For the last few years I've heard the name Carl Barks thrown around by comics aficionados as synonymous with great comics. After a while I found out that Barks worked on Disney comics from the '40s to the '60s. He took characters like Donald Duck and Huey, Dewey, and Louie and made them his own and then invented his own unique creation: Scrooge McDuck. His work was a huge seller back in the day (Disney artists were anonymous in those days, but fans recognized his superior work and dubbed him "The Good Duck Artist." When his identity was revealed that practically became Barks' title). While superehero comics largely, and unfortunately (though I don't mind a good superhero yarn), consumed the U.S. comics scene and left Disney comics mostly a memory, in places like Europe and some Latin American countries Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics
are still the most popular comics , sometimes the most popular of
any magazine at all! And despite the tons of new stories foreign publishers turn out every month when a comic features a reprint of a Carl Barks story it sells that much better. In America if you asked who's the most legendary comics maker is you'll get a host of answers, mostly Stan Lee, but if you asked that question in, say, Germany, you'll unquestionably get the name Carl Barks over and over.
Which brings me to my current read: despite lots of creators over the years there is only really one artist who has been dubbed Barks' successor: Don Rosa. A huge fan since childhood, Rosa wrote new Donald and Scrooge comics from the mid '80s to mid '00s, many of them continuing directly from plot threads left over in Carl Barks old stories. In Rosa's mind only Barks' stories are canon, and when Disney publishers decided to do the official biography of Scrooge McDuck it was Rosa who took the challenge.
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck had Rosa search through every comment in those old comics about Scrooge's past. A random comment Scrooge made about trading in his ancestor's gold teeth for a prospectors outfit becomes an important part of the storyline, and so on. This kind of fanwankery could be a total bore, but Rosa makes it work, and in the end The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is one the best pieces of comics literature I've ever read.
It all begins in Scotland, with the once wealthy but now destitute McDuck clan. His family urging him on, Scrooge begins as shoeshine boy, but soon decided to make his fortune in America. In Scrooge's travels he finds himself a Mississippi riverboart captain, a cowboy, a prospector in several gold (and one copper) rushes, an enemy of the Beagle Boys crime family, a friend of Teddy Roosevelt, an almost Indiana Jones style treasure hunter, and a general businessman. Scrooge acquires an enormous reputation in his adventures, but as soon as his wealth piles up he begins losing his heart: his frugalness becomes downright stinginess and his concern for the acquisition of pure wealth (without spending any of it! He just wants wealth, not to use it!) trumps his concern for his family and friends and he drives them away. The story doesn't end on such a downer note: the last story points towards Scrooge's redemption as he meets Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie for the first time and has his first adventure with them, setting up the rest of the saga.
I can’t recommend The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck enough. It’ a terrific read and Rosa’s panels are jam-packed with an insane amount of detail and background gags. Sometimes you’ll just stare at a page for a few minutes. There’s one page especially, set during Scrooge’s days as a prospector, where he walks into a rowdy and crime-ridden boom town and there’s this half a page encompassing panel of Scrooge walking through main street with
over a dozen separate crimes transpiring in front of, to the sides of, and behind him! It’s freaking amazing.
