New comics about Klondike Scrooge by Kari Korhonen

[Scroogerello]

Just read that the Finnish Aku Ankka magazine recently printed the first installment of a new series of comics centered around Scrooge's Klondike days, based on Barks' "Back to the Klondike" story from 1953.



sanoma.com/fi/tiedote/suomalainen-kari-korhonen-valittiin-piirtamaan-roope-ankan-klondiken-paivakirjat/

Has anyone read the first chapter already? Was it any good? From what I've gathered so far, each installment will only have 10 pages, so that's a bit of a shame. I'll never understand why the Danish (and Dutch) publishers have gotten so stingy with page numbers--they seem to be under the impression that any long adventure story can be compressed into a 10-page gag comic. Also an odd choice to have the entire series set in the Klondike (when there are already so many stories about Scrooge's Klondike days!), instead of in some other (new) parts of Scrooge's life story. But the premise sounds entertaining nonetheless

[sirredknee]

I've come across this as well - maybe our Finnish friends can tell us something more?

What makes you so sure it's adventure stories and not gag stories? In fact, I wonder if gag stories couldn't be the better alternative to shed some (preferably new) light on the younger Scrooge's life. I also hope Korhonen has some better ideas to handle a young solo Scrooge (without Donald and HDL) than just turning him into a boring superhero with the occasional sentimental Achilles heel. May those stories just be entertaining and as "fact" free as possible!

[Scroogerello]

Aug 13, 2019 9:52:30 GMT sirredknee said:

I've come across this as well - maybe our Finnish friends can tell us something more?

What makes you so sure it's adventure stories and not gag stories? In fact, I wonder if gag stories couldn't be the better alternative to shed some (preferably new) light on the younger Scrooge's life. I also hope Korhonen has some better ideas to handle a young solo Scrooge (without Donald and HDL) than just turning him into a boring superhero with the occasional sentimental Achilles heel. May those stories just be entertaining and as "fact" free as possible!

Oh I very much agree. It'll be very refreshing to finally see a completely non-Rosa take on young Scrooge. I was just voicing my annoyance with Egmont /Sanoma's page count in general, not for this specific story. We've now gotten to the point where practically all of their output are 10 pagers, even for adventure stories that clearly need more room for the storyline to properly develop.

I think Korhonen's biggest challenge for this series is not to stray away too far from the core of the Duck universe. It was a flaw in Rosa's work as well; when you're reading stories like "Prisoner of White Agony Creek", you're left wondering what the heck it has to do with the world Barks created; without any of the other main characters like Donald, the nephews, Gyro, etc., it's like you're reading a completely different comic altogether. I have the same problem with some of those stories where Donald is a hyper-competent superhero or secret agent and stuff like that. But, I believe I saw on Korhonen's Facebook page that the Beagle Boys will appear in the series as well, and that duck lady on the cover I posted in my previous message looks a lot like Grandma Duck. So we'll probably get to see some familiar characters besides (young) Scrooge.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 13, 2019 12:32:50 GMT Scroogerello said:

I believe I saw on Korhonen's Facebook page that the Beagle Boys will appear in the series as well, and that duck lady on the cover I posted in my previous message looks a lot like Grandma Duck. So we'll probably get to see some familiar characters besides (young) Scrooge.

No Beagle Boys in the Klondike has always looked like an odd oversight to me, so I'm glad that void is finally being filled.

Grandma, huh? Hm… I'm not so sure. The hairstyle's not right, even if one overlooks the hair color. But I suppose it's possible. (That would be Don Rosa-compliance of a sort, of course.)

[sirredknee]

It's Miss Quackfaster.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

…? Really?!… Well, I suppose the backstory for her in Rosa is hardly the bit anyone cherishes the most out of his canon, but… really?

[Scroogerello]

Aug 23, 2019 14:07:48 GMT sirredknee said:

It's Miss Quackfaster.

Ah, did you read the story? Was it any good? Miss Quackfaster is a weird choice, for sure. As such an extremely minor character, I can't say I've ever wondered what her back-story is.
Also, I always thought she was a lot younger than Scrooge...but the cover makes it look like she was an old lady during Scrooge's Gold Rush days...

Anyway, the story was finally added to the INDUCKS, and apparently Soapy Slick from "North of the Yukon" appears as well. 

inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2018-103

There will be a new installment printed in the Finnish Aku Ankka every month, according to the article I linked to in my original post. I'll have to wait till the stories get printed in the Netherlands to read them.

[sirredknee]

I haven't read it, but some sample pages can be found here:

www.micky-maus.de/magazin/naechstes-heft.html

Dunno if Miss Q. appears (I've got very slow internet at the moment and the pages just won't load), but she's mentioned in the accompanying blurb: "And whatever has Miss Quackfaster got to do with it all?"

