--------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck - Episode 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNCLE $CROOGE #287: "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck -- The Buckaroo of the Badlands" (1882) [Cover 287] COVER: I do so love to draw the young, rootin'-tootin', rip-snortin' $crooge in scenes like this! Those critters you see in the background are the critters that make every movie western you've ever seen inaccurate -- those are Texas Longhorn cattle. All the movies and TV shows ever made of the Old West have littel choice but to use modern cattle, the introduction to America of which this story partly concerns. Longhorn steers are nearly extinct since the turn o' the century, which might be a good thing for steak lovers, from what I hear. * *D.U.C.K. SPOILER*: the dedication is in pebbles on the rock on which $crooge is standing, but some issues are cropped so that the letters are nearly cut off. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER III: I often use this episode as an example of what I put myself up against with this series. The subject is $crooge's life as a cowpuncher in the last days of the Old Frontier. I needed to begin the tale with $crooge being a greenhorn, finding a reason to want to become a cowboy, learn to be a cowboy, have some adventure as a cowboy, then end with the suggestion that his cowboy days will not last long. I also had a list of "Barksian factoids" that needed to be mentioned in the course of the plot -- for that matter, I also needed a plot that would span a year or so -- and I had to put in the usual amount of gags and whatnot to make it all supposedly interesting. I always joke that a super-hero comic would take an entire maxi-series of 12 22-page issues to tell this one story... but I had to get it done, start to finish, within 15 pages! This chapter is based on comments $crooge makes of his past life in the very first issue of UNCLE $CROOGE -- FOUR COLOR #386 -- where he tells of fighting in the "cattle wars of the old frontier" and punching cows in Montana in 1882, as well as having "gummed up the James Gang" in some early adventure. This story must take place in early 1882, as Jesse was in Boot Hill by spring of that year. I also tossed in a few of the McViper Clan, a family of western outlaws who gave $crooge trouble in various Barks stories such as in UNCLE $CROOGE #56 & 69. Their sons pop up to harass $crooge in chapter XI. The Norwegian DONALD DUCK editor asked me to make some gag reference to Barks' famous "square egg" story; that tale is incredibly famous to Europeans, something like Americans regard the story of... uh... well, actually, Barks' Ducks are so popular in Europe that there's nothing in American pop-culture that's comparable. But this reference is where I really goofed! In the original version of this story as printed throughout Europe, the old gent that $crooge meets on the train was supposed to be Rhutt Betler, the "Professah from Bummin'ham", himself. That version went through numerous editors and translators and was published throughout Europe before one Swedish reader wrote me to point out that the Old Vicuna Hunter in "Lost in the Andes" told of Prof. Betler "passing into the long sleep". Oops! I realized that I remembered that bit, but ever since I first read that story as a kid, for some insane reason I'd always thought the hunter had been referring to a second visitor to Plain Awful, after Prof. Betler... though I can't see why I ever assumed that. So, I reworded the Gladstone version to make the old gent on the train into whoever it was who bought the square eggs from the "padre in Cuzco" to whom the Hunter tells of selling the dead man's square eggs. But... what's the point of having $crooge meet him? Furthermore, it was later pointed out to me that whether this was the professuh or not, nobody knew about the square chickens -- the eggs were simply found on the ground in Plain Awful. Anyone might assume there must be square chickens laying square eggs in the square land... but the valley-people still weren't "raising" them. Well, I just plain-awful screwed up ... for neither the first or last time. As always, I try to mix plenty of actual history and locations into the story to give it the feel of authenticity. The cattle trails and Badlands are all right where they should be, and $crooge's boss, Murdo MacKenzie, was the actual cattle baron of Montana. As a matter of fact, after I finished this story I happened to be watching the movie SILVERADO, and noticed that the Montana cattle baron in that film was named "Murdo MacKendrick"; they changed his name, I s'pose because they made him a villain. $crooge at this point in his life is still far from the $crooge we know. He still lacks confidence and knowledge. But when my research told me of another famous American who was in the Montana-Dakota Territories at this same time, I knew it would be an absolute natural to have him being one of $crooge's mentors to teach him the true values in life! The dialogue you read in the story is quoted and paraphrased from T.R.'s books and speeches (he hated being called "Teddy", thank you). Yes, perhaps he and Murdo didn't actually have little black noses or 4-fingered hands... but I never met the gentlemen, so I can't say for sure. Anyone who doesn't recognize a prize Angus bull named "Vindicator" doesn't know their Jimmy Stewart westerns. (THE RARE BREED.) This was one of the instances where my editor, Byron Erickson, rejected virtually an entire script, and this chapter is a complete rewrite. The original version had too many dopey gags about $crooge writing home of his exploits in learning the ways of the Old West. I had $crooge fooled by the McVipers into buying buffalo, thinking they were some sorta Western-style hybrid cattle -- I wanted to show that $crooge was a greenhorn, but this made him look too stupid. And the way $crooge finally scared off the McVipers was exactly the same as how he chased off the Whiskervilles just two chapters earlier! Byron was right, as usual... and though I wouldn't say the rewrite was one of the better chapters in the series, it's still a far cry better than the first version. Here are a few pages from the original script to show you what you were nearly inflicted with. More "editing" took place for the Gladstone printing. Disney refuses to allow characters to point guns at each other, so you can see how the folks at Gladstone redrew the guns in the James Boys' hands and made them into pointing fingers, or twisted their wrists and pointed the guns at the ceilings. The last panel on page 2 originally had a gun pressed against $crooge's snoot so hard that it was bending his beak upwards; they redrew $crooge's kisser at Gladstone and that's why his beak looks very strange in that panel. * INSANE DETAILS TO NOTE: I'm not sure myself, but I think the address on the letter on page 6 is the only place in the series that I managed to show $crooge's parents' names. And some readers thought that the return address in the splash-panel which says "Fonebone Hotel" was a reference to a character in Jeff Smith's BONE strip -- but I assume Jeff and I both got that name from the old Don Martin cartoons in MAD magazine; at least I did. Page 9 shows a scene of the Dakota Badlands. All of the landscape shown is authentic, though it would certainly never be occurring in one spot as I draw it. However, they colored it too drably -- I believe the rock and soil colors of the Badlands are rather striking. Also on that page I have a duck-bill dinosaur skull. Yes, I know duck-bill dinosaurs had no teeth, but I needed that skull to look ferocious. I frequently hide li’l Mickey Mouse appearances or shapes in my stories, just to be mischievous. You'll see one on page 14, panel 4, in the cactus. * *D.U.C.K. SPOILER*: The splash-panel dedication isn't hard to find, though it's sorta hidden by the dark coloring. It's carved into the pistol grip. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Pencil Page][Black and White Art] [Next Episode] [Home]