+Postage Due+Disney-comics digest #72.

Don Rosa 72260.2635 at CompuServe.COM
Thu Aug 12 15:09:46 CEST 1993


Geir:
	As Per mentioned, someone did finally point out to me that it is
stated in "Lost in the Andes" that Rhutt Betler (not "Betluh... that
includes the southern drawl) died as he left Plain Awful. I have very
little excuse to have screwed up on that point. I think that my adult
reading of that story was shaded by my understanding of it as I read it
as a child -- so, even though it's pretty obvious that the vicuna hunter
is referring to Betler, I think I always had it in my head that he was
referring to a DIFFERENT visitor to Plain Awful. Strangely, not a soul
among the many Duck experts who have read my tale ever spotted that
goof until I received a letter from a reader in Sweden after it was
printed. When the story is printed again in Germany or the US, the goof
can be easilly remedied by having the old guy be the professor who
bought the eggs from the Cuzco padre; this has two problems though: if
it ISN'T the REAL Rhutt Betler there's not much point to the whole
scene -- also, why did they forget between 1882 and 1949 that those
stones were eggs. (That latter matter is easilly explained. Often
museums file away stuff and forget what it is.)
	My "Life and Times of $crooge McDuck" does seek to take every
last detail of $crooge's life, no matter HOW MINISCULE, and include it
in the series. I challenge anyone to locate a detail I have missed!
Well, other than minor things like characters coming back from the dead!
But in everything that Barks/$crooge ever said, I only was forced to
ignore about 3 facts as being impossible to fit into the story, and
these, yes, can be explained as slips of $crooge's memory. Off the top
of my head, I changed the date for $crooge's visit to Goldopolis, as
well as the dates for his visit to Foola Zoola (and Bombie) and when he
paid Soapy Slick back his grubstake money (just one year off). I ignore
the Magic Hourglass as never existing. And I have the Money Bin built in
1902 just as it is "today" rather than how Barks slowly hit on the idea
between 1947 and 1951 or so. 
	I show $crooge becoming increasingly bitter and ornery until
part 12 at which point he is the decrepit old wretch retired to that
mansion... the "Bear Mountain" $crooge. In part 11 I show that he's so
vile and nasty that his family disowns him (that's why we've never seen
Hortense or Matilda, who are probably dead by now anyhow). In part 12 it
will be his first meeting with Donald and HD&L which change his life in
a manner that I have not set to paper yet. The change after "Back to the
Klondike" is almost imperceptible compared to this -- perhaps that 1952
change is just the tail-end of the main change?
	As for Gladstone's ancestry and why he would hate Donald for
it... that's interesting, but they have the SAME ancestry except on GG's
father's side. Perhaps GG's father's father owned the factory where
$crooge's father worked, but how would they know that? And why would
that make Gladstone hate poor, working-class Donald??? It might make
sense if he hated $crooge, but not Donald. I like intrigue like this --
I have lots of it in the series -- but this bit of intrigue doesn't make
sense to me.
	For Per: Oh, yes, it has bugged me for many years that most of
Barks' popularity in America is with investors who are sore as hell at
him for still being alive and postponing their payoff. The buyers of the
"lithographs" and figurines are primarilly people who never read a Barks
comic. But that's the way Americans are. 

	Oh, and yes, even though I enjoy messing with all those minute
details of $crooge's life and shaping it into one looooong story, I
still am irritated by people who try to figure how much money $crooge
has in his Bin. Not only might the stated volume be a boast, but there's
no way to know how much of it is paper money or more half-dollars than
dollars, or whether there's other stuff than cash in the corners... and
whatever the case, it's a waste of time anyway because that Bin is
obviously not his NET WORTH! That's only his CASH.
	




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