Who is richer? Glomgold or Rockerduck?

[Orora]

Last year, there was a special supplement in the French magazine "Mickey Parade", that seemed like it was translated from the Italian magazine "Topolino". It was all about Duckburg.

One part showed the billionaire district, and measured the wealth of Scrooge, Glomgold and Rockerduck. Scrooge was the richest of course, but Glomgold was shown as being MUCH richer than Rockerduck.

I find this odd, because Rockerduck in most of the (Italian?) comics is shown as having many different thriving businesses, and the most often-seen Scrooge rival.
While Glomgold seems restricted to diamond mines, and has a much lower business visibility than Rockerduck.

So in your opinion, who is richer? Glomgold or Rockerduck?

[RobbK1]

Barks called Glomgold "The Second Richest Duck", and he lost to Scrooge by a tiny length of string, and one quart of silver Dollars. So, I assume that Rockerduck is a fair amount farther away, as is Longhorn Tallgrass, The Maharajah of Eyesore and Swingingdore and all the Billionaires' Club members, etc. Not sure where Bill Gates and Donald Trump and The Rothchilds fit in.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

My headcanon is that Glomgold, Scrooge and Rockerduck are basically all just as rich. Scrooge comes out on top, and Glomgold and Rockerduck fall a few thousand dollars or so short of him (it fluctuates, of course, with the difference between them being anywhere from two cents to several million dollars). Usually Rockerduck (due to his spendthrift tendancies) is a little behind Glomgold, but they're so close that there are often periods of times during which Rockerduck tops Glomgold, explaining the stories where Rockerduck is referred to as second only to Scrooge. Those three's fortunes are measured in fantasillion bajillion galactillion dollars.

By comparison, Longhorn Tallgrass or the Maharajah(s) are more "reasonable" billionaires who are infinitely far behind.

Also, Ororoa, I don't believe Glomgold only deals in diamond (it's just how he first became rich, like Scrooge with gold mining). He's often shown to be a rival to Scrooge in many businesses, similar to Rockerduck. In his first appearance alone, Scrooge and Glomgold discover they each own as many factories, oil wells, etc. as the other, which is why they are forced to go through the whole string-measuring thing to finish their contest.

[sirtao]

Rockerduck has always been 2nd by a very small amount in Italy until recent times. It's a "let's make everything more Barks\Rosa compliant" trend I don't like much.

What MacDuck says is the most likely "canonical" explanation: Rockerduck would be the richest but unlike Scrooge and Glomgold he SPENDS his money instead of ONLY investing it, so he ends up always being somehow short of Scrooge and, depending on how much, Glomgold.

Also, Scrooge and Rockerduck are direct competitors on pretty much everything, while Glomgold appears to work on different markets.

[Matilda]

Being an American, I haven't read all that many of the stories featuring Rockerduck. My sense has been that in Italy Rockerduck came to take over Glomgold's role as the gazillionaire rival who nearly matches Scrooge's fortune. In my headcanon, this role has remained Glomgold's, as per Barks. Happy to add Rockerduck to the permanent cast, but he'll never come close to Scrooge and Glomgold in overall wealth in my mind.

BTW, if you're talking about "le Guide de Donaldville" Mickey Parade Géant Hors-Série 8--I really want a copy of that, but haven't yet found anyone selling it on eBay.fr! I read French much more easily than Italian, and in Italian I think the guidebook sections have only been published piecemeal in Topolino, not all together in a single publication.

[Deleted]

According to Barks, Glomgold is the second richest duck in the world. In my opinion, Rockerduck is the second richest duck in Duckburg.

[Orora]

Jul 18, 2017 1:23:48 GMT Matilda said:

Being an American, I haven't read all that many of the stories featuring Rockerduck. My sense has been that in Italy Rockerduck came to take over Glomgold's role as the gazillionaire rival who nearly matches Scrooge's fortune. In my headcanon, this role has remained Glomgold's, as per Barks. Happy to add Rockerduck to the permanent cast, but he'll never come close to Scrooge and Glomgold in overall wealth in my mind.

BTW, if you're talking about "le Guide de Donaldville" Mickey Parade Géant Hors-Série 8--I really want a copy of that, but haven't yet found anyone selling it on eBay.fr! I read French much more easily than Italian, and in Italian I think the guidebook sections have only been published piecemeal in Topolino, not all together in a single publication.

That's right! It is "le Guide de Donaldville". It is a very good book.

[Matilda]

Jul 18, 2017 4:01:16 GMT @titusmcduck said:

According to Barks, Glomgold is the second richest duck in the world. In my opinion, Rockerduck is the second richest duck in Duckburg.

I could go with that!

[drakeborough]

Jul 17, 2017 17:39:16 GMT Orora said:

Last year, there was a special supplement in the French magazine "Mickey Parade", that seemed like it was translated from the Italian magazine "Topolino". It was all about Duckburg.

