I read it a couple of weeks ago and it was realy something. It's interesting how you can realy make a life story out of a Donald Duck comic.
My favourite parts was
! The McDuck ancestors protecting Scrooge from getting killed by the Whiskerviles and
! Fergus McDuck's post death scene, I mean god damn !
Ah, life and times. There's so many awesome moments, it's really hard to pick one. Really, I guess it's a testament for Don Rosa's writing that I sympathized more and think that a duck is one of the most interesting, well-developed character in all comics or even media. I guess if I really has to pick one, it's in the Klondike Trilogy:
! The moment where Scrooge just snap and went ballistic on those who mocks his mother's death, that was one rampage to behold. And onto the more emotional stuff, it's definitely the whole thing with Goldie, especially at the ending. All those supposedly tragic love stories like Romeo and Juliet or Titanic, I don't even feel that sad, but a love story between two anthropomorphic ducks makes my eyes all watery. Dammit Scrooge, why can't you just open the damn letter!?
Well, I hope this is okay, so here goes: http://disneycomics.free.fr/ which is a side where you can read many Disney Comics online. If you want to read the Life and Times story, just open the Don Rosa tag, and there's the numbers. Follow it from number one, as it tells chronologically the events of Scrooge's life from a boy until his elderly years. The other stories by him are also pretty good, among my favorites are Super Snooper Strikes Again and the Three Cabaleros pair of stories for Donald Duck, and A Letter from Home, A Little Something Special, and A Dream of a Lifetime for Scrooge McDuck which gives a nice epilogue for Life and Times.
There's also side stories added later, including the story of Scrooge and Goldie living together for a couple of weeks. I haven't read them yet, aside from Dream of a Lifetime and Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies, but I sugets reading the original 12 parts like they apeared, as they are structured like a continuous story.
Also , anyone else felt a bit of awe when the Aborigine explained the history of the cave in Dreamtime Duck of the Never-Never ?
Oh yeah Beaver, that was a great moment.
Oddly enough, I think the weakest, story wise, is the one which has my possibly most favourite moment in the whole story at the end, The Billionaire of Dismal Downs. Mostly because the plot was the most "Donald Duck"-ish of the lot, with most of it just being the same type of situational gags you come to expect from the series when it's being completely unserious. It just doesn't fit as much as any of the other gags, because it takes up almost the whole story of that particular instalment.
But then it has this page
Warning, highly spoilerific
http://disneycomics.free.fr/Ducks/Rosa/show.php?num=15&loc=D93121&s=date
GOD DAMN !
Billionaire on Dismal Downs probably is the weakest of the lot overall, but it's largely because we already know how it's going to turn out more than any of the other stories. We know that he doesn't stay in Scotland and we know he's been away for so long that he isn't going to fit in there anymore. Even then, it's still one of the better Duck comics ever made; Don Rosa was on a level well above anybody else in the business.
Far as favorite moments go, the three already mentioned are well up there. Beyond those three, I loved the bit with the cattle rustlers, the dinosaur skull, and the buffalo. If we include the later material, any moment with Steele was absolute gold.
The Ducks franchise was truly blessed with Carl Barks basically creating all of it and being a crazy storytelling genius… and then being followed by Don Rosa... who loved and worshipped Bark's stuff and also happened to be incredibly gifted... and told more stories for 20 years... though he was oddly randomly freelance and published around the world due to various publishers not wanting his work off and on. (Gladstone, Egmont, Ducktales Magazine, etc...)
It'd be nice is there were more convenient collections of their stuff avaialble. There's older out of print collection that go for TONS of $$$... and there's also random reprints... but usually wedged in with random other stuff.
Life and Times is great, I need to read it again sometime. But its a really DENSE read.
The biggest problem with these stories? They pretty much ruined Ducktales for me. I discovered and started reading them about 10 years ago, loved em, and went out and got the ducktales season sets... which I found to be way more kiddy and lacking in character. Still good but... not AS good.
