Uncle Scrooge #333

August 27, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: The Polar Princess and other stories

Scrooge’s new cruise line for mega-billionaires seems like a ripe target for the Beagle Boys!

Writers: Gorm Transgaard, Carl Barks, Lars Enoksen, Paul Hoogma, Frank Jonker, L. Jensen, C. Spencer, Susan Daigle-Leach & Romano Scarpa
Art: Wanda Gattino, Carl Barks, Marcelo, Santiago Barreira, Manrique & Romano Scarpa
Colors: Egmont, Scott Rockwell, Susan Daigle-Leach, Michael Kraiger & Sue Kolberg
Letters: Willie Schubert, Sue Colberg & Travis Seitler
Editor: Arnold T. Blumberg
Cover Art: Santiago Scalabroni
Publisher: Gemstone Comics

All issues of the Disney comics put out by Gemstone are hit-and-miss, since they’re anthologies of stories, not just from different writers and artists, but from all over the world. While those issues often manage to have an anchor story for the lead that is simply outstanding with several good back-up tales, this issue is mostly just okay.

One problem, I think, is that Scrooge himself is a supporting character in nearly every story in this volume, so even the better ones don’t excite fans quite as much. One of the best in the volume is “The Polar Princess” by Transgaard and Gattino. When Scrooge decides to launch an Alaskan cruise line for super-millionaires, he asks his three great-nephews to be part of the crew, but snubs the accident-prone Donald Duck. Donald stows away anyway, however, and may turn out to be Scrooge’s last hope when the ship is hijacked by his old foes, the Beagle Boys. It’s a nice story and it is a good showcase for Donald – not so much for Scrooge, though.

Next is a reprint of Carl Barks’s 1951 story “Billions to Sneeze At.” Scrooge develops an inexplicable allergy to money and is forced to leave Donald in charge of his company as he hides in the mountains, far from any news of his wealth. Predictably, Donald’s heart is bigger than his head, and Scrooge is in for a nasty shock.

Enoksen and Marcelo contribute this issue’s Gyro Gearloose story, “Crazy Inventions,” but again, this is a Donald tale with a guest-star. Gyro asks Donald to wait for a customer as he heads off to run some errands – and again, Donald fouls things up.

Donald again takes center stage in “The King of the Apes” by Hoogma, Jonker and Barreira. While ferrying some valuable cargo for his uncle, Donald’s plane goes down, and Scrooge and his nephews set out to find him, only to realize that the “Tarduck” comic he was reading had quite an impact.

“The Big Clean-Up” is the first story in the book not to feature Donald, and again, Scrooge is a guest-star. When he has to leave town and everyone he trusts is already gone, he has to leave his company in the hands of one of his other relatives, the dimwitted Fethry Duck. A cute enough story, but paired with “Billions to Sneeze At” it makes one wonder – okay, Scrooge is a tightwad, but wouldn’t it be more economical in the long run to just hire a vice-president to handle things when he has to leave instead of putting his relatives in charge and costing himself a fortune when they screw things up?

Finally we have “Gone With the Winned,” an entry by popular Italian cartoonist Romano Scarpa, and like many European comics, it features a character that is not as well-known in the American comics. Scrooge’s neighbor, Brigitta MacBridge, has long plotted to get Scrooge to fall in love with her, but her latest scheme backfires and she finds herself on the verge of eviction. Her only hope is to win an acting contest, and the only person who can help her is Scrooge himself – but how to convince him?

This last story, both from a writing and artistic standpoint, is the standout in the volume. The plot is goofy enough to have been plucked from an episode of “I Love Lucy,” and Scrooge is displayed more prominently here than anywhere else in the book except the Barks story, and this is the only story where one could argue he really takes a protagonist role, although even that has to be shared with Brigitta.

All of the stories, taken on their own, are fine, but in the end you feel like this wasn’t really an issue of Uncle Scrooge, but rather a Donald Duck Adventures where Scrooge showed up frequently. There’s nothing wrong with any of the stories – it’s just not really what you paid the hefty cover price for.

Rating: 7/10