Monday, August 11, 2014

Daily Dose of Awesome: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

I know, you're thinking that a Duck Tales comic can't be all that deep, but this one is surprisingly well done.  Each chapter is its own story, and can be enjoyed in its own right, but when put together it creates a larger overarching story.  It achieves that perfect balance between "one and done" comics and multi-issue arcs.

The book itself chronicles the rise of Scrooge as he tries to acquire his fortune.  We see how how he acquired his first dime and how his various attempts to become the world's richest duck succeeded and failed.

I was surprised at how quickly Scrooge's fortune would come and go.  Many of his efforts result in him having to start from square one.  It's sort of inspiring in that Scrooge just gets up, dusts himself off and tries something else.  It shows that becoming uber-rich does not happen over night and even if you do decide to embark on an endeavor, it may not succeed at first.

This comic is, first and foremost, fun.  It's very lighthearted and funny, which makes it a delight to read.  Considering how grim and gritty superhero comics have gotten, this was a refreshing change of pace.  It is also very well written as the dialogue feels real and the characters, even ones who only appear once, are given the appropriate depth.

Don Rosa really did his homework with this series and it shows.  He did extensive research and did a great job using off-handed comments in older strips as a springboard to tell larger stories and weave all of this together into a single narrative.

The only downside of recommending this is that I know that Don Rosa, the author, doesn't get any cut of the money.  Normally, with stuff like this, I would provide an Amazon Associates link, however, considering the author doesn't get any residual pay, I would feel a little wrong if I did try to make some profit off of this particular book's sale.

Still, I heartily recommend checking this book out if you can find a copy.  It's praised by many to be one of the all-time great graphic novels, and it lived up to the hype in my opinion. Definitely check it out.



You can also read my Reviewstream of the review here.

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