Oh yeah, these stories have been my absolute favorites since early childhood. I love the positive and irrepressible adventurous nature that the series has until Klondike and how it then gets a bit more tragic tone when Scrooge gains more and more wealth.
@Saturn:
! And onto the more emotional stuff, it's definitely the whole thing with Goldie, especially at the ending. All those supposedly tragic love stories like Romeo and Juliet or Titanic, I don't even feel that sad, but a love story between two anthropomorphic ducks makes my eyes all watery. Dammit Scrooge, why can't you just open the damn letter!?
I must admit that this is truly one of the most touching comic pages I've ever read.
@RobbyBevard:
The Ducks franchise was truly blessed with Carl Barks basically creating all of it and being a crazy storytelling genius… and then being followed by Don Rosa... who loved and worshipped Bark's stuff and also happened to be incredibly gifted... and told more stories for 20 years... though he was oddly randomly freelance and published around the world due to various publishers not wanting his work off and on. (Gladstone, Egmont, Ducktales Magazine, etc...)
It'd be nice is there were more convenient collections of their stuff avaialble. There's older out of print collection that go for TONS of $$$... and there's also random reprints... but usually wedged in with random other stuff.
Life and Times is great, I need to read it again sometime. But its a really DENSE read.
The biggest problem with these stories? They pretty much ruined Ducktales for me. I discovered and started reading them about 10 years ago, loved em, and went out and got the ducktales season sets... which I found to be way more kiddy and lacking in character. Still good but... not AS good.
I just today saw the episode with the Western Ghost town again and yeah, Scrooge failing miserabely at being a cowboy sure grates on you if you've read this, but the colection, but the first instalment was first published in 1994, 4 years after DT ended.
A curious thought: it's prety weird how DT's ignores Donald while in the comics he's been almost always along for treasure hunts and or various adventures. I never got why he got such a small role in the series, I can remember like four episodes he was in at best and the show had 100 episodes.
Also a little more curious: the show also tended to dodge almost all instances of "Scrooge acts so stingy it's ludicrous", which made him seem far less like his comics self.
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Not to mention the Vegetabel Alies and Scroogerello episodes, I mean those could have been written by a monkey.
If I recall correctly, the decision to not include Donald was made because the writers felt that he'd inevitably wind up being the star of the series simply because he's so well-known and they'd be hard-pressed not to use him.
Complicating things since 2009.
I have the first book of Life and Times signed by Rosa and a sketch of Scrooge by him (from a convention last year).
I bought a few tpbs of the current scrooge stuff but I never really got around to reading it yet.
If I recall correctly, the decision to not include Donald was made because the writers felt that he'd inevitably wind up being the star of the series simply because he's so well-known and they'd be hard-pressed not to use him.
Odd seeing in the comics he stil acompanies Scrooge almost every time and that's like 60 % of all the comics.
@No:
Odd seeing in the comics he stil acompanies Scrooge almost every time and that's like 60 % of all the comics.
Bear in mind that, prior to Ducktales, Scrooge McDuck wasn't really a household name… while Donald was. Donald would have dominated the show due to familiarity if he were in it at all prominently. (And he got Quack Pack years later anyhow.) Plus his speech impediment is hard to understand.
If they were to do another proper Ducktales series now that Scrooge has had two decades to saturate as his own man on television, they might be able to balance it.
In any event, Launchpad pretty much filled Donald's role, and Launchpad is awesome, so we're all better for it.
Wasn't Fenton also kind of like Donald ?
And I realise this is way offtopic :P
Fenton got flustered easily and tended to blunder into a solution for the problem at hand. To an extent he's like Donald, but Fenton really only had two skills that were all that useful; his counting ability and tendency towards really stupid exclamations. Donald, on the other hand, could do quite a bit depending on who was writing him, but is fairly often depicted as a pretty good cook, decent mechanic, and surprisingly good musician.
If it's Barks or Rosa, he's usually smarter than Fenton and Launchpad combined as well, but has such bad luck that he can't really do anything with it either.
Complicating things since 2009.
I have put vol 1 on hold at my library. I should be able to read it…within a week. o.o
This is cool stuff.
