Disney-comics digest #291.

[James Williams]

>David says:
>I'd vote for the mansion.  

I'm absolutely amazed that in all the years Uncle Scrooge has been
around that this issue has never been resolved.  I can believe that
Scrooge might own a home, but I cannot see him living in a mansion.
My wife and I own a small townhouse and it takes a few hours every
week to keep it in good shape - little thing like mowing the lawn,
cleaning the house and so forth.  The larger the house, the more
maintenance there is.  A mansion is a very large house and
requires a bunch of maintenance.  Most mansions are serviced by
gardners and house cleaners, because the owner wouldn't have the time
to do it all.  I cannot see Scrooge living in a poorly maintained
mansion, it just isn't his style.  Likewise, I cannot see Scrooge
paying a gardner or maid.  So I think a mansion is out.

Though we have never seem it, I think there are living quarters in the
moneybin.

>This isn't supposed to sound like a flame, but you speak as if
>you have not seen the character before.  

David, I've been on this list for about a year and I've yet to see
anything that resembled a flame.  I've never seen the stories that
you listed, so William Van Horn's story was my first exposure to
Ratface.  Since I've read other stories featuring Magica de Spell,
I assumed that WVH had created Ratface.

While I love Disney comics, I'm still relatively new to them.  I've
probably only read about half of Barks, Van Horn, and Rosa's stories. 
I've been reading comics for thirty years, but I only started reading
Disney comics about five years ago.  As a child, I had the misfortune
of getting a stack of Gold Key Disney Comics as a gift.  They were
terrible and by and far my least favorite comic books.  There was only
one story in the whole stack which I enjoyed.  Years later, I found out
that it was 'Submarine Santa' by Carl Barks.  I probably would never
have read another Disney comic in my life, if not for a book I got a
few years ago.  It was a history of comic books and it contained
various reprints -- EC reprints, Jack Cole's Plastic Man, Bill Evert's
Submariner, and Carl Bark's Uncle Scrooge.  The story was 'A Financial
Fable' and reading that story caused me to give Disney comics another
try.

>BTW, don't get sore about THAT, James.  If you haven't read "Monarch
>of Medioka" you'll soon see that this is the best Floyd Gottfredson
>story of all time.

Don't worry, I've never gotten sore about Floyd Gottfredson.  I
absolutely adore his stories.  I don't buy Graphic Novel, so
I'm looking forward to seeing "Monarch of Medioka" reprinted.

>Another part of the campaign involved printing a new sequel to
>"Blaggard Castle" in DISNEY ADVENTURES 

David, you are our resident Mickey Mouse expert.  What did you think
of this story?

I had two major problems with the story.  First, Mickey seems extremely
out of character.  Mickey is a modest person, but in this story he
doesn't feel all that odd going to a place which is little more than a
museum dedicated to his bravery.  Mickey is too humble to be involved
in such a place.  Also, Mickey is to intelligent to fall for such an
obvious plot.  Second, as usual the Phantom Blot was totally out of
character.  The Phantom Blot's speciality is espionage.  Having him
spend a fortune to rebuild the castle made no sense.


>Romano Scarpa understood in 1960's "Lentils from Babylon."  I
>won't reveal how, but Scrooge does lose his bin and its contents.  The
>story basically implies that Scrooge doesn't have much tangible MONEY
>outside of the bin, but that he does have land and an estate, and he
>keeps himself going on those for a while.  But his business debts have
>mounted up, and he has to sell nearly everything... An interesting
>compromise.  

I don't want to critize a story which I haven't seen, but that doesn't
make much sense.  We know for a fact that Scrooge owns business all
over the world.  We also know that those business earn a profit,
because Scrooge won't keep a business which lost him money.  Therefore
those business provide a steady cash flow.  More importantly, the
businesses alone are assest.  Even if Scrooge didn't have any cash, he
could borrow money by using those assests as colateral.  I still say
that if you total all of Scrooge's assests and his bank accounts that
they are worth more than the money in the moneybin.

>On the other hand, I can feel another urge to regard that as something
>inexplicably taboo to deal with.

Don, I find it really hard to consider something this fundamental
as taboo.  I cannot believe that this hasn't caused writers and artists
problems in the past.

>Also, it should be pointed out that in all these storybooks and
>Viewmaster reels and action figures based on Gottfriedson's MM, FG's
>name is never mentioned.  But you figured that, right?

As much I despise the way Disney treats their creators, we (MYSELF
included) who should know better are commiting just as great of a
crime.  We always refer to these stories as Gotfredson's, we never
mention or give credit to Ted Osbourne and the other people who wrote
these stories.

>Actually, I really enjoy playing around with the character of
>$crooge to try to explain the reason he loves his money.  As you say,
>he doesn't love being "rich" for the buying power or status or power... 
>he loves HIS MONEY as mementos of personal achievement.  I'll do more
>stories about that in the future.

I'm really going out on a limb with this one.  I honestly do not
believe that Scrooge's number one love in life is money.  Here is why.
In Scrooge's eyes, there are three kinds of money: other peoples money,
his money, and money he earned himself.  Of these monies, the ones
which he earned himself are his favorite.  Why?  Because they are
reminders of his life.  Scrooge is a lonely old man and this money is
his favorite because it more than just money, it is a rememberence of
his past.  I haven't seen Don's later chapters of LO$, but in my mind
Scrooge did not start building his moneybin until late in life.  As
long as Scrooge was young, he was too busy living to worry about
reflecting on the past.  It was only when Scrooge got older and settled
down that he started to become lonely.  In my mind, 'Christmas on Bear
Mountain' isn't important because it introduced Scrooge to Donald and
company, but because it introduces Donald and company to Scrooge. 
Donald and company breaks Scrooge's lonelyness and force him to start
living again.  By the time 'Only a Poor Old Man' comes around, Scrooge
is less bitter and is starting to live.  Before we know it, enjoying
his moneybin and protecting it from various threats isn't enough,
Scrooge is suddenly back out really living.  We start seeing Scrooge
traveling the world.  I think Scrooge's true love in life is earning
the money, not the money itself.  And that is why the money he earned
himself is his favorite type of money.

James Williams