The gold of the Incas
Inca Gold (in the newer translations , the son of the sun ., English The Son of the Sun ) is the first Scrooge McDuck - Comic of Don Rosa , which was first published in July 1987 in the 219th Uncle Scrooge output. It is a well-known comic story with Disney's Dagobert Duck, Donald Duck and Tick, Trick and Track , which Don Rosa established as a great talent in the Disney comic industry and which fulfilled Rosa's childhood dream of becoming the author and illustrator of stories with Scrooge McDuck .
The combination of homage to Carl Barks , clever and intelligent writing, appealing art and the dependence of the resolution of the plot on one of the most redeeming character traits of Dagobert contributed significantly to the fact that this story was seen as a modern classic .
background
Don Rosa had idolized Barks, the most popular writer and illustrator of Dagobert Duck comics, since childhood and drew several comics with strong stylistic influences from Barks' works during his early career. One such story, which appeared in a series called Pertwillaby Papers , was called Lost In (an alternative section of) the Andes, and it paid homage to a Barks story entitled In the Land of the Square Eggs .
When Rosa started working with Gladstone Publishing , a Disney comics publisher, he asked permission to draw a Scrooge McDuck story. Rosa updated the action for Lost In (on alternative section of) the Andes to Scrooge and his nephews to show instead of the original protagonist, this story appeared with the English title Son of the Sun . He has since found that the original conception of the story had always shown the Disney Ducks in his head and that The Gold of the Incas is simply a return to the original conception.
The story met with a great response and was nominated for a Harvey Award . Rosa immediately became a major talent for Scrooge McDuck's writing and illustrating.
action
The story begins in the Entenhausen Museum , where Dagobert Duck opens a museum exhibition of the greatest wonders he has collected on his travels around the world (most of which are direct homages to classic Barks stories).
While Dagobert brags about his nephews Donald Duck and Tick, Trick und Track (who are all familiar with the artifacts and have participated in the expeditions for them), Mac overhears Moneysac , who is about to open his own exhibition, Dagobert and a conversation between the two rivals there becomes a boastful battle over who is the greatest adventurer and treasure hunter. Dagobert asks Moneysac to suggest something he might find; Moneysac is at a loss for a moment, then he sees Scrooge exhibit of Inca - artifacts and points out that Scrooge, while the original gold mines found the Incas, never the golden artifacts found which had been extracted from the mines. Soon Dagobert and his nephews are on a race with Moneysac to see who can find the "greater Inca treasure" and claim it for themselves.
The first clue comes as soon as Moneysac leaves when Donald picks up an Inca vase that was knocked over during the boastful match. You will find a metal plate inside that contains a map to a temple of Manco Cápac in the Andes . Unfortunately Moneysac is listening again.
Once in a village near Cusco , Dagobert rents a plane to fly them to their location. The pilot of the plane turns out to be Moneysac, who takes off the badge at gunpoint and then jumps off with the parachute. Trying to regain control of the plane, Dagobert accidentally rips out the plane's belly while flying too low and dropping his nephews onto the valley floor, still in their seats. As the plane departs, Moneysac approaches and informs the Ducks that Dagobert has scared off the porters he has hired, so he suggests they look for the artifacts together.
A week later, Moneysac and his reluctant helpers reach a remote mountain , on the top of which is the temple, which is built around a large volcanic fumarole (hence the description of the plaque, the "breath of life" of Manco Cápac). Moneysac enters the treasure chamber of the temple and is overjoyed to discover a huge supply of golden Inca artifacts. Then Dagobert shows up and calmly informs Moneysac that the plane crashed on the mountain top a few days ago and has already registered his claim to gold over the radio of the plane.
It seems as if Dagobert won, but Tick, Trick and Track do not agree on one thing: The plaque indicates that a "treasure" of the Incas was brought to the temple, but it was brought to the temple naturally and before the conquistadors . When Moneysac realizes that there must be another Inca treasure in the temple, he pursues his research and discovers the "eye" of Manco Cápac: a huge, disc-shaped puff of sun adorned with huge precious stones. Since Dagobert claims the gold and not the temple and there is no gold on the Sunburst, it belongs to Moneysac.
