THE TRUE FACE OF SCROOGE McDUCK

When I went through the bundle of Gorm’s rejected scribbles from Egmont, there was one script that caught my special attention. It was a story where an overworked Scrooge loses his senses and disappears acting out as a psychiatric patient. He wakes up in a treetop having completely forgotten who he is.

This plot reminded of other character analyzing stories I have been in on, regarding Duckburg. With Daan I analyzed the character of Daisy Duck, Gyro Gearloose and Gus Goose, and with Gorm Transgaard we did similar stories on the nature of luck according to Gladstone Gander and the position of the farm and her love story in relation to Grandma Duck.

This story on the character of Scrooge start out by Scrooge taking care of Donald Duck’s keys to his house while he and his nephews are on a vacation. After the stroke where he forgets everything but discover the keys to Donalds house, Scrooge thinks that he must be that Donald Duck character, and the address is on the label with the keys.

This was an intro just to my liking. From here on everybody would wait in anticipation, what was going to happen next.

To no one’s surprise, Scrooge’s underlying personality shines through, and he immediately goes into his profitmaking mode turning Donald’s vegetable garden into a money winning business.

I remember a Barks story where Scrooge mistakenly get the idea of money substituted for fish as a going currency. Of course, he ends up with a load of fish, only it cannot keep for long before rotting, so there is no idea in grabbing on to too many fish.

That parable is a fine symbol of the fault with our current consumer society. You want to grab more than you need, because we live with the misguided ideals that there are no limits to what human beings are allowed to possess, in the holy name of free enterprise and the endless profitmaking urge.

The idea that others may deserve these goods based on the ‘free’ gifts from nature more than you, has no point. You got there first, so these goods are yours and it is just tough luck on the poor, who may well even starve. ‘Survival of the fittest’ as Darwin would have put it. Still, clinging on to these ideals we are far down the slippery slope leading to a mutual downfall. However, someone seems to get the ride first class, as for example Uncle Scrooge.