The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Chapter Three B: "The Cowboy Captain of the Cutty Sark"

This is one of two entries in the series--the other being "Sharpie of the Culebra Cut"--that really have no Barksian basis. As Rosa explains it, he wanted Scrooge to be in Java when Krakatoa erupted in 1883. Hence, his justification: "The greatest sport in Java, both in 1883 and today, is the annual bull race on Madoera Island. And Scrooge is working on the world's biggest cattle ranch at the time!" Well, whatever gets you through the night, I guess. Not that I think there's any need for specific Barksian justification; it just feels a little odd, given how maniacal most of the series is about being based around details from Unca Carl. In theory, I'd say it's actually a good thing for Rosa to strike out on his own like this.

So it's not for any philosophical reason that I say--with a heavy heart, of course--that this, for me, is one of the least successful entries in the series. There's some nice art, of course, but the plot is pretty muddled and uninvolving, with little real sense of adventure.



We open with a joke about Scrooge's ass. I'm not going to say that this presages what is to come, exactly, but…well, if nothing else, I certainly seem to be insinuating as much.



There's this business with these rival sultans who both want to use Scrooge's bull to win this here race. One of them is evil and one of them is, I guess, good, or at least not-evil. It's hard to tell, which is indicative of the problem. It's just pretty difficult to really care about any of this. It never really gets fleshed out in any interesting way. One is left feeling indifferent, somehow.



Here's a bit I like, though, where Scrooge is lost in the jungle. Kinda reminds me of "Swamp of No Return." I feel as though I should try to say something positive even about entries I'm not too fond of.



As another for-instance, the Cutty Sark's strange-looking, phlegmatic captain is pretty entertaining. There's also this perplexing running non-joke about how he can't find his camera.



Ratchet Gearloose also makes a repeat appearance. Here's a bit that really rubs me the wrong way: yeah, this is meant as a joke, of course, but seriously: I just can't help thinking of the untold human misery and environmental devastation that could have been avoided had they gone the "free geo-thermal energy" root. Damn you, Scrooge! Furthermore, Rosa (here and a few other places in the story) seems to have forgotten where this takes place in the chronology of the series: Scrooge is not supposed to be this greedy/dickish at this point.



If we're struggling to find things that contribute in some way to the story as a whole, we could note that this is also where he discovers his affinity for top hats.

And then…Krakatoa erupts. It's quite interesting, really; this idea that here we have an event so intense that it can't really be depicted in comic form. According to wikipedia, this eruption killed forty thousand or more people, making it implicitly one of the grimmer things in Disney comics.

And that's about all I have to say about this. As I've made abundantly clear, it just doesn't excite me all that much. I feel sort of bad having written predominantly negative entries about two installments in a row, but never fear: tomorrow is "Raider of the Copper Hill," which should reverse the trend nicely. Unless my goddamn memory is playing tricks on me again. But regardless, don't you fucking dare miss it.

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