In the first chapter of "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck",
The Last of The Clan McDuck
(1991) and in his
Donald Duck Family Tree
(1993) Don Rosa gives many clues to the background and history of the clan McDuck". In the rejected sketches for chapter I of Lo$ he actually tells the whole history of the clan McDuck from 122 AD until Scrooges childhood in the 1870s.
The rejected sketches from Lo$, chapter I:
When he first planned his "The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck" series, Don Rosa intended to start chapter I with a 7 pages overview of the history of The Clan McDuck from 122 AD until Scrooges childhood in the 1870s. In these sketches he intended to show "that a McDuck and his stinginess was present at all the great moments of Scottish history". However these pages were rejected by the publisher at Egmont, Byron Erickson, because he believed that Lo$ should be the biography for one person ($crooge) and not his whole family.
Fortunately Don Rosa saved his sketches and even better he has kindly shared them with his fans. He says: "since the pages were rejected and NOT rewritten, I still see that as the actual history of the Clan McDuck, at least in my mind." He has also said that he might use these sketches as a part of, or as an inspiration for another story, some day.
Notes:
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Once Don Rosa has stated that the panel (in the bottom of page 2) showing the McDucks being friends with the Vikings "is a weak in-joke referring to how popular the Disney Ducks are in Scandinavia. I probably wouldn't have actually used that gag in print even if that sequence had not been rejected. The gag was too obscure."
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In
The Crown of the Crusader Kings (2001) Don Rosa indicates that at least one McDuck living in the end of the 15th century, was a member of (or at least in contact with) The Knights Templar.
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Don Rosa has later changed the date of the coming of the Hound of the Whiskerwilles. He now says that the McDuck castle was abandoned in 1675, not in 1495 as stated in page 5 of the sketches.
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In King Scrooge the first (1967) where Barks only did the story and plot (it was drawn by Tony Strobl), Scrooge is said to be a descendant of an ancient king (King Scrooge-Shah of Sagbad) who lived in Sagbad (a Barks-gag based on the name Bagdad) somewhere in the Middle East around 2000 years BC. The link to the Middle-East is also followed up in the Italian 8-part series Storia e gloria della dinastia dei paperi (The glorious history of the Duck Dynasty) which was first published in 1970. In this series with plot and story by Guido Martina and art by various artists as Giovan Battista Carpi, Giorgio Cavazzano and Romano Scarpa, the McDucks/Ducks leaves Egypt and goes to Rome. From Rome they continue to Caledonia (Scotland). However when he did the Duck Family Tree, Don Rosa decided to ignore "King Scrooge the first" and all other links to the Middle-East. He says: "Well, I thought the story was a bit lame and signaled that the man was a bit weary of writing. And I would have had trouble linking $crooge's family, which might have come to Scotland from Norman France and to Norman France from Norway, to relatives in the extremely distant Mid-East, and didn't like the idea of trying -- those are not nationalities that I would want in these Duck's ancestry. Anyway, it was my decision to include that among the various Barksian facts that I choose to dismiss and/or ignore, such as the Magic Hourglass and so forth."
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In Denmark and Sweden the name McDuck has for some reason been ranslated with von And (Denmark) and von Anka (Sweden). This use of the German "von" instead for the Scottish "Mc" vould sometimes be confusing. However the Danish translator of Lo$, Niels Søndergaard found a solution, he says: "As far as I remember I solved this problem in the translation of Lo$ by giving the Clan the name "MacAnd" and letting them have the noble name "von And" as a reward from the Scottish king." However nothing is said about when that event is supposed to have taken place. And in the Danish version of Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree all McDuck-ancestors are called von And not McAnd.
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Each page of the story can be selected here:
Stories with references to The Clan McDuck
Both Carl Barks and Don Rosa have done several stories which include references to The Clan McDuck. The most important of these stories are:
Stories by Carl Barks:
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The old Castles Secret (1948)
Includes the first appearance of The McDuck Castle. Scrooge and his nephews go to Scotland to search for a treasure once hidden in the McDuck Castle by Sir Quackly McDuck.
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The horse-radish story (1953)
Scrooge and his nephews have to bring a chest filled with old horse-radish to Gibraltar within 30 days to stop the bandit Chesil McSue from taking over Scrooges fortune.
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Back to long ago! (1957)
Scrooge and Donald are hypnotized so that they remember previous lives in the 16th century. This results in a search for a treasure which shows up to be old potatoes.
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The hound of the Whiskervilles (1960)
Scrooge and his nephews go to Scotland and solves the mystery of the Hound of the Whiskervilles and they find the only remaining kilt of McDuck-tartan.
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Stories by Don Rosa:
Actual referances on the internet:
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