you might have guessed, Rosa really goes to town with the quasi-romantic tension between the two.







(You might have noticed, in Life and Times, that Scrooge kept a lock of hair amongst his most valuable treasures -- well, this is how he got it.)


It's not all pseudo-romance, though: Soapy Slick, out for revenge against Scrooge, convinces the three men shown here -- who turn out to be none other than Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and "Hangin' Judge" Roy Bean -- to go and rescue Goldie.

Hopwever, Goldie (hoping to get her hands on the goose-egg nugget) isn't all that willing to let herself be rescued.





The resulting fight is pretty much standard for the young Scrooge, as is a follow-up chase scene and battle with two lowlives calling themselves Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who are also after both Goldie and the goose-egg nugget. The end result, however, is that Goldie does end up with the nugget after Scrooge has been knocked unconscious...

...but in the end, she can't bring herself to steal it.









See what I mean about implications? The big question now is, did they, or didn't they? We may never know for sure.




The next Scrooge/Goldie tale in the timeline is Hearts of the Yukon (24 pages), which takes place a year after Prisoner of White Water Creek and features a new arrival in the town of Dawson...





Yep, the people of Dawson eye a golden opportunity to get rid of Scrooge here. Of course, Goldie eyes a different opportunity...






You know, I'll include an extra page with Colonel Steele here, just because he's awesome.






After much chasing and fighting and back and forth, a fire has broken out in Dawson, and Scrooge is there to swoop in and rescue Goldie from the burning Blackjack ballroom...







Or possibly not. In any case, the misunderstanding with the law is cleared up, Steele finally gets his motto right (after a bit of a false start) and Scrooge is free to go:





The story ends with Goldie writing a letter to Scrooge, hoping that when he gets it, he'll return to her... but Scrooge, having lost his faith in her, thinks that it's probably just another complaint or lawsuit she's filed against him, and throws the letter away, unopened, to spare himself from seeing "the poison inside."

And there the story rests, and the two ducks go their separate ways, never to speak to each other again... well, not until fifty years later, in the events depicted in Barks's Back to the Klondike.






Well, I didn't say it was all flowers and candy. If you've seen the DuckTales episode that was based on this story, you've actually seen an extremely romantisized and sugar-coated version of the real tale: The DuckTales Scrooge was softened up a bit for TV and is on the whole rather more sentimental and soft-hearted than the Scrooge you find in the comics -- and Barks's Scrooge, even in this story, has to be dragged kicking and screaming along for ages before he'll admit to caring about anything but money.

That said, when he finds out that Goldie really did turn over a new leaf (she gave away her money to support children who were orphaned after mining accidents), he does manage to get her off the hook in a pretty clever way that he's convinced fools everybody into thinking has nothing to do with him going soft:






Yep, Goldie just found the secret cache of nuggets that Scrooge hid there fifty years ago, for emergency. Scrooge claims to have forgotten that this was where he hid it, and spends most of the trip back to Duckburg moaning and lamenting his loss... but Donald isn't fooled for a minute, having seen through the frankly pretty transparent ploy.

And that is the story of Scrooge and Goldie... well, so far, at least. Present-day Goldie does appear in a few other stories, particularly by Don Rosa, and it's not at all certain that the last word has been said.






(Two half-pages from A Little Something Special, 29 pages, a story made in 1997 for the fiftieth anniversary of Scrooge's first appearance in Christmas on Bear Mountain.)



Next appendix post will be dedicated to another aspect of Scrooge's life, namely his family.

See you then!

Comments

[tilly_stratford.insanejournal.com]

Aw!

I remember I had a print of Hearts of the Yukon when I was a child and read the heck out of it - and it cemented my love for Don Rosa. Colonel Steele is awesome, that faked rescue attempt is hilarious... Great story.

[midare.insanejournal.com]

Brb, melting into a puddle of goo.
I absolutely love Goldie and Scrooge's relationship. And, of course, Don Rosa getting crap past the radar as is his wont. Thank you for posting - I haven't read The Prisoner of White Agony Creek... frankly, I didn't even know it existed before reading this post, but now that I do, I MUST HAVE THIS.

But I have to ask - why didn't you include "The Last Sled to Dawson"? It was a lovely story.

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

It was a good story, and I did consider including some exerpts of it here, but in the end decided against it, for two reasons:

1: It takes place mostly in modern-day times, and I wanted to focus primarily on the Klondike days (during the one flashback to the old days, Goldie doesn't even appear, even if she plays an important role in the rest of the story). I thought the modern-day Goldie was best represented by Back to the Klondike, so I included that... and those two half-pages at the end was chosen for the blatant romance, which I found a fitting (and funny) point to end the post on.

2: I just couldn't figure out how to recap the story in any way that was satisfactory.

So I skipped Last Sled to Dawson in this post, along with one of my favorite Rosa comics, The Dream of a Lifetime, since the Goldie that appears there is just in Scrooge's dream.

