"Canute the Brute's Battle Axe"

We've written about Vicar (aka Víctor José Arriagada Ríos) before, though not that often.  He was a remarkably prolific Chilean artist who was absolutely EVERYWHERE in US comic books during the nineties(ish).  He seemed like sort of a default artist: you're gonna automatically print new stories by Rosa and Van Horn, and there's always room for Barks reprints, but if we wanted something international--Vicar it was.  Not always.  But often.  And that is why, even though "Canute the Brute's Battle Axe" was originally published in 1980, it screams 1992 to me.  Let's check it out, shall we?  Not concidentally, it happens to currently be Vicar's highest-ranked story on inducks, so this could be something!  It's definitely something.  Of course, Vicar didn't write his own stories, lending them an undeniably variable quality.  This one was written by Tom Anderson, whom I've only had recourse to covering once before, in that highly unsatisfactory "Return to Bear Mountain" story.  If I can drop a small spoiler here: whatever else it is, this story is better than that one.

We open with a bit of a bang.  The great Fayodor McDuck, whose name looks like a typo!  This was pre-Rosa, of course, and so you'd be more likely to see extrapolations like this.  And dig the art, man.  You may appreciate it more if you think about the sorts of new content Western was putting out at the same time.  I think this would've caused heads to explode had it been localized contemporaneously Then again, you could say the same about an awful lot of European material, so maybe that doesn't prove much.  But either way, I like it.

TANGENT: I just want to go off on this because I don't think it's an observation I've ever made.  So: for a few years after Barks retired, up 'til the end of the sixties, Western produced new Uncle Scrooge adventure stories.  But at a certain point--that point being February 1970, issue 85--they abruptly decided, sorry, chumps, your stories are bad and you should feel bad--from now on, it's all Barks reruns all the time!  Smell ya later!  Yes, they also reran most of their post-Barks adventur stories as well--waste not want not!--but it was still ninety-five percent Barks.  And from our perspective, that seems like kind of a shame--sure, it's hard to imagine that seventies Scrooge adventures would've been up to much, but at least they'd be different.  As it is, seventies copies of Uncle Scrooge are kind of useless for us, unless you really, really like trivial back-up stories (more or less the same is true of WDC).

BUT...from the perspective of Disney-reading kids, this was actually a really good decision on Disney's part.  They've not read the original printings; these reprints would be new to them, and when you think about it in those terms, it seems not improbable that Western's lifespan was thereby greatly extended.  And yet, they still felt obligated to keep putting out Donald Duck (along with their other spinoffs) without the benefit of Barks, and it must also have been kind of a bizarre experience for these kids, reading Barks classics on the one hand and Kay Wright dreck on the other.  Mass confusion. END TANGENT

Yeah, what the hey, here's the last you'll see of ol' Fayodor, so please enjoy it.  I'm just putting this here to set up the story, really.

I dunno; I really feel like, dude, this happened a THOUSAND years ago; you can stop being all smug about it.  A thousand years is such a long time that anything that happened there feels totally disconnected from our times, even if there IS technically a long causal chain with the present.  If you can't find something more recent that Scottish-American Duckburgians can be proud about, I am unimpressed.

OH YEAH!  And here's this guy.  Chisel McSue, whom we knew.  This guy, of course, is from Barks' "Horseradish Story," and when you think about it, it DOES maybe seem a bit odd that a distinctive-looking villain like this did not become a Barks irregular.  On the other hand, he DID make a pretty serious effort to murder the ducks.  Maybe a guy like that SHOULDN'T be part of the Tartan Club?  Maybe actions should have consequences.  I mean, imagine if...okay, everyone gets what I'm saying; I don't think I need to be more explicit.

Why indeed.  Why. In. Deed.

Yeah, it DOES seem like that would be anyone's first thought.  And yet, somehow, this panel right here is the ONLY part in the story where anyone thinks to question its authenticity, which seems like it might be, I dunno, relevant?  Then again, we're trying to have a story here; we can't get bogged down in obvious things that would circumvent that.  Still, I'm me, and I can't help but nitpick: how do you people think you know for sure exactly what this axe looks like, anyway?  There are probably a bunch of old weapons that could theoretically be it.  Jamaican me crazy.  Jescottish me crazy?  Forget it.

