My Fantasy Scenario

Have I mentioned lately how much I loveloveLOVE the duck stories of Don Rosa? 'Cause I do. It's not that other contemporary duck writers aren't in the same league as him so much as it is that they're not playing the same game. Nobody else even tries to do stories as insanely ambitious as Rosa does. Certainly no one else is as respectful of Barks' legacy.

I just read "The Quest for Kalevala," and seriously, a long story centered around Finnish mythology? What more could you ask for? It's about as epic as these things get, featuring Finnish heroes and monsters and even a trip to the underworld. The parts that narrate the myth themselves are drawn in a super-cool, stylized way.

It's also clearly a duck comic, however, and the ways that Rosa connects the story to the duckiverse are very clever without seeming forced. We see Gyro Gearloose as the reincarnation of a mythic blacksmith, and Magica de Spell as the champion of evil witch Louhi. It doesn't come across as being at all gimmicky.

The most interesting part is the ending, however. The hero Väinämöinen (töö mänÿ ümläüts!), sensing a kindred spirit in Scrooge, offers to take him along with him as he returns to eternity. But he asks (all the mythological character speak in verse) "Are you ready to come with me? - Have prosperity eternal? - Forsake your own Kalevala - Where a lost love still awaits you?" Scrooge, of course, is not. "Lost love" refers to Goldie, obviously, and refers to the story with which Rosa--definitely more of a romantic than Barks ever was!--would undoubtedly like the cap his career (no time soon, god willing!), but almost certainly won't be able to. I had assumed that Goldie was out considered of sight out of mind, not particularly because there's any logical REASON for her to be, but simply because the nature of duck comics means there isn't much that can realistically be done. In this interview, Rosa states that "I NEVER want a story where they have any further contact; That would ruin the magnitude of the three times they did meet." But seriously, WHAT could possibly the point of this bit of "Kalevala" if he wasn't thinking otherwise? Quit playing games with my heart, Rosa! If I can put my own spin on this: I would agree that it wouldn't be a good idea to have them meet during the time of the comics. Redundant at best. But if it was a later story, that could never ever happen, that might be a different thing; might, indeed, be the ONLY thing.

Obviously, given the nature of the medium in which Rosa is writing, the characters have to remain more or less static, but one can clearly see him straining against this. In most of Barks' treasure hunts, Scrooge either gets the treasure, or doesn't get it and is irked about it. Rosa's earlier (inferior) stories tend to follow this template, but in his later work, Scrooge is much more likely to gain no tangible treasure, but something more in the way of moral improvement. In "Return to Xanadu" he actually LOSES a previously-obtained treasure--but, we are given to believe, his appreciation for natural beauty is subtly rekindled. "War of the Wendigo" is pure environmental consciousness-raising (but not in a didactic way). In "The Old Castle's Other Secret" he finds the treasures of the Knights Templar, but not to keep--the real treasure (yeah yeah...) is his reconciliation with his sister Matilda. And in "Kalevala," he clarifies his sense of what it is he REALLY wants in life. The rewards have, to a great extent, become less concrete and more humanistic. The framework--rich duck looking to get richer--is still in place, but Rosa subtly subverts it. One would almost think that he was building up to something...

With all this in mind, I think it makes a lot of sense to see these stories as being kind of redemptive--Scrooge, consciously or not, making up for his failings in the penultimate chapter of the Life & Times, "The Empire-Builder from Calisota." What's the endpoint to all of this--the obvious, ineluctable conclusion? Having in some way made himself "worthy," he returns to the Yukon and lives out his last days with Goldie. Come on--you could even have a hokey but poignant line like "All these years I've been searching for gold, but, whether I knew it or not, you were the only gold I REALLY wanted." Rosa has stated that he thinks of his stories as taking place in the early fifties; according to his unofficial timeline, Scrooge dies in 1967, at the age of a hundred. So, then: he forsakes his fortune for her sometimes 1960-ish, they build a new, idyllic life at White Agony Creek and have some years of connubial bliss together before he dies in her arms. Then a few years later, when her time comes, we see him appearing to escort her to the hereafter, somewhat in the manner of Scrooge's parents (but gender-reversed) in "The Billionaire of Dismal Downs." Bam--not a dry eye in the house. Given the way Rosa's set up the duckiverse, I honestly don't think there's any other possible conclusion.

It is possible, of course, that Disney might have something to say about their most famous living artist killing off their biggest character. Can you imagine? The natural solution is for him to write the story anyway--ganbare! He wouldn't try to publish it right away; he wouldn't WANT to, since presumably he wants to keep writing Scrooge stories as much as I want to keep reading them. But in the far-flung future, when he retires, he could try to get it published. And when that inevitably fails, he could spread the word of its existence in interviews and whatnot, causing huge public demand. Given that Rosa is their marquee duck writer, they might cave in to pressure and do it while stipulating "this is not an official ending; it's just one man's idea," to let them keep pumping out mediocrity. But even if they didn't, it could still circulate underground, right? Right. The point is, it needs to happen. If it could be capped in such a way, the Barks/Rosa Scrooge would be, by rather a wide margin, the greatest cartoon narrative ever told.