Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Apr 22, 2018 14:44:38 GMT
36 years late, here comes a review of Uncle Scrooge #202! After GeoX of Duck Comics Revue reviewed one story from it, I found myself rereading it, and I found some noteworthy things there, so here we go.
1 - TRIP to TOOTUM-TOO
The first story in the book is Trip to Tootum-Too, a bizarre "adventure story" that feels like it must be the work of Vic Lockman, considering the similarities to Og's Iron Bed.
As you can see from this opening, this story is a Gyro Gearloose/Scrooge McDuck team-up. This aircraft you see here is named twice in the story, once as Gyro-Plane and the other time as Gyro-Copter (Lockman must not have been feeling too sprightly that day). Its design is amusing. Very Dick Dastardly and Muttley. A later gag shows that its way of landing is pressing a “down” button that instantly makes it crash down, which is funny in a surreal way; somehow the thing is still in a state to fly afterwards. I like to think Gyro later gave it to Launchpad as a birthday gift. It's an introduction in medias res, by the way, which isn't too rare with Lockman. Scrooge and Gyro are looking for the ruins of an ancient city, Tootum-Too (I have… no idea why it's called that) in this here nondescript "desert". What desert, Lockman? If this were Don Rosa, he'd have given us ten maps and one diagram by now. Grrr.
So what happens is, the X-rays of Gyro's "Terrascope" device get caught in the propellor of the Gyro-Plane-Copter-Thing, and… somehow… this results in instant time-travel to ancient Tootum-Too. …Ugh. This has got to be one of the most outrageous plot devices I've ever seen in Disney comics, and that's no empty statement if you know anything about Disney comics. The best thing I can say about it is, the dates work out to imagine that Gyro investigating just why this ludicrous effect happened is what led to him perfecting the spherical Time Coupe we all know and love, as it debuted in 1986 and this is from 1982.
Something that must be said is that Jack Manning's art is… surprisingly good on everything that isn't the main characters (Gyro looks especially awkward). That establishing shot of Tootum-Too (sigh) is rather nice, and the incidental Tootum-Tooians we'll meet are also well-designed. Even if it's outrageously stupid that Tootum-Too has its name written on it (in Latin letters) like some sort of amusement park. …So the idea is that somehow, the Terrascope/Gyrolane combo sent them back in time to the day just before the destruction of Tootum-Too.
See what I meant about the art? Those ducks all look pretty nonstandard in a very engaging way. It would be easy to make them all "Donald and Scrooge lookalikes in historical costumes", and this seems to be what Lockman wanted, in fact: the King's remark ("a duck somewhat like myself") seems to imply Lockman was picturing some sort of bearded, crown-wearing Scrooge.
Don't ask me why the King shares his name with the city (it could be some clever worldbuilding about a specificity of Tootum-Tooian culture, but that doesn't seem likely from Lockman), or why the astrologer guy has as outrageous a name as "Wak-Wak". Blah. But I find it interesting how much personality Manning's art gives those two. Wak-Wak looks so decidedly crooked and shifty that you'd assume the reveal of his conmannery would be a large part of the plot, but, actually, no.
All those people speak English for some reason, which is a usual feature in time-travel stories such as this, but at least, usually, you can say, oh, it's just that Gyro built a Universal TranslatorTM into his time machine to prevent that kind of issue. Here… obviously not, since the time travel was accidental. Bah. This sort of thing irks me to no end, but I'm probably more or less alone in this.
Stuff happens, and Scrooge ends up single-handedly foiling an attempt at a repeat of the Trojan Horse trick from within this large golden idol. (Again Wright's art proves surprisingly resourceful in giving the Toog soldier distinctive features.) In doing so, Scrooge actually alters the course of history, preventing the destruction of Tootum-Too by the Togs. If I recal correctly, this is the opposite of what happened in Og's Iron Bed, where the Ducks are powerless to prevent the destruction of the city, so there's that.
Characters who use walking sticks of some description do tend to end up using them as emergency weapons in swordfights; it's nice to see a subversion of that particular trope there. "Rescue comes just in the nick of cane" is a typical Lockmanian non-pun that is sort of funny in how terrible it is. Less admirable is an obvious case of Jack Manning egregiously misreading the script in the last panel. From context, it's laughably obvious the Toog should be saying that, rather than the Tootum-Tooian guard bloke; even he looks dismayed that he's saying it, somehow.