I do find this part pretty funny, with Scrooge frantically rummaging through his random junk drawers.  If this axe is so all-fired important, why wouldn't he display it in a place of honor?  Or at least, you know, store it in SOME pre-defined location?  Well, okay, spoiler alert, it's gonna turn out that he never had the axe in the first place.  So what, he just sort of assumed, and everyone took him at face value?  Sure.

Look at this.  We had all KINDS of duck lore pre-Rosa; it's just that no one, as far as I know, treated it like it was part of some kind of official canon.  As I say, imagine this appearing in a Whitman comic book.  You can't do it, my friend!

I like their upbeat attitude and sticktoitiveness.  And also McSue silently lurking under the stairs.

...this is just a penny-ante plan to rob this dumb club?  Setting your sights a bit lower than you did last time, aren't you?  I mean, okay, sure, he also wants to humiliate Scrooge, fair enough, but still....

One thing I like about this story is the way, sure, Scrooge doesn't LIKE spending money, that's a given, but he doesn't torture himself or his nephews.  He shells out when he has to.

...and again.  I also enjoy all the friendly natives they meet along the way.  Seems like a pretty fun place.  Also, now I'm hungry.

The other running theme in the story is McSue sabotaging them in some way and then getting mad when Scrooge goes "I don't care; we're doing it anyway."  It may get a little repetitive, but it does a pretty good job of reinforcing the idea of how persistent he is.  In general, I think it does a better job than many of emphasizing his essential Scrooginess while not going too far and making him wildly unlikeable and/or a self-parody.

There's something about this.  Maybe it's just me, but I'm really FEELING their predicament here.  Stranded.  Still warm, but getting noticably cooler.  Completely deserted but for the odd bird (by which I'm not referring to our heroes).  You just have to be there.

And then there's this, which just looks good.  I'm feeling cold and windswept just looking at it.

Not to harp on this, but he does seem REALLY confident that no one will ever put his counterfeit axe to the test in any way.  And hey, maybe he's right.  This club doesn't seem SUPER on-the-ball.  How much do you think they HAVE in their treasury?  And why?  

I like that "'relative' harmony" line.  Let's not get carried away.  Another friendly native!  I can call them that because they're white.  

He just lifted them all up while they were sleeping and carried them inside?  I don't know; I like the idea of them waking up like that, but I don't think they were in such horrible condition than none of them would have awoken as they were being carried.  Oh well.  He's a super-swell guy, is all that matters.

Anyway, it turns out McBaa had the axe, secretly.  Convenient!

And somehow, I'm fixated on the position of Scrooge's hands as the axe is SNATCHed away from him.  It's kind of weird, isn't it?

And then we get an ovine action setpiece (if that's not too hifalutin a word).  Who could ask for anything more?

Once again, I'm a little too focused on what exactly is going on with the nephew's hands in the bottom right, but the whole thing is good, innit?  Some people really making an effort to create a story that someone might want to read.  Yeah!

Anyway, all's well that ends well, and the last part of the story is largely focused on him promising to get McBaa new axe, and then doing it.  A lot of stories would have ignored this, but hey, it's only fair; man still needs an axe!  And if it hadn't been included in the story, I probaby would've harped on it here so, it's all good.

Ya know...I understand the desire not to spend money, but shipping rates are what they are.  Cold equations.  You yelling at the manager of this inexplicable old-time general store/post office is not going to help anything.

Anyway, I guess that's about that.  I realize that this entry isn't all that substantive, but I dunno--maybe there's just not much of any great profundity to say about the story.  It's just fun and mostly well-executed, and isn't that all you need sometimes?

So should Vicar get a Disney Classics volume or three?  Yeah, definitely, not least because a lot of his higher-ranked stories haven't ever appeared in Eng--okay, that's not exactly a lie but it's pushing things a little; most of them have.  Still, I'm sure you could find some cool stuff (and I'd be all about an Oona the Caveduck collection).  Also, if you think the series has standards that are too stringent to include Vicar, please note that there are SIX FUCKING PAUL MURRY VOLUMES--more than any other artist.  Mind-boggling.  Apparently we've decided that Murry isn't just a Disney master; he's THE Disney master.  I assume this is because there are a lot of people with insane nostalgic fondness for him, but Fantagraphics, ya gotta stop.  You're sending the wrong message.