Uncle Scrooge #342

May 27, 2005

Quick Rating: Excellent
Title: The Old Castle’s Other Secret or A Letter From Home and Other Stories

The greatest treasure in the world is waiting for Scrooge McDuck – and he’ll have to go home again to find it.

Writers: Don Rosa, Byron Erikson, Lars Jensen, Jack Sutter & Carl Barks
Art: Don Rosa, Wanda Gattino, Maria Jose Sanchez Nunez & Carl Barks
Colors: Susan Daigle-Leach, Egmont, Scott Rockwell & Marie Javins
Letters: Todd Klein, Jon Babcock & Susie Lee
Editor: Arnold T. Blumberg
Cover Art: Don Rosa
Publisher: Gemstone Comics

Three months ago I reviewed Uncle Scrooge #339, containing Don Rosa’s “The Crown of the Crusader Kings,” and at the time I thought it might well have been the best story Rosa ever told. That was before I read this one.

“The Castle’s Other Secret” is the sequel to that story, in which Scrooge uncovered the ancient Crown of the Knights Templar, only to lose it to the modern incarnation of the Knights. It was only a minor loss, though, as he found another important clue – the crown was crapped in an ancient orange and green tartan – the symbol of the Clan McDuck! It was another clue pointing to the treasure of the Knights Templar – the greatest treasure in the history of the world – and the trail was pointing straight towards his ancestral castle.

In this issue, Scrooge and his nephews return to Castle McDuck on the Misty Moors of Scotland to continue the quest for the treasure, but Scrooge is taken aback by the Castle’s new caretaker – his own estranged sister, Matilda, whom he hasn’t seen in 25 years. When Scrooge returned home from his travels around the world his sisters, Matilda and Hortense (Donald’s mother) abandoned him, disgusted by his greed. (This whole story, by the way, is detailed in Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, which Gemstone is releasing as a trade paperback next month). His sister hasn’t forgiven him in all those years, and now he not only has to deal with a sister who despises him, but a Templar racing him for the treasure.

Every good thing that can be said about a Don Rosa comic book applies to this issue. The art is detailed and beautiful, full of small touches and in-jokes that only the sharpest-eyed readers will notice. The story is rich and heavily researched – every historical fact Rosa uses in his stories is meticulously studied to match it up with actual history. But he managed to take this story one step further. He managed to make a story about the search for the greatest treasure in the world into a personal tale about family, brothers and sisters, fathers and sons. Just the panel of Scrooge visiting his parents’ grave alone is magical, but the way he connects with his long-dead father is uplifting and inspiring. There’s more depth, characterization and genuine emotion in this story than in any year’s worth of your average comic book. This is, simply put, one of the greatest comic book stories I’ve ever read.

We get three other quick tales in this issue as well, all of them pleasant enough. Lars Jensen, Jack Sutter and Maria Jose Sanchez Nunez present “The Door Trap,” in which the nefarious Beagle Boys get their hands on a magical door that transports anyone who steps through it to the middle of the Gobi desert. As always, they try to use it to nab Scrooge’s fortune – with predictably disastrous results.

Speaking of disastrous results, Byron Erickson and Wanda Gattino give us Gyro Gearloose in “The Customer is Always Wrong.” Fed up with Donald’s frequent mishandling of his inventions, Gyro severs his partnership with the duck, only to realize why he may need him after all. The book closes with a Carl Barks classic, “Raven Mad” from Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #265 (Oct. 1962). Scrooge puts his number-one dime on display at the Duckberg Bazaar, only to find himself again defending it from the machinations of Magica DeSpell.

The other three stories are all fine and would make for satisfying reading in any case. But the Rosa tale this issue is simply brilliant. I’ve come to expect a great read every time his name appears in the credits, but this goes far beyond even my expectations. If you’ve been thinking about trying out Uncle Scrooge, this is the issue to start.

Rating: 10/10

Uncle Scrooge #340

March 25, 2005

Quick Rating: Good
Title: The Heedless Horseman and other stories

Uncle Scrooge decides to become King of Duckburg – by winning the year’s biggest derby!

Writers: Carl Barks; Pat & Carol McGreal; Gorm Transgaard, Paul Halas & Jack Sutter
Art: Carl Barks, Nunez & Vicar, Jose Colomer Fonts
Colors: Susan Daigle-Leach, Edgemont, Marie Javins, Scott Rockwell & Pam Rambo
Letters: Susie Lee, Willie Schubert & Travis Seitler
Editor: Arnold T. Blumberg
Cover Art: Daniel Branca
Publisher: Gemstone Comics

This month’s installment of Uncle Scrooge stands out by its averageness. There aren’t any really spectacular stories, but there aren’t any poor ones either. It’s a pretty good issue all around.

The issue starts with a lesser-known Carl Barks tale from 1966, “The Heedless Horseman.” In the hopes of raising his profile among the people of his hometown, Scrooge decides to enter the Great Crystal Orb Derby, the winner of which is named King of Duckburg’s social scene for a full year. Scrooge decides he’ll win the contest by purchasing the fastest horse in town, but a series of mysterious booms and the horse’s erratic reaction to water may prove to be his undoing.

It’s not one of Barks’s classics, but it’s an entertaining story in its own right. Scrooge seems a tad out of character, caring so much about his social standing, until it’s made clear that he wants that status so that he can parlay it into better business deals. Overall, it’s a cute little story.

In “Beagle Brain” by Pat and Carol McGreal, the infamous Beagle Boys stumble upon an invention by Gyro Gearloose that turns one of them into a genius. The greater intellect seems to be the perfect tool to aid their criminal careers, but such a thing can go too far. A fun story with a cute punchline.

In Gorm Transgaard’s “Golden Illusion,” perhaps the strongest story in the collection, a blow scrambles Donald Duck’s brain and makes him believe he’s the legendary “Robin Duck.” Hallucinating, he rounds up the Beagle Boys to help him steal a fortune from the evil “King of Blottingham” and give it to the poor – utterly unaware that the castle he’s preparing to storm is Scrooge’s money bin! This story is just plain fun, and works better than most.

In “The Hardware Hardener,” Scrooge gets fed up with his pilot, Launchpad McQuack, constantly destroying his planes. He refuses to give Launchpad another job until he gets his own aircraft. When he brings the only plane he can afford to Gyro to help fix it up, he finds that a new solution to keep the plane solid may prove more trouble than he thought.

Finally, in “Jumbled Ducks,” the level of the money bin has reached such a point that Scrooge has no more room to put his money. He goes to Gyro for help, and the inventor supplies him with a compressor that will condense his money to one-third the space. The machine causes trouble, however, when Huey, Dewey and Louie accidentally get fused into one duck. This is also one of the better stories in the collection, although it and the other really good story, “Golden Illusion,” both ignore a big part of the way Barks characterizes Scrooge – that the money in his bin is the money he earned personally by the sweat of his brow, the part of his fortune that he never spends.

This is a decent issue, and fun for the Scrooge fan, but it’s not a spectacular issue. It’s just a fun one..

Rating: 7/10