The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (often stylized as The Life and Times of $CROOGE MꟲDUCK;See, for example, :File:Life%26TimesofSMcD_HC_cover.jpg, and many other The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck covers. sometimes abbreviated as Life of $crooge or Lo) is a 12-part comic book storyline written and drawn by Don Rosa, lettered by Todd Klein (American editions),Todd Klein 'Don Rosa and Uncle Scrooge', Retrieved 2019-06-04. first published by the Danish publisher Egmont in the magazine Anders And & Co. from 1992 to 1994 and later in English in Uncle Scrooge #285 through #296 (1994–96). It follows the life of Scrooge McDuck from 1877 to 1947, the year of his real-life debut, working in almost every event about his past referenced in stories by Carl Barks. Rosa also drew the original cover of each chapter, and every chapter is laid out with four rows of panels per page. He later wrote several companion stories that fit between the original chapters.
Rosa earned the Will Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story in 1995 for this story. The trade paperback collection was also a top vote-getter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Novel/Album for 1997. After being out of print for several years with high demand, the book was reprinted under the BOOM! Studios label in two deluxe hardcover volumes, and again under Fantagraphics Books. The Finnish composer Tuomas Holopainen released a concept album based on the book, titled Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge, the cover of which was illustrated by Don Rosa.
A few chapters of the story exist under more than one title: "The King of the Klondike" (originally "The Phoenix of White Agony Creek" and then "The Argonaut of White Agony Creek"), "The Raider of the Copper Hill" (also known as "The King of the Copper Hill"), "The Empire-Builder from Calisota" ("The Richest Duck in the World"), and "The Richest Duck in the World" ("The Recluse of McDuck Manor").
Connections to Carl Barks's stories Rosa built the series by collecting the scattered references to Scrooge's past in the stories of Carl Barks, and several chapters contain deliberate nods to Barks's originals. "The Terror of the Transvaal" shows the young Flintheart Glomgold, who was introduced in Barks's 1956 story "The Second-Richest Duck". Rosa has said that he wrote the chapter carefully to fit that earlier story: Scrooge first learns Glomgold's name in "The Second-Richest Duck", but nothing in that story indicates that Glomgold did not already know Scrooge.
In the last panels of the chapter, Scrooge leaves South Africa after realizing that only conglomerates can finance the large mining operations needed to profit from the region's mineral wealth, and one of the mines he sees developing is the Kaffir de Gaffir mine, the prize contested by Scrooge and Glomgold in Barks's 1966 story "So Far and No Safari".
Likewise, "The Billionaire of Dismal Downs" contains the first actual appearance of Scottie McTerrier, a character invented by Barks. Barks had used him in "The Old Castle's Secret", but the ending of that story revealed that the character was really a criminal impersonating Scottie, who had died months before the story is set.
The Klondike stories follow the same approach. "The King of the Klondike" uses "facts" from two Barks stories, "Back to the Klondike" and "North of the Yukon", while most of the rest of the story draws on the real history of the Klondike Gold Rush. The companion story "The Prisoner of White Agony Creek" later returns to "Back to the Klondike" to show what happened during the month that Goldie O'Gilt spent working Scrooge's claim.
Scrooge McDuck timeline according to Rosa
1867: Scrooge was born in Glasgow, Scotland to Fergus McDuck and Downy O'Drake. He would have two younger sisters, namely Matilda McDuck (born in 1871) and Hortense McDuck (born in 1876). 1877: Scrooge, age 10, goes into business with a shoeshine kit that Fergus built for him, but his first customer fools him and pays him with an American dime (which was actually a plan of his father's). He keeps the dime he cannot spend as his symbol of success. 1880: Scrooge, age 13, emigrates to the United States. He first meets his uncle, Mississippi riverboater Angus "Pothole" McDuck, and the Beagle Boys, a family of outlaws that remain his enemies for the rest of his life. 1882: His uncle retires and leaves his riverboat, named Dilly Dollar, to Scrooge, now 15 years old. The Beagle Boys destroy the riverboat in an act of revenge. Scrooge decides to try his luck in the American West and later in the year gets hired as a cowboy by cattle baron Murdo MacKenzie (an actual historical figure, one of the many that Scrooge met). 1883: Scrooge, age 16, becomes a miner searching for silver and copper. 1885: Scrooge's father calls his son back to Scotland on an important family matter. Just a week before he leaves he meets and befriends the millionaire Howard Rockerduck, who had become rich in the California gold rush of 1849. He also meets Howard's seven-year-old spoiled son John D. Rockerduck, who will grow up to become one of Scrooge's main rivals. 1886–1889: Scrooge, age 19–22, searches for gold in South Africa (during the Witwatersrand Gold Rush). During his first year there he saves the life of a duck about his age named Flintheart Glomgold, though Scrooge learns his name more than half a century later. A little later they become bitter enemies, and remain as such for the rest of their lives. Glomgold later became the second richest duck in the world. 1889–1893: Scrooge, age 22–26, returns to the United States to search for gold, most notably near Pizen Bluff, Arizona. He meets many famous historical figures but his search fails. 1893–1896: Scrooge, age 26–29, goes to Coolgardie, Western Australia to search for gold but his search again fails. 