Scrooge Facts

A True Life Chronology of SCROOGE McDUCK
As of February 2001

1947	First appearance of Uncle Scrooge McDuck in “Christmas on Bear Mountain” (Donald Duck Four Color 178). The character, created by writer /artist Carl Barks, serves mainly as a throwaway plot device.
1948	Scrooge returns and gains a toehold in the Disney universe, acquiring an ancestral home and history, in “The Old Castle's Secret” (DD FC 189). He also makes his debut in the Donald Duck ten pagers (Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories 98).
1949	A still formative Scrooge reveals secrets of his early life in “Voodoo Hoodoo” (DD FC 238).
1950	“The Magic Hourglass” proves to be the source of Scrooge’s wealth (DD FC 291). As with many aspects of Scrooge’s early appearances, this becomes a challenge to reconcile with the personality and background of the World’s Richest Duck as they later develop.
1951	First appearances of the safe-cracking Beagle Boys (WDC&S 134) and of Scrooge's money bin (WDC&S 135).
1952	First Scrooge comic book, “Only a Poor Old Man” (Uncle Scrooge FC 386). Simultaneously, Scrooge locks horns with the Maharajah of Howduyustan (WDC&S 138); establishes pioneer Cornelius Coot as the founder of Duckburg. Madcap inventor Gyro Gearloose, long-time Uncle Scrooge backup star, makes his debut (WDC&S 140).
1953	First appearances of Scrooge’s old flame Glittering Goldie in “Back to the Klondike” (US FC 456; her only appearance in a Barks story) and of his Old Number One dime (US FC 495).
1954	Scrooge goes to epic extremes this year, first trying to create scarcity (US 5) and winding up sunken Atlantis, and then relieve it (US 6) after parachuting into fabled Tralla La. He and his nephews also discover the Seven Cities of Cibola (US 7).
1955	The Disney Studio invites Carl Barks to script a Scrooge cartoon. Though the project is later abandoned, Scrooge makes his first television appearance on October 3 in the animated titles for the Mickey Mouse Club show.
1956	First appearance of Scrooge’s arch-nemesis, Flintheart Glomgold, “The Second-Richest Duck” (US 15).
1957	First appearance of a Brutopian ambassador, who bids against Scrooge for “A Cold Bargain” (US 17).
1958	Scrooge discovers rich natural wonders in “The Golden River” (US 22) and “The Twenty-four Carat Moon” (US 23).
1959	Scrooge tracks down “The Flying Dutchman” (US 25), subsequently the subject of four oil paintings by Barks.
1960	Scrooge stars in his only two storybooks drawn by Barks: Uncle Scrooge the Lemonade King (Top Top Tales No. 2465) and Donald Duck and the Christmas Carol (Little Golden Book D84).
1961	Dell Publishing manufactures the first American Uncle Scrooge toy, a rubber savings bank.
1962	First appearance of the sorceress Magica de Spell, who covets Scrooge’s Number One dime in “The Midas Touch” (US 36).
1963	The best-selling Disney comic book, Uncle Scrooge switches from quarterly to bimonthly publication with issue No. 40, testifying to the magazine’s popularity.
1964	Scrooge embarks on “The Loony Lunar Gold Rush” (US 49) in a parody of Robert W. Service’s Klondike ballad, “The Shooting of Dan McGrew.”
1965	First appearance of one of Scrooge’s oldest enemies, Soapy Slick, in “North of the Yukon” (US 59).
1966	Barks retires from regular comic book work, leaving “King Scrooge the First” (US 71) to be drawn by Tony Strobl.
1967	Scrooge’s first theatrical film, Uncle Scrooge and Money, is released on March 23.
1968	In his first published interview Barks discusses Scrooge’s origins: “I kind of liked old Scrooge, and he filled a gap” (Comic Art No. 7).
1969	Barks begins to sell original ink art from Uncle Scrooge 60-63, adding a new dimension to Scrooge collecting.
1970	Robert Overstreet’s Comic Book Price Guide No. 1 documents the secondary market values of old Uncle Scrooge comic books. Barks begins to script (though not draw) Junior Woodchuck stories costarring Scrooge with “Peril of the Black Forest” (Huey, Dewey and Louie Junior Woodchucks 6).
1971	First Scrooge painting by Barks, Money Lake, recreates in fully rendered dimensions the cover art from the first Uncle Scrooge comic (US FC 386).
1972	First money bin painting by Barks, Pleasure in the Treasure.
1973	First Klondike painting by Barks, The Goose Egg Nugget, and arguably his finest painting featuring Uncle Scrooge, This Dollar Saved my Life at Whitehorse, a critically acclaimed money bin.
1974	Jack L. Chalker publishes An Informal Biography of Scrooge McDuck (Baltimore: Mirage Press), working events from the Scrooge stories into a coherent timeline.
1975	Barks paints The Expert, a definitive miniature portrait of Scrooge that will be recreated twenty years later as an English bone china figurine.
1976	Barks paints his most ambitious oil to date, July Fourth in Duckburg, featuring Scrooge, the Duck family and — for the first and only time — numerous real-life collectors. The picture sells at auction for $6,400, a record high price.
1977	The Comic Book Price Guide No. 7 runs an illustrated feature on “Carl Barks — From Burbank to Calisota” by E.B. Boatner, illustrated by a gallery of oils, twelve of them featuring Uncle Scrooge.
1978	The start of an international reawakening of interest in Scrooge McDuck, as book deals are negotiated in Europe and the United States. Barks privately questions new characterizations of Scrooge in Italian comics.
