#return to pizen bluff

[ducktalkspodcast]

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library by Fantagraphics began in December of 2011 with Lost in the Andes. Fantagraphics has released two volumes each year. The volumes are chronological, but Fantagraphics decided to begin with some of Carl Barks most widely acclaimed work by starting with volume 7. When the collection is complete it will span the entirety of Carl Barks’s Disney comics published between 1942 and 1966 and consist of 30 volumes. Carl Barks is known for penning some of the greatest Donal Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories, and has been known as “The Good Duck Artist.” Carl Barks was one of three inaugural inductees into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1987.

The Twenty-four Carat Moon

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 22: “The Twenty-four Carat Moon” was released by Fantagraphics in June 2020.

The cover consists of two illustrations from stories in this volume. The top illustration on the cover of this book is from the story The Twenty-four Carat Moon and the bottom illustration is from the story The Forbidium Money Bin.

This edition of the Carl Barks library is 200 pages, and it includes 30 stories that were published between 1958 and 1962. There is a short biography on Carl Bark’s life as well as behind the scenes pictures and stories about each and every story that is included in this edition. It is full of great and interesting information. I am glad that it is included in this volume and every volume of the Carl Barks Disney Library.

Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 22 is available in hardcover and Kindle\Comixology versions. You can find a link to buy this book at the end of this review.

The next new release in this series, Carl Barks Library Vol. 23: Under The Polar Ice, is scheduled to be released in September 2020.

Included Stories

There are 30 Disney Duck stories included in The Twenty-four Carat Moon:

Uncle Scrooge and the Twenty-four Carat Moon

All Choked Up

Moola on the Move

Uncle Scrooge and the Strange Shipwrecks

Thumbs Up

Uncle Scrooge and the Fabulous Tycoon

Bill Wind

The Forbidium Money Bin

The Sleepies

Lights Out

Uncle Scrooge and the Magic Ink

Uncle Scrooge and the Flying Dutchman

Immovable Miser

Kitty-Go-Round

Pyramid Scheme

Return to Pizen Bluff

Poor Loser

Uncle Scrooge Crawls for Cash

Uncle Scrooge and the Money Champ

News from Afar

Rainbow’s End

Uncle Scrooge and His Handy Andy

Uncle Scrooge and the Prize of Pizarro

Turnabout

The Homey Touch

Gyro Goes for a Dip

The House on Cyclone Hill

The Wishing Well

Krankenstein Gyro

Gyro Gearloose and the Firefly Tracker

  The first story in this volume is also it’s titular story, The Twenty-four Carat Moon. This early Sci-Fi story follows an adventure with Uncle Scrooge, Donald, and the boys as they race to claim a second moon made of gold! Readers are treated to a story of preposterous proportions with a moral that everybody can learn from.

All Choked Up is a four-panel story about Uncle Scrooge and his “roll that would choke a horse.”

The single page story, Moola on the Move, sees Scrooge cross paths with the Maharajah.

When Scrooge McDuck learns that another of his ships has gone on the rocks in Doomgurgle Straits, the adventurous tycoon hires his nephew, Donald Duck, to solve the mystery in Uncle Scrooge and the Strange Shipwrecks. Oh, and there might be Beagle Boys in this story!

Uncle Scrooge is determined to get a fair deal from his butcher in Thumbs Up.

Donald Duck worries that his Uncle Scrooge feels small next to the latest tycoon who may be richer than Scrooge McDuck in Uncle Scrooge and the Fabulous Tycoon.

The half a page story in Bill Wind defines Scrooge McDuck.

The Forbidium Money Bin is a story that I had never heard of before reading this volume, but it is one that I will not forget. Another Sci-Fi story that takes us to new worlds (at least it did at the time it was published). Scrooge hires Gyro Gearloose to build an unbreakable money bin, and he succeeds. But things become complicated when Uncle Scrooge looses the combination to open the unbreakable safe. Thankfully, Gyro has a plan and it takes the two on a trip to the moon to find a new material that might allow them to break into the safe!

When Uncle Scrooge has trouble sleeping Donald has some advice that helps the richest duck in the world catch some Zs in The Sleepies.

How is Scrooge McDuck to finish reading his newspaper when the headline reads “Electric Light Rates Go Up!”? Find out in Lights Out.

Sometimes Uncle Scrooge must use extreme measures to collect money loaned to his nephew Donald Duck. In Uncle Scrooge and the Magic Ink Donald is jolted into action with Scrooge’s latest discovery.

Uncle Scrooge and the Flying Dutchman is one of the most iconic stories for the characters of Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, and the nephews. I had never read the story before, and I was excited to find it was in this volume. My familiarity of the story stems from Carl Barks painting from the story, and many young Duck Fans may know it from the DuckTales intro.

The Flying Dutchman did not disappoint. It is a grand adventure story where the ducks head off in search of ship that went missing in 1659. What they find was startling, and they must piece together what is happening before they are lost near Antarctica!

Immovable Miser is another single page story of how Uncle Scrooge gets a free downtown.

Did you know Uncle Scrooge has a cat named Clementine!? He did in Kitty-Go-Round.

Pyramid Scheme is another grand adventure following the McDuck/Duck family as they travel to Egypt in search of a new business adventure for Uncle Scrooge. When they find an undiscovered pyramid his dreams of unearthed riches drives him to spend a fortune unearthing the tomb’s treasure.

Fans of Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck may recognize the location referenced in the title, Return to Pizen Bluff. In The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff Scrooge is between adventures outside of the USA when he returns looking for fortune. He finds himself in Pizen Bluff, AZ. Like most of Rosa’s stories the setting of that story is a reference to one of Barks’s stories. Return to Pizen Bluff has Scrooge and family revisting the site of his old mine in Pizen Bluff.

Poor Loser and Uncle Scrooge Crawls for Cash are both short stories that you may enjoy.

