Golden Age of Comic Books – December 15, 2008 – #60

This is our fourth annual Christmas episode of the Golden Age of Comic Books Podcast. Merry Christmas!  I’ve covered a variety of topics on our past Christmas shows, but I thought I would discuss a Christmas story that introduced a major Golden Age character to the world, Uncle Scrooge McDuck.  Uncle Scrooge was created by the great Carl Barks in his classic, “A Christmas on Bear Mountain” in Four Color Comics #178 (December 1947).  Uncle Scrooge was modeled after Dickens’ Ebeneezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, first published in 1843.  Uncle Scrooge’s early personality was very similar to Ebeneezer’s.  Although Barks originally intended Uncle Scrooge to be a throw away character, he became extremely popular and eventually got his own title that is still published today by Gemstone under license from Disney.  I also mention Don Rosa’s excellent “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” series, that added a lot of meat to the bones originally crafted by Barks.  In Chapter Twelve of “Life and Times”, Rosa gives us a sequel to “A Christmas on Bear Mountain”.

I also noticed that Chris Marshall at the Collected Comics Library Podcast is about to publish episode #200, so I spend a few minutes congratulating him on a job well done in reaching this milestone.

Last but not least, for Christmas I have another trivia contest.  The winner will receive a DC Vintage Super Heroes Calendar for 2009.  Good luck!

Enjoy the show!

Four Color Comics #178 (December 1947)