Disney LongBox Reviews: Uncle Scrooge #17
SCROOGE VS SCROOGE
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN KACZOR DONALD (2009)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: POLAND
FIRST TIME PUBLISHED IN THE USA
Things are going great for Donald in this story as he has won three local gaming tournaments during the last six weeks. During a great dinner, Scrooge mentions another of his long-ago memories as Donald pushes it aside as he would rather play the latest Lady Lana Toft game as Scrooge takes great offence to this. Donald explains the reason he prefers playing his video games is because he gets to be the explorer, he gets to be the hero rather than Scrooge’s dopey sidekick as had been the case for the many years since Bear Mountain.
Scrooge suddenly leaves as a brain storm struck his head. The boys get worried since they haven’t heard from Scrooge in days as they suddenly walk in front of the local gaming store. A crowd was there drooling for the latest game called The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (I need to hunt down a copy of the tale of the same name one day), the boys realize how their great uncle got that idea as they rush on home.
Sure enough, Donald is playing the game, relieving the greatest moments of Scrooge’s long life. Scrooge pops in informing them that he and Gyro made the game together as he was pleased he could make money off of his life. Donald then says that he could be a better Scrooge due to his gaming skills, he then challenges Scrooge to re-play key moments of his life to see who is the better Scottish duck among both.
Who will win this daring game challenge ? Will it be the gaming champion Donald Duck or the original big deal Scrooge McDuck , read the rest of this story to find out.
FINAL THOUGHTS: I would like to point out something I loved about this story. The coat Donald wears in the game is a tribute to how France coloured their Disney comics in the 70s giving Scrooge a blue and red coat instead of the traditional red and grey coat. This colour choice was later adapted for the 1987 Duck Tales animated series and is the preferred colour for most Disney fans born after the 80s.
Great two parter that chronicles Scrooge’s early years in greater detail. This is a great companion piece with the Don Rosa epic from the 90s.
HICCUP TO NO GOOD
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN TOPOLINO #2527 (2004)
FIRST PUBLISHED IN ITALY
FIRST TIME PUBLISHED IN NORTH AMERICA
In this short story, poor old 671 has a bad case of the hiccups keeping the other Beagles awake, its up to the Beagles and Grampie to figure out a way to get rid of the nuisance before it ruins their beauty sleep.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Hilarious story featuring the Beagle Boys, would have loved for this one to be longer since Alesso Coppola is the modern master of drawing the Beagle Boys.
GYRO’S MANAGER
FIRST PUBLISHED IN KALLE ANKA AND CO #50 (2014)
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SWEDEN
FIRST TIME PUBLISHED IN NORTH AMERICA
Business is slow for Duckburg’s favourite inventor as an customer informs him that he can’t only charge 39.99$ for his inventions. He should be charging thousands more as he decides to take it upon himself to become his manager as he discovers Gyro had invented water that runs uphill and heavy water that stays put. He soon sees an opportunity to use those two inventions to make some moolah.
First off, he sets up a competiton to give Gyro some much needed publicity as he makes the competitor drink the heavy water and gives Gyro the light water to make him seem much more of an athlete than the others. Max reveals that it was all a set-up to give Gyro credit but the crowd turns on them, booing them off stage. The duo return to Gyro’s shack as Gyro is ready to throw in the towel due to this newfound *fame* but Max wants to do more and takes the bottles from Gyro secretly.
What does he have in mind ? How could this go wrong like all of Gyro’s inventions usually do ? Read on to find out dear readers.
FINAL THOUGHTS: The art was superb in this story, the writing was good considering it is a story that has been done countless times with other characters. I find it refreshing to see the lesser characters of the Duck Universe get more solo stories of their own without Donald and the gang being in them. It shows how easy Gyro can be fooled by slime balls like Max BuckGrab but in the end Gyro eventually rises up to victory in his own nutty way.
THE BIGGEST FLEET IN THE WORLD
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN TOPOLINO #734 (1969)
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN ITALY
FIRST TIME PUBLISHED IN NORTH AMERICA
Miss Belle is looking for things to sell to cover some renovations for the Gilded Lilly as she informs the nephews that she had gone broke again. She finds a chest belonging to her great grandfather Seafaring Duck, a bigger cheapskate than Scrooge ever was. She begins telling them about him but he had a dark secret, he was seasick all along and did not actually sailed the vast amount of boats he owned. He switched to owning a railroad empire later on.
The boys find the deed to the vast fleet of boats as Miss Belle shows them its all model boats instead of fully sized boats. They decide to see if Scrooge would be interested in buying them as at the moment, he is in a war against an owl named Owlfred Screech to see who will own the most boats in the world.
Who will end up being the tycoon with the most boats ? Will either of them discover the shocking secret of Miss Belle’s fleet ? Read the story to find out
FINAL THOUGHTS: As I have said before in past reviews of Uncle Scrooge, I am not a big fan of Hubbard’s work , its too scratchy for me leaving an unfinished look to his comics. I did notice that Owlfred has an uncanny resemblance to a certain owl in the Disney universe with a massive ego in the Hundred Acre Wood. I would recommend this story only to the diehard Hubbard fans or fans of Miss Belle as stories featuring her are not that many.
CREDITS:
WRITERS: OLAF SOLSTRAND ( STORY 1) NINO RUSSO ( STORY 2) CARL BARKS AND JOHN LUSTIG ( STORY 3) DICK KINNEY ( STORY 4)
ARTISTS: ARILD MIDTHUN ( STORY 1) ALESSIO COPOLLA ( STORY 2) DAAN JIPPES ( STORY 3) AL HUBBARD ( STORY 4)
EDITOR: SARAH GAYDOS
ARCHIVAL EDITOR: DAVID GERSTEIN
PUBLISHER: IDW