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Comics Catch-Up 065: Don Rosa Scrooge
3 Plays1 minute ago
On this month's Catch-Up, we read what may or may not have been Don Rosa's story about Scrooge McDuck, a Christmas character.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
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Introduction to Comics Catch Up
00:00:41
Speaker
Oh, hey, Corst! You've been up to my heart! Oh my god!
00:01:03
Speaker
Let's catch up. This is Comics Catch Up, the show where Chris Sims, who is here with me. Hello. And I, Matt Wilson, we, as the title indicates, catch up on the comics that maybe we didn't read the first time.
00:01:22
Speaker
they were published or in the case of really old stuff, you know, we just didn't read it ever catch up on it before now. Um, this is one we could have read as it was being released, but somehow missed it. Um, it is a story that was touted when it was submitted to us for every story ever as the last Don Rosa Scrooge McDuck story.
Focus on Don Rosa's Last Scrooge McDuck Story
00:01:52
Speaker
which is, it has two titles. It's called The Old Castle's Other Secret or A Letter from Home, which both accurate titles for the story, originally published in 2005 in the Gemstone Uncle Scrooge book. Which means it has a just by virtue of being a Don Rosa Scrooge McDuck story, it does have the potential of being the highest ranked story from 2005 on the list. That's true. 2005 somehow did not seep into the the the horrors of 2005 somehow did not seep into Scrooge comics. A notoriously wretched year for comics, for superhero comics anyway. Yeah, maybe not so much other comics, but definitely superhero comics. now
00:02:51
Speaker
One thing that we must note before we continue is that I believe this was submitted to us. Let me make sure of who submitted this story to us initially, because as I said, originally it was submitted as a but as the final Don Rosa's Scrooge comic. It was submitted to us by David LaRoss, and also Rosa insists at length in the hardcover that this story is not part of the life and time story.
00:03:31
Speaker
So... Okay, okay. weird' Weird thing for him to insist upon. Look, if if there's one thing that Don Rosa loves to insist upon, or loves to do, it's insist.
00:03:47
Speaker
he He is an insistent man. These are not duck tails. He will insist on that point, for sure. Here's my question. Was Karl Marx like that? I don't think so. I mean, I've never heard that he was. and like I mean, I feel like if he was, then we would know because anytime anybody talks about Don Rosa,
00:04:15
Speaker
the fact that he's a big old grown comes up. Always every time. Yeah. Which by the way, bracket affectionate. Oh, yes. Well, the thing is like, look, I've had interactions with Don Rosa at cons. And look, you definitely have to get past a certain sheen of anger in Don Rosa when do you approach him, right? Uh huh.
00:04:44
Speaker
But like if you actually talk to him, he's he's a perfectly nice man. Yeah. he just like You just can't walk up to his table and be like,
00:04:55
Speaker
Oh, I remember this from TV. Oh, this is DuckTales. This is DuckTales. I've never heard of these comics, but I know about the the television show. Which, look, if I had to hear that all the time, I'd be a grump too. Oh, yeah, man. Yeah, look, there's stuff that I got tired of. ah If I never hear anyone do the X-Men theme song again,
00:05:25
Speaker
I'll be fine with that. And that's like a piece of music that I like a lot. Yeah. well i I view encountering Don Rosa as sort of like meeting a fae creature. Okay. Where there are specific rules of conduct that you know or you're gonna have a bad time. But if you follow those rules,
00:05:54
Speaker
everything will be fine. like If Don Rosa says, may I have your name, don't don't give it to him.
00:06:06
Speaker
Don't step in a a circle of toadstools around Don Rosa's table. That's true. That's a trap. And expect to come back to the con that you left. Yeah, that's a trap for sure. But like I've also never heard of Don Rosa being like,
00:06:21
Speaker
I don't know, and ah maybe, maybe he has, and if he has, it sucks, but I've never heard of him being like a dick to a kid. Or anything other than just grumpy. Yeah. You know, like, not, um not a creep, just a grump. Yeah. Nonetheless, when it was submitted to us, this was presented as Don Rose's don rose's final Scrooge comic.
Historical and Narrative Analysis
00:06:50
Speaker
Then a different David, David from Norway, messaged us to say that the actual final Don Rosa story is the Prisoner of White Agony Creek, which tells the story of when Goldie was living with Scrooge against her will in the Klondike. ah So it's one of the many extra life and time stories Don Rosa made. Yeah, that's definitely in the life and times companion. Yeah.
00:07:20
Speaker
Here's the thing, though. I guess what David LaRoss may have meant is that this is the last Scrooge story of Don Rose's chronologically.
00:07:32
Speaker
And by that I mean in the timeline of Scrooge. Because this is old Scrooge. And it very much feels like an ending.
00:07:49
Speaker
Because it's about Scrooge going back home. Yes. Yes. Which, as the title implies, he is doing for the second time. But we already knew look we already knew about the Old Castle secret.
00:08:08
Speaker
Right, yeah. So he's already been back once, and we already knew about that. Like, Old Castle Secret, I believe, is is a Karl Bach story. So ah by necessity, there were, like, additional Scrooge stories after that. But yeah, man, this is... ah Another thing... This is the real series finale of ah of Uncle Scrooge. Another thing Don Rosa loved doing was referencing Karl Bach's story. Oh yeah, it's it's his favorite thing. Yeah.