Let’s talk about Uncle Scrooge and the Money Champ. Glomgold, Glomgold, Glomgold! Money Champ is Barks’s second story to feature Flintheart Glomgold as the villain. Flinty comes into the story swinging (literally, he and Scrooge “go toe to toe” in this one), and challenges Scrooge to… gasp! A CONTEST TO DECIDE WHO IS THE RICHEST DUCK IN THE WORLD!? That’s right, here you have it, a story that would influence many future Uncle Scrooge stories. Don’t miss Money Champ!

News from Afar and Rainbow’s End are four-frame stories that perfectly capture the essence of Scrooge McDuck.

Uncle Scrooge and His Handy Andy is not the first mariner adventure for the ducks int his volume, but it might have made me giggle the hardest. Join Scrooge McDuck and his family as they sail in the Duckburg-Bahamalulu Race!

In Uncle Scrooge and the Prize of Pizarro Scrooge and his family follow clues on another globe-trotting adventure that leads them to discover lost Incan gold. What our adventurers do not know is that someone may still be guarding that gold.

In Turnabout Scrooge is being followed… and in The Homey Touch he decides to “beautify” his home.

The last five stories in this volume are Gyro Gearloose stories. Barks is best known for his Donald Duck stories and for creating Scrooge McDuck, but he also created Gyro Gearloose. Gyro Goes for a Dip, The House on Cyclone Hill, The Wishing Well, Krankenstein Gyro, Gyro Gearloose and the Firefly Tracker all feature Gyro as he tinkers away with his latest inventions. You know what should be expected from these stories, and they do not disappoint. If you are a Gyro Gearloose fan we know you will love the way this volume ends.

  Final Thoughts

I am a little behind on these volumes and had to skip ahead to read volume 22 for this review. I am glad I did. The early Sci-fi, the globe traveling adventures, and more Barks Flintheart Glomgold made this volume a joy to read. These collections are the best way for Duck Fans to enjoy the stories that have inspired well-written stories for decades. Barks was a gifted writer and even the four-panel stories provide pages worth of insight into Scrooge McDuck.

Once you read through the commentary on some of the stories you will find history on Carl Barks written by Donald Ault. If you are not familiar with the creator it is a nice introduction to his career.

I know in these reviews Steven likes to point out how much it would cost to collect all of these books on your own, and that Fantagraphics’ collections are a more economical way of owning these stories. This is true and you would be hard-pressed to find these stories in good condition.

We are grateful for Fantagraphics willingness to provide us with a copy of this volume for review. Their commitment to producing quality collections of this iconic library is commendable.

If you are collecting the Carl Barks Disney Library, you probably already own this volume. If you have not been collecting the library I hope that this review has convinced you that you should start with this volume. It is well worth the retail price tag. I own several volumes produced by Fantagraphics and I am always stunned by how gorgeous they are in person.

You can order the book at the following links:

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 22: The Twenty-four Carat Moon

*By purchasing from Amazon.com through this link above, you are supporting DuckTalks at no additional cost to yourself!

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 22: "The Twenty-four Carat Moon" Review! @Fantagraphics #DuckMerch #DuckHistory #TheFlyingDutchman #Read The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library by Fantagraphics began in December of 2011 with 

#Carl Barks #Fantagraphics #Gyro Gearloose #return to pizen bluff #the complete carl barks disney library #the flying dutchman #the forbidium money bin #the prize of pizarro #The Twenty-Four Carat Moon #under the polar ice #volume 22 #volume 23

[popculturebuffet]

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Retrospective: The Dreamtime Duck of the Never-Never! or You’d Better Run, You’d Better Take Cover

Welcome back all you happy people to my ongoing look at Don Rosa’s character defining masterpiece, the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck! And for the next three months we’re doubling up as we race to the finish of this masterpiece! Well of the main story anyway, I do intend to cover the side chapters Rosa did after this as well as the utterly heartbreaking and heartwarming epilogue’s “A Letter From Home” and “Dream of a Lifetime” at some point, especailly since the latter not only is one of my faviorite single issue comic book stories EVER, but feels like the coda this series needed. It’s not NECESSARY to the main 12 chapter story arc, but it just makes everything sing that much more. 

Anyways while I have kept a steadier past the past few chapters after taking a few months off, the last one DID slip, as I switched it with another review I was planning since, while not the HARDEST review, it was still a bit more intenstive than I had time for in the lead up to my vacation. So your getting it now as I formally return from my vacatoin.. after three reviews and three quick thoughts. I”m nothing if not timely. 

So last time we got the origin of Flintheart Glomgold and as scrooge put it...

Which is understandable given Glomgold buddied up to scrooge.. then stole all his shit and left him in the wild for dead, leaving us with the bitter old bastard we know today.. in his mid 20′s no less. So after RIDING A MOTHERFUCKING LION and tar and feathering his new enemy, Scrooge left to go find gold elsewhere. And that’s where we pick up today, so join me under the cut as Scrooge picks up one final mentor before meeting his destiny. 

So we open with the usual scrapbook page and with Angus and Jake in the castle. Four years have passed since the last story and Scrooge hasn’t found his fourtune stll: he found some bandits in Pizen Bluff, a story that Rosa INTENDED to be part of the main arc but decided against to avoid too many cowboy stories so it ended up as one of our side stories instead, and some small nuggets but hasn’t hit it rich. He has however sent back more than enough to pay for the castle’s taxes. So he has a knapsack of jack after taxes, but his family is comfy. So he’s made his way to a land down under where women glow and men plunder...

And thus the two toast the boy confident he’ll find his fortune. Meanwhile...