Fenton got flustered easily and tended to blunder into a solution for the problem at hand. To an extent he's like Donald, but Fenton really only had two skills that were all that useful; his counting ability and tendency towards really stupid exclamations. Donald, on the other hand, could do quite a bit depending on who was writing him, but is fairly often depicted as a pretty good cook, decent mechanic, and surprisingly good musician.
If it's Barks or Rosa, he's usually smarter than Fenton and Launchpad combined as well, but has such bad luck that he can't really do anything with it either.
Well, I sort of never cared for Fenton. He was just a plot character made so he could get into semi Donald-esque perdicaments and shove a superhero plotline into the series.As for Launchpad, well I liked him but I stil don't get why they never explained his moving away from Duckburg and all his friends, into Saint Canard in Darkwing Duck. I mean, yeah you can be his sidekick, but you have some other people who are your friends too , ya know.
On a related note, I just watched a Darkwing Duck episode with a Glomgold cameo in it. It involved a stollen spy list so the owner could kill all the agents of Shush. Why is it that Glomgold is the only villain to actualy be as much of a scumbag in Ducktales as in the comics ?
On the other hand, I did like the different designs for the Beagle Boys, as they were at least a bit creative.
Oh btw guys, did I mention the strip with the aniversary of Scrooge's arival in Duckburg ? It follows the end of the 12th strip and was very decently done, in my opinion.
Anyway, who here would want Life and Times actualy made into a feature film ? I know it won't happen, but it sure would beat some random genie plot.
But on topic:
I was thinking about the story the other day and I'm not so sure I understand how Scrooge's mother was quite right here
http://disneycomics.free.fr/Ducks/Rosa/show.php?num=15&loc=D93121&s=date
I dunno, not showing up for twenty years and alienating all your relations for well over another decade seems a bit wrong in my book. I mean, I know this is reffering to Donald and his nephews but what about his sisters ? I'm sure they were both quite hurt.
Another thing: while taking a walk today, I pondered how much wrong timing was the one thing that set Scrooge off from making his fortune. He goes into riverboating and ranching just as the glorious era of each fades.
I think the worst instance however is the Anaconda Silver Mine incident. Had he time to remain to actualy deffend his claim, he could have had enough to make a fortune and return home for good, which means he wouldn't get alienated from his native land and would actualy see his mother more then that short while when he had to come and save the family castle, and might have even not been the last of his clan at all.
On a sidenote, Pothole McDuck seems to have been the kind to waste money for a "good time", given his penny-dreadfull acquired fortunes, so maybe…...:ninja:
It kind of blew my mind when I realized "Oh yeah, of COURSE Donald has siblings. He's UNCLE Donald after all."
Its one of those facts that's right there in your face repeated thousands of times but you never consider it until you see his sister on camera.
It kind of is caused by Huey,Dewey and Loie always reffering to Scrooge as just "uncle" and not "great uncle", though of course that's fairly realistic too.
There's even a strip with Scrooge's sisters as an important character and caretaker of the McDuck castle, but I can't find it.
Also on a related note, I found it odd how Jake McDuck just dissapeared. I know he most probably died, but a token mention of when this happened would have been nice Don.
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@RobbyBevard:
It kind of blew my mind when I realized "Oh yeah, of COURSE Donald has siblings. He's UNCLE Donald after all."
Its one of those facts that's right there in your face repeated thousands of times but you never consider it until you see his sister on camera.
Also, I've always been puzzled as to why the three live with Donald.
I hate it when a series has a single guy forced into a parental position without actualy being a parent, without explanation.
Or being the real father and just ignoring the need for a female to produce an offspring. Goof Troop, I'm looking at you.
According to an early comic strip that pretty much adapted the short "Donald's Nephews" their dad was sent to the hospital after they pulled a prank on him and were dumped at Donald's house while he recovered. In the actual cartoon they were just there visiting him.
@No:
I stil don't get why they never explained his moving away from Duckburg and all his friends, into Saint Canard in Darkwing Duck. I mean, yeah you can be his sidekick, but you have some other people who are your friends too , ya know.