00:08:37
Speaker
I thought this story was fan-fucking-tastic. It is everything I want from a Scrooge story. It's not only a a great Scrooge story. It is a great Scrooge story specifically for you and me. Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:03
Speaker
Because from Jump Street in the story is a history lesson about the Knights Templar and how they were. This is the Assassin's Creed game as wild. It is very Assassin's Creed, right? Like this presents Scrooge McDuck as a member of the Assassins up against the evil subgroup of the Knights Templar. um But it starts with a history lesson about how the Knights Templar became bankers in the early days. and The first bankers and also invented a chip that was essentially the first credit card and had like a huge trove of treasure that they used as essentially for their collateral for their banking.
00:10:00
Speaker
and Philip IV of France in 1307 tried to seize that trove. But they had already moved the treasure out by the time he tried to seize it and sent it to Scotland.
00:10:20
Speaker
But like, they kind of, it was kind of lost track of after that. I do love that This is an Uncle Scrooge story, so the connection that we get to the Templars is that they are but they were bankers.
00:10:38
Speaker
right like nothing in here about about i mean there's There's some and stuff in here about like King Solomon's Temple and all that, but mostly it's about banking. yeah The Crusades are mentioned.
00:10:51
Speaker
and yeah there's there's There's definitely treasures that we see later that were taken during the Crusades. well that's That's secondary at best to this. Yeah. Weirdly enough, the ah the Isu don't don't come up in their treasures of techno god artifacts.
00:11:15
Speaker
another element of the the Crusades that is a key component is the crown of the kings of Jerusalem, which is discussed having been hidden on the island of Hispaniola, which in parentheses it says now Haiti, part of Hispaniola is Haiti. Well, it's that's the part that it was hidden on.
00:11:40
Speaker
The part that it was hidden on is the part that is Haiti, but the Dominican Republic is also on Hispaniola. yes I just wanted to point that out. Nonetheless, so the the this crown was hidden, buried in Haiti for almost 500 years until Scrooge found it, and then the director of the International Money Council, which is the modern Templars. That?
00:12:11
Speaker
That was the one aspect of this story where I was like, that's that's really verging say like certain modern conspiracy theories. But the certain modern conspiracy theories are all about Jewish people being in control of all the money. This is about Christians being in control.
00:12:40
Speaker
It never intersects certain modern conspiracy theories, but there is, like... Cause, like, that's... Matt, you'll have to forgive me. I mostly know about, um...
00:12:52
Speaker
Batman and Goku. But the International Monetary Fund is a real thing. That is a real thing, yes yes. Yeah. So it definitely feels like this is a thing analogous to a real thing where it's like, yeah, you know those international bankers and their conspiracy. It's it's not exactly the same thing, but it's close in title at least. Yeah, again it is not. I am not saying that like I am not at all saying Don Rosa is a weird crypto-fascist conspiracy theorist. I'm just saying the way that it is phrased in this comic where it's like, yeah, the International Monetary Council, the modern day Templars, who do have a secret conspiracy to recover these artifacts. Well, here like just the here's the weird thing about it, though. There's a rift inside the Templars that becomes clear throughout the story.
00:13:53
Speaker
because the the head of the International Monetary Council, the director, who I don't think is ever named, I think he's also also always just called the director, is part of an offshoot group of the Templars. That's bad. oh And his assistant, Maurice. They're the Priory of Sion. Priory of Sion.
00:14:22
Speaker
His assistant, Maurice, is just a regular templar. And hilariously, like, the the director is so obviously evil from the get-go.
00:14:35
Speaker
but But... He's also a returning villain. Yes, yes, yes. Because all the stuff with ah The Crown and Scrooge going to Haiti, that has already happened. This is a sequel to the The Old Castle Secret, and it's also a sequel to that story, which I believe is Rosa's story.
00:14:51
Speaker
It was from Scrooge 339, so not too long before this. yeah It's actually the immediately preceding story to this one, I think. The Crown of the Crusader Kings, that story was called. But the thing is, the director held Scrooge at gunpoint in that story. And only now is his assistant kind of like, I think my boss might be a bad guy.
00:15:17
Speaker
Anyway, He has the crown. To be fair, he held Scrooge at gunpoint while Scrooge was attempting to plunder an artifact. That's fair. Duttberg's in Calisota, baby. it ain't in It ain't in anywhere that could claim this crown. So he
Emotional and Character Development
00:15:35
Speaker
has the crown. The director does. Scrooge has the box that the crown was in and has a essentially a blanket
00:15:48
Speaker
that it was wrapped in, which is a tartan pattern that is his own family's tartan. The McDuck family tartan? Yes. So he returns to Castle McDuck with Donald and the three nephews. I feel like the McDuck family tartan should have been like red and black and yellow.
00:16:16
Speaker
instead of like orange and green and black. But maybe like Don Rose is the kind of creator who would have been like, I need to find a non-existent tartan pattern. right Like I'm not gonna phone this in. But like, I feel like it should have been the the pattern, ah like like something that was visually tied to Scrooge McDuck. Or maybe this is something that was also established elsewhere. I also think that Disney This is something Disney would insist. Like this cannot be an existing tartan because we don't want to get a complaint from a family, like a Scottish family. That's like, you're saying that this is my family or whatever. From clan McCloud from clan McCloud. Yeah. Uh, so Scrooge goes back to the castle. He says he hasn't been back here in a long time. He brings Donald and the boys.