Just two panels later, Wright again demonstrates his inability to read a Vic Lockman script. That Scrogoe is sleeping with a "false sense of security" implies that he is, for the time being, sleeping with a sense of security of some description. Therefore, he has no business worrying in his sleep as Wright has him do. The story does make amends for its mistake by including that very funny line about stocks going down, which is totally how a just-barely-awake, disoriented Scrooge would react to this situation.
Bam! Deus Ex Bubblegum! Scrooge and Gyro are off to the Toog stronghold to retrieve the Gyro-Plane and Terrascope, which the Toogs have somehow gotten a hold of, just in time to miss the King's hair turning blue for no reason.
If there remained any doubts that Lockman was to thank/blame for this, the impromptu alliteration of the first panel is a dead giveaway. At any rate, they get back to present times, sans idol (one is reminded of the business with the Star of Astaroth in Bedknobs and Broomsticks). Being a natural nitpicker, I'm going to quibble that unless Gyro was hiding these ropes in his pocket, they should, by all rights, have vanished too.
But that's not what I really want to talk about: what I want to talk about is the background of that second panel. We can see houses and some greenery on the ground below. I think that's interesting. Because the only logical conclusion to draw from this detail (since in the opening they were overlooking a desert) is that for once, the time-travel did change the timeline: Scrooge really did prevent the destruction of the city three thousand years ago, and now, in the present, there is still a peaceful remnant of it instead of ruins in the desert. It's a very uplifting note to end on…
…which Lockman instantly squanders with this lame ending gag that is awfully out of character for poor Gyro. (Also, yes, it's big, but I doubt that statue was really worth a billion dollars. It's gold, not unobtainium 3000.)
Still, Trip to Tootum-Too is overall not an unpleasant read. It's nothing spectacular, but you can genuinely read it and be entertained, which is more than you can say of certain Lockman stories we could name (*cough* Bird-Bothered Hero *cough cough*).
2 - The STUFFED MATTRESS
This Vic Lockman/Kay Wright story (I'm assuming it's Lockman, because of the mention of a "Giant Money Bin") is the second tale in the book, and boy is this one ever bad. Let's get started.
The worst page is clearly the worst thing about it. Let's break down what's wrong about this.
Right. Let's move on. So they begin trying to gain entry into the McDuck "house", and things get in the way. Such as:
Letting the unfortunate use of the word "aroused" slide, this story is notable, if nothing else, for the last appearance of semi-recurring character Ratty, the Beagle Boys' cat. Who is, per this story, a werewolf… apparently.
Wright's Scrooge looks especially bad in the third panel here, but I'll admit, this is a genuinely clever and in-character thing to have stingy old Scrooge do here. It is, however, somewhat mysterious why he feels the need to stress that he'll go get them IN THAT PILLOWCASE…
…especially since he… doesn't use said pillowcase when it comes down to it.
More inexplicable "Wak! Wak! Wak!". Does Lockman realize "Wak!" is an expletive of surprise and dismay, akin to "Egads!" or "Gadzooks!"? As opposed to laughing? Bah.
"Honest conscience" sounds dangerously pleonastic. Still, that one solitary panel of Angel Scrooge scolding his real self — and doing so in the most childish way imaginable — is (unintentionally) hilarious. This may remind one of the similar 'conscience' sequence in Episode 11 of the Life & Times, but of course this was artful and emotionally loaded, while this is… not… that.
I'll grant that the Beagle Boy announcing the "Grand Opening" as he prepares to slice open the supposedly dollar-filled mattress is somewhat amusing, and Wright gives him just the right expression to convey the joke. The other Beagle's "Quit yappin' and start snippin'!" is another clue to Lockmanitude, by the way.
The ending twist is sort of cleverish, though it feels like a wasted opportunity for a "dollar bill" vs. "bill" joke that could have been at the roots of the Beagle Boys' misunderstanding.
