Gemstone/Disney Comics Subscriptions - Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

Presenting by popular demand one of the most anticipated collections of 2005!

The legendary artist Carl Barks created Scrooge McDuck and chronicled many of his most popular adventures. In addition to superb storytelling and wonderful entertainment, he left behind a character who was not only rich in his stories, but one for whom the stories themselves were rich.

Modern master Don Rosa, beginning in 1994, undertook the task of recounting Uncle Scrooge's past in a serialized epic. The wonderful result of his efforts is now being collected in trade paperback form by Gemstone Publishing as THE LIFE & TIMES OF SCROOGE McDUCK. The book is scheduled to reach comic book shops in June 2005.

"Carl Barks did something that a lot of great comics creators do: he created a handful of characters and situations with seemingly limitless potential," said David Gerstein, Archival Editor for Gemstone Publishing, who is also a noted Disney author and historian. "But then--and this is the critical difference between Barks and many of his peers--he repeatedly explored that potential and successfully realized it so often, in so many different ways, that his work is more inspiring, more 'living' than that of many other comics creators."

"Like so many other authors upon whose work others have expanded, Carl Barks had the ability to include a wealth of throw-away lines and ideas into his scripts," said John Clark, Gemstone's Editor-in-Chief/Disney Comics. "As an example, I'm reminded of a Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle in which Holmes merely mentioned to Watson an adventure in which they'd encountered 'the giant rat of Sumatra.' Doyle himself never wrote the tale of the rat, but later Holmes chroniclers have used that single statement as a springboard for new adventures of their own. Barks did the same thing. He'd have Scrooge comment about 'outfoxing the Dalton Gang' in one comic, or 'gold prospecting in Australia' in another. It is literally those off-hand references that Don Rosa utilized in constructing his LIFE OF SCROOGE series."

THE LIFE & TIMES OF SCROOGE McDUCK by Don Rosa has been expanded to 264 pages in full color and will sell for just $16.99. A higher-priced limited edition hardbound will be released at a later date.