00:17:15
Speaker
And they have this whole conversation about how hard it was to find a caretaker of the castle. Because it's haunted, which does not come up in this story. Well, that, again, that's a reference going back to the old castle secret. Right. But it's where it's discussed here, but it's not a part of this story. Yeah. But the actual reason that they're having ah trouble is because Scrooge will pay 15 cents an hour.
00:17:44
Speaker
right or whatever it is, Donald's salary. I believe it's 15 cents an hour is Donald's salary. Maybe it's 14. Right. And there's a, there's a bit where ah Donald says out loud. Oh yeah. Who would want to be a caretaker of this castle knowing how much you pay and uh, it's great in this story. Donald. Donald. Yeah. Donald's awesome in this. Donald. Donald just straight up being like, yeah, it's probably cause you're a cheap old bastard. You'll fuck. Love him.
00:18:13
Speaker
Donald is absolutely the audience surrogate throughout this story. Although he's also a dumbass, which we'll get to. Um, yeah, the audience surrogate. Yeah. So Scrooge gets out of the Jeep that they arrive in and, and walks up to his parents' graves and has a moment at his parents' graves where he's just kind of, you know, paying his respects. And that panel, it's like,
00:18:42
Speaker
ah Scrooge is shaded like I've never seen him shaded before in this like cross hatching That is so like it makes it gives it such a gravity of him standing in front of his parents graves also his dad died in 1902 Yes, which certainly a reference back to Barks but makes it hard to have a a a timeline that brings this forward to 2005. Yeah. Fun fact about Uncle Scrooge by Don Rosa, and this is a specific Don Rosa thing. All of the Scrooge stories take place between the
00:19:30
Speaker
first appearance of Scrooge and, I believe, Barks's death. So everything happens, like, in the 50s. Yeah. ah Which, you know, like, that's, it's the imaginary Disney duck 50s, but, like, timeline-wise, that is, like, that's why, you know, Life and Time of Scrooge McDuck is set when it's set, because the Christmas on Bear Mountain, which, by the way, if you're wondering why we're doing this story in December,
00:19:59
Speaker
Don't forget Scrooge is a Christmas character. The clue is in the name. It is indeed. My second favorite Christmas character. So Scrooge is in front of the graves and Donald goes to go park the Jeep. So the three nephews go into the castle and find this gray haired woman gardening in there.
00:20:24
Speaker
And they say, Oh, Hey, you must be the caretaker. Uh, we're here with our uncle Scrooge McDuck, who, who is he, you know, the first time here in a while. And she's like, who the fuck? And, uh, just then Donald brings the Jeep inside ah and she knows who this is. This is Matilda McDuck, Scrooge's sister who has not spoken to Scrooge in 25 years. Mm-hmm.
00:20:53
Speaker
Because, as she said, we got fed up with his greed. Yes. ah Scrooge, of course, has two sisters. We do see his other sister in ah a flashback. But that, she is ah Donald's mother. Right, yeah. Because Matilda's been living here for a long time.
00:21:17
Speaker
Uh, so Scrooge is that, is that his parents' graves for a bit? He's, he's wondering if his dad would have been proud of him. And meanwhile, the director, oh, he, the director is given a name. It's Monsieur Morley. That's his name. They're watching. They notice a clue in a grave that has some, uh, Templar symbology on it.
00:21:42
Speaker
And Scrooge comes walking into the castle, and there is a fantastic panel of him realizing Matilda is there. And his spectacles are off of his beak, and his hat is coming off of his head. And it's just a totally silent panel of him looking at Matilda who's got her arms folded. It is choice. It's fantastic. I love it. It's absolutely fantastic. Yeah.
00:22:10
Speaker
ah But he's he's surprised to see Batilda here. can't like He's totally stunned by the fact that his sister is here. She keeps threatening to leave because she doesn't want to be around Scrooge. She doesn't want to talk to him. And she knows about the Templar Treasury that is supposedly on the grounds of this castle.
00:22:38
Speaker
Scrooge is the only one who didn't know about it. Yeah. I do love this reveal that she's like, yeah, dad told me all about the, how there was a secret hidden tripmp temple or treasure here. I mean, we never found it, but we know about it. And Scrooge is like, what? And she's like, yeah, he didn't tell you cause you're a green piece of shit. Yeah. Uh,
00:23:02
Speaker
Meanwhile, the director and his lackey are, they're using the Philosopher's Stone to turn every metal into gold so it becomes breakable. That's such a great bit.
00:23:16
Speaker
That is genuine. Like, that is so clever. Yeah. That they keep turning like iron bars into gold so that they can like escape a jail because gold is a famously soft metal. Like you can bend it. Yeah. That's such a fucking smart thing to do with the Philosopher's Stone like with a a bit like that because it is not like not at all the first thing you would think of doing and it's also like it it makes perfect sense and it's also like they keep leaving this like all the gold behind because they they are not after money I love that I love that as a recurring bit it's so smart I mean they're after the money of the
00:24:13
Speaker
Templar's Treasury. Yeah, but they're mostly after it. like and They're not they are not after the money for its value, I don't think. They're after the power it affords. Yes. Is what they're after, yeah. um But I don't know how realistic all of the the breakable gold in this story is. There's one instance in particular where I'm like, I don't know about that, but we'll get to it when we get to it.
00:24:42
Speaker
Anyway, they break into the castle grounds and they eavesdrop on Donald and Scrooge and the nephews all talking about their plans to start their treasure hunt the next day. And they also overhear Matilda talking about how their dad would sometimes spend time at another grave while visiting their mother's grave.
