Fantagraphics kicks off our new Disney comic books with Uncle Scrooge #461 “Flintheart Glomgold’s Sinister Secret,” the first of three 40-page issues containing an epic 120-page serial. Scrooge McDuck’s longtime rival, “second-richest duck” Flintheart Glomgold, claims to have reformed!
The (formerly?) villainous tycoon, now dressed all in white, claims he’s doing good deeds on behalf of his late brother, the kindly Trueheart Glomgold. Flinty even invites Huey, Dewey, and Louie to Ophir Island—his jaw-dropping new estate off the African coast—to offer them