"Scrooge McDrooge Wanderer"

Today we shall look at a story from 1954, and a question you may be asking yourself is, "is it REALLY called 'Scrooge McDrooge Wanderer?'  Because that does NOT sound like a name for a story." Well, that shows you much YOU know, you insolent clod.

Actually, as is often the case, the story was originally untitled, so I went to look at foreign language titles to see if any would serve. And in Italian, this is called "Paperon de' Paperoni vagabondo," and when you paste that into Google Translate:

There you go. Google Translate does know the names of a number of Disney characters, so this seems to be a mixture of that and something or other with Italian grammar that I really couldn't tell you.

It doesn't know that his first name is "Balthazar," however. In any event, this is all I wanted to say about this story, we're done here, have a good summer vacation, everyone!

I kid, of course. Today's story is bad and dumb, but I wanted to write about it even before I knew about that very mildly amusing naming thing, for a reason that you will soon see. As you can see, it's a Duck Album story, and boy, I don't know. I mean, I do remember that I really, really liked the concept when I was a kid, so obviously it worked on some level, but it still seems like SUCH a bizarre and pointless thing to do when the pictures they show almost universally could never have been taken by anybody. What is the PURPOSE of this concept?!?

We start with this. I suppose it's perhaps at least a LITTLE interesting to see how early writers other than Barks were conceiving of Scrooge as a character. This "there's more to life than money!" stuff really seems like someone not quite sure what kind of rich guy he is; still figuring things out. It IS pretty funny that in this world, he apparently just dumps his money in a giant pile in his living room. Even when Barks showed him having a house separate from the Money Bin, I don't think he ever showed anything quite like that!

Would Scrooge REALLY think of this as so horrible? I mean, sure he sometimes wants to get away from the stress of modern life, but does he ever really want to get away from his money, per se? If he does, he definitely regrets it quickly. "And those hills--oh no! To me they look like ten billion dollars!" Okay, I have to admit, there ARE some dopily amusing things here...

He "oughta know"...WHAT, exactly? Well, obviously, that he's a "zillion-billionaire." But that is damned weird way to put that. Anyway, please anticipate the next panel with bated breath...

YES! It's bootleg, floppy-eared Beagle Boys! THAT'S what's worthy of note (if anything is) about this story! Are these the first-ever non-Barks Beagles? That's a question I could easily have answered at one point, but Inducks' character-index-by-date functionality is currently not working, so now it's extremely difficult. That functionality is actually REALLY important for anyone interested in Disney-comics history, so I hope someone's working on fixing it.

At any rate, these guys sure are gormless-looking, especially the one on the right in the bottom left panel. You get the impression that the artist (hi, Phil DeLara!) had maybe at some point seen a picture of a Beagle but didn't remember it too well. Or maybe he just had the impression that "Beagle Boys," as a concept, was more loose and impressionistic than it turned out to be. Regardless: ha ha! Your Beagles look dumb!

Also, they're incredibly timid and useless, it seems. I can't help noting that the ONLY evidence they have that the butler is in fact named "Jeeves" is Scrooge's assertion to that effect. Nobody is impressing me here.

Anyway, he can't get in because ol' Jeeves won't let him. I guess this is at least in keeping with the "everyone is fooled by really obvious disguises" trope. Note that Jeeves too appears to have big floppy ears. Note that this character is for some reason indexed on Inducks, as "Jeeves from W OS 560-3," even though he appears nowhere else. Catchy name, certainly.

Credit where due, it is legit kind of clever of DeLara to have him looking longingly at that bird pulling up a worm. I also like--what can I say; I'm easily-amused--the way those hot dogs the mother and son are holding just look like huge loaves of bread that they're chowing down on. Deeee-licious!

"A trillion-billion." Obviously, the numbers aren't stable when it comes to Scrooge's money, but that still just sounds awkward. Anyway, this is it; this is the end of the story. Heh, heh! "Chomp! Chomp!" looks like it's emanating from the plate instead of Scrooge's mouth. What is that, anyway? Just a big ol' plate of rice?

Well, that was kind of an anti-climax. Bye!