Only a Poor Old Man is a comic story written and drawn by Carl Barks. It features Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck and the Beagle Boys.
Plot[]
While Scrooge McDuck is trying to get his nephew Donald to start trying to earn money like him, he is cut off in the middle of his "money brings safety" lecture by a new attempt of the Beagle Boys to rob him. In a hurry, the frantic Scrooge moves his money out of his bin and in various hiding places, the final one being in the bottom of a lake owned by Scrooge. But the Beagle Boys are not about to give up and Scrooge really has to live up to his old motto of "being smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies" if he doesn't want to end up as "only a poor old man".
Continuity[]
- Most of the references Scrooge McDuck makes to his early life and the ways he earned his fortune were later expanded upon in other stories.
- Most notably, this story contains the first reference to Scrooge's earning part of his fortune in the Klondike, an idea to which Barks himself would soon return in Back to the Klondike (1953).
- Scrooge's story about having bought a "worthless" claim which actually contained large amounts of copper was the basis of The King of the Copper Hill (1993).
Behind the scenes[]
This story was first printed in 1952 in Uncle Scrooge #1.
Although Scrooge had appeared as a recurring secondary character since 1947's Christmas on Bear Mountain, the character's epic only really begins with this story, where, for the first time, he is the main character. Wide chunks of his backstory are first revealed here, and for the first time, much attention is paid to Scrooge's feelings and dilemmas.