I love that bit. Anyway these three figures are an aged Indeginous Aboriginal Wiseman (The story calls him an Aborigine, but given that’s a loaded term in australia and was heavily used with colonial racism and genocide we’re not going with that. ) .. and an asshole who naturally plans to rob the poor old man.. who just as naturally gets his gun swiped by our hero's boomerang and is told to scatter. Scrooge is as said now gruff and bitter.. but still won’t stand for someone trying to steal what they haven’t earned from someone innocent. He may be a far harder man, phrasing, than he was when he first started out and he’s only to get colder and bitterer.. but he’s a good man at his core. You just have to dig a bit to find it. 

Anyways the kindly old man we later learned is named Jabiru is on a walkabout, a spirtual journey done to reconnect the Aboriginal People with their culture and with nature itself.  Rosa choose to have an Aboriginal Shaman be Scrooge’s guide as they have a deep respect and knowledge of their own history, and thus Scrooge’s own respect for history and love for researching and discovering it is something he could learn here. I did not admitely do deep enough research to see what, if any mistakes Rosa makes or what white dumbassery is no doubt on display in some parts, I do at the very least get this comes from a place of love: he generally respects Austrlia’s ingenious peoples and their truly beauitful and treasured culture and history and simply wanted to show it to people: to give them a love and respect for a culture that most kids or even adults reading this probably woudln’t think about. 

So Jabiru and Scrooge eventually stop seemingly in the middle of nowhere, as the Wiseman has found one of the spots he’s gone to and since he could find something seemingly nonexistant in the desert and knows the area better, Scrooge decides to learn from the guy to see if he can learn anything about finding gold. 

So then Scrooge McDuck blows a digareedoo. I’m not making this up, that’s just a sentence you only get to type once in your life and i’m going to type it. THis also leads to Jabiru calling him “Jonflip” after Scrooge makes a joke about John Phillip sousa. Scrooge’s blowing though opens the way to an ancient cave, which only opens at just the right time, which the man knew due to simply knowing his history and culture. Scrooge is more helpful than blowing on a woodwind and has rope, with the man considering it fate as he woudln’t of been able to go down the hole otherwise. 

Jabiru explains about Dreamtime, the aboriginal belief that all of man is connected via it’s history, as well as all of nature itself, and in a really amazing moment Scrooge finds thousands of handprints, all daiting back over 20,000 years. They find what seems to be a prophecy about a platypus returning an egg, and a giant opal which ahs been there since “Dreamtime itself” .. which Scrooge naturally wants to buy becuase fuck history.  They soon have bigger issues though as the asshole from earlier shows up, takes their rope and wants the opal to get it back. Jabiru trusts him... but Scrooge’s paranoia is right as the asshole leaves them and throws the rope all the way down. 

Thankfully this is Scrooge we’re talking about so he naturally calls an emu...

And Scrooge uses it to catch up to the asshole while Jabiru continues on but hopes Scrooge will return the opal. Scrooge naturally easily dispatches the guy and recliams his stuff minus his gear.. but both get caught in a STAMPEDE OF KANGAROOS!... seriously you just.. only get to write some things once. 

Things soon get worse for our hero as the asshole ends up leaving on teh pankcing camel and Scrooge is confused as to what CAUSED the stampede.. only to get caught in a FLASH FLOOD. 

So Scrooge takes run and takes cover in the dreamtime cave as everything is swept away  and Scrooge is seemingly lost.. halfway through the series. Riiiighhhtttttt. Naturally he surivived and it was easy enough to dig out the wet sand to climb.. but he’s still left with one last dilemma before he goes....

This is far and away both one of Life and Times best scenes and one of it’s most iconic: Despite his greed, despite how bitter he’s become, despite everything.. Scrooge can’t bring himself to break his moral code. Despite the fact no one else would know, despite the fact he’d get rich despite the fact tha tfrom his colonalist persepctive no one is using it.. he can’t take something he didn’t earn, that’s not his and that belongs to a rich cultural tapestry. Granted as we’ll soon see morals like that can sadly errode with time and someone can become the very thing they hated.. but for now in his darkest moment, where no one else would notice, in the deep dark of that cave.. Scrooge made the right decision. It’s what keeps him likeable despite the employee explotation and general dickery: deep down he is a good man.. just a very flawed one. 

Turns out though those cave paintings were writing the future.. as such Jabiru is waiting for Scrooge and hleps the man find his dime, knowing all that would happen. I genuinely don’t know enough about Aborginial culture to tell if propcheisscing is a thing so i’m not really going to rag Rosa for this or the accidental use of the magical black man trope. Scrooge finds his dime.. and looks into the tapestry himself finding a drapery of lights... which he recognizes as the northern lights. So Scrooge is happy, thanking his new friend as he heads off for the great white north while Jabiru ponders some other figures... a giant golden egg, a blue platapus,, and three smaller ones in red, blue and green...

Final Thoughts: This one is decent. It’s obvious Rosa was passionate about Aboriginal cutlure and wanted to share it and the magical elemmnts of a propechy do fit in this world.. it jsut feels a bit OOF to apply that to a still existing culture that has faced out and out genocide and continues to face systemic racisim and opression, like.. he means well but still shot himself in the foot. 

So while that aspect is ...

The rest of the story is decent.. not as rich in character moments as other instalments and thus sadly a tad weaker as a result, but still a good ride and a necessary part of the story. It’s real issue is that i’ts sandwitched between two of the  best chapters in the piece, so that comibined with the well intentoioned accidental racisim it just comes off a bit flat. NOt terrible but there’s better to come. 

Next Time: It’s TIME. After years of strife and hard work to come up empty handed Scrooge FINALLY meets his destiny int he Klondike.. but first he has to deal with some shifty assholes, a certain familliar dance hall girl, and a frozen wooly mammoth

If you enjoyed this review and want more delcious content from me, sink your teeth into my patreon RIGHT HERE. For one dollar a month you get acess to exclusive reviews, including one where scrooge runs into some wig based legal trouble.. yes really. And it was written by carl barks no less. And your one dollar contirbution helps contribue to my MEMBERSHIP DRIVE. That’s right i’m currently having a drive so your contirbution will also unlock reivews for ALL READERS of the first seasons of Tuca and Bertie, the Great North and Amphibia, as well as Tuca and Bertie season 2. All that right now, for a buck, along with bonus reviews only you and anyone else who signs up can read and plenty of other unlock goals along the way. So sign up today and i’ll see you at the next rainbow!