Aaand Scrooge ends the story precisely as he started it: dementedly "Wak! Wak! Wak!"-ing as he contemplates the infinite void with surprising mirth.
3 - Matchmaker
I won't give a beat-by-beat of this one, since GeoX already did that with much talent. Suffice to say I don't find it as bad as GeoX does. The idea of the hollow-hill-as-Money-Bin is fun, and Grandma Duck showing the less admirable side of her character (being that she's sort of a busybody who tries to "help" other people in unwelcome ways) is appreciated. For a moment I wondered, this being 1982, if Lockman hadn't unwittingly been a bit of a prophet when featuring that Computer Dating Service, but after a rudimentary bit of research, nope, turns out these things date back to the 1960's. Good to know that for literally as long as those have existed, humans have tried using cold and feelingless machines to solve their romantic entanglements for them. (Sigh.)
4 - The Counterfeit Caper
And so we come to the last, and possibly best, story in the book: The Counterfeit Caper. No clue who wrote it, but it's drawn by one Jack Manning.
See, compare and contrast with The Stuffed Mattress: this is an instantly auspicious opening. The turnstile at the door of Scrooge's office is a funny and in-character concept, that secretary stork character has an engaging design, Sir Xavier Checker too… and you've even got the background gag of "Buck One" it is heart-shaped golden frame. Yes, I think this may do quite nicely.
Okay, no. The Scrooge I know would not turn down an opportunity to profit, whether he enjoys whatever task is being asked of him or not. If he could get paid for looking for treasure he'd get to keep anyway, he would. But that's a minor gripe. The point is that Sir Xavier is the treasurer of some faux-European country called Mintavia, and they have a counterfeiting problem. This is one of the few times Scrooge's long-established ability to smell money is actually used at the centre, and it's a welcome thing.
What's bad news, Sir X.? Did a sea monster EAT-YOUR-ICE-CREAM? …Sorry. The way the plane is affected by Scrooge's sneezing is amusing and Tex-Avery-esque, and don't you just love the variety of dismayed expression Manning gives Sir X.?
I know I've praised Manning's art here, but this is… not his best work. Proportionally speaking, there is literally no way for such an image to exist unless the pilot is a leprechaun, and what we're seeing to Scrooge's right is the decapitated head of Sir X., placed on some sort of pedestal.
Did we really need those narration boxes to understand what's going on? Bah. I do like the appearance of that poor bewildered falcon in the third panel.
So anyway, blah blah blah, he stumbles upon the counterfeiters and his out-of-control sneezing ends up saving the day. Crooks captured, mission accomplished. Scrooge is set to be knighted in reward.
Scrooge is now Sir Scrooge! A fact which will… never be addressed again! Hurrah!
I do like the King's design, but was that second panel anything at all except for padding? I mean, how is it in any way interesting, funny or relevant to learn that Scrooge will be flying home in the King's plane? If this panel were cut and the knighting one expanded to fill the whole tier, would anyone, anywhere have gone "BUT WAIT! That plane Scrooge is flying home in it! WHOSE IS IT? I MUST KNOW!!"? Really now?
5 - Your Nightmare And Mine
And without so much as a one-pager, we end this issue with… this.
Beyond the sheer weirdness of Uncle Scrooge advertising Daffy, both Daffy and his steed are horribly, inescapbly dead-eyed. Also, just what word is "quack" replacing in this supposed "pun"? Because I'm sorry to say the only one I can think of that would fit is not something I could write on this forum without it being replaced with WAK. [EDIT: Matilda informs me that it's probably supposed to be ‘CRACK’ that ‘QUACK’ is replacing. Well guess what, no, he won't crack me up, looking like that.]
1 - TRIP to TOOTUM-TOO
The first story in the book is Trip to Tootum-Too, a bizarre "adventure story" that feels like it must be the work of Vic Lockman, considering the similarities to Og's Iron Bed.