Any readers who are curious, though: Last Sled to Dawson is one of gthe comics Don Rosa made before Life and Times, and marks the first time he used Goldie in a story. It reveals the story (though, unlike the other comics here, mainly through dialogue and deductions by Huey, Dewey and Louie) of the one final time Scrooge tried to reconsile with Goldie before he left the Klondike, and why he never did.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

God, the bit with the fight in the cabin had me on the floor. This pair is adorably in the way they go on.

[(Anonymous)]

There's something distinctly "Taming of the Shrew" about that kidnapping story.

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

This comic universe just impresses me more the more I see of it!

Hooray!

[mattshepherd.insanejournal.com]

I was just reading up on the sideways history of Donald Duck's evil incarnation Paperink earlier today (http://www.salimbeti.com/paperinik/en/origins.htm) so it was really nice to stumble across this. Thank you!

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Great stuff, reading this certainly brightened up my day!

Re: Hooray!

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

Pretty cool, although Paperinik isn't really evil. In the earliers stories, Paperinik was an alter-ego Donald created in order to get revenge on everyone who had wronged him, but this alter-ego soon became more heroic, and in all the modern stories that feature him (they're all Italian stories, by the way; there's little to suggest that Paperinik exists in the universe that Carl Barks/Don Rosa presents here) treats the character as more of a masked crimefighter a la Batman.

I tend to view the Paperinik stories as taking place in an alternate universe. But then again, Disney Duck comics often play fast and loose with continuity. ^_^

Re: Hooray!

[mattshepherd.insanejournal.com]

I'm just falling down the Paperinik well now, with Phantom Duck and the PK universe and all its weird, weird offshoots. I gathered that he started as a villain and then got softened by Disney, but I could well be wrong on that.

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

I don't think so. "Taming of the Shrew" was about breaking a woman's spirit and making her subservient. Here, Scrooge is forcing her to learn to earn her own money squarely and stop leaching off people. If anything, Goldie is stronger after her ordeal, and more capable to stand on her own than she ever was before.

Re: Hooray!

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

IMO, it's not so much that he started as a villain and got softened. Donald has always been a kind person at heart, and always had a sense of justice. But because his family (ie, Scrooge and Gladstone Gander) gave him so much pain, he grew extremely frustrated.

The first times he put on the mask and costume, he acted villain-ish simply as a way to get back at them, working out his frustration in the process. After that, with a cooler head, he went all "humm, I have all these cool weapons and tools, what should I do with them?", and started fighting crime instead :P

If you like Paperinik, I wholeheartedly recommend the fantastic PKNA series (49 issues + 3 "zero" issues + 4 specials; ignore the "ongoing" label, the series ended years ago). There was also a second series, PK² (it lasted 19 issues), but it wasn't nearly as good (still decent, though). Finally, there was a third series that was actually a reboot, but it was terrible, so I suggest you avoid it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PKNA

I don't know if it has been translated into English, but if it has, it's definitely worth reading. I loved that comic so much, I was heartbroken when they decided to go with an idiotic reboot D:

*waves PKer flag*

[thehefner.insanejournal.com]

Absolutely magnificent! I love this format of combining the Barks and Rosa stories in chronological (in the stories themselves) order!

[cmdr_zoom.insanejournal.com]

Col. Steele, so awesome that mud will not stick to him.

[xandertarbert.insanejournal.com]

Judge Roy Bean just saved those men's lives.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

This is one of the reasons why Scrooge McDuck is so awesome - he was badass decades before the term itself was even coined. I mean, look at that sequence in 'the Blackjack'. Scrooge McDuck, the shortest, scrawniest-looking person in town, marches into the saloon, and what does he say? "Weaklings and cowards have ten seconds to clear out!" He then proceeds to singlehandedly beat unconscious enough sturdy ruffians of the tundra so that when he's finished, their bodies are STACKED A STORY HIGH! You do NOT mess with Scrooge McDuck.
Oh, and Colonel Steele is a pretty worthy opponent, also. "Mr. London, Superintendent Sam Steele of the NWMP does not get... muddy!" If there's any justice, he went on to become governor of a province or something like that.

[lbd_nytetrayn.insanejournal.com]

I was fortunate enough to come by some Disney comics at Anime North, of which I got two books for ten dollars (which, given the $6.95 and $10.95 cover prices, wasn't bad at all). They aren't anything terribly special, but still good Disney fun.

But I was wondering, of the small lot I've managed to collect, I don't think I've seen the likes of Mickey, Goofy, and Pete interacting with Donald, Scrooge, etc. Asking if all this stuff takes place in the same universe almost feels kind of silly, but I am curious whether or not there have been any "crossovers," so to speak. I'd love to see some Mickey and Donald and such.

I'm also sort of curious if the likes of, say, Chip n' Dale have any place here, given Donald was a frequent rival of theirs in the cartoons.

Also, these comics have left me with a real jonesing for the old Capcom Disney games.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

Happy to oblige! If you go by Don Rosa's series only, then Mickey, Goofy and crew are not part of the Duck universe (but then, he doesn't particularly like Mickey).

He did at one point plan, and do a basic script and sketches to, a story where Mickey and Goofy did appear, but this story treated Mickey as a famous movie star whom Donald spent the entire story trying to get the autoograph of. They only met on the very last page, after Donald, victim of a huge slapstick sequence, collapses on the street and Mickey comes by and helps him up. The twist is that Donald doesn't believe that this is the famous Mickey Mouse, because "everybody knows Mickey is a tall, good-looking guy."