#the life and times of scrooge mcduck #scrooge mcduck #don rosa #australia #aboriginal #the dreamtime duck of the never never #dreamtime #outback #walkabout #ducktales #disney #fantagraphics

[shadowluver1242]

I finished “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck”

I read the full 12 chapters, plus the “Companion” section that had bonus stories in between the chapters, and “The Last Sled to Dawson”, “The Dream of a Lifetime”, and “A Letter From Home.” 

This has to be my favorite comic series I’ve read so far. Not just because it’s Scrooge, but there’s so much heart and emotion put into it and you’re able to follow the story so easily (which for me is hard as I get easily distracted and forget where I’m at). But this story kept my attention and made me want to keep going to the next chapter, every night I thought “just one more, just one more!” I absolutely loved the story. If you want a more in depth review chapter by chapter, read below. (SPOILERS) 

Again, thank you so much for who ever first made me find this (I actually can’t remember but it was probably a mix of everyone) as well as the album that made the story SO MUCH BETTER. Listening to the music while reading the chapter associated, really made you feel like you were in the story with the characters. I highly recommend reading this comic while listening to the music if any of you have not already. If anyone needs links or more info, feel free to ask!

This part will be a chapter by chapter review/my thoughts (some chapters might be merged together if they have similar topics).

“Of Ducks, Dimes, and Destinies”: I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this, but apparently this chapter was the intro, though it’s more like a AU of sorts. I thought it was cute though seeing Magica out of her element. My favorite part of it had to be her not recognizing young 10 yr old Scrooge while confusing Fergus for the rich old duck. But in her defense, they do look a lot alike.

“The Last of The Clan McDuck”: Now the story really begins! I wanted to get more history on Scrooge so that was one of the main reasons I wanted to read this series. It was actually a bit of a surprise to see the pampered, penny-pincher a humbled, poor and very sweet boy. Seeing how he turned into almost a completely different person is a bit sad really, but at least we know in his later years some of that sweet, caring side is still present. I admire Scrooge’s bravery in how willingly he left his family and the only life he knew for uncertainty and possibly danger at only 13 years old. He certainly matured very fast and unfortunately that forced his childhood to end at an early age.

“The Master of the Mississippi”: This was probably one of my least favorite chapters if I’m being honest. It was fun seeing a teenage Scrooge adapting in his new life in America and Uncle Pothole was certainly an interesting character! Plus seeing the Beagle Boys’ origins was interesting as well.

“The Buckaroo of the Badlands,” “The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark”, “The Raider of the Copper Hill,” Also “The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff”: So all of these chapters are in the “Wild West” portion of Scrooge’s life; his teenage years and early twenties. Seeing Scrooge already fighting for his fortune and failing at every turn was almost surprising in that he always seems to succeed in life. I was so convinced he’d strike it rich on the Copper Hill, but fate seemed to have other plans for him. However at this point in his life he’s still staying true to his roots and vowing to earn his fortune honestly. (But to be fair he does get $10,000. And back then that’s got to have been like a million dollars now a days.) I’d also wondered how he’d get along with animals, and it turns out he’s a real Disney princess. He gives love and respect to animals and they love him in return.

“The New Laird of Castle McDuck”: NERVE RACKING. Not only do the McDuck’s risk losing the ancestral home to their arch nemesis, but Scrooge DIES. (or just gets knocked out?) Anyway he goes to McDuck heaven where he almost stays before finally getting another chance (for becoming the stingiest person to ever live). He ends up using all the money he got from the Copper Hill to pay for the McDuck Castle. Plus we also see Scrooge use his specs for the very first time, though it’s only for reading.

“The Terror of the Transvaal”:  Ah Flintheart, you were a scumbag before Scrooge came into the picture. Scrooge is a lion whisperer apparently, and he makes fun of Flintheart in front of the entire town before throwing him in jail, making a lifelong enemy.

“The Dreamtime Duck of the Never Never”: I was excited for this one. Love that Australian Outback theme! Scrooge rides on a camel head, which is perfect. I still love seeing how much animals love and trust Scrooge. He’s started to become less trusting of people due to being tricked at every turn, and therefore is a bit skeptical of the shaman in the desert. However seeing the dream, or prophesy of sorts, come true (which was super cool btw), it starts his admiration of history and architecture. Scrooge almost took that giant Opal that could easily have made him rich, but that would have been dishonest, and Scrooge decides against it (a bit begrudgingly). I’m so happy he got his dime back, it was worrying seeing him lose hope that his fortune would never come. He’s worked so hard and to give up now would be devastating. Thankfully he was inspired and his story finally started to look up.