As you can see from this opening, this story is a Gyro Gearloose/Scrooge McDuck team-up. This aircraft you see here is named twice in the story, once as Gyro-Plane and the other time as Gyro-Copter (Lockman must not have been feeling too sprightly that day). Its design is amusing. Very Dick Dastardly and Muttley. A later gag shows that its way of landing is pressing a “down” button that instantly makes it crash down, which is funny in a surreal way; somehow the thing is still in a state to fly afterwards. I like to think Gyro later gave it to Launchpad as a birthday gift. It's an introduction in medias res, by the way, which isn't too rare with Lockman. Scrooge and Gyro are looking for the ruins of an ancient city, Tootum-Too (I have… no idea why it's called that) in this here nondescript "desert". What desert, Lockman? If this were Don Rosa, he'd have given us ten maps and one diagram by now. Grrr.
So what happens is, the X-rays of Gyro's "Terrascope" device get caught in the propellor of the Gyro-Plane-Copter-Thing, and… somehow… this results in instant time-travel to ancient Tootum-Too. …Ugh. This has got to be one of the most outrageous plot devices I've ever seen in Disney comics, and that's no empty statement if you know anything about Disney comics. The best thing I can say about it is, the dates work out to imagine that Gyro investigating just why this ludicrous effect happened is what led to him perfecting the spherical Time Coupe we all know and love, as it debuted in 1986 and this is from 1982.
Something that must be said is that Jack Manning's art is… surprisingly good on everything that isn't the main characters (Gyro looks especially awkward). That establishing shot of Tootum-Too (sigh) is rather nice, and the incidental Tootum-Tooians we'll meet are also well-designed. Even if it's outrageously stupid that Tootum-Too has its name written on it (in Latin letters) like some sort of amusement park. …So the idea is that somehow, the Terrascope/Gyrolane combo sent them back in time to the day just before the destruction of Tootum-Too.
See what I meant about the art? Those ducks all look pretty nonstandard in a very engaging way. It would be easy to make them all "Donald and Scrooge lookalikes in historical costumes", and this seems to be what Lockman wanted, in fact: the King's remark ("a duck somewhat like myself") seems to imply Lockman was picturing some sort of bearded, crown-wearing Scrooge.
Don't ask me why the King shares his name with the city (it could be some clever worldbuilding about a specificity of Tootum-Tooian culture, but that doesn't seem likely from Lockman), or why the astrologer guy has as outrageous a name as "Wak-Wak". Blah. But I find it interesting how much personality Manning's art gives those two. Wak-Wak looks so decidedly crooked and shifty that you'd assume the reveal of his conmannery would be a large part of the plot, but, actually, no.
All those people speak English for some reason, which is a usual feature in time-travel stories such as this, but at least, usually, you can say, oh, it's just that Gyro built a Universal TranslatorTM into his time machine to prevent that kind of issue. Here… obviously not, since the time travel was accidental. Bah. This sort of thing irks me to no end, but I'm probably more or less alone in this.
Stuff happens, and Scrooge ends up single-handedly foiling an attempt at a repeat of the Trojan Horse trick from within this large golden idol. (Again Wright's art proves surprisingly resourceful in giving the Toog soldier distinctive features.) In doing so, Scrooge actually alters the course of history, preventing the destruction of Tootum-Too by the Togs. If I recal correctly, this is the opposite of what happened in Og's Iron Bed, where the Ducks are powerless to prevent the destruction of the city, so there's that.
Characters who use walking sticks of some description do tend to end up using them as emergency weapons in swordfights; it's nice to see a subversion of that particular trope there. "Rescue comes just in the nick of cane" is a typical Lockmanian non-pun that is sort of funny in how terrible it is. Less admirable is an obvious case of Jack Manning egregiously misreading the script in the last panel. From context, it's laughably obvious the Toog should be saying that, rather than the Tootum-Tooian guard bloke; even he looks dismayed that he's saying it, somehow.
Just two panels later, Wright again demonstrates his inability to read a Vic Lockman script. That Scrogoe is sleeping with a "false sense of security" implies that he is, for the time being, sleeping with a sense of security of some description. Therefore, he has no business worrying in his sleep as Wright has him do. The story does make amends for its mistake by including that very funny line about stocks going down, which is totally how a just-barely-awake, disoriented Scrooge would react to this situation.
Bam! Deus Ex Bubblegum! Scrooge and Gyro are off to the Toog stronghold to retrieve the Gyro-Plane and Terrascope, which the Toogs have somehow gotten a hold of, just in time to miss the King's hair turning blue for no reason.