00:25:12
Speaker
which so it might have a clue about where the the treasure is. So the next day, Scrooge and Donald and the boys venture out to the graveyard. They start looking around. Matilda points out the grave that their dad used to look at. And Scrooge sees a skull and crossbones on the grave. ah Sir Simon's grave, Sir Simon McDuck.
00:25:39
Speaker
And there's this great little bit in there where Scrooge takes out the tartan blanket and puts it over the grave. And he's like, here you are, Sir Simon, to keep you warm. Which like proves that Scrooge does care about his family. You know? Well, there I mean, we get into it later in the story, but there is, you know, like the the the Dark Knight of the Soul act of life and times is before like, between him becoming the world's richest duck, and going full capitalist, and ah Donald and the boys showing up, where he is like, a greedy piece of shit, like everything that Matilda is saying about him is very true. Yeah. So there's a great little bit here where, uh,
00:26:29
Speaker
The Junior Woodchuck Guidebook provides a tidbit that I didn't even know, which is that the skull and crossbones on pirate flags was specifically a warning to the Knight's Templar. I don't know if that is true. That might just be made up. That might just be made up, because I mean, like, it is a skull. Yeah. Like, it's so it looks like bad news.
00:26:55
Speaker
It's a warning to anybody, but what this story presents is that the skull and crossbones had a particular meaning for the Knights Templar of like, this place means death. Yeah, the the nephews are like a skull and crossbones. Those are Templar symbols that mean death. And I was like, buddy, I think a skull might just mean death. and Anywhere.
00:27:23
Speaker
like yeah but I don't I don't see a skull and go those are from Warhammer 40k it's just it's from bodies it's from it's from those polls for a human body yeah anyway Scrooge notices that the eye of the skull on the grave is really deep and so he looks through it and when he does he can see a particular window of the castle So they know that they need to go investigate this window in the castle. And what they find is that there is no door inside the castle to where that window is. Which means they're going to have classic. Yeah.
00:28:06
Speaker
which means that they're gonna have to enter that window from outside. And this leads to the bit where Donald is at his dumbest in the story. He climbs through the window ah using a ladder, like the nephew's going in first, then Donald comes in and he falls through a hole into like the moat outside. Yeah, it's a little it's a little slide that leads down into the moat. Yeah. And Donald's like, this must be some kind of trap.
00:28:36
Speaker
And the nephews, it's a very funny bit where the nephews are like, we're not going to tell them what that really is. Cause it's a Turlet. It's a Turlet. And that's a really funny joke because nobody ever says it's a Turlet. Yeah. There's just like a panel of them looking at it and it's just this like round hole in a bench that leads outside. Yeah. And then I was like, Oh, those fiendish trap builders. It's definitely a Turlet.
00:29:03
Speaker
and ah Anyway, in this secret room, there's a place where the door should be, and it's covered in these hieroglyphs, these like symbols that clearly are some kind of language, but the nephews don't know what it is. um then nephew ah Then Donald falls through the toilet again. Scrooge knows what these symbols are. It is the Templar banking cipher.
00:29:31
Speaker
which is made up of the different elements of the telar templar cross arranged in different ways, which is very cool. That is a very cool bit of cryptography, I feel like. Very similar to like existing codes that I've seen. But like, again, I don't know if this is anything that was used in history, like like the Caesar cipher was, yeah or if this is just, ah you know, more of Don Rosa,
00:30:02
Speaker
doing his clever D and&D stuff for his comics, which he does all the time. Yes, it might be some Don Roza pseudo history, I don't know. ah But whatever the case, but they decipher the first little bit and see that they need to go into the dungeons.
Treasure Hunt and Cryptography
00:30:22
Speaker
It's originally presented as a riddle ah about The secret entrance, he who sealed the gateway below will show you his secret entrances. And they realize that they have to go into the dungeon. Matilda gets annoyed about all their treasure hunting. And so she storms out of the castle. She's like, I'm leaving.
00:30:47
Speaker
So she storms out. And as that's happening, she gets kidnapped by the director and his lackey. Also, I want to point out a little earlier, there was a bit where the director and the lackey were hiding behind a grave drinking wine and eating cheese because they're French. Amazing. ah Truly amazing.
00:31:08
Speaker
ah But they have, in the meantime, found a staircase
00:31:16
Speaker
That leads down from one of the graves in the graveyard. Yeah, which is is from the old castle secret. Yeah. Scrooge and the nephews in Donald go into the dungeon. They do a math puzzle to realize that they need to go into cell number seven in the dungeon. Don't like that math puzzle. You don't like the math puzzle? Yeah, that's that's the one part of this little little ah D and&D adventure that I was like, hmm, I don't know about this one.
00:31:47
Speaker
I love this next bit, though, because they go into cell number seven, and inside is a wreck. And Scrooge is immediately like, Clan McDuck never tortured anybody. So this cell has to be a fake. So this is a fake, because we didn't do that. Yeah. We definitely did. i did We are establishing here.