“The King of the Klondike”, “The Prisoner of White Agony Creek”, “Hearts of the Yukon”, “The Last Sled to Dawson”: ...no words. I knew these would be my favorite sections. Yukon Scrooge, upper 20′s - early 30′s - in his prime, Scrooge. The beginning of his fortune. The beginning of Goldie. GOLDIE. Where do I even start?! Whew, this is going to be long. First of all, the whole ordeal Scrooge had to go through just to get to White Agony Creek was ridiculous. Finally he finds where the gold should be, but it’s not quite that easy. Everyone in Dawson mocks him endlessly for not spending any money on fun, which is completely unfair. The absolute worst part is when that mean old pig kidnaps him and chains him to the smokestacks of the boat. (Seriously this boy gets knocked out so much I’m surprised he doesn’t have a brain injury) The men mock him and then read the two only letters he’s ever gotten from his family out loud, one of which is from his mother who says they’re falling behind on payments for the castle, and the next...his father informing him that his mother has passed away. The men even mock him in his mother’s death. And Scrooge...freaking pulls a Sampson and pulls the smokestacks until they collapse onto the boat, throws a grand piano through a stained glass window, beats up any and all the men who dare fight him, and then drags the pig’s listless body through the main road in town for all to see until he can throw him to the mercy of the ‘law’ in the area. Then comes Goldie, he kidnaps her, and brings her back to his home for stealing his goose egg nugget (the biggest gold nugget ever) to show her how hard a miner has to work. They stay together alone in the wilderness for a whole month. My gosh was this chapter full of sexual tension. I’m such a die-hard Scroldie shipper now I can’t even deny it. Eventually the two part their ways, but end up meeting again in the near future when Goldie saves Scrooge from losing his claim (in a roundabout way). Then we get to see Scrooge’s last trip to Dawson before leaving the Yukon and moving on with his fortune. He loses his sled and has to return 50 years later to get it with Donald and the boys. The only thing of importance in the sled was old memories, but it was worth the fight for old Scroogey. This section was definitely the best, but molds Scrooge’s rough and tough attitude. 

“The Billionaire of Dismal Downs”: After more than 20 years, Scrooge is finally coming home to Dismal Downs successful, he’s a billionaire. The whole town has come to greet him and as soon as he shows up, they give him a big round of...tomatoes and insults hurling at him. After all he’s done this is how he’s treated??! His wild temper quickly flares and Fergus is surprised at how his son has changed, as well as the town who thought he was such a nice boy. The town people believe he no longer belongs in Scotland. After a quick visit to his mother’s grave insert sobbing here Scrooge decides to participate in the games to show how much he belongs, he even wears a kilt! Now Scrooge should have dominated this, however he’s completely forgotten the rules, and therefore disqualifies himself almost every time. A young boy named Scottie tries to show him the ropes, however fails miserably. Eventually they return to the castle where his sisters make fun of Scrooge’s lock of golden hair hurr hurr and they all decide to move to Duckburg, America, that is, except Fergus who says he’s too old to move again. The chapter ends with ghost Fergus (who’s passed away in the night) and ghost Downy waving goodbye to their children before joining McDuck heaven. I literally cried in this chapter.

“The Invader of Fort Duckburg”, and “The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut”: Some more important chapters, but not extremely interesting in my opinion. We see the founding of Duckburg and the Junior Woodchucks, as well as the Panama Canal and more of Scrooge suffering from his sisters, who make him wear his specs full time after he repeatedly makes mistakes due to his failing eyesight.

“The Empire-Builder from Calisota”: Sigh. We see the deep fall of Scrooge’s morals. He visits his sisters, whom he hasn’t seen in quite a while, and takes them to Africa where he’s working on his current dealings with the natives. Instead of making fair trades like in the past, he uses cunning tricks to minimize his costs in buying the diamond mines he seeks. His sisters criticize him, but he brushes them off. He moves on to a voo-doo native tribe (his first mistake) who doesn’t want to sell. After being humiliated in front of his kin, he goes into town and recruits several people to help him burn down the village and destroy everything in sight while his sisters return to camp, ashamed of their brother. Scrooge then puts on a disguise and ‘rescues’ the clan leader who previously embarrassed him, and tricks him into signing over his land. This is far from the kind, humble, honest boy we knew in the beginning. He returns back to camp, triumphant, to gloat to his sisters only to find they’ve left him. There’s a lone note remaining saying he’s not the man they used to know and to come back once he changes his ways. Scrooge is initially enraged, feeling betrayed. However as he argues with himself, his father’s voice comes into his head, reminding him how he wanted to make his fortune honestly, and has now just committed his first (and only) dishonest trade. Scrooge realizes what he’s done, and as he tries to run after his sisters, the witch doctor returns and casts a curse on him to have a zombie attack him. However Scrooge is still in disguise, and quickly makes himself look normal, which tricks the zombie. However for the next several years the zombie would haunt him and occasionally show up. In Scrooge’s quest to apologize to his sisters, he makes many sidetracks in making his fortune. The zombie even causes the crash of the Titanic that Scrooge was riding on. (seriously everything is his fault) Finally, after 27 years, he returns to Duckburg to stay. His family has heard he was coming and decided to put aside their differences and be a family once again, even bringing the young Donald and Della. However Scrooge has completely changed, for the worse, and completely ignores his family, eventually chasing them out of his life, for good, but not before the young and feisty Donald can give him a kick in the rear.

“The Richest Duck in the World”: Feels. All feels. We finally see Scrooge as the miserable old man we know him as. Alone and bitter and cut off from everyone. But he becomes too lonely one Christmas and invites Donald and the boys up to the mansion, if only to show them the wealth and future inheritance when he’s gone. It’s as if Scrooge is expecting to die fairly soon, and he’s completely given up on everything. The bin is shut down, he’s not making any money or traveling anymore, he doesn’t leave his house, and he hasn’t even swam in his money in years. He really has just given up. But the boys manage to inspire him, in a way that they literally make him so angry he just can’t take it anymore and eventually returns the swift kick to Donald. Afterwards we see rejuvenated Scrooge - though still elderly, he feels full of life once again. Start DuckTales story... 

“The Dream of a Lifetime”: I just had to read this because of the jumps in Scrooge’s dreams through his lifetime. It was adorable seeing young Scrooge, especially 10yr old Scrooge cussing out his nephew Donald for interrupting his dreams. Then on top of all that it ends with Scrooge finally reaching Goldie on the burning stage (which never happened), and the blushinggg hnnghhh and then freaking Donald sitting there watching the whole thing, just yes.

