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Scrooge McDuck is the best comic book character ever created

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First who is Scrooge Mcduck:

Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Scrooge is an elderly Scottish anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats and is portrayed in animations as speaking with a slight Scottish accent, also sometimes known as a Scottish burr. His dominant character trait is his thrift, and within the context of the fictional Disney universe, he is the World's richest person.
Named after Ebenezer Scrooge from the 1843 novel A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is a wealthy Scottish business magnate and tycoon. He was in his first few appearances characterized as a greedy miser and antihero (as Charles Dickens' original Scrooge was), but in later comics and animated shorts and the modern day he is more often portrayed as a charitable and thrifty hero, adventurer, explorer and philanthropist. Scrooge was created by Barks as a comic book character originally as an antagonist for Donald Duck, first appearing in the 1947 Four Color story "Christmas on Bear Mountain" (#178). The character soon became so popular that McDuck became a major figure of the Duck universe. In 1952 he was given his own comic book series, called Uncle Scrooge, which still runs today. Scrooge was most famously drawn by his creator Carl Barks, and later by Don Rosa. Comics have remained Scrooge's primary medium, although he has also appeared in animated cartoons, most extensively in the television series Duck Tales (1987–1990).

Essential books:

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

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http://www.amazon.com/dp/0911903968/?tag=neogaf0e-20

This book won the Eisner Award and is considered one of the greatest graphic novels of all time alongside Alan Moore's Watchmen and Neil Gaiman's Sandman epic.

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion

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http://www.amazon.com/dp/1888472405/?tag=neogaf0e-20
You asked for them, and here they are... the pre-chapters, the post-chapters and the in-between chapters of Don Rosa's Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck! Included in this companion are the stories "The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark," "The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff," "The Prisoner of White Agony Creek," "Hearts of the Yukon" and "Sharpie of the Culebra Cut." Finally rounding out the collection are two slightly unusual takes on Scrooge's life: "Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies" and "Dream of a Lifetime" in which the Beagle Boys invade Scrooge's subconscious mind (!) and wreak havoc during dream-versions of the various "Life of Scrooge" chapters.

Walt-Disney-s-Uncle-Scrooge-Barks-Carl-9781606995358.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1606995359/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Collection of classic Carl Banks stories

Fun fact that movie Inception that Gaf hailed as "the movie of the forever"? Yea the whole story was shamlessly ripped off from a Scrooge comic storyline:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html
 

qindarka

Banned
I've read that Inception's script was in development before 'The Dream of a Lifetime' was published so I wouldn't be too sure that it was a ripoff.
 

TEJ

Member
As an American, all these Disney comics actually existing is something I just recently learned of because of GAF.

I wonder why they never release them in america. If they can still sell Archie comics in supermarkets, they'd make a killing off of these in supermarkets too right?

another thing, to say that Nolan ripped off a scrooge mcduck comic of all things, you'd have to assume that he read that comic, or was a fan of European Disney comics, or that people can't come up with very similar ideas independently from one another.
 

qindarka

Banned
As an American, all these Disney comics actually existing is something I just recently learned of because of GAF.

I wonder why they never release them in america. If they can still sell Archie comics in supermarkets, they'd make a killing off of these in supermarkets too right?

Perhaps people there think these comics are too kiddy or something?
 

Arksy

Member
Maybe I'm completely off the mark, but I always thought Scrooge McDuck had his origins as a racist Jewish caricature.
 

Richie

Member
Maybe I'm completely off the mark, but I always thought Scrooge McDuck had his origins as a racist Jewish caricature.

Not at all! He had much more in common with his namesake from A Christmas Carol. No Jewish traits to speak of.

Perhaps people there think these comics are too kiddy or something?

Could be! I know that, coming from the Disney shorts, the comics were a revelation; that depth the characters had, the level of quality of the stories...
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Maybe I'm completely off the mark, but I always thought Scrooge McDuck had his origins as a racist Jewish caricature.

Um, it probably has way more to do with Ebenezer Scrooge.

Also he's Scottish.
 

Ocaso

Member
Having only recently learned of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, I'm quite saddened at the obscene asking price for any copies of this book. Both the original and reissues are our of print, apparently, so sadly they'll remain unread. Maybe Disney will reissue them to coincide with the NES remake's release.
 

TreIII

Member
Agreed so much with this topic.

I recently bought the Fantagraphic books, and it's been a joy to read both the Donald and Scrooge stories. I only wish that there was a way I could read the rest of the Duck-verse comics available only in Europe (well, in English, anyway).
 

Nelo Ice

Banned
Watching Ducktales on Amazon instant and damn I hope they reissue the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Would love to read that along with rest of his comics.
 
act that movie Inception that Gaf hailed as "the movie of the forever"? Yea the whole story was shamlessly ripped off from a Scrooge comic storyline:

FUn fact number 2. TDKR storyline is arguably similar to the Alabasta Arc of One Piece.

There's little room for fully original stories, it's more about how you tell them nowadays.
 

Axiom

Member
I'm pretty sure Carl Barks Duck comics are how I learned to read and love reading. I still have my collection proudly on my shelf.

Oddly the ads in the back of those comics are also why I knew who David Cassidy, KISS and other 70s icons were in the mid 80s.

I also love Archie - but Archie is what it is, Uncle Scrooge stuff is genuinely amazing. They are on par and often better than the best of Tintin.

It is no coincidence that Ducktales went off the rails after they stopped adapting the comics.
 
Pretty crazy that without these old Scrooge Mcduck comics we would have never gotten Ducktales which means we would have never gotten the Disney Afternoon block in the 80s/90s with such shows as Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck, and Tailspin. Our childhoods would have been vastly altered.

Also Manga would have never been invented and the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark would have been totally different.
 

Mumei

Member
I have read the first volume of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. I really need to read the second volume.
 

bernardobri

Steve, the dog with no powers that we let hang out with us all for some reason
FUn fact number 2. TDKR storyline is arguably similar to the Alabasta Arc of One Piece.

There's little room for fully original stories, it's more about how you tell them nowadays.

If by TDKR you mean Rises, the story is based on three Batman storylines published in the 80s/90s...
 

Tizoc

Member
I agree with OP, Scrooge is an amazing character.
It's a shame those books aren't available on Amazon UK though as ordering from US would be more expensive =(

Anyone know if there's an article that talks about his characterization and how his main flaw, greed, is well handled?
 
Wow I just did a search online and it just so happens my public library has "The Life and times of Scrooge Mcduck" as well as a few other books. If you can't order the books online I recommend you try seeing if your library has any of them.
 

peakish

Member
Just wanted to chime in with my respects to this collection. Every story in it is great, and Barks's art is amazing - prefer it to Rosa's by far, even in this "early" stage. Buy it, love it.

Scrooge is definitely the most layered Duck character, that said I've always preferred Donald to him. There's just something about his temper and interactions with his nephews that speaks to me.

You misspelled Gladstone Gander.
rumpus.gif

(j/k, Gladstone superior)
 

Fuzz Rez

Banned
I have read the first volume of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. I really need to read the second volume.

What's in first volume? Here first volume consist the whole main story and second volume is just b-side stories that really don't add up anything to the whole experinece and are some of Rosa's worst work.
 
The Ducktales remastered game has led to me discover a world of Scrooge that I had never known: the comics.

Now I want to read all the comics as I can get my hands on. From Barks to Rosa.
Do the original comics exist in digital form anywhere? Or must I search one by one to complete the physical collection?
 
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