As a choir of people told us, every Disney Afternoon, life is like a hurricane. And all hurricanes gotta start somewhere! Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Four-Color Comics #386 awaits!

FOUR-COLOR COMICS #386 (UNCLE SCROOGE #1)

Writer:  Carl Barks
Penciler: Carl Barks
Inker: Carl Barks
Colorist: Carl Barks
Letterer: Carl Barks
Editor: Alice Neilsen Cobb
Publisher: Dell Comics
Cover Price: 10 Cents
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $5,500.00
Release Date: January 21, 1952

Previously in Four Color Comics: Dating all the way back to the 1920s, Dell Publishing was one of the pioneers of comic book publishing. Their Four Color Comics title was unusual in that it wasn’t a traditional anthology, where different characters shared the pages of a single book, nor was it truly an ongoing series for a single character or property. Instead, each issue bore the name and title dress of its star, whether one of Disney’s cartoon folks, a Looney Tunes character like Bugs Bunny, or even an adventure hero like Zorro. There were even TV adaptations of popular properties like “Maverick” and collected reprints of comic strips featuring the likes of Flash Gordon. Dell Four Colors are fun to collect, an enormous pain to find, and even more difficult to identify in the wild. Uncle Scrooge’s first appearance was in the pages of Four Color Comics in 1947, but creator Carl Barks found the elder duck a compelling (and narratively useful) character, leading to his own series in early 1952.

When I say “leading to his own series,” I don’t mean it in the modern sense of “a number one issue hit the stands, followed by number two a month later.” This issue hit the stands in January of 1952, with a second issue a year later, then a third in October of ’53. After that, whoever okayed the required mailing certificates at Dell Comics deemed Scrooge successful enough to begin publishing his own book with issue #4. As an honorary first issue, this one begins with the official introduction of Scrooge’s money bin, as well as his habit of diving in and swimming through his accumulated wealth like an oligarch of the ’50s.

In the 21st century, he’d just buy a social media platform.

The core of this story is simple and iconic, with Scrooge trying to explain to nephew Donald how having money makes your life easier and more relaxing, all the while obsessing about his fortune. A moth who might eat a bill leads him to gunplay, while a single rodent could eat through hundreds of thousands of dollars. And speaking of rats who might take his dough, the nefarious Beagle Boys (who first showed up a year or so earlier in a Donald Duck issue) are once again prowling the streets!

Of course, the dramatic irony is that Scrooge’s paranoia about the builders next door turns out to be justified, as the Beagles are actually tunneling in to get his money bin. Not wanting to let the criminals know that he’s on to them, Scrooge manages to trick them into hiding his money FOR him, dumping it with the excavated dirt at a nearby reservoir. Still, he misses his daily “money swim”, and in scooping up a small island that he can dive into like a porpoise, etcetera, Scrooge ends up getting seen by one of the Beagles.

The ensuing battle continues to escalate, with The Beagle Boys buying up land so they can blow up the dam that holds Scrooge’s fortune in the water. Scrooge counters their every plan, from exploding fish to floating spyglasses to burn down the dam, but falls for a feint by the Boys which ends up with his dam full of SUPER-TERMITES!

Though the coloring of a now-nearly-70-year-old comic has degraded a bit, that final (you should excuse the expression) splash panel shows off the visual creativity of Carl Barks, a cartoonist once known to fans only as “The Good Duck Man.” Scrooge despairs to find his money flowing down into the hands of the masked malcontents, but in a last-ditch attempt, tricks them into trying to dive into the coinage.

The resulting impact leaves them all unconscious from severe head trauma. Aaahh, wacky fun!

Before returning his cold hard cash to the Money Bin, Scrooge insists on taking another swim, once again enjoying diving like a porpoise, burrowing like a gopher, and throwing it up to bounce off his head. The ~~man~~ duck knows what he likes.

The true magic of Four Color Comics #386 comes in seeing so much of the magic of Scrooge McDuck already there, with Barks crafting a truly iconic debut issue, even if it’s not a traditional #1 in more ways than one, earning a well-deserved 5 out of 5 stars overall. Both Four Color and Scrooge had remarkably long runs in comics, with the series putting out more than 1200 issues (it’s actually hard to tell, given Dell’s strange numbering system). As for Scrooge, his adventures went to Gold Key Comics in 1962, then to Gladstone Publishing in ’86, Disney Comics in 1990, then back to the Gladstone banner, to Gemstone Publishing, then BOOM! Kids, and finally, IDW Publishing, with the final issue, #460 coming out in 2020.

Part of me hopes that the upcoming Marvel Comics Scrooge book starts with #461.

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