“A Letter From Home”: I had to read this one simply because I had read that Scrooge and Matilda make up. Boy howdy was this an emotional roller coaster, starting with Scrooge visiting his parents’ grave. Tears. Literal tears. Then Matilda wants nothing to do with him, that surprised me a bit considering how sweet and soft-spoken she was when she was younger. Plus she breaks the news about how Fergus never wanted Scrooge to find the treasure and calls him a bad son. My gosh my heart is aching for Scrooge at this point. The antagonist suddenly pulls a gun on Matilda, and Scrooge jumps in front of her without hesitation. Thank goodness the gun ‘misfires’. That definitely changed things between the two. Finally we get to see the interaction we’ve been waiting for. Scrooge and Matilda finally yell talk things out, and somewhat uncharacteristically, Scrooge cries and pleads for forgiveness. However, Matilda finally gets to hear Scrooge’s side and realizes just what he’s been through as well. They find a letter to Scrooge from Fergus, who actually did want Scrooge to find the treasure, and told him he and his mother were proud of him. It was one of the only letters Scrooge ever received from his parents, and he never, since the day they died, knew they were proud of him. sobs

That was a lot longer than necessary but even if you guys only read the sections you want that works. Thank you again!

#shad talks #The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck #Long Post #Scrooge McDuck #DuckTales

[popculturebuffet]

The Legend of the Three Caballeros: Mt. Fuji Whiz and Thanks a Camelot Reviews: Thank God, No Daisy (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Saludos amgios and welcome to the final sprint of THE RIDE OF THE THREE CABLLEROS. If your wondering if this is a bit soon.. that’s because it is. While I planned to do the episodes as is before.. this bottom half of the series so far has been so good I couldn’t bare waiting days to get to the next episode just as things are getting really good, especially after the last episode’s cliffhanger. So today, I intend to FINISH the series, with an epilogue next week for my look at the cabs as a whole via a top 12 moments list. Plus i’m already excited for the next retrospective, so there’s that. And yeah Kev’s funding ANOTHER one and you can too.. serioulsy just shoot me an ask for any solo episode or arc you wan’t covered. But now’s not the time for shameless plugs, it’s the time for adventure and to sew up a cliffhanger! So come with me after the cut for some ghouls, ghosts and arthur won’t you?

PREVIOUSLY ON LEGEND OF THE THREE CABLLEROS:

And now the conclusion...

Mt. Fuji Whiz:

First off... let’s talk about the episode titles for the series since I don't think I have yet. 

It has bothered me for the ENTIRE run of the series how terrible most of them are. There all a pun of some kind on something involved with the episode.. but out of 13 episode titles the only ones I like are World-Tree Caballeros, No Man is an Easter Island, Stonehenge Your Bets, Nazca Racing and Thanks a Camelot. And most of them fit the theme of the episode with the exception of Stonehenge: World Tree is a clever pun they couldn’t NOT use, no man fits the theme of the episode as bad as that episode is, Nazca Racing is just another good pun and fits the race at the end, and thanks a Camelot while a very simple one, fits the story of that episode, i.e. everyone's dissatisfaction with Arthur’s training. More on that later. Point is the rest are just.. really cringe inducing puns. And I do LOVE a good pun.. but that’s a GOOD pun, not obvious ones about a “pyramid life-crisis” or a play on gee whiz in 2018 for god’s sake. And the finale title is just.. really awful as they gave up entirely and named it after square dancing for HOPEFULLY no adequate reason. And look the series is a comedy first with the action second, pun titles would be fine.. their just so bad it sucks all the pun out of them. See what I did there? THAT’S a pun. And not even a great one, but it’s still better than this. It feels like the titles were an afterthought and it’s obnoxious. and frustrates me every time I have to type them out. And with only four episodes left I had to get it out sometime. 

So moving onto the actual episode we pick up with the ending of last episode: Death killing the Cabs and Team Sheldgoose. And as we see shortly. he wasn’t bluffing. We pick up with them in the underworld in a dmv line. My god.. it’s even worse of a beaurcrcy than Beetlejuice. Feldrake informs the cabs where they are and Donald, being Donald, dosen’t have the patience to wait in line with the bilions of souls down there, especially since the take a number thing gave them a number that needed to be printed on both sides.. and their at 4. Good gag though. So Donald storms out the moment he sees and exit and our boys head into the city of the Damned. Sheldgoose meanwhile decides to do his best Karen and demands ot speak with the manager.. whose another Sheldgoose it turns out. Uh-Oh.  After the credits our boys explore the city and hoping not to get hit with more ghost cards, find shelter in a little tavern owned by none other than Clinton Coot, Donald’s Great-Grandpa and father of his grandmother Elvira Coot. Clinton initally mistakes the boys for their ancestors, and is disapionted in meeting donald, but once he learns their the ones that inehreted his Cabana, he’s exastic to meet and learn about them. We also learn he had a collection of fragile frontiersman figurines.. which cleverly, are all various versions of Scrooge from life and times. His second cowboy outfit from the side story “The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff”, his prospector outfit from “Terror of the Tranysval”, his klondike prospecter outfit and him finding the goose egg nugget from “King of The Klondike” and him bitterly hauling a sack of his loot into town from the same story. Also some palet swaps of all but the last one because animation is expensive. Panchito.. destroys them all while putting down his pIzza. “NOTHINGS BROKEN”. Clinton then invites the boys to have a sip of his memories, literally he drains some out and despite their relcutance the cabs take a chug.  They reveal prettty much.. every nagging question about the cabana. Clinton, after finding out about his ancestor Duego Duck, the original cabs version of donald, Clinton traveled the world and the 7 seas, everybody’s looking for something.. and he was looking for every trace of the cabs, and their mysterious ally, who we know as Xandra. He gathered all of it, hence the massive collection of books and magical treasures in the cabana, eventually finding their hidden lair and building his cabana on top of it, founding New Quackmore with Sheldgoose’s own great grandmother.. who betrayed him and took the institute from him. His consolation prize was finding Ari and the atlas but he couldn’t open it like the boys and is curious what they found. I absolutely love this and while I feel Clinton’s history would’ve worked better as an overaching mystery, there were seeds for all of this planeted throughout the season, with Sheldgoose being in charge despite the name and Clinton being involved, Shelgoose’s mention a sheldgoose has always been president, and the tease last episode. Still would’ve liked MORE exploration and build up to this , but what we got was facenating upgrading Clinton from a footnote on the duck family tree, to a throughly loveable character: A guy who was so fascenated by his ancestor’s adventures he became an adventurer himself and who lovingly catalogued eveyrthing the guy and his friends ever did.. and had some heartrending reasons why we’ll get to. 