One part showed the billionaire district, and measured the wealth of Scrooge, Glomgold and Rockerduck. Scrooge was the richest of course, but Glomgold was shown as being MUCH richer than Rockerduck.

This is the article, by Barbara Garufi and Blasco Pisapia, that measured their wealths. The article was originally published on Topolino #3065, back in 2014.

According to the article, the wealth of Scrooge, Glomgold and Rockerduck is 2544 billions, 270 billions and 40 billions respectively. These figures came from nowhere, and it's hard to take them seriously since we know Glomgold is almost as rich as Scrooge, while the article claims Scrooge is almost ten times richer.

Jul 17, 2017 17:39:16 GMT Orora said:

 So in your opinion, who is richer? Glomgold or Rockerduck?

Barks created both of them (in addition to Scrooge, of course), and he clearly said Glomgold is the second-richest duck, even calling his debut story "The Second-Richest Duck". He didn't say anything about Rockerduck's position in a list of billionaires, so he could be anything from 3rd to 58th, from 329th to 1425th etc.

Glomgold disappeared from Italian comics for a long time, and because of that Rockerduck was referred to as the second-richest duck. I don't know if that was a conscious choice or the result of the confusion between the two characters, since some old sources wrongly listed listing Glomgold and Rockerduck as being the same character who just changed his Italian name, an idea possibly fueled by Glomgold having changed his name many times in his earliest Italian appearances. The mistake happens in an article by then Topolino director Mario Gentilini in the 1968 comic book volume Vita e Dollari di Paperon de' Paperoni (which is know as the first comic who credited Barks as the a creator of Scrooge); the same mistake was made in the 1974 book Introduzione a Paperino: la fenomenologia sociale nei fumetti di Carl Barks by Piero Marovelli, Elvio Paolini e Giulio Saccomano, and again in this introductory article by Piero Zanotto on Zio Paperone #6 (April 1988).

At any rate, I have recently read some of Rockerduck's earliest stories for the thread about his habit of eating his hat, and none of the stories I read mentioned his status as the second-richest duck. I guess the first Italian stories in which he has that title may have been published after this 1975 story (his third and last appearance in a W-coded story), which may have introduced the title:



We can safely say the W-coded story was not influenced by Italian comics, since no Italian story with Rockerduck appearead in the Usa until 2007, and it would probably be too much of a coincidence that Italian writers and American writers independently came to the idea of calling him the second-richest duck.

With the reintroduction of Glomgold in Italian stories in 2013, Rockerduck was said to be the third-richest duck, and I think it's a good compromise. Even before that, there was a 2005 article published by Italy's top newspaper Corriere della Sera which referred to Rockerduck as the third-richest duck, and I think a pre-2013 Topolino issue also said that in the questions and answers column.
 

Jul 17, 2017 21:39:35 GMT sirtao said:

Rockerduck has always been 2nd by a very small amount in Italy until recent times.

He ha been the 2nd only because many Italian writers didn't know about Glomgold, or thought he was Ruckerduck under another name.

Also, "by a very small amount" is only true in some stories: other tales imply their difference of wealth is much bigger. For example, in this one the difference is of some fantastilioni, a recurring fictional unity of measurement that is usually left indeterminate, except in the first story in which it is mentioned, and there it was stated that a fantastilione is 10^111 dollars (i.e., the number 1 followed by 111 zeroes).

Jul 17, 2017 21:39:35 GMT sirtao said:

It's a "let's make everything more Barks\Rosa compliant" trend I don't like much.

So, what do you think they should have done after reintroducing Glomgold? Regard him as the third-richest duck even though the main point about him is that he is the second-richest duck?

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jul 22, 2017 21:06:34 GMT drakeborough said:

Jul 17, 2017 21:39:35 GMT sirtao said:

It's a "let's make everything more Barks\Rosa compliant" trend I don't like much.

So, what do you think they should have done after reintroducing Glomgold? Regard him as the third-richest duck even though the main point about him is that he is the second-richest duck?

Though it's obviously the eaxt opposite of my position, I believe Sirtao means that there should be no single continuity in Duck comics — in this case, it would be a case of enforced absence of continuity between the Barks and Rosa stories with Flinty and the Italian stories with Rockerduck. Authors, Sirtao says, should be allowed to do their stories the way they see fit and according to their own headcanonned world and timeline, without worrying about what others have "established", in particular Don Rosa and even Carl Barks.

[drakeborough]

Jul 22, 2017 21:17:55 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Jul 22, 2017 21:06:34 GMT drakeborough said:

So, what do you think they should have done after reintroducing Glomgold? Regard him as the third-richest duck even though the main point about him is that he is the second-richest duck?

Though it's obviously the eaxt opposite of my position, I believe Sirtao means that there should be no single continuity in Duck comics — in this case, it would be a case of enforced absence of continuity between the Barks and Rosa stories with Flinty and the Italian stories with Rockerduck. Authors, Sirtao says, should be allowed to do their stories the way they see fit and according to their own headcanonned world and timeline, without worrying about what others have "established", in particular Don Rosa and even Carl Barks.

