Review by Ian Keogh
While the work of Carl Barks is considered canon by most subsequent creators of Uncle Scrooge material, Barks himself didn’t much bother with Scrooge McDuck’s Scottish ancestry, only once making it the basis of a story (‘The Old Castle’s Secret’). The possibility of historical settings, though, has inspired European creators of duck stories, particularly Finnish writer and artist Kari Korhonen (sample art left), who contributes four of the eight stories to this anthology.
Working within eight to twelve page limits, Korhonen needs to move forward at pace, which leads to haphazard events and rapid transitions in his first story. Scrooge and family are briefly in Edinburgh for a discovery, then a panel later back in the basement of Scrooge’s money bin where he keeps a library he’s never previously bothered to tell his nephews about. It’s all a little random. Matters improve greatly when Korhonen turns his attention to Scrooge’s ancestor Eider McDuck, and he uses the library as the introduction to tales of other forebears, which are equally well drawn and entertaining.
Korhonen’s art is very much in the comforting style familiar to American readers, figures almost always full and within a panel grid. That’s not the case for the Italian artists who take a far more modern approach. Umberto Sacchelli propels figures out of panels that run together, often around a central image in Luca Barbieri’s tale of Seafoam McDuck, which mixes kelpies with the stories of Jonathan Swift, while Giuia Lomurno’s panels can contract and expand into all kinds of shapes. She illustrates Mirka Andolfo’s story of Scrooge’s grandmother and her social conscience outwitting the type of activities Scrooge would later excel at (sample art right).
Pierdominico Baccalario and Alessandro Gatti conceived the plot for‘Castle McDuck’s Final Secret’, with Gatti scripting and Gianmarco Paraggio’s digital art. It appears to be merely a fortunate coincidence that it seems to continue in the 13th century directly from one of Korhonen’s tales, and it’s a lively story of Swamphole McDuck more appropriately using the type of tricks that would pass down to Scrooge centuries later.
The weakest story ends the collection. There’s nothing wrong with Mario Ferracina’s charming cartooning, but Vito Stabile’s story of the dreaming Malcolm McDuck wanting to run away to adventure takes too long to begin and then meanders. There is, though, a surprise revelation for those who wait.
With many stories taking place in Scotland, the translators all use a phonetically spelled version of a Scottish accent for the dialogue, generally opting for a form of authenticity that flies in a decades long policy in the arts of Americanising everything for North American readers. No subtitles are necessary.
A deluxe hardcover presentation indicates this is aimed more at collectors than general readers, which is a shame. What would it take to interest young English-speaking readers in the classic Disney cartoon characters again?