 As Jose leads in with not what but WHO, and likely tells clint about their adventures, a clever way to get that exposition out off screen, we cut back to the world of the living. Xandra is beating herself up, if not literally over things, and while the girls just suggest going to the underworld via zoom point, Xandra points out that won’t work. There’s only one way in: Charon, the greek ferryman of the dead.. and she realizes that’s exactly how, while the girls try a seance.  I’ll just cover the séance stuff now. The girls hold a séance to summon the boys, finding some unfinished business (A piece of said pizza) and having ari dress like a fortune teller because eh why not. There’s some good gags and stuff, but it’s mostly plot irrelvant, only hurting Panchito’s brain at first, then summoning him just as their about to fight a Tengu, with humphrey eating the pizza finsihing the buisness. Not a bad plot at all and certainly refreshing after all the Daisy nonsense last episode, but nothing really important.  Meanwhile let’s also get to Xandra’s subplot, which is both mroe relevant and funnier and again i’ll be covering all at once for convience. Xandra finds that the horn to summon Charon... is now a sax.  Huh so THAT’S what pamela anderson’s character CJ was doing when she was introduced on baywatch. 

Anyways turns out Charon’s reinvented the old boat and since Xandra’s an immortal he offers her a free ride. It’s now a cruise ship with him as the captain, voiced by voice acting legend Jim Cummings who does a fantastic job. The reasonings also brilliant: he wasn’t getting many WILLING souls with his creepy old setup, so he reinvinted things and now has a packed house, plenty of coins and a nonstop party. He even gives us an add for the buisness... this whole thing is fucking amazing and deserves to be praised and is the series at it’s best: taking something mythic and giving it some wacky but still clever tweaks. Xandra eventually gets annoyed as he isn’t going into the city so she can’t look for the cabs and takes the wheel, cursing her to be the captain now, but she just uses that to get in and finds clinton who agrees to guide her to the boys... we’ll get to where he guided them in a moment. 

And that moment is now, Clinton tells the boys there is a way out, but it involves fighting the Tengu, which is misdentified as a falcon despite, even as someone with only a surface knowledge of yokai, I knew it’s modled after a crow, or at least some versions are as it turns out.. and so is the one here so how did they screw that one up?

Point is they need to get past it, and are on a timer as when the Creepy combination of jack skeltington and that moon from Majora’s mask that’s in the sky sets and night ends, their stuck. But first they run into a guard who says they have to fill out paperwork.. and his superior is intend on that, his superior being unsuprisingly sheldgoose, who got the gig since his family runs the afterlife. Oh goodie the rich also somehow run death....

But Donald decides FUCK PAPERWORK, throws it in the air and they run for it with Sheldgoose sicing the tengu on them, which looks awesome by the way. Panchito disappears as mentioned before just as they get a plan but returns in time to free his friends and they triumph.. only for Sheldgoose to not take this lying down and summon his entire family to kick their assses. So both sides power up: having learned the trick from clinton earlier, the cabs inflate.. part of their bodies while sheldgoose forms a voltron style fusion made up of his ancestor’s heads.. with the caveman as the crotch. 

So a fight insues that’s fluid and beautifully animated, and Xandra even arrives to provide backup, with Charon relieving her because he’ could loose his five star rating. I hear you man I struggled just to get my island up to a four. So it becomes a gorgeously animated and awesome fight with Clinton joining inn, finally able to be one of his heroes. He also reitarates something he told donald, that it’s not the journey.. it’s who you take it with and part of his love of the cabs was never having companions like that. Donald takes it to heart and our heroes take their leave, Clinton finally having achieved his lifes’ work. They decide to see japan because why not. Maybe they’ll run into hannibal there. 

And to tie things off, Shelgoose and Feldrake, whose spent the etnire epsidoe still in the staff depsite being dead and...

And find.. a demonic version of Donald in a devil costume, from that short with the devil and angel Donald's.. okay I have some questions. 

He sends them back and we’re out

Final Thoughts for Mt. Fuji Whiz: One of the series best. It’s well paced, has an amazing concept and both sideplots have some form of relevance while being utterly hilarious, especially the charon one. Seriously best bit character of the series calling it now. Already headcanon him as part of the ducktales universe. Along with a lot of this actually. IT’s good stuff and despite the series falts episodes like this prove why it really needed, and still needs, a second season. 

