Age of Rumpus McFowl

[Olaf Solstrand]

Good to see this discussion on DCML, Larry. I've been discussing this 
everywhere for several years - as it's quite a long time since this story came 
in Norway.

I also think we've already briefly discussed this at the DCML? Well, I'll 
always love this discussion.

My personal opinion is that Rumpus is younger than Scrooge - but I think it 
will be hard to fit him into the family tree shown in Life of Scrooge.

Once when discussing this in a Norwegian discussion board, someone suggested 
that Fergus and Downy'd had a short divorce, where Rumpus were born. This 
divorce was suggested to find place short time after Matilda were born - but 
then, Fergus and Downy got back together again. That theory would make Rumpus a 
little older than Hortense.

I think that's a complex solution. Seems more likely to me that Rumpus' mother 
just made up this marriage to don't have to tell Rumpus he was an illegimate 
child. :-) But then again... That would mean Fergus cheated on Downy. I don't 
like that either.

And if Rumpus is born 20-30 years after Scrooge... Well, I don't see that 
fitting into the Life of Scrooge either. After all... Rumpus' mother talks in a 
very negative way about Scrooge, an annoying little rascal or something. I 
don't think she would have talked of him like that if he was digging for gold 
on the other side of the sea.

So I must say, I think it's hard to fit this into the Life of Scrooge. My guess 
is that Rumpus was already developing in Van Horn's hear before Life of Scrooge 
was written.

I haven't got last US yet, but I can't wait to finally see this story in 
English.



As for how many Rumpus stories...

Unless I'm missing something, there's three more stories not yet published in 
the States. These are "Ain't it the truth" (D 2000-045), "A Dime for your 
thoughts" (D 2000-145) and "Full circle" (D 2001-056). What these stories have 
in common is that there's nothing special about Rumpus - he's just the average 
side character. These are not stories about Scrooge's and Rumpus' relationship -
 they're stories about just anything. "Ain't it the truth" is the story of when 
Donald, Daisy, Gladstone, Donald's nephews and Rumpus go to a picnic - and 
after a near accident, they all have different views on what really 
happens. "Full circle" can be compared to Don Rosa's "The coin", where a golden 
egg in an egg box passes from person to person in Duckburg - Rumpus being one 
of them. "Full circle" is an encounter between Rumpus and Magica De Spell, 
where Scrooge needs to have the Number One Dime cleaned and has Rumpus go to 
the jeweler - because he thinks nobody will expect Rumpus carrying something 
valuable.




Olaf