00:32:13
Speaker
in the presence of the Walt Disney corporation, the clam McDuck never committed war crimes. So then they they look at the more of the translated riddle and they see a bit that says, all men's fates are linked, know this and rejoice. And so they join the chain on the rack to a chain that's attached on the wall. And when they do that and they start pulling the the crank on the rack, it opens a hole in the in the floor to a ah hidden staircase. That is so good. I love that so much. That is extremely good. um They were really banking on that rack holding up for the next 1000 years. I mean, a lot of this puzzle is
00:33:02
Speaker
baking on things, staying together for a long time. Yeah. there's There's one more part where I'm like, definitely not, but we'll get to it. So then, uh, then the next puzzle is just full on an Indiana Jones puzzle with, uh, Templar crosses on the floor, like lined up and Scrooge realizes, uh, there's a bit in the riddle about,
00:33:32
Speaker
using an ancient manner to enter a door. And they realized that high priests entering the Temple of Solomon prayed on the staircase entrance on the third, eighth, and fifteenth steps. So they find the third, eighth, and fifteenth symbols and step on those. I do like that because it's not a thing where you where you don't step on the thing. You have to step on the thing, but you have to do it in a specific order. Yeah.
00:34:02
Speaker
Uh, then we get to the bit where the, the lackey, uh, the, the bad guys lackey is like, I think you're actually a bad guy and I do, and I knew you were a bad guy when you stole that crown. Oh yeah. Cause Scrooge did give the crown to a museum in Haiti. Right. Cause it belonged to the patient people. Cause that's where it was. Right. Um, but.
00:34:30
Speaker
when ah the lackey is like, I'm going to go warn Scrooge. The director just kicks him in the in the chest and chains him up in that cell. But me take he takes Matilda with him. ah As that's happening, Scrooge and Donald and the boys walk into a big chamber carved out of rock underground with a bunch of statues in it. And and and I think it's it's one of the nephews says, the Templars were masters of excavation and construction, explaining how this place could exist. Yeah, it's very difficult to to tell which nephew it is because they are all ah in monochrome in that panel. They're in monochrome through a lot of this. There's a few places where the
00:35:28
Speaker
their colors, like they're shown wearing their colors, but... Yeah, but if they don't have hats. Yeah. Mostly they're shot their shirts are just black. Yeah. um But they see on the roof of this structure a carving of what is ah described as What is it? What, some kind of worm? The magic Shamir worm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That King, cause you know, folks, this, we're getting into some apocryphal's business right now, but as you know, King Solomon, uh, used, uh, his magic ring that gave him control over demons to build his temple. Yeah. So this was a demon that he used to, to split the rocks to construct the temple. That's just a tidbit at this point.
00:36:20
Speaker
What they're learned they've learned from the riddle, the big long riddle, is that they have to raise the swords of the nine statues in the room in the correct order to open the vault underneath. And Scrooge is like, all right, I'm just going to start testing combinations.
00:36:40
Speaker
And of course, the nephews calculate that up, and it's like 360,000 possible combinations. And these old statues are going to break before they try all of those. Just then, the Mole, Monsieur Mole walks in, wearing his crown that he stole from Scrooge,
00:37:10
Speaker
And they realized that the answer to the riddle, to what order they need to raise the swords in, is on the crown, on the inside of the crown. But it's not just- Yeah, we have previously seen these, like when, when Monsieur Mollet is seen at the beginning of the story, after he steals the crown, he's like, yeah, I had to get the crown, because it's got these secret runes on the inside.
00:37:40
Speaker
that'll be the ah the clue to the thing. But the additional clue is that it's not just the runes inside the crown. It's the indentation that the runes leave on somebody's head. So it's basically the runes backwards that you have to use to know what order to pull down the swords in. So it leaves an indentation on Monsieur Mollet's bald head.
00:38:07
Speaker
that they didn't have a lot of faith that there would be someone with a specific hat size and a so and a bald head and a bald head in the future. Like I liked I liked the bit because you could like take clay and like do impressions of it. And that's like a fun like I like the mechanic of it. But when they're like, Yeah, it's the head that wears the crown. So let's look at his bald head. Like that that was okay. All right. That's, you know, that's, that's, um that's the players got a, uh, got a, uh, natural 20 and they spent 15 minutes trying to figure this out and you're ready to move on. Absolutely. I mean, it's clever until you think about it for just a little while. Yeah. So they pull down all the,
00:39:02
Speaker
or they pull they pull up all the swords in the correct order, and then Malay is like, all right, well, I'm pulling down the last one, because this vault is mine, this treasure is mine. And just as he's doing that, he's got a gun, by the way, just as he's doing that, Donald takes this the philosopher's stone from the lackey, Maurice. And he's like, hey, you ever played baseball? Don't worry about it.
00:39:32
Speaker
ah Just give me that rock and i'll I'll give us a chance. And so Donald throws the Philosopher's Stone at the gun that Mole is holding, turning the gun gold, which then begins a fight over the gun, which Donald loses. Yes. I do i do like Donald being like, you ever play baseball? Always, but on duck.
00:40:01
Speaker
So Molay gets the gun back and tries to take a shot at Matilda. Scrooge jumps in front of her and says, no! But as Molay tries to shoot the gun, it just falls to pieces in his hand because it's made of gold. That's the thing I'm not so sure about.
00:40:24
Speaker
That was relatively plausible for me because you know it's it's it falls apart when he shoots it. So it's when the you know bullets are propelled by explosions. So when the the explosion happens, it breaks the gun because it ah the metal is too soft. Which, you know, I buy that. There are other gold guns in fiction, though.
00:40:51
Speaker
Well, I mean, i I was going to say, uh, Monsieur Scaramanga would certainly have a, uh, uh, something to say about that. Exactly.