If there remained any doubts that Lockman was to thank/blame for this, the impromptu alliteration of the first panel is a dead giveaway. At any rate, they get back to present times, sans idol (one is reminded of the business with the Star of Astaroth in Bedknobs and Broomsticks). Being a natural nitpicker, I'm going to quibble that unless Gyro was hiding these ropes in his pocket, they should, by all rights, have vanished too.
But that's not what I really want to talk about: what I want to talk about is the background of that second panel. We can see houses and some greenery on the ground below. I think that's interesting. Because the only logical conclusion to draw from this detail (since in the opening they were overlooking a desert) is that for once, the time-travel did change the timeline: Scrooge really did prevent the destruction of the city three thousand years ago, and now, in the present, there is still a peaceful remnant of it instead of ruins in the desert. It's a very uplifting note to end on…
…which Lockman instantly squanders with this lame ending gag that is awfully out of character for poor Gyro. (Also, yes, it's big, but I doubt that statue was really worth a billion dollars. It's gold, not unobtainium 3000.)
Still, Trip to Tootum-Too is overall not an unpleasant read. It's nothing spectacular, but you can genuinely read it and be entertained, which is more than you can say of certain Lockman stories we could name (*cough* Bird-Bothered Hero *cough cough*).
2 - The STUFFED MATTRESS
This Vic Lockman/Kay Wright story (I'm assuming it's Lockman, because of the mention of a "Giant Money Bin") is the second tale in the book, and boy is this one ever bad. Let's get started.
The worst page is clearly the worst thing about it. Let's break down what's wrong about this.
- Scrooge is looking at the Beagle Boys from a ground-floor window in the Money Bin. I know its design is somewhat fluid from one author to another, but dammit, it's pretty well-established the Money Bin does not have ground-floor windows. And also that it is on a large hill belonging to Scrooge and riddled with "Keep Out" signs, which means the Beagle Boy couldn't possibly be passing it casually in the street. Grrr.
- Scrooge goes "Wak! Wak! Wak!" like a particularly irate Donald, in a situation when even a single Wak! would be highly questionable.
- Scrooge is apparently… offended the Beagle Boys refuse to look at his Money Bin? And yet Kay Wright draws him as vaguely smiling, which doesn't fit Lockman's dialogue at all? What the hell?
- That weird "stife neck" non-joke.
- The fact that despite said non-joke, the Beagles have no problem turning their necks in various directions in literally the next panel.
- Their apparent belief that their inability to turn their heads towards the Bin (which itself seems questionable: just walk the other way, morons) precludes trying to rob the Bin in practice. Seriously.
- As a corollary, their decision that the obvious solution is to go rob Scrooge's house instead.
- The fact that Scrooge now has a house. He does not. He has a manor. It's called McDuck Manor. Lockman, you know this. You have repeatedly used McDuck Manor in your stories before. In fact, I distinctly recall a rather good one where the Beagles already tried to rob the Manor. BAH!
Right. Let's move on. So they begin trying to gain entry into the McDuck "house", and things get in the way. Such as:
Letting the unfortunate use of the word "aroused" slide, this story is notable, if nothing else, for the last appearance of semi-recurring character Ratty, the Beagle Boys' cat. Who is, per this story, a werewolf… apparently.
Wright's Scrooge looks especially bad in the third panel here, but I'll admit, this is a genuinely clever and in-character thing to have stingy old Scrooge do here. It is, however, somewhat mysterious why he feels the need to stress that he'll go get them IN THAT PILLOWCASE…
…especially since he… doesn't use said pillowcase when it comes down to it.
More inexplicable "Wak! Wak! Wak!". Does Lockman realize "Wak!" is an expletive of surprise and dismay, akin to "Egads!" or "Gadzooks!"? As opposed to laughing? Bah.
"Honest conscience" sounds dangerously pleonastic. Still, that one solitary panel of Angel Scrooge scolding his real self — and doing so in the most childish way imaginable — is (unintentionally) hilarious. This may remind one of the similar 'conscience' sequence in Episode 11 of the Life & Times, but of course this was artful and emotionally loaded, while this is… not… that.
I'll grant that the Beagle Boy announcing the "Grand Opening" as he prepares to slice open the supposedly dollar-filled mattress is somewhat amusing, and Wright gives him just the right expression to convey the joke. The other Beagle's "Quit yappin' and start snippin'!" is another clue to Lockmanitude, by the way.
The ending twist is sort of cleverish, though it feels like a wasted opportunity for a "dollar bill" vs. "bill" joke that could have been at the roots of the Beagle Boys' misunderstanding.
Aaand Scrooge ends the story precisely as he started it: dementedly "Wak! Wak! Wak!"-ing as he contemplates the infinite void with surprising mirth.
3 - Matchmaker
I won't give a beat-by-beat of this one, since GeoX already did that with much talent. Suffice to say I don't find it as bad as GeoX does. The idea of the hollow-hill-as-Money-Bin is fun, and Grandma Duck showing the less admirable side of her character (being that she's sort of a busybody who tries to "help" other people in unwelcome ways) is appreciated. For a moment I wondered, this being 1982, if Lockman hadn't unwittingly been a bit of a prophet when featuring that Computer Dating Service, but after a rudimentary bit of research, nope, turns out these things date back to the 1960's. Good to know that for literally as long as those have existed, humans have tried using cold and feelingless machines to solve their romantic entanglements for them. (Sigh.)
4 - The Counterfeit Caper
And so we come to the last, and possibly best, story in the book: The Counterfeit Caper. No clue who wrote it, but it's drawn by one Jack Manning.
See, compare and contrast with The Stuffed Mattress: this is an instantly auspicious opening. The turnstile at the door of Scrooge's office is a funny and in-character concept, that secretary stork character has an engaging design, Sir Xavier Checker too… and you've even got the background gag of "Buck One" it is heart-shaped golden frame. Yes, I think this may do quite nicely.
Okay, no. The Scrooge I know would not turn down an opportunity to profit, whether he enjoys whatever task is being asked of him or not. If he could get paid for looking for treasure he'd get to keep anyway, he would. But that's a minor gripe. The point is that Sir Xavier is the treasurer of some faux-European country called Mintavia, and they have a counterfeiting problem. This is one of the few times Scrooge's long-established ability to smell money is actually used at the centre, and it's a welcome thing.
What's bad news, Sir X.? Did a sea monster EAT-YOUR-ICE-CREAM? …Sorry. The way the plane is affected by Scrooge's sneezing is amusing and Tex-Avery-esque, and don't you just love the variety of dismayed expression Manning gives Sir X.?
I know I've praised Manning's art here, but this is… not his best work. Proportionally speaking, there is literally no way for such an image to exist unless the pilot is a leprechaun, and what we're seeing to Scrooge's right is the decapitated head of Sir X., placed on some sort of pedestal.
Did we really need those narration boxes to understand what's going on? Bah. I do like the appearance of that poor bewildered falcon in the third panel.
So anyway, blah blah blah, he stumbles upon the counterfeiters and his out-of-control sneezing ends up saving the day. Crooks captured, mission accomplished. Scrooge is set to be knighted in reward.
Scrooge is now Sir Scrooge! A fact which will… never be addressed again! Hurrah!
I do like the King's design, but was that second panel anything at all except for padding? I mean, how is it in any way interesting, funny or relevant to learn that Scrooge will be flying home in the King's plane? If this panel were cut and the knighting one expanded to fill the whole tier, would anyone, anywhere have gone "BUT WAIT! That plane Scrooge is flying home in it! WHOSE IS IT? I MUST KNOW!!"? Really now?
5 - Your Nightmare And Mine
And without so much as a one-pager, we end this issue with… this.
Beyond the sheer weirdness of Uncle Scrooge advertising Daffy, both Daffy and his steed are horribly, inescapbly dead-eyed. Also, just what word is "quack" replacing in this supposed "pun"? Because I'm sorry to say the only one I can think of that would fit is not something I could write on this forum without it being replaced with WAK. [EDIT: Matilda informs me that it's probably supposed to be ‘CRACK’ that ‘QUACK’ is replacing. Well guess what, no, he won't crack me up, looking like that.]
