Scrooge McDuck

Scrooge McDuck is a Glaswegian anthropomorphic duck created by Carl Barks that first appeared in Four Color Comics #178, Christmas on Bear Mountain, published by Dell Comics in December 1947.

Over the decades, Scrooge has emerged from being a mere supporting character in the Donald Duck oeuvre to a major figure of the Duck universe. In 1952, he was given his own comic book series, Uncle Scrooge, which still runs today. As the character's popularity rose, he appeared in various television specials, films, and video games. Scrooge, along with several other characters of Duckburg, has enjoyed international popularity, particularly in Europe, and books about him are frequently translated into other languages. Scrooge is a V.I.P. member of the Mickey Mouse Club. Some comic book cultors consider him a comic supervillain due to his often selfish and greedy behaviour.

Scrooge McDuck's given name is based on that of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, the main character from Charles Dickens' 1843 novel A Christmas Carol. His Scottish heritage plays on the stereotype of Scotsmen being miserly. Although never explicitly confirmed by Barks, it is possible that Scottish industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who left his country for America at 13, served as a model for Uncle Scrooge (in Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge leaves Scotland for the United States at age 13). Another possible prototype for Scrooge is a character (with no name, actually Donald Duck's "thrifty saver" conscience) who had many of Scrooge's characteristics including sideburns, glasses and Scottish accent, who was featured in the Disney-produced World War II propaganda film The Spirit of '43 in 1943.