00:41:04
Speaker
Anyway, the way that the the chamber underneath is opened is not just by the the floor opening up.
00:41:17
Speaker
the worm in the ceiling falls through the floor, crashing through and opening the chamber underneath. It's a thwomp. It's a big thwomp, yeah. It's one of those, ifs i I always called them mega thwomps when I was a kid. there I don't think they actually have a name because they're just traps, but it's that that big spiky thwomp in the ah you know thing that comes down from the ceiling and in oh and the castles.
00:41:44
Speaker
and mar Yeah, there are thwomps. There are smaller thwomps as well. Well, there's those are thwimps. Those are thwimps. Right? Yes. Yes. Yes. Let me see. Let me see if there's a name for the bigger thwomps. They're just called big thwomp. Big thwomps. That's that's their canonical name. Big thwomp. All right. So if it ain't broke,
00:42:10
Speaker
Hey, ah shockingly, no one is crushed by this big ah falling eel. ah Donald is a little shaken up, but he's okay. And also, Monsieur Mollet is not crushed by it. um But Scrooge goes down into this chamber and sees all this gold, all this treasure, all this stuff down here. They find Solomon's ivory throne.
00:42:40
Speaker
which has a Star of David on it, which, man, I don't know if the Disney cook company would mess around with that these days. I mean, I think that, like, that's, you know, King Solomon. I think that's, yeah, that's, that's, that's, you know, I just, I wonder how, I know for a long time, like Nintendo wouldn't use any religious imagery of any kind in their video games.
00:43:08
Speaker
so Yeah, they like they took out like the crosses from gravestones in Castlevania, which is weird. They left it on Link Shield, which that's not... like I don't think Jesus Christ existed in Hyrule. Well, it's it's odd, right? like Nintendo of America wouldn't allow deep religious imagery. In Japan, it's fine. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. like There's all kinds of crosses on graves in Castlevania and in Japan. Yeah. i There's a big one in Castlevania 3 that I know they had to change. Yeah. It's it's strange. That's why ah that's why ah in Castlevania you had the boomerang. Right. Instead of the the cross. Right. Yeah. So as Scrooge is surveying this treasure, Malay gets up
00:44:02
Speaker
and tries to shoot Scrooge with his other gun that he has. And Donald grabs the nearest thing, which is a fancy goblet, and he hits Mole with it. Later in the story, we will be told that's the holy grail. Yeah, that's the cup of a carpenter. It's it's way too fancy to be the holy grail, TBQH.
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah. ah But that's so funny to me. yeah Donald grabbing the Holy Grail and breaking it by bashing somebody over the head is a perfect Donald Duck moment. ah he like this This is a better Donald story than it is a Scrooge story, honestly. I mean, it's a pretty good Scrooge story. i know it's a pretty It's a great Scrooge story. It's a perfect Donald story.
00:44:51
Speaker
so As Scrooge is standing on the treasure, he he starts talking to Maurice, who's like, what are you gonna do with all this, Scrooge? And Scrooge is like, oh, I guess you're gonna have to be its custodian to make sure that this money is used to protect travelers and peace-loving people. Because that's what we're gonna use it for. That's what the Templars are supposed to do, right? is you protect that's That's what you do and all you do, right? Right. Protect travelers?
00:45:24
Speaker
And he's like, just let me come like swim around in this money every once in a while. And otherwise you use it for, what for to do good in the world. And Matilda is like, what, you aren't going to keep it. Or, or are you just like trying to show, are you just trying to like look good for me? Screw just like, no, I just don't want the money. Cause like, I'll have to pay a bunch of tax on it or whatever.
Climax and Resolution
00:45:50
Speaker
Scrooge out, you're being like, hey, is a duck not entitled to the sweat of his feathers? And then Matilda takes us through a recap of Scrooge's life, a recap of life and times about Scrooge getting his lucky dime and getting his first silver dollar on the river bow. Boy, boy, if he heard you say that.
00:46:18
Speaker
If he heard you say lucky dime, that's your ass, Matt. You talking about Don? Talking about Don. Not lucky. It just has personal sentimental significance.
00:46:36
Speaker
ah And working with the American rancher and ah not stealing the the giant opal and all of that.
00:46:48
Speaker
And I mean, that's, that's, that's Teddy Roosevelt is the, uh, the American rancher. Yes. Yes. And, uh, and she talks about how like you you used to be good and then you turned greedy and screwed. Just like, well, I never got any letter from home about, you know, what doing anything different. And then Matilda reveals that there was a letter.
00:47:18
Speaker
that their father had hidden a letter down here in the treasury. And she gives Scrooge the letter and it's a letter from Papa McDuck about how he wanted Scrooge to go have this life of adventure because he knew that this is what he always wanted to work and support the family.
00:47:48
Speaker
even though they were gonna be fine. But he he had to let Scrooge go be who he was. And it ends with him saying, ah we were as proud as of our son, the shoeshine boy as we could ever be of anything more he might accomplish. I feel as rich as he will ever be, love Papa. And Scrooge and Matilda both cry.
00:48:17
Speaker
and I'm about to cry right now. It's so good. It's good. It's intense. It is such a perfect bow on the Scrooge McDuck story that has been in comics at this point for how long? 70 years? Yeah, man. It's unbelievably good.
