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Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. Appearing in Disney's "Uncle Scrooge" comics, Scrooge is an elderly Scottish anthropomorphic Pekin duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats. He is portrayed in animation as speaking with a Scottish accent. Originally intended to be used only once, Scrooge became one of the most popular characters in Disney comics, and Barks' signature work. Named after Ebenezer Scrooge from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is an incredibly wealthy business magnate and self-proclaimed "adventure-capitalist" whose dominant character traits are his wealth, frugality, and tendency to seek more wealth through adventure.
Scrooge is the maternal uncle of Donald and Della Duck, the maternal grand-uncle of Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and a usual financial backer of Gyro Gearloose. Within the context of the fictional Donald Duck universe, he is the world's richest person. He is portrayed as an oil tycoon, businessman, industrialist, and owner of the largest mining concerns and many factories that operate different activities. His "Money Bin" — and indeed Scrooge himself — are often used as a humorous metonyms for great wealth in popular culture around the world. McDuck was initially characterized as a greedy miser and antihero (as Charles Dickens' original Scrooge was), but in later appearances he has often been portrayed as a thrifty hero, adventurer and explorer.
Scrooge was originally created by Barks as an antagonist for Donald Duck, first appearing in the 1947 Four Colour story "Christmas on Bear Mountain" (#178). However, McDuck's popularity grew so large that he became a major figure of the Donald Duck universe. In 1952, he was given his own comic book series, called "Uncle Scrooge", which still runs today.
Scrooge was most famously drawn by his creator Carl Barks, and later by his protege Don Rosa. Like other Disney franchise characters, Scrooge McDuck's international popularity has resulted in literature that is often translated into other languages. Comics have remained Scrooge's primary medium, although he has also appeared in animated cartoons, most extensively in the television series DuckTales (1987–1990) and its reboot (2017–2021) as the main protagonist of both series.
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