1979	First hardbound anthology of Scrooge comics in America, The Best of Uncle Scrooge (New York: Abbeville Press).
1980	Barks paints Wanderers of Wonderlands, his first Scrooge oil specifically intended for reproduction as a lithograph (a miniature), to be included in a Scrooge book published the following year.
1981	Two limited edition art books featuring Scrooge are published simultaneously in the fall: The Fine Art of Walt Disney's Donald Duck, which launches Another Rainbow and reproduces 122 Barks oils. Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life and Times (Celestial Arts) collects ten classic stories and prints the first new Scrooge adventure by Barks in fifteen years, “Go Slowly, Sands of Time” (a text story with illustrations).
1982	Sailing the Spanish Main inaugurates Another Rainbow’s series of limited edition Barks lithographs. For this print Barks reworked one of his most famous comic covers to include Scrooge.
1983	Scrooge stars in the animated feature film Mickey’s Christmas Carol, released on December 16.
1984	The first set of Uncle Scrooge comic reprints is published as Set III of the hardbound Carl Barks Library.
1985	Gladstone Publishing launches a new line of Disney comic books with Uncle Scrooge Goes to Disneyland and Disneyland Birthday Party, both featuring classic Scrooge tales by Barks.
1986	First American printing of a European-produced Scrooge story, “The Robot Raiders of Magica de Spell” (US 210).
1987	First Scrooge story by Don Rosa, “The Son of the Sun” (US 219), a sequel to the classic Barks Donald Duck adventure “Lost in the Andes.” “Sport Goofy in Soccermania,” an unreleased theatrical cartoon produced in 1984 and starring a pre-DuckTales Scrooge, finally sees the light of day as a TV special. DuckTales, an animated television series inspired by the Scrooge comics, airs its pilot episode on September 18. Gladstone launches a new Scrooge comic book title, Uncle Scrooge Adventures, and celebrates Scrooge’s fortieth birthday by publishing the commemorative book Uncle Scrooge in Color. Capping a very busy year, Scrooge is featured in the first volume of Gladstone’s first series of comic albums.
1988	First Scrooge story by William Van Horn, “Floating Alone” (Uncle Scrooge Adventures 6). Gladstone’s DuckTales comic, based on the animated series, begins. Walt Disney World builds a replica of Duckburg, complete with Scrooge’s statue of Duckburg's founder Cornelius Coot and a sign listing McDuck as President of the “Billionaire's Club.”
1989	Martin Barker publishes Comics: Ideology, Power and the Critics (Manchester University Press), the first academic study to devote a chapter to Scrooge.
1990	DuckTales: The Movie: The Secret of the Lost Lamp, a theatrical film based on the TV show, is released on August 3.
1991	Escorted by Disneyland’s costumed Uncle Scrooge, Barks receives the Disney Legends Award on October 22.
1992	Always Another Rainbow, the first limited edition porcelain figurine of Scrooge, and The Scrooge McDuck Midnight Egg, a jeweled Theo Fabergé sculpture inspired by the Barks painting In the Cave of Ali Baba, are released by Another Rainbow.
1993	Reemergence of Gladstone as the publisher of Uncle Scrooge comics after a three-year hiatus, during which Disney comics were produced by the Walt Disney Company. Gladstone also revives Uncle Scrooge Adventures, a title Disney chose not to publish.
1994	Rosa’s twelve-chapter epic, “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck,” begins its American serialization (US 285). Illuminating the past of the World’s Richest Duck on the comic book page with unprecedented depth, breadth, affection, and attention to detail, the series receives plaudits from around the world and goes on to win the 1995 Will Eisner Comics Industry Award for Best Serialized Story.
1995	First American printing of “Horsing Around with History” (USA 33), a new Scrooge adventure written by Barks and drawn by William Van Horn.
1996	Uncle Scrooge Adventures in Color comic albums begin. (Originally billed as part of The Carl Barks Library in Color project, postal regulations require that the term “library” not be used.) This will be a complete full color, largely chronological printing of Barks’ Scrooge tales in 56 volumes with accompanying trading cards. Rosa’s “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” series also issued in album form, the four volumes accompanied by the first-ever Rosa trading cards.
1997	Carl Barks’ Scrooge painting The Expert is issued as a porcelain figurine and a lithograph by Another Rainbow. Gladstone collects Don Rosa’s first two years of Scrooge stories into four comic albums.
1998	Gladstone completes the Uncle Scrooge Adventures in Color album series, and wraps up its run of the venerable Uncle Scrooge comic book title. William Van Horn’s first two years of Disney duck stories are also issued in four albums, with special emphasis on his Scrooge work.
1999	The world waits and wonders as the fate of Uncle Scrooge comics in the USA and Canada is negotiated. Meanwhile, there is a reported sighting of Scrooge in an episode of the animated TV series Mickey Mouse Works.
2000- 2001	The US/Canada comics negotiations continue...while Scrooge continues to prosper in comics elsewhere around the globe.

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Image of Scrooge McDuck © Disney Enteprises, Inc.