Scrooge McDuck

Character Creation and History

Scrooge McDuck was created by Disney Studio's illustrator Carl Barks.  A year after leaving the studios, he began work with Western Publishing which put out "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories."  His first job was a Donald Duck comic book story called "The Victory Garden."

Over the years, Barks created an entire family of duck characters, most of which became major parts of the late 80's Disney Afternoon series, DuckTales (and it's video games), including adversaries Magica De Spell, the Beagle Boys and Flintheart Glomgold.

His most famous creation, who became the main character in this duck universe, was Scrooge McDuck.

Scrooge has always been a staple of Disney comics since his first appearance in a story called "Christmas on Bear Mountain" which appeared in the December 1947 issue of "Donald Duck Four Color."

While still a major part of comics up to this day ("Uncle Scrooge" is still published by Gemstone), Scrooge was also able to break into different media, starting with the 1967 short "Scrooge McDuck and Money," an educational film where Uncle Scrooge teaches nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie about basic money management.

His next major appearance was in "Mickey's Christmas Carol," where Scrooge was first voiced by the man who would give him his iconic Scottish accent, Alan Young, best known as Wilbur from Mr. Ed.

Scrooge's biggest role was in "DuckTales," a half-hour animated series which was an original member of the "Disney Afternoon" block on television.  The series was mostly made up of stories and characters from the original comics.

Being a major success, Capcom, who had the license to develop Disney games at the time, created a "DuckTales" game for NES which became a major success and is still recognized as a classic game to this day.  It's combination of good controls, excellent game play, and memorable music still give it a place in retro game player's hearts.

While the game spawned a sequel on NES and two others for Game Boy, the original is still looked on as the best.  On PC, Incredible Technologies made "DuckTales:  The Quest for Gold."

Scrooge's most recent appearances have been his regular comic book, the Disney series "House of Mouse," and in the gaming world as a cameo in "Kingdom Hearts II."

Fictional History

The series "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" chronicled the most important moments in Scrooge's life.  As with all comic book characters, Scrooge's history is long and filled with details.

The first of three children, Scrooge comes from Glasgow, Scotland, born to a mill worker and his wife in 1867.  He learns about making money early in his childhood as a shoe polisher, where his first customer tricks him by paying him with an un-spendable United States dime.  Scrooge keeps this with him for the rest of his life as a lucky charm and inspiration.

As a teenager he moved to the United States where he meets up with his uncle who runs a riverboat.  This is also where he first encounters a group of criminals known as the Beagle Boys.

After inheriting the boat and subsequently having it destroyed by the Beagle Boys, Scrooge heads west where he takes on numerous jobs, including a cowboy, and finally decides to try his luck as a miner.

Scrooge is interrupted by his father, requesting him to come back to Scotland to save Castle McDuck from being bought.  Before heading back to the United States, Scrooge goes to South Africa, this time mining for gold.  While there, he saves the life of Flintheart Glomgold, who later becomes Scrooge's greatest rival.  An expert in the area's best places to mine, Flintheart offers his services to Scrooge to show him where he should look.  While sleeping, Glomgold steals everything from Scrooge.  Although he recovers everything and Flintheart is humiliated, Scrooge vows never to trust anybody again.

Over the next 10 years, Scrooge travels to the United States, Australia, and finally the Klondike where he strikes it rich and becomes a millionaire.  His first purchase was a bank.  Three years later, he becomes a billionaire.

Scrooge settles in Duckburg, in the state of Calisota, and encourages his sisters to join him.  For over 20 years, his sisters run his affairs while he becomes a globetrotter, searching for treasure and expanding his businesses.

After coming back, a family fight ensues and Scrooge breaks off all contact for almost 20 years.  Before the separation, Scrooge meets his then ten-year-old nephew, Donald.

As an aftermath of the fight, Scrooge becomes depressed and retires.  After Donald and his sister's children, Huey, Dewey and Louie return for a visit, he decides to hunt for treasure and continue to expand his empire once again.  He also rebuilds his relationship with his many family members.

According to the stories, Scrooge dies at the age of 100 in 1967 and any new stories told are from previous exploits, however many recent stories involve events, locations and technology that were not possible before the year of his death, so this part of the story is left up to debate.