Whatever happened to Scrooge?

[Cord Wiljes]

Matthew Williams wrote:
>> Incidentally, while searching the web recently, I came across a
>> Rosa drawing (dated 1991) that I had never seen before that had much
>> older versions of Donald, Daisy, and the nephews standing around
>> Scrooge's grave.

Don Rosa wrote:
> Yeah, and that bugs me a bit! None of the websites that are
> showing that drawing ever asked permission to do so from me or the German
> fanzine that I drew it for. But worse, they never explain the purpose of the
> drawing! It was only ONE of many submissions to a fanzine article where
> various artists were asked to submit a drawing based on the line "Hey, Daisy!
> Whatever happened to Scrooge?" Other artists did all sorts of wacky
> interpretations, but I treated the question as asking what happened to Scrooge in the
> *permanent* sense. However, my drawing being placed out-of-context onto
> websites and in magazines all over the world leads people to think I drew
> the thing for no reason other than to mean-spiritedly announce to the world
> that $crooge was dead. And while I do feel he would *naturally and
> unavoidably* be dead by 2003, I am not trying to start trouble by needlessly
> creating such cruel cartoons.

I know this image and to me it is one of the most moving and deeply-felt
tributes to the ongoing Duck-saga I have ever seen. It is perfect in
every detail:

- HD&L have developed different personalities (they wear different clothes)
- Scrooge lies in a simple grave under grass
- the gravestone has the inscription "Fortuna favet Fortibus" (from the Barks oil painting "Till Death do us Part"
http://www.barksbase.de/deutsch/h/ar03.htm)
- I especially like Donald's and Daisy's wedding rings

Never in my wildest dreams would I consider any chance that this drawing could have
been "mean-spirited" - within or without the context of it's original publication.
You just have to look into the Duck's faces to know better!

> Anyway... I wonder what I was thinking when I dressed the Nephews
> differently. Tell me which website I can see the drawing on
> and maybe I'll recall. I knew one had to be dressed in "business attire"
> since it was in a Barks story where $crooge named the Nephews as his sole
> heirs, so at least one of them would now be managing the "$crooge McDuck
> Memorial Charity Foundation".

Here is a reproduction: http://www.don-mcduck.de/cover/gc_hd_77b.php

Please don't regret creating this drawing. I am glad it is out there!

Cord