When Dagobert and Moneysac begin to argue about whose treasure is of greater value, Moneysac begins pulling it off its wall mount, but it falls and rolls down the temple steps and into the fumarole. It is wedged into the hole with the convex side down, creating a perfect seal. As the volcanic gases build up tremendous pressure, Dagobert notices that the back of the sunburst is wrapped in gold, which starts another heated argument between him and Moneysac and causes them to pinch the sunburst even more tightly. Before the others can stop them, the pressure rises and the entire mountain top, the temple and everything else is suddenly blown into the sky like a cork from a bottle. The Ducks can use a tapestry as a makeshift parachute before the temple lands in an almost bottomless volcanic lake right next to the village they originally set off from. The massive splash of water irrigates the villagers' grain fields, relieving them of the effects of the recent drought .
The whole treasure is now completely irretrievable. As the discouraged Ducks start their journey back to civilization, Dagobert comes out of the village and mentions that he has agreed to build a pumping station for the village so that they will never be hit by drought again. Moneysac despises Scrooge's generosity until Scrooge reveals that the villagers have agreed to sell the lake to him for one peso - making Scrooge the rightful owner of the temple and all of the treasure it contains. Even if he cannot retrieve it, Dagobert is now the clear legal owner of the entire treasure - and thus the winner of the competition.
Relation to Barks' works
The story is notable for its clear homage to many of Barks' tales, which involve a search for lost treasure, a series of unlikely clues that must be deciphered in order to be found again, and a series of unpredictable twists and turns on the path to the recovery of said treasure , all the classic elements of Barks' Scrooge McDuck stories.
Scrooge's portrayal is a deliberate contrast to Moneysac's evil and deviousness: Scrooge is both shrewd and generous, and seeks ways to make profits that will bring great benefits to local communities. The fact that his generosity enables him to triumph over Moneysac in this story shows the qualities that make Dagobert a hero , not just a wealthy eccentric .
Visual cues
The museum exhibit contains a number of memorabilia from classic Barks adventures with Dagobert:
- The ten from 1916 (from "The lost ten")
- The Crown of Genghis Khan (from "The Crown of Genghis Khan")
- A collection of Inca artefacts (from "The Gold of the Incas")
- The Philosopher's Stone (from "The Philosopher's Stone")
- The pink striped ruby (from "The Tips of Society")
Notes on history
- At the museum, Donald says he's tired of Dagobert and Moneysac's repeated competitions to see which of them is the richest man in the world ("The second richest man in the world"; "The richest man in the world"); Moneysac cheerlessly says he was always the champion no matter what those competitions might say. However, this story marks a new direction in the rivalry between Dagobert and Moneysac in which they place bets on treasure hunt rather than comparing their fortunes.
- The old South American, who advises both Dagobert and Moneysac, originally appeared in Barks' story "In the Land of the Square Eggs" and quoted the quote "The crazy ones, the United States ". - Perhaps an allusion to the famous "They're crazy, the Romans!" - slogan of the French cartoon characters from Asterix # Obelix from the Asterix comics, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo .
- A hidden clue is given to the theory of the Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl and his Kon-Tiki expedition: Lake Titicaca , which plays a central role in the story of "The Gold of the Incas", is the lake on which Heyerdahl (inspired suspected of local folklore) that the Indians on Balsa - rafts of America to the west traveled to the origin of the population of Polynesia to form. When Moneysac and Dagobert discover the treasure "The Eye of Manco Cápac " in "The Gold of the Incas" , they find it lined with black pearls from Polynesia. This actually contradicts Heyerdahl's theory, as migration would have to be in the opposite direction, that is, from Polynesia to America.
References in later work by Rosa
- In Rosa's Story Back to the Land of the Square Eggs , a sequel to Barks' In the Land of the Square Eggs , Dagobert and his nephews travel to South America to find chickens that lay square eggs. Many unscrupulous tycoons are eager to follow Dagobert, but Dagobert depends on them all, with the exception of Moneysac, who remembers "all too painfully" the pumping station that Dagobert built on the shores of Lake Titicaca and realizes that it is Scrooge's likely target is. The older South American gentleman also reappears and repeats his quote: "They're crazy, the Americans!"
- In Rosa's story, The Secret of Eldorado , Dagobert and Moneysac compete to find the lost city of Eldorado in Colombia . During this competition, Dagobert annoyed Moneysac several times about his defeat during their previous competition in South America.