The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Volume One

by Don Rosa

Back by popular demand! Relive Don Rosa's seminal Scrooge McDuck epic from the very beginning with this special collector's edition hardcover of the Disney classic!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor, Fiction, Adventure, Graphic Novels Comics, Childrens

127 pages, Hardcover

First published March 16, 2010

About the author

Keno Don Hugo Rosa, known as Don Rosa, is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his Disney comics stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and other characters which Carl Barks created for Disney-licensed comic books, first published in America by Dell Comics. Many of his stories are built on characters and locations created by Barks; among these was his first Duck story, "The Son of the Sun" (1987), which was nominated for a Harvey Award in the "Best Story of the Year" category.
Rosa created about 90 stories between 1987 and 2006. In 1995, his 12-chapter work The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck won the Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story.

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exceptional cartooning and I love the idea of stringing together all of Scrooge's adventures in a logical way. However, this does just feel like a series of unrelated adventures. It has the story-telling issue of "then this happened" and "then this happened" etc. These stories probably work better peppered throughout a series instead of strung together.

[Mariangel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel: Este libro trata del tío Gilito, desde 1877 cuando cumplió 10 años, hasta 1887. Pelea con los Whiskervilles en Escocia, los Beagle Boys en el Mississippi, los McVipers en las Badlands, y Flintheart Glomgold en el Transvaal. Me gusta cuando su forma de pelear contra ellos, y es todo divertido.

English: With wonderfully detailed art, hilarious dialogue, and full of literary, historical and movie references, "The life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" is Don Rosa's masterpiece and completely worthy of its Eisner award, besides being a great way for kids to learn XIX century North American history. Rosa set out to collect every reference Uncle Scrooge makes to his past in the Bark's comics, and make them into a coherent chronological story of his life. What an undertaking, and so amazingly accomplished!

Though born in Glasgow, an American dime he earns in his first pay job inspires 10-year-old Scrooge McDuck to look for his fortune in America, and his travels take him to a Mississippi riverboat, to the Badlands as a cowbow, meeting Theodore Roosevelt, to the mining town of Butte where he almost gains ownership of the famous Anaconda mine from copper baron Marcus Daly, and finally to the Transvaal gold rush. This is only part 1 though, so more adventures are still to come in volume 2.

Interestingly, the life of the "Empire builder" James Hill also took a similar path at the beginning, including a start in steamboats on the Mississippi and the Red River of the North, shortly before the railway put them out of commission; like Scrooge's, hard work was his motto.

[Chiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always loved Disney's Ducks' stories, and now I picked this one because of Tuomas Holopanien's latest song.
There are six chapters in this book, and they all tell about a dream, and about the perseverance of the duck pursuing it. It is funny and moving: a real adventure!

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always really liked Scrooge McDuck thanks to DuckTales (the classic 90's version, not the terribly ugly revamp). I however did not realize that there is a whole Duck following, and these people are intense. Don Rosa is basically a super Duck fan and has painstakingly taken every single Scrooge fact and constructed a 12 issue (3 of which are supersized) run of McDuck's adventures in chronological order, this volume covers the first 6.

The stories themselves were okay. I'm personally not a huge fan of the wild west or Mississippi river boats or the 1800s in general so my lack of enthusiasm is more of a personal failing than anything wrong with the content itself.

What I really did enjoy were the notes from the author at the end of each issue talking about his inspiration, and the various references and fun details that are hidden throughout the story.

Overall Rosa presented Scrooge as a young fun bona-fide American hero which was somehow a little inspiring all things considered.

[David Schwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author has assembled a collection of tidbits from previous Donald Duck cartoons into a reasonably coherent history of Scrooge McDuck. This is volume 1 of 2. Some very entaining stories. Nice graphics.

[Telthor · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the Ducktales reboot coming, it seemed like a good time to go back and see what the Duckverse comics are like. And this one's just drowning in awards and recommendations, so, why not?

And it's a total joy! The art is intricate and unbelievably fun to look at (and those hidden D.U.C.K.s are the most obnoxiously fun things to find). The characters are sort of familiar--I confess I don't know much about Scrooge's history, so most of it's pretty new to me. But it's well written, and the pacing is great despite Rosa's occasional worries about it in his editorial notes at the end of each chapter. Actually, those editorial comments are super interesting and well worth reading this particular edition over one that's just the comic printed in full. It gives the tale an extra dimension--really useful for someone who hasn't read a single Duck-thing in the past!

It's fun to see Scrooge's gradual development from cute, desperately poor kid to the penny-pinching, adventure-seeking crab that I remember.

I laughed out loud at least twice. Totally worth it all.

Basically, adorable, and I need to get my hands on Volume 2, stat. Especially as apparently a lot of good things happen in the Yukon and I want to know...!

[محمد على عطية · Rating 5 out of 5]

<3

[Jota Houses · Rating 2 out of 5]

El tío Gilito es creación de Carl Barks y, a partir de todos los hechos de su vida recopilados en sus historias, Don Rosa ha construido una biografía del pato más avaro desde su infancia hasta su primera aparición en los cómics de del Pato Donald (alguno de los cuales recuerdo de algún recopilatorio de mi infancia lejana).
La historia es un poco infantil y los dibujos no son los mejores (años de Don Miki me han dejado un paladar fino) tienen un puntito Crumbesco que no me termina de gustar. Aún así se paladea el cariño al material original y se lee con cierta nostalgia.

[Arunava Banerjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosa is meticulously Barksian. Almost to a fault. To the point where astute as he is, he deftly uses his idol's life and a biography of arguably his most pioneering character to further vindicate all that has always been vaguely (and thus) deeply rotten in the dismal state that is Disney.

