DuckTales #10 // Review
Screwed isn't exactly unhappy with the idea of people not working on Christmas Day. However, this is the day before Christmas. And he's got a few nephews that need to do a little bit of work. I'll be able to have the day off on the 25th. However, this is the 24th. And they have to work. And they know they have to work. But one of their jobs that he doesn't know about is the fact that they're going to try to find a gift for him in DuckTales #10. Writer Brandon Montclare take the character of Scrooge McDuck back to his roots after a fashion) with a special Christmas-themed issue featuring art by Tommaso Ronda.
It's really just a transaction. The same sort of transaction that Santa has with all of the children. Be nice and do your work and you'll be rewarded with presents. However, you do need to do your work. String the light. Hang the stockings. Brew the eggnog. It's not really too much to ask on the day before Christmas. But they also wanna make sure that they're able to get a gift for their uncle. And what exactly does one get someone who has everything? I mean, the guys even got a vault full of gold coins that he somehow manages to swim through. How could anyone possibly hope to get anything for this guy?
Montclare tell us a story that isn't necessarily new. It's the type of thing that has a very predictable ending. But it still manages to be more than a little bit of fun to see the thing play out. It may lack a certain amount of finesse. It may lack the kind of visual and narrative inventiveness that would have inspired a character like Scrooge McDuck, but it's still a lot of fun. And that's really the important thing. The fact that it happens to come out on the day before Christmas is just kind of a fun detail about it.
Ronda has a wonderful grasp of the Carl Barks duck cartoon style. All of the characters are exactly as expressive as one would hope. The backgrounds feel deliciously distorted in that way of that calls to mind the old cell animation of the 1980s TV series. It may feel a little bit sketchy in places. The coloring work does add a nice sense of death to some of what is being presented on the page. And the visual reality of it is not inconsistent with all of those stories that have come before it both on the screen and in comic books that stretch back decades now.
It's easy to forget that Scrooge McDuck was originally created by Carl Berks for a comic book spoof of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The character has been through so much over the many decades of his existence. He's really carved out an identity for himself that goes well beyond his origins. But it is always kind of fun to see him. Return to a holiday based story. And it's nice to see. Montclare being true to the character in a way that still manages to be charming after all these years.