1896–1899: Scrooge, age 29–32, searches for gold in the Klondike. During his years there he meets the saloon owner, singer and occasional thief "Glittering" Goldie O'Gilt. He carries a love/hate relationship with her for the rest of his life. His search for gold succeeds. 1897: Scrooge's mother Downy O'Drake dies, aged 57, in Dismal Downs. Scrooge is now 30. 1899–1902: Scrooge, at 32, becomes a millionaire and buys a bank in Whitehorse, Yukon. He starts building a small financial empire; by 1902, at 35, he has become a billionaire. 1902: Scrooge, age 35, returns to Scotland intending to make Castle McDuck at Dismal Downs the heart of his empire, but he soon finds local culture too stagnant and decides to return to America. His sisters Matilda McDuck and Hortense McDuck go to America with him. Also in 1902, Scrooge's father Fergus McDuck dies, aged 67, in Dismal Downs. Scrooge, Matilda and Hortense are the last of the McDuck clan. Scrooge settles in the small village of Duckburg, Calisota, United States, which he chose as his home base. 1909–1930: While his sisters remain in Duckburg and run his empire, Scrooge, age 42–63, travels the world expanding his empire in every continent. 1930: Scrooge, at 63, becomes the richest duck in the world, but a fight with his family leaves him with no contact with them for the next seventeen years. Note that during this year he met his ten-year-old nephew Donald Duck and his nephew's twin sister Della Duck for the first time. (It was possibly the only time Scrooge met his niece Della, ignoring the girl completely.) 1942: Scrooge, age 75, feels depressed and tired and decides to retire. 1947: Scrooge, age 80, meets his nephew Donald Duck, now age 27, as well as his grandnephews, Della's children, Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck, who are under Donald's care. He decides to become active again and soon a circle of activities whirl around him as he attracts the attention of relatives, old and new enemies and friends. 1955: Scrooge, age 88, is reunited and reconciled with his sister Matilda, thanks to Donald (in the story "A Letter from Home"). 1967: According to Don Rosa's unofficial timeline, Scrooge McDuck died at the age of 100 years after a life of adventure.Don Rosa's drawing of Scrooge's grave at the INDUCKS Themes Historical people and events Real people and events appear throughout the series, as listed above. The most thoroughly researched example is the companion story "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut", which is one of Rosa's most historically accurate stories. Its cast includes Theodore and Edith Roosevelt, Chief Parita of the Guyami, Captain George R. Shanton (formerly of the Rough Riders and by then of the Canal Zone Police), and the engineer John Frank Stevens.
The Panamanian general Esteban Huertas appears simply as "General Esteban", because Rosa needed to present him as a villain rather than a hero. Other historical personages are mentioned, including Manuel Amador Guerrero, the first President of Panama, the French government agent Philippe Bunau-Varilla, and the boxer "Gentleman Jim" Corbett, who Roosevelt claims tutored him in fisticuffs.
Several notable historical figures appear in the series:
John Jacob Astor IV P. T. Barnum Roy Bean Buffalo Bill Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid The Dalton Gang Marcus Daly Wyatt Earp Geronimo Hamengkubuwono VII of Yogyakarta and Pakubuwono IX of Surakarta Esteban Huertas Frank and Jesse James Jack London Macbeth, King of Scotland Murdo MacKenzie Bat Masterson William Henry Moody Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia Annie Oakley Robert Peary Edith Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Captain George R. Shanton, Canal Zone Police John Frank Stevens Royal Canadian Mounted Police Colonel Sam Steele Other notable historical figures mentioned include: Manuel Amador Guerrero Philippe Bunau-Varilla "Gentleman Jim" Corbett Sitting Bull John Philip Sousa Wild Bill Hickok
Historical details and inaccuracies The teddy bear in "The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" was indeed named for Roosevelt, and the first of its kind was sent to him in response to a 1902 political cartoon lampooning his refusal to shoot an American black bear that had already been captured and tied up before he arrived. Edith Roosevelt mentions "a candy store owner in Brooklyn" (Morris Michtom), who created a stuffed animal and sold it under the name "Teddy's bear" after receiving Roosevelt's permission to use his name. The story also reflects the history of the United States Secret Service, which was originally chartered to investigate counterfeiting and other financial crimes but assumed responsibility for the President's security after the assassination of William McKinley and Roosevelt's succession in September 1901.
The story also features two slightly edited quotations from Roosevelt's writings and speeches. When Roosevelt asks Scrooge why he works so hard despite already having made his fortune, Scrooge quotes back to him words from their meeting in 1883 (in "The Buckaroo of the Badlands"). Not every detail follows the historical record. In "The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark", the Sultan of Djokja is named as Mangkunagara V, although the Sultan at the time was in fact Hamengkubuwono VII; the error comes from Rosa's source, an 1890s travel story titled On the Subject of Java.
History and heritage A concern with history and heritage also runs through the series. In his author's note to "The Dreamtime Duck of the Never Never", Rosa wrote that one of the traits that distinguish Scrooge from his nephew Donald Duck is Scrooge's interest in archaeology and respect for the importance of history. Rosa wanted to write an origin story for this aspect of Scrooge's character and, while doing so, realized that Aboriginal Australians have "probably a greater sense of their historical continuity than anyone else in the world".