[Scroogerello]

Thanks for the link. Yeah, that's Miss Quackfaster (Frau Rührig) all right. The preview shows that she runs a boarding house in this story. Still, her apparent age seems peculiar to me, especially since she refers to Scrooge as "young man" in this preview--that would imply she's considerably older than him.

Concerning the artwork: naturally I would have rather seen Carlos Mota (the best of all the currently working Disney comic artists, IMO, though Egmont rarely seems to be making use of his talent besides run-of-the-mill 10-pagers) illustrate these stories, but Korhonen does a good job as well, judging from this preview. When I compare Korhonen's comic artwork from different periods in his career, I notice that, relatively recently (around 2013-2014ish), his art style underwent a very noticeable and rather abrupt change, in a direction that I much prefer to his older artwork. His artstyle has gotten "looser" so to speak, and more Barksian.

[sirredknee]

Is she called "Frau Rührig" instead of "Fräulein"? In that case it might be her mother.

[Scroogerello]

Aug 24, 2019 21:10:49 GMT sirredknee said:

Is she called "Frau Rührig" instead of "Fräulein"? In that case it might be her mother.

Yes she's called "Frau" here. But isn't "Frau" a prefix that can refer to both a married and an unmarried woman (similar to the English "Ms.")?

If she is supposed to be Quackfaster's mother/ancestor, that makes the whole thing even more needlessly complicated....But I'll wait and see.

[sirredknee]

You're right, the term "Fräulein" went out of fashion thirty years ago or so and isn't used in modern day German. But Quackfaster is still called that in current German translations, if I'm not totally mistaken. "Fräulein Rührig" is the established name of that character.

[RobbK1]

Aug 24, 2019 15:33:58 GMT sirredknee said:

I haven't read it, but some sample pages can be found here:

www.micky-maus.de/magazin/naechstes-heft.html

Dunno if Miss Q. appears (I've got very slow internet at the moment and the pages just won't load), but she's mentioned in the accompanying blurb: "And whatever has Miss Quackfaster got to do with it all?"

Miss Quackfaster HAS to be quite a bit younger than Scrooge.  So, she absolutely shouldn't be in any of his Klondike stories (as he shouldn't have crossed her path while she was a very young girl).

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Aug 25, 2019 13:59:21 GMT RobbK1 said:

Miss Quackfaster HAS to be quite a bit younger than Scrooge.  So, she absolutely shouldn't be in any of his Klondike stories (as he shouldn't have crossed her path while she was a very young girl).

Why is she necessarily younger than Scrooge? Rosa, I believe, had them roughly the same age (although I know you don't agree with Rosa's take on things for the most part).

Maybe this series is trying to do for Quackfaster what DuckTales '17 did for Beakley, i.e., give one of Scrooge's staff a close prior personal relationship with him that is not immediately apparent by their position of employment.

[RobbK1]

Aug 25, 2019 14:28:36 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

Aug 25, 2019 13:59:21 GMT RobbK1 said:

Miss Quackfaster HAS to be quite a bit younger than Scrooge.  So, she absolutely shouldn't be in any of his Klondike stories (as he shouldn't have crossed her path while she was a very young girl).

Why is she necessarily younger than Scrooge? Rosa, I believe, had them roughly the same age (although I know you don't agree with Rosa's take on things for the most part).

Maybe this series is trying to do for Quackfaster what DuckTales '17 did for Beakley, i.e., give one of Scrooge's staff a close prior personal relationship with him that is not immediately apparent by their position of employment.

I think THIS goes very much AWAY from Scrooge's character.  He'd want his personal secretary to be someone who could do her work efficiently, and concentrate on it fully.  Any woman he'd have "on the side" (of his mania for building wealth), would better serve him by being AWAY from his working environment.  She wouldn't "stay with him" long, if she were subject to his constantly berating her for being less efficient than he'd like (believing her to be keeping him from making more money than he is, due to her inefficiencies (as he berated Donald, and even Clerkly, and the other office workers).  If he would need loving attention from a woman, he'd better have not berated her constantly, and often within earshot of fellow workers.

I rather think he'd want someone old enough to have some professional experience, but young enough to be a fast typist or shorthand taker, and young enough to stay energetic, even after all the grinding work and long hours.

I would guess she'd have been in her late 20s when starting with Scrooge, when he was in his early 50s, or so.  If Scrooge was born in 1873, he was 52 in 1925.  So, Miss Quackfaster would have been in her late 30s in 1947, when Donald first got re-acquainted with Uncle Scrooge.  And she'd have been no older than her early 40s, while the majority of the stories we've seen in the comic books took place, according to Rosa's and other fans' best guess timelines.