Didn't he mention losing his job early on in Darkwing Duck? Scrooge probably just got tired of his constant crashes and got rid of him.
Why is it that Glomgold is the only villain to actualy be as much of a scumbag in Ducktales as in the comics ?
Glomgold wavered back and forth quite a bit on that really. Barks only used him three or four times and only in his last appearance did he turn into a outright villain. Rosa's use of him in Son of the Sun and Return to Plain Awful are a lot more like how Barks used him at first.
On the other hand, I did like the different designs for the Beagle Boys, as they were at least a bit creative.
Even as a kid, I preferred the comics version of them. Despite looking all alike, some of them did have distinct personalities anyway.
Complicating things since 2009.
Even as a kid, I preferred the comics version of them. Despite looking all alike, some of them did have distinct personalities anyway.
That realy depends on whose writing the story.
Speaking of which, the last strip of Life had me wondering: if Blackheart is stil around, where did his four sons go ? Just a little something that bugs me.
Bump, because I cannot accept the fact that a Don Rosa thread escaped my attention. My overall favourite chapters are propably the very last bittersweet two (King of Klondike has the best scene though), but in terms of comedy "the cowboy captain of the cutty sark" triumphs. The captain is a riot.
Anyway, regarding Huey Dewey and Louie, Don Rosa has stated that he would never try to pen the story of why they were left with Donald, because he didn't think the subject of a mother abandoning her children would be fit for a Disney comic.
Considering how emotional (and great!) the ending to A letter from Home was, a reunion between the nephews and their mother would propably have caused sobbing-induced dehydration in the readers, so maybe it was a good call.
Oh god, this! No words can describe this epic anthology.
Oh Don Rosa, you of all people don't deserve to be so depressed you can't make more comics…
Who exactly is Mumbo?
It's OFFICIAL, UsoppXNami 4ever.
Is he depressed? As far as I know his failing eyes are the reason he quit. Makes it hard to draw ducks…
I don't really have a great grasp about his problems, but a guy is making a documentary about Don Rosa and in a clip from it Rosa talks about his lack of ideas for new comics, he says he doesn't "feel funny anymore", which makes him depressed. Being depressed leads to not being funny, so it's an evil circle.
I'll try to look into it a bit more. The eye-problems may play a part in this.
Edit: Forgot to bring a link to the danish-film team making the documentary http://www.donrosamovie.com/index.html
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/05/19/donald-duck-don-rosa/
Frickin' awesome.
@Sonic:
Oh god, this! No words can describe this epic anthology.
Oh Don Rosa, you of all people don't deserve to be so depressed you can't make more comics…
Did you just find out about it ?
And good job bumping this back up Daz ! Even though my favourite scene is the last page of Billionaire of Dismall Downs, as previously noted. I just never thought you could make such an emotional scene, a death scene no less, in a Disney comic, with mostly a background character and make it all stil work !
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Also I realy hope someone would have upped the story where the Ducks go and meet up with Scrooge's sister who'se taking care of Castle McDuck.
@No:
Did you just find out about it ?
Do you think I'm some kind of uncultural swine?
Of course not, sending letters everyday to him.
Who exactly is Mumbo?
It's OFFICIAL, UsoppXNami 4ever.
@Sonic:
Do you think I'm some kind of uncultural swine?
Of course not, sending letters everyday to him.
I meant L@Ts . :wassat:
@No:
Also I realy hope someone would have upped the story where the Ducks go and meet up with Scrooge's sister who'se taking care of Castle McDuck.
Do you mean this one? http://disneycomics.free.fr/Ducks/Rosa/show.php?num=1&loc=D2003-081&s=date
That might be the one, but I forgot the name.
TO WIKIPEDIA !!!
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Okay, I just finished reading it Beaver.
Prety goddamn touching if you ask me.
Bumping this up.
I originaly assumed that "A letter from Home" was in the Companion, but apparently not.
Speaking of which, I'm thinking of finishing the rest of the companion stories. I'll post my thoughts on them here.