Thanks a Camelot:

Our heroes return to the land of the living with Xandra and to the Cabana, and while Donald wants to relax a bit, Xandra being an ass shoots that down. Though her reasons are valid: Feldrake has been stepping up his game with every scheme.. which is true. HIs last two schemes, not counting his post mortem one, only BARELY didn’t kill them and actually did kill them, and him too but that wasn’t on purpose. They need some good old fashioned hero training so Xandra’s taking the to king arthur and camelot, which of course are still around, to get it and since his training involves leaving everything behind, they leave htier weapons and other stuff behind including their amulets.. which haven’t come up since but are now since their important to the finale i’m guessing and they’ve been wearing the whole time. The girls are tagging along too as they want to document things because the plot says so but their entertaining so fine and leaving Ari and the Bear to guard. And the barrier.. more the barrier.  So with our heroes off Feldrake decides they need to strike and Sheldgoose has a plan to get around the barrier to get Humphrey’s spark: hide inside a cake and have humphrey so overcome by his desire for cake he comes to them. Feldrake is unimpressed but it works.. and even better as he drags them in.. but apparently while Feldrake’s protections are keyed to our heroes bloodline.. coot’s only extneded to feldrake. Which makes sense: he was friends with a Sheldgoose and probably didn’t consider her an enemy till he’d already set the spells, and cleverly, and i’d forgotten this till writing this review: Sheldgoose has already BEEN on the Cabana grounds once and to the doorstep, in the first episode when he visited the yardsale and in the finale of the second when he showed up to give Donald his check. So the show even showed it.. we just didn’t think about it or assumed having the ring meant he couldn’t now. But nope Sheldgoose is inside and Humphrey’s knocked out. 

Back in merry old Camelot, I apolgoize for having a deficit of spamalot and Monty Python refrences, our heroes meet King Arthur, voiced by former star of said spamelot John O’ Hurley, who I was going to give a good treatment and go into his career.. then I found out he’s VERY conservative, pro trump even post riot and generally kind of an ass in how he conducts himself soooo instead a hearty

Does a good job here, still a weasel fiesta. So King Arthur trains our heroes.. via motivational statments, trust falls and what not with his knights who get the same traning, one of which is Gallhad, a frog voiced by the same guy who viced Kermit on muppet babies. Yayyyyy. The girls wonder off, finding Merlin, whose busy with spells and such and clarfying which one is which. They give him june’s phone as Merlin has a video game addiction but Arthur forbids it because well. he has a problem why wouldn’t he.  Ruined Todd Chavez’s life it did. I mean it’s exceptional now but it took a bit of living on a drunken horse with serious issues couch. 

Anyways, Donald soon gets fed up because.. hes Donald. And because.. Tony kinda leans on the more classic constantly angry donald in this one, since he DID help write the lines. It’s not BAD mind you.. but I prefer the melding of his comics and shorts self other works did, the smug ego and everyman desperation to be noticed and liked from the comics mixed with the ego but also tons of rage of the shorts. Kinda like how Daffy had his own egotistical smartguy version merged with his screwball version for the Looney Tunes Show.. which i’ve been rewatching lately. Even better than I remember, highly underated. 

My point is this Donald, as we approach the end .. isn’t for me. He’s just not as intresting as the cloudcuckoolander panchito or the smootha nd wise jose. He ballances them well, being the more direct angry one to panchito’s unpredicablity and Jose’s smooth compemplation. He’s not BAD, and i get why some would prefer this one over Ducktales, as he’s more in line with his classic characterzation.. but I just prefer a more nuanced Donald and this one isn’t it. He spends most of the series either complaning, pissed off, or pining for an ungreatful she demon. There’s not a lot of notes compared to Jose or Panchito, as Jose isn’t just a ladies man or a charmer but a fairly smart guy who has pretty damn good plans and Panchito isn’t just spacey but, kind brave and with his own moral code. They just got more fleshing out as things went and Donald didn’t and it’s disappointing. 

So Donald gets fed up with the training, and calls out it’s only motivatoinal, with the other cabs agreeing, if more tactfully, and the knights.. also agreeing, pointing out King Arthur dosen’t even do his own goofy self motivational exercises and abandon him.. at the worst possible time as the girls conjur up a super powerful magical dragon. So the knights leave him to it and Arthur is too cowardly to face it. So the Cabs do what he won’t and charge in to defend the holy grail, called the grail of immortality here for ..r easons, and fight the dragon.. and Arthur joins them, inspired to finally get his groove back and gives the knights a rousing speech and even reconclies with donald. So our heroes fight the dragon and nearly die, before the rest of the round table pitches in, and the girls find the dragons scroll and impulsively burn it.. which destorys it. So the day’s saved, and Arthur apologizes to everyone and decides to give the boys proper combat training as thanks. Also we get a really funny bit with Merlin, who throws the phone into the fire.. and much like the dragon, apparenlty it was tied to the employee who activated it because he suddenly and horrifcly burns up. PFFT. Dark but beautfiul

But of course what about the Sheldgoose subplot. Well I saved that for now to cover it all at once SO: Sheldgoose pokes around, being annoyed by a dart board of his face and what not and tries to find something to fish the spark out with... but Ari finds him and proves to be entirely useful, beating Sheldgoose down into the treasure chamber and getting inot a fight with him. Sheldgoose holds pace.. until Humphrey wakes up and with the odds against him they throw him out. Meanwhile Feldrake zaps a dog that was going to get peed on him but when sheldgoose is ejegted is surronded by dogs and clearly didn’t escape as he dosne’t want to taklk about why he smells to sheldgosoe. He is ABOUT to berate him for failure again.. but Sheldgoose points out he swiped something more important: The amulets. 

Proving once again Sheldgoose is the real power in the team. 

Final Thoughts on Thanks a Camelot:  This was a fun one. While finding out about John O Hurley was... unfortunte.. he does a decent job and the episodes a fun take on camelot with, as usual , really excellent gags, pacing and a hell of a fight scene with a dragon. Good stuff as usual

NEXT TIME; It all ends! It’s a visit to some yeti’s before one final dance betwen good and evil and one last set of episodes for this retropsective! Be ready! 

#the legend of the three caballeros #jose carioca #panchito romero miguel junipero francisco quintero gonzalez #panchito pistoles #donald duck #may duck #june duck #april duck #xandra goddess of adventure #lord sheldrake #baron von sheldgoose #king arthur #charon #clinton coot #the three caballeros #disney plus