"The Case of the Sticky Money"

 Man, I always feel SO accused when we get into spring--MID spring!--and my last post was in December.  Oh well!  Let's try to make something happen. And to start, because when else will we get the chance, let's just take a look at Barks' one-pager for this issue:

The idea of them offing one another in this Sword-of-Damocles fashion is a little macabre.  But really, I mainly wanted to point out that this McDuck v Bulgewallet duel is precipitated by an argument over...who's richer.  Now, we have the idea that it's so well-established that Scrooge is definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent the richest, and that's all there is to it.  Pretenders like Glomgold and Rockerduck only reinforce the notion.  And yeah, that was obviously Barks' initial and continuing concept.  And yet, things like this suggest to me that this was pretty mutable in Barks' mind, subject to change if that's necessary for a story he wants to write.  I don't think a contemporary duck writer would write a scene where Scrooge implicitly concedes the possibility that the other guy might be richer.  But maybe they should!  

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