Scrooge, the richest duck in the world, continues to get richer

• Picsou Magazine is celebrating its 50th birthday, and the character created by Carl Barks is 75th.

• Yet miserly and irascible, Picsou is very popular in France.

• Many fans bring the character to life through creations around the world of Carl Barks and Don Rosa.

Does Scrooge have wrinkles under his feathers?

No matter.

As he celebrates his 75th birthday, the character created by Carl Barks is still as dapper as ever.

, which popularized the extremely wealthy duck in France – even surpassing Mickey in the hearts of young French people, according to its editor-in-chief Jean-Baptiste Roux – celebrates its 50th anniversary with a special issue and a whole host of events editorials to come during the year.

This double anniversary is an opportunity to make a small assessment (not accounting) of the aura of Scrooge in 2022. If his popularity is enormous today, Jean-Baptiste Roux recalls that everything was not won for him, at the beginnings of

 : “There were many hesitations when launching a magazine dedicated to this unknown and very negative character.

He's tight-fisted, he's angry, he despises his family... It's his adventurous side, his quest for legendary trophies that won the day.

And little by little, readers discovered Scrooge.

»

The lovely flaw

Strangely, if you ask today's fans, it's precisely the character's flaws that make him endearing.

"He's an embittered character, stingy, nasty with his family... But his adventurous and burlesque side makes him likeable," says 21-year-old illustrator Pablo Raison.

And above all… it's a duck.

If he was a human he would be detestable.

»

Morgann Gicquel, director of the documentary

(The Scrooge Mystery, available on Vimeo and Apple TV), agrees: "The resolution of the Scrooge mystery, that's it... He's one of the most human characters, even if it's a duck… Tintin for example has no human features, he embodies ideals such as courage and intelligence, but Picsou he can be sad, happy, angry, loving, selfish… He has and arouses conflicting emotions.

It was already there with Carl Barks, creator of the character, especially in censored stories where Scrooge is a violent character who then regrets his actions or his words.

This explains why these stories have had such an impact.

When a comic does not take its readers for idiots…”

A multi-dimensional hero

Jean-Baptiste Roux extends the analysis to other characters of the Duck family, in particular the most famous of them: “Donald is angry and lazy but he can also be very skilful, pugnacious, courageous.

Overall he is a good teacher for his nephews, he loves them, respects them, encourages them, but he can also be childish, vain… In short, Donald is like us, he is not one-dimensional.

»

If the character created by Carl Barks has therefore built his fortune thanks to his faults, he has been able to prosper over time with the help of his fans.

"We know that there are several generations of

readers ," notes Jean-Baptiste Roux.

The notion of transmission from father to son is very strong.

Very predominantly male,

's readership is nevertheless tending to diversify.

“We address children, of course, as a priority.

But the editorial also targets… 15-50 year olds, let's say.

We have erudite readers who like to unearth details, observe corpuses, correspondences.

»

The nerdism of Scrooge fans

Scrooge has indeed spawned several generations of followers, rather sharp.

The path of Morgann Gicquel is thus an edifying journey of an XXL fan.

She says: “I grew up with Scrooge.

At the age of 9, my first readings with affect were the

comics … In 2005 my parents took me to Angoulême where Don Rosa, the cult cartoonist of Picsou, was doing autographs.

Two people stopped before it was my turn… I promised myself to have this drawing one day.

And in 2011, I edited a report for Don Rosa's return to Angoulême.

I met him and he offered to come and interview him at his home in the United States.

I said no to take the time to edit a real film…”

The result is an ode to Scrooge fans.

“It's a movie about what it's like to be a fan.

Don Rosa himself presents himself above all as a fan of Scrooge and Carl Barks, who gave up his career as a plumber to make his comics... Through his approach, he inspired a lot of people like me, on the importance of the creative aspect of the fans.

Spielberg and Lucas, absolute fans of Scrooge, used the Scrooge character to create their own adventurer, Indiana Jones.

»

A la carte passion

“We have a space dedicated to fans in the magazine, proudly explains Jean-Baptiste Roux.

I would also like to reconnect with the traditional photos of fans posing with their collection of magazines.

Fans are super inventive, with one creating the highly detailed Scrooge Chest in 3D printing.

And then, of course, there was the map of Donaldville drawn by Pablo…”

Pablo Raison, who made a specialty of black and white cartographic drawings, produced a map of Donaldville that moved the community of duck fans.

“Scrapbook evolves in the real and logical world located in time, justifies the young designer.

His youth in the Yukon is a documentary on the gold rush.

There are also references to legends, myths, which form our collective imagination, and therefore our reality….

This is all that led me to draw the map of Donaldville.

By dint of reading Scrooge comics by Don Rosa, I noticed that they take place around this coherent universe.

I wanted to put all the story locations located in Donaldville on a single map.

In my mind it seemed logical…”

New generations

Morgann, like any self-respecting Scrooge fan, saw Pablo's card.

“It's crazy how much this character – a duck with money – sparked a world of creative fans who imagined so many things.

It's a fandom that, while not in the spotlight, is very active.

»

Jean-Baptiste Roux expects to discover new wonders created by fans for a long time to come.

"The cartoon

, which will celebrate its 35th anniversary, has also generated a new generation of fans, and yet another new one with the 2017 version. What is exciting to observe is the way in which the new episodes wink at different generations of fans with the return of little-known characters, references… It's a very common phenomenon in creation, which reminds me a bit of the

series .

In the case of Scrooge's world, it's not at all unhealthy or necrophiliac, on the contrary it's very invigorating.

»

Don Rosa: “Picsou is neither good nor bad, he is human”

Series

VIDEO.

What gives this return of "La Bande à Picsou" version 2017?

• Worship

• Cartoon

• comics

• Design

• Culture

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