that quote I was looking for re: Flintheart's evolution

[Katie Sullivan]

Okay, now that I'm properly awake I found the quote I was
looking for last night.  ;)

This is from Geoffrey Blum's essay in Gladstone's "Uncle Scrooge
vs. Flintheart Glomgold" album.  Blum writes:

"Having starred in these two stories ["The Second Richest Duck"
and "The Money Champ"], Flintheart dropped from sight.  "So Far
and No Safari," published six years after "The Money Champ," is
not a Glomgold tale per se, but an African adventure built
around the Junior Woodchuck animal-taming whistles.  Flinty
makes a cameo appearance as an out-and-out villain, strafing the
ducks from his private jet; beyond that, he has no function in
the story, and no depth of character.  On several occasions I
have asked Barks to explain this transformation, but it never
seemed to be an issue for him.  He needed a villain to keep the
story rolling, and Flintheart could logically be expected to
turn up in Africa; what other considerations were there?  Not
wanting to force my assumptions onto his creation, I let the
matter drop."

(It seems to me that Blum sometimes "forces his assumptions"
when discussing the work of other artists
*coughcoughRosacoughcough* but that's the right of a critic and
moreover not the point of this discussion so I'll keep my beak
shut.)  ;)

Anyway, that's the quote I was thinking of yesterday.  It
doesn't appear that the increasing "evilness" of Flintheart's
character was a conscious, deliberate decision on Barks' part. 
He just used the character in whatever ways he needed to in
order to tell a good story.  Nothing wrong with that, of course!


On a related note, when did European artists start placing
Flintheart as living in Duckburg?  I know this tradition has
been around awhile.  Pre-Rosa, too, I assume.  Anyone know who
started this idea?  I prefer the South African scenario
personally, but I have enjoyed some of the "Flinty as Duckburg
resident" stories that Gladstone reprinted, too.  I can never
complain to see one of my favorite characters in a story, after
all.  Just curious.


Katie Sullivan
http://www.sullivanet.com/

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