Disney didn't like the idea, so the story was never published.

If you move away from Don Rosa's story only, though, the official stanze on it is that Mickey and Donald do indeed exist in the same universe, even though their stories and lives are mostly kept separate, and they do cross over occasionally -- according to several European-made (and translated) official publications, Mickey, Goofy et al. even live in Duckburg (just in another part of the city, which is why they don't meet up with the Ducks too often). The American publications tend to treat them as living in different cities and having to travel a bit in order to meet up, but personally I like the idea of having Mickey and Goofy live in Duckburg.

As for Chip an' Dale, they have been in many comics and clashed with Donald several times in the past (although the chipmunks tended to be less sadistic in the comics than they were in the cartoons), but I haven't seen them in comics for years now... they seem to have been phased out with the introduction of the Chip'n'Dale Rescue Rangers cartoon, which portrays them in a completely different situation, and it looks like they've just stayed mostly away from the comics even after the cartoon series ended.

Re: Hooray!

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

I didn't follow the entire PKNA run, but I do applaud it for trying to do something different with Donald, and quite a few of the stories were really good, so I'll support the recommendation... even if it has to be hell to try and get your hands on in America.

PK2 wasn't anywhere near as good, and the reboot was... I read the first issue of that, and that was enough. Paperinik being created because aliens chose Donald as a champion of Earth? Get real. It just goes to prove, I think, that lightning rarely strikes twice.

[lbd_nytetrayn.insanejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for the info. :)

Too bad for Chip 'n Dale. I wouldn't mind seeing more stuff like that Disney Adventures comic, where it was sort of like one big world... to say nothing of having TaleSpin in the past and Darkwing Duck in the next town over.

I wonder if they can use DW, and just don't, or something else...

With all due respect to Rosa, which is huge, I have to say I prefer Mickey and Goofy being a bit more down to earth and friends with Donald, living in Duckburg.

Then again, I like Goof Troop enough that I wouldn't mind Spoonerville being included (boy, what a name that was).

So, in the non-American pubs, where do Mickey and Goofy live?

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[lbd_nytetrayn.insanejournal.com]

Also, that Mickey Moviestar story sounds really familiar somehow...

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

Well, as I said, in the non-American publications (at least the Scandinavian ones) they live in Duckburg. The American publications names their home city as "Mouseton," a name that quite frankly doesn't sound half as cool as "Duckburg." ^_^

Re: Hooray!

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

The issue where Xadhoom dies makes me feel like crying every single time I read it.

Xerbian guys: What are we going to name that sun?
PK: Name it Xadhoom.
Xerbian guys: Eh? But that means "creditor" in our tongue.
PK: That's right. You don't know how much you owe her.

;_;

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

but then, he doesn't particularly like Mickey

Clearly, he hasn't played Kingdom Hearts 2 :P

Seriously, I used to really dislike Mickey, until I played that game and witnessed him go Badass Jedy Yoda on the villains XD

Btw, Italian canon has Mickey and Goofy live in Mouseton ("Topolinia"), too. I never knew that other European stories have them live in Duckburg. It's really weird how every single country seem to have their own Disney canon.

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

Well, I don't think that Don Rosa would like Kingdom Hearts much, to be honest. Okay, I haven't asked him, but he's stated quite frankly that he's not overly interested in the cartoons (and the game is based on the cartoons and not the comics), only views Barks's stories as canon, and quite frankly I think he wouldn't like how the game treated Scrooge at all. ^_^

I can just picture him now... "Scrooge spending the game trying to recreate an ice cream flavor?! What the @#&! is this?!"

Rosa is a bit of a purist. ^_^

[penguinzero.insanejournal.com]

Samuel Benford Steele (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Steele) was a real person, actually -- not actually as pompous as Rosa made him out to be here, but he was definitely one of the major forces behind civilizing the gold rush. Never a governor, but he was a military commander in the Boer War and WWI, and was eventually knighted.

And Scrooge is indeed awesome in his own way. Perhaps I should dig out some Carl Barks comics to illustrate the foundation of the Duck universe a little better...

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

Please do! A little more Barks can only be of the good!

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Hear, hear.

[psychopathicus_rex]

There is actually a precedent for that, of sorts. I can't speak for the game, mind you, never having played it, but there's a Barks story where Scrooge gains control of a small lump of frozen material which is the sum total of a new element that's just been created (I forget what he calls it; something ending with '-ium'), and everyone wants it because no one knows what it can do. In the end, it turns out that it creates ice cream flavors - every time a sample, no matter how small, is taken, it tastes like a different flavor of ice cream. So, naturally, he creates an ice cream factory to take advantage of it. Also, I believe there's an episode of DuckTales where he completely loses his cool when he hears that a shipment from his ice cream factory has been hijacked (I haven't seen it myself, but he gets this immortal line: 'A SEA SERPENT STOLE MY ICE CREAM!') So really, his being obsessed with ice cream is canon! ...Sorta.