Refer to author: Ariel Dorfman and author: Armand Mattelart 's incisive and singularly brilliant 1971 essay book: How to Read Donald Duck for a paradigm shifting scoop on Disney comics and control aesthetics.

[Sha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Often hilarious and occasionally saddening, the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is a brilliantly drawn chronicle of well- what the title says it is. Ten year old Scrooge starts his entrepreneurial life at Glasgow, shining shoes and selling peat; and as per the helpful hints from a ghostly ancestor, moves to America to seek his fortune. In America, Scrooge meets various flavors of villains and makes and loses his fortune again an again. He really did earn every penny. Many times over.

[Peter Wesolowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great hardcover version of Rosa's classic Scrooge stories. If you don't own the original uncle scrooge comics, then this is the best way to read these stories. Maybe even better than the originals as fantagraphics provides oversized panels for all the great art.

You can't go wrong with this collection if you like any of Barks' Uncle Scrooge stories.

[Zachary King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Better than I was expecting. If only Disney would reprint this so I could own my own copy. Don Rosa weaves together a dynamite backstory for Scrooge McDuck with first-rate scripting and masterfully effective art. I devoured it in one sitting and can't wait for Vol 2!

[Ashley Stangl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun and surprisingly educational. (I've learned more about gold rushes than I ever thought I'd know.)

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book for me!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything Scrooge you need to know! Told in tales of fun, adventure and a bit of real history! Ducks in some of their best modern incarnation stories. Don Rosa is a national treasure!

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun, funny stuff, even though I hate Scrooge McDuck (as in the Ducktales version) with every ounce of my being.

[Yongyoon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abysmal. What a letdown.

[Abe Something · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories are Lots of fun, but what’s on offer for me here is the depth of Rosa’s panels, the tiny jokes living in the background, and the range of his environments. This is truly a work of art.

[aNgela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such satisfying read, crazy tiny details, so funny yet filled with a lot of fun facts. Love this!

[Richard Joya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not know if you should listen to the concept album before reading this or after, both are inspired.

[Cooper Prescott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still the definitive Scrooge stories as far as I'm concerned. This volume includes my favorite panel in all of comics. Also, lil Scrooge is cute as a @#%$@ button. Wak wak wak!!

[Fried Seaweed · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author digs out so many fun facts of history and seamlessly weaves them into plot twists, enlivening Scrooge’s life stories with a sense of authenticity. Reading the series is quite a soul journey: we witness how the young, penniless Scrooge resists the temptation of quick money and determines to always make his money square, but after he amasses a fortune his growing greed overpowers him and bit by bit he loses his soul.

The audience of this book is not limited to children. I was not able to appreciate how great these adventure stories are until I reread everything years later.

[Nathan Dehoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to have reviewed both volumes of this together, but it looks like the library system only has the first one, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to read the second. Anyway, Rosa is known for his comics set in Donald Duck’s universe, and for his devotion to the work of Carl Barks. According to the Internet, his desire to stick with Barks’s continuity is so fanatical that even Barks himself suggested he tone it down. If there’s a brief reference in a Barks story to Scrooge being in a particular place in 1885, then this is going to be tied into Rosa’s history somehow. Being someone who tends to obsess on the minor details of fictional works myself, I can appreciate that. While Barks never worked out a complete biography for the world’s richest duck, Rosa set out to do just that, explaining some seeming contradictions in Barks’s comics like how Scrooge could be from a poor family AND be heir to a castle, and why the first coin earned by someone who grew up in Scotland would be an American dime. Not only does Rosa tie together Scrooge’s mentions of his past in Barks’s work, but he also brings in actual history, having the adventurer meet Theodore Roosevelt and other historical figures. Of course, he also encounters other figures from the Duck universe, or sometimes their ancestors, like Gyro Gearloose’s grandfather Ratchet and the original Beagle Boys. There are several references to the infamous temper of Scrooge’s sister Matilda, who of course later turns out to be Donald’s mother. Scrooge also has his first meeting with Flintheart Glomgold, who’s an interesting character in his own right. The second richest duck in the world was another Barks creation, and while DuckTales made him Scottish like his rival, Barks originally presented him as living in South Africa. Apparently concerns with apartheid were involved in changing Glomgold’s nationality, but Rosa stuck with the original history and made Scrooge’s rival a Boer, which was made into a joke. Rosa is careful not to have Glomgold ever mention his name, so as to maintain continuity with his original appearance in which Scrooge doesn’t know who he is. As awkward as this might seem, it actually does work in context, as the young Glomgold is a criminal who probably wouldn’t want to reveal his name. I very much enjoyed the book, and I hope to be able to read the other volume someday, not to mention the additional stories Rosa wrote.

[Duane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing graphic novel that illustrates how the grand Scrooge McDuck came into being the rich duck we all love. Each chapter focuses on an important phase in his life and as a bonus, the author does a thorough explanation of the behind the scenes reasons the stories happen as they do. The illustrations are amazing and the storyline is fast paces and entertaining. A great graphic novel to add to your collection.

[Baal Of · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uncle Scrooge was my favorite comic book character from childhood. I later learned that it was actually the stories of Carl Barks that I loved. Don Rosa is one of the rare artists who lived up Bark's measure in creating a combination of clean, beautiful art, fun and exciting storylines, and plenty of humor and clever details. This book is a joy to read. It's almost like being a kid again.

[Doom70 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don Rosa did a lot of research (ie, reading a lot of classic Carl Barks comics) and wove a story of Scrooge's long life and how he made his fortune--travelling the world and earning it all square. Also, a good sense of humour.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The boy finally got me reading comic books ;) a bit of history in the mix too ;)

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learn how Scrooge McDuck made his huge fortune.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The library doesn't have any DuckTales DVDs, and Don Rosa is from Kentucky. So there.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful.