What do you think are the most dramatic scenes/moments in Disney comic history?
I'll start with Rosa. I thought long and hard, and I think these are the 6 most dramatic moments/scenes he created, in chronological order:
The King of the Klondike - Scrooge learns about the death of his mother and destroys Soapy Slick's steamboat
The Empire-Builder from Calisota - Scrooge burns down an African village (and sends his sisters away) - the sinking of Titanic with Bombie and Scrooge on board - Scrooge's return to Duckburg and his conflict with his family + Scrooge learning that he has become the world's richest man
Hearts of the Yukon - Scrooge and Goldie in the burning Blackjack Saloon
The Old Castle's Other Secret - when Scrooge and Mathilda reconcile at the end of the story
As for Barks, I think his flashback scene in Back to the Klondike is the most dramatic one.
One of my favorite dramatic scenes in a Rosa story, and one isn't often discussed, is when Scrooge destroys his own paper plant in War of the Wendigo. I find it a very symbolic moment, a catharsis of Scrooge and what his character represents. Scrooge, as the arch-capitalist, is a force of creative destruction, an almost elemental force weighing down on the environment. Naturally, the kind of cyclical thinking also lends itself to environmental metaphors. And Hegel.
For Barks, several spring to mind, but that scene in Luck of the North where Donald ponders about Gladstone alone in the artic is a classic. The fire in Vacation Time. And pretty much the entirety of A Christmas for Shacktown. Oh, and there are some great stormy sea scenes in The Golden Helmet and The Horseradish Story!
I wholeheartedly agree with Bats' selection of that Golden Helmet moment; it's all the greater for being understated. Other favorites of mine include Scrooge turning his back on his fortune (not to mention risking his life) to go back and help Barko in "North of the Yukon", Donald emerging as the unlikely hero by taking on the lions ("Back to your cage, kitty!") in "Knight in Shining Armor," Scrooge sadly starting to walk off into the sunset in "Only a Poor Old Man" and then realizing that he has one more trick to play, Donald and the Nephews contemplating the empty hacienda at the end of "In Old California", and Scrooge's joyful spiritual rebirth at the end of "King of the Golden River."
I've always liked this moment from Barks' Thievery Afoot. It's played as a joke, but Donald believes he is going to die in this scene. Yet, he is willing to sacrifice himself to save his nephews. What a champ. Truly based.