00:48:49
Speaker
Yeah, and at the end of it, the Scrooge is like, look, you're not wrong. I was a piece of shit. I i was greedy and i I did a bunch of things that I'm not proud of because I became obsessed with money. And the thing that saved me was when I saw Donald and the nephews.
00:49:13
Speaker
in my first appearance in Christmas on Bear Mountain. or christmas un bear mountain fright And then I realized that like the money doesn't matter. And the reason like the reason I keep all the money and I don't put it in a bank and I have it in a big bin that I can swim in is because all of that like all of those coins are memories.
00:49:40
Speaker
So like the like this is one of the first times, and maybe like one of the only times where Scrooge is like, yeah, the actual monetary value doesn't matter. It's just that like every time I see it, I remember how I got it and the lessons that I learned, which does soften Scrooge's relentless oh plutocrat ah greed a little bit. Yeah.
00:50:10
Speaker
And also explains why he doesn't put it in a fucking bank. Yeah. But like, the fact that he values the money as physical objects, like, I don't know, it makes Scrooge a lot more sympathetic for me to think of him as a collector.
00:50:27
Speaker
ah Who is like, just the he's he's a numismatist, or is that stamps? No, numismatism is coins. Like he's a coin collector, but it's all coins.
00:50:40
Speaker
Yes, every valuable are the most adventures you know are the most fun adventures to go on. Yeah, it's as you know, it's weird to think about how Scrooge as we progress into a an increasingly cashless society. Like Scrooge couldn't do that. Now. I mean, I guess he could go collect old coins, which is a lot of what he does, but Also, um the whole gag about Donald having broken the Holy Grail is continuing throughout this. And one of the last images is Donald tying the whole Holy Grail back together with a shoelace. Pretty great. ah Pretty great. well How many podcasts do you think there are in ah in Calisota about how Scrooge is like just a fool for being so into fiat currency? Oh, I've got to be so many now.
00:51:39
Speaker
It's all all the all the up and comers of Calisota who are like, this old man Scrooge. Yeah, Scrooge ain't into crypto. I'll tell you that for fucking free. He is absolutely not into anything but tangible currency. Specifically, gold coins. Because that is money. All right, Chris, let's break this story. It is good. Yeah, no, it's it's great.
00:52:08
Speaker
It's amazing. Like it's, it's not only like a Don Rosa Scrooge story, so it's kind of self-evidently amazing. It's also like one of the best Don Rosa Scrooge stories that I have read and I've read most of them. Well, life and times, the entirety of life and times is at number 89 on the list. It ain't quite that good. It ain't quite that good, but it,
00:52:37
Speaker
But it and ain't far. It's not bad. Yeah, it ain't far. Christmas on Bear Mountain isn't 491. I think it's closer to life and times than it is to Christmas on Bear Mountain. I think Don Rose would also be mad at us for ranking his comics higher than that. but Well, he doesn't get any say in that. Rinking his DuckTales comics.
00:53:04
Speaker
His comic's about the Lucky Dime. About the Lucky Dime.
00:53:11
Speaker
White and Scrooge in his blue coat in this, Don. Hates it. He hates it so much. Why does Donald speak so clearly? So mad.
00:53:29
Speaker
Very funny. Um, yeah, man. I mean, like, here's what's wild about this to me. I, I'm a soft touch, right? Like I will, I'll cry at the drop of a hat over comics. Yeah. That rarely happens with you. Oh yeah. I mean, you get, you gotta be a really good story to like,
00:53:55
Speaker
get me for Klimt. And this one did. This one did. I think this is the first time I have heard you express that in the years and years and years that we have been friends and I've been talking about comics on a regular basis every single week that did not involve Peter Parker, the spectacular Spider-Man. It's true. it the I'm the softest touch for a Spider-Man story for sure. Yeah. like Any Spider-Man story that is about Peter Parker always doing the right thing no matter the personal cost to him? God damn, that's gonna get me. um Which is why this is not above number 91 on the list. yeah Which is the chip story about that exact thing. Yeah man, that's a good ass comic. I also don't think it's above number 96, another comic story that, another single issue comic story
00:54:53
Speaker
that gets me in the fields, ah Hawkeye Pizza is my business. ah That story's got a good dog in it. It's got stories only have bad dogs. That's true. That's maybe the worst thing about Disney.comics is that dogs are bad. One specific family of dogs done ruined it for all the rest of them. Yeah. That story is in the, the, uh,
00:55:18
Speaker
the Marvel stories collection that Patton Oswalt and Jordan Bloom did. Pizza's my business.
00:55:27
Speaker
Is it better than Usagi Ojimbo's circles? i That's what I was trying to figure out, because if it is, it knocks that out of the top 100. Yeah. And that's certainly a top 100 comic. I would agree, yeah.
00:55:42
Speaker
But I mean, this one's also, I mean, that's really good. It's like, I expected it to be good. And when I finished reading it, I was like, that's a better than I thought it was going to be even. Yeah, man, like, and it, the only thing that is bad about it, and I don't even think it's that bad is that like,
00:56:05
Speaker
It might do the opposite of what an Uncle Scrooge story is supposed to do, which is make you want to read any other Scrooge stories. Because now that I've read this, I'm like, okay, I'm done. yeah Like, that's the end of Scrooge, of Uncle Scrooge, right? Like, he then he dies, he is buried at Glenn McDuck, and then Donald and the nephews get rich. And that's not fun to read about. It is definitely wild that The Gemstone Scrooge comic continued for another 60 issues after this. Well, I mean, it is. But also, like, you know, he's a wildly popular character. life Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Man, i don't I don't know. Like, Circles is really good, is the thing.
