There has been a recent trend of rebooting ’80s and ’90s cartoons. A standout reboot, at least for me, is the 2017 reboot of DuckTales.
DuckTales was high on my list of after-school viewing, but even higher for my brother. He’s a big fan of Scrooge McDuck. In the run-up to the reboot there was a graphic novel origin story for Scrooge, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, that I knew would be a great gift for him.
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, by Don Rosa, was originally run as a serial between 1994 and 1996.
It won the 1995 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story. The version that I bought was a binding with all 12 chapters plus some bonus stuff.
We first meet Scrooge McDuck as a 13-year-old living with his family in Glasgow, Scotland.
The McDuck family has fallen on hard times and young Scrooge takes up shoe-shining to help provide foe them. This is where he earns his first dime. If you’ve ever wondered why a youth living in Glasgow would earn an American dime, there is a reason.
Shortly after Scrooge sets off to seek his fortune, first on a riverboat on the Mississippi, then on a cattle ranch in Montana, before taking up prospecting. He follows gold rushes from South Africa, to Australia, before striking it big in the Yukon.
The young Scrooge has a lot to learn.
During the journey, he gets advice from helpful locals, the ghosts of his McDuck ancestors, and even Teddy Roosevelt. He also makes some of his long term enemies at this time including multiple generations of the Beagle Boys and rival Flintheart Glomgold. (Scrooge didn’t learn his name at this point, but did draw his ire)
Scrooge uses his gold to start many successful businesses.
His new wealth allows him to move his sisters to Duckberg and begin construction of his 3 cubic acre money bin. Scrooge took to swimming in his money as soon as he had enough to splash around in.
Up until this point Scrooge made it a point of always being honest, but the money had started to turn him into the bitter miser befitting his name. His sisters never forgive him for conning an African village for its resources. They return to Duckberg and he spends the next 23 years on the road seeking to increase his fortune. He became the richest man in the world, but was alone.
The final chapter has Scrooge by himself in his mansion.
He invited his nephew, Donald, and his grand-nephews; Huey, Dewey, and Louie, over to see if any of them is worthy of being his heir. They don’t believe any of his stories until an encounter with the Beagle Boys proves them all true and reawakens Scrooge’s love for adventure.
This binding has a summary from Don Rosa after each chapter that explains why he included the tales that he did.
The main influence were the original Carl Banks Scrooge comics. Rosa tried to include as many references to these as possible to keep continuity with the source material. In that way it’s sort of official fan-fic. There are also references to old movies and historical events. For the easter egg hunters, each chapter has an “Insane Details to Look For” list.
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
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