It may be, but in that case I don't understand if Sirtao dislikes the fact that Glomgold was reintroduced in Italian stories, or if he dislikes the fact that he was presented as the second-richest duck rather than as the third-richest duck.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jul 22, 2017 21:37:19 GMT drakeborough said:

Jul 22, 2017 21:17:55 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Though it's obviously the eaxt opposite of my position, I believe Sirtao means that there should be no single continuity in Duck comics — in this case, it would be a case of enforced absence of continuity between the Barks and Rosa stories with Flinty and the Italian stories with Rockerduck. Authors, Sirtao says, should be allowed to do their stories the way they see fit and according to their own headcanonned world and timeline, without worrying about what others have "established", in particular Don Rosa and even Carl Barks.

It may be, but in that case I don't understand if Sirtao dislikes the fact that Glomgold was reintroduced in Italian stories, or if he dislikes the fact that he was presented as the second-richest duck rather than as the third-richest duck.

I believe what he dislikes is Italian stories betraying their decades-old tradition by no longer referring to Rockerduck as second-richest duck, even in stories where Glomgold is not involved.

[drakeborough]

Jul 22, 2017 21:44:29 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Jul 22, 2017 21:37:19 GMT drakeborough said:

It may be, but in that case I don't understand if Sirtao dislikes the fact that Glomgold was reintroduced in Italian stories, or if he dislikes the fact that he was presented as the second-richest duck rather than as the third-richest duck.

I believe what he dislikes is Italian stories betraying their decades-old tradition by no longer referring to Rockerduck as second-richest duck, even in stories where Glomgold is not involved.

We'll see if that's what he thinks as soons as he connects again. Anyway, for me Rockerduck not being the 2nd anymore in Italian stories is a good thing.

[sirtao]

No, it's more generic: I don't like many stories seems to be "forced" to conform to Rosa's "canon".

I always liked the "non-canon" in Italian stories, where the only continuity is the internal one in the (relatively) few multi-stories sagas(like the Sword of Ice, Reginella, to some degree QuQu7, more recently DoubleDuck, etc).

Coupled with the face that while good I don't see Rosa's work, especially Lo$, as the "End All" of Duck stories and canon, like many here seem to do, I find it bothersome how they appear to try "standardising" everything.

I feel like they are going to WAK on decades of tradition and stories for a Nobody from a country that produced very few stories(comparatively) whose stories most Topolino readers never read.
And yes, I take the stand Rosa is a Nobody as far common Topolino readers are concerned. I also don't think too much of his stories, they are good but not stellar and too much WAK happens on-panel, panels that already look busy and over-detailed enough.


I'm actually fine with Rockerduck being the Third Richest, though I do believe it needs a better context due the decades of stories where he's the Second Richest. Hence my headcanon\idea that his position fluctuates, depending on how much money he did invest\waste lately. It would fit his personality, give a reason for him to having been both Second and Third Richest at various points in time and keep him a worthy rival for Scrooge as businessman.

[Matilda]

Jul 22, 2017 21:06:34 GMT drakeborough said:

Jul 17, 2017 17:39:16 GMT Orora said:

 So in your opinion, who is richer? Glomgold or Rockerduck?

Barks created both of them (in addition to Scrooge, of course), and he clearly said Glomgold is the second-richest duck, even calling his debut story "The Second-Richest Duck". He didn't say anything about Rockerduck's position in a list of billionaires, so he could be anything from 3rd to 58th, from 329th to 1425th etc.

Glomgold disappeared from Italian comics for a long time, and because of that Rockerduck was referred to as the second-richest duck. I don't know if that was a conscious choice or the result of the confusion between the two characters, since some old sources wrongly listed listing Glomgold and Rockerduck as being the same character who just changed his Italian name, an idea possibly fueled by Glomgold having changed his name many times in his earliest Italian appearances. The mistake happens in an article by then Topolino director Mario Gentilini in the 1968 comic book volume Vita e Dollari di Paperon de' Paperoni (which is know as the first comic who credited Barks as the a creator of Scrooge); the same mistake was made in the 1974 book Introduzione a Paperino: la fenomenologia sociale nei fumetti di Carl Barks by Piero Marovelli, Elvio Paolini e Giulio Saccomano, and again in this introductory article by Piero Zanotto on Zio Paperone #6 (April 1988).

At any rate, I have recently read some of Rockerduck's earliest stories for the thread about his habit of eating his hat, and none of the stories I read mentioned his status as the second-richest duck. I guess the first Italian stories in which he has that title may have been published after this 1975 story (his third and last appearance in a W-coded story), which may have introduced the title:



We can safely say the W-coded story was not influenced by Italian comics, since no Italian story with Rockerduck appearead in the Usa until 2007, and it would probably be too much of a coincidence that Italian writers and American writers independently came to the idea of calling him the second-richest duck.

Whoa! So the idea that Rockerduck is the second-richest Duck may have originated with...Mark Evanier?!? That's fascinating.