00:56:54
Speaker
ah i But I do, like... Here's the thing. I think this is better than Welcome Back Frank, which is at 99. I don't know. I don't know. Welcome Back Frank. I mean, I love Welcome Back Frank. I feel like Welcome Back Frank is a truly revolutionary comic story. that Look, if I'm making my hardcover of ah the best Marvel comics of all time, Its Bears is in there.
00:57:28
Speaker
Yeah. The, the, the issue is 100% in there. Frank Castle punches a bear. Yeah. A polar bear. It's bears. It's bears. That's so good.
00:57:42
Speaker
is this better Okay. Here's the question. Is this better than the dark Phoenix saga? Probably not. the dar say and i guess Good. I'll tell you where I'm thinking. Okay. I think it is.
00:57:59
Speaker
Not as good as Batman R.I.P.
00:58:04
Speaker
But I would put in the new number 106. I would tend to agree with you. And I don't want to be mean. Because you know I love Batman R.I.P. One of my favorite comic book stories of all time. Are we about to talk about art? Tom Rose is better than Tony Daniel. Oh.
00:58:28
Speaker
Undoubtedly. like There are panels in in Batman RIP that I like. you know I like Batman digging his way out of his own grave, but as a a friend of mine once said, if you can't draw Batman rising from his own grave and make it look cool, then you probably shouldn't be in comics.
00:58:50
Speaker
like Don Rose is out here drawing Scrooge looking it at a grave, you know? and doing like, and also doing like, you know, 10 panel pages that are still legible and beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. It is, it is no shade to Tony Daniel that, that Don Rosa is better. The, the shocking consistency of the art in Don Rosa Duck comics across the board.
00:59:26
Speaker
Yeah. Is really something. Yeah. So you're saying above Batman R.I.P. Yeah, I think it's I think it's got I would put it maybe I would put it either just above or just below the Dark Phoenix saga.
00:59:49
Speaker
Fuck, let's put it above the new number one on one. All right, the new number one on one. I'm going to say Scrooge McDuck. I'm just going to call it a letter from home. Because I feel like that is because I chose to call it the old castle's other secret. Well, the old castle's other secret is just a reference to another story, right? Yeah, but the letter from home, that's a spoiler. But that's what the story is ultimately about. That's true.
01:00:19
Speaker
Right? Like, I think they maybe the idea was like, oh, let's call it a reference to another story. So people kind of know what we're talking about, but like, letter from home is, is absolutely definitely what the story, the the whole thrust of the story. It's a letter from home because The whole thing is Scrooge never got a letter from home, and then he finally got one. And we didn't even talk about the bit at the end where he's like, hey, just write me a letter every once in a while to Matilda. Yeah. Yeah. He reconciles with his sister. Man, it's good. God damn. Yeah, there's a really good part earlier in this thing where Donald is talking to Matilda and he's like, look, we're just gonna look for this treasure when we find it.
01:01:13
Speaker
then Scrooge will go home and that's what you want. So just to help us find it out and we'll get out of here. And there's a closeup of her and she's like, you know, single tier, like, yes, that's what I want. Oh, masterful. Yeah. Masterful storytelling. So good. So good. Why is he so good though? Great question.
01:01:36
Speaker
um
01:01:39
Speaker
Look, again, if you made comics this good, And you were constantly hearing from people, oh, I've never read those, but I've seen this cartoon.
01:01:53
Speaker
Honestly, Don Rosa, it's just shocked that he's not grumpier than he is. a car Oh, but I've seen this cartoon, and you think the cartoon is bad.
01:02:04
Speaker
And do you think the cartoon is bad, yeah. yeah You think the cartoon is bad and dumb and the thing that like you have, you know, is a worse, like, a worse version of the thing that inspired you to make comic books? Yeah. To to your life's work, yeah. That's why when I met Don Rosa, I was like, hey, I've never read these comics, but I love the video game.
01:02:27
Speaker
ah Do you think Don Rosa has ever seen the DuckTales video game? Absolutely not. Everyone around him is shielding him from it. if you like If you ran up to him and his phone, like with your phone playing the DuckTales NES game, it's just he would only see like a black square in your hand. His mind would not accept it.
01:02:55
Speaker
All right, everybody. because the The moon theme kicks ass. It really does. I'm sure he I bet he would love the moon theme.
Teaser for Next Episode
01:03:01
Speaker
ah That's it for our comics catch up for December I think we had one time we'd said this was gonna be our January catch up But we decided to do it in December instead. So I just character That's right. So I think for our January catch up then we're gonna do spider-man sinister war ah So come back for that next month In the meantime, ah thanks for listening. ah If you want to support this show and all the other shows we do, go to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax to kick in a dollar or so per month or more. Uh, if you want to support comics, catch up in every story ever in the regular war rocket Ajax show, uh, we'd appreciate that a lot. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to Matt d Wilson.net. You'll find links to everything there. Chris, where can people find you?
01:03:53
Speaker
Everybody can find me by going to the-isp.com. That is my website. It's got stuff on it. Yeah, there's stuff on there. Yeah. We'll be back next time with our next catch up selection. And of course, you can always catch us on the ah weekly program as well, trying not to miss comics, but definitely doing so. Constantly missing them, yeah. So yeah, ah join us there. And until then, hey, good catching up.