“Only A Poor Old Man” largely defined the most famous character invented by one of America’s most important comic book creators. That is a heavy claim to make, but anything else would be an understatement. The first comic with Scrooge McDuck as the main character is maybe not Carl Barks’ absolute best work, but one of his most influential ones. It includes top-notch artwork and a relatively simple plot full of entertaining, even if exhausting turns. Most important of all, it has a final page that defines the relationship between pop culture icons Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck.
Written and illustrated by Carl BarksCover by Carl BarksThe miserly, excessively wealthy Scrooge McDuck, whose giant money bin, lucky dime, and constant wrangles with his nemeses the Beagle Boys are well-known to, and beloved by, young and old. This volume starts off with “Only a Poor Old Man,” the defining Scrooge yarn (in fact his first big starring story) in which Scrooge’s plan to hide his money in a lake goes terribly wrong.
After five years of being first an antagonist and then an ally to Donald and the nephews, Scrooge’s motives and backstory are finally fleshed out in 1951’s “Only A Poor Old Man.” Scrooge’s personality is softened to include a more sentimental side. He takes pride in his accomplishments and memories, clearly enjoys spending time with his relatives and lies on the ground crying when times seem hopeless. Still, he is miserly, tough, eccentric and in some way even unethical. This character work lay ground for dozens of other classic stories.
The story’s importance for a certain character alone would not be enough to make this a comic book classic. A big part of that is thanks to Barks’ artwork, which was in its prime in the early 1950s. Scrooge’s character is established here not only narratively but also visually. Barks’ style with its round shapes and crisp lines is perfect for an all-ages comic. It is simple but clearly crafted with care. The characters are expressive, no image is stiff or awkward. The backgrounds have detail when it is called for. For example, the panel with Scrooge’s entire fortune bursting through the dam would not be nearly as impressive if it were drawn any less meticulously. But when characters’ emotions and interactions take center stage, there is no background art to distract from them. When Scrooge has a moment of realization on the final page, there is no background or even any panel borders. This really conveys him being haunted by a moment of emptiness. These choices have been made so smoothly that you do not even notice them initially. The coloring is good too, with a balanced mix of cartoonish primary colors and more natural hues.
While there is hard to find room for improvement in the artwork, the structure of the plot is not exactly perfect. Some parts of the Duck lore are still taking their shape. The pace of the events is exhausting, but fun to keep up with. Still, as a whole the story is rather simple and thus not comparable to the scope of Barks’ best adventure stories. The adventure genre is where his greatest works are, but “Only A Poor Old Man” is probably his best of the subgenre where Scrooge is protecting his existing fortune against criminals. A lot of the humor is slapstick with the threat of pretty rough violence such as land mines and bombs inside living fish. The breath-taking pace of this battle is in some way justified because it demonstrates the absurdity of the lengths Scrooge has to go to protect his money. If a moth appearing at the McDuck office has to be dealt with a shotgun, an actual criminal threat is going to need drastic measures.
There are some really clever ideas at play, such as the first plot Scrooge uses to outsmart the Beagle Boys. A lot of this comes from the fun of pure comic book logic. Scrooge swims in his money but after he hides the money in water, he can’t swim in it anymore. The final twist in the fight between Scrooge and the Beagle Boys is based on this same gag. Scrooge is able to swim in money because of comic book logic, but turns out it’s not something that is possible for every character.
Even though the majority of the story is filled with explosive action and clever ruses, at its very core this story touches on the relationship and dichotomy between Donald and Scrooge. In earlier comics the two started out with a more tumultuous relationship, with Scrooge wanting to test Donald’s capabilities or get favors from him. Throughout “Only A Poor Old Man” the two Ducks show a genuine goodwill towards each other, until Donald gets tired of Scrooge’s bizarre lifestyle. The last page perfectly sums up the life philosophies of the central characters. The thing is, neither of them is necessarily more correct than the other. The final interaction gives a new layer of meaning to the title of the comic and perfectly crystallizes the difference between the iconic characters Carl Barks devoted most of his career to. For this, it might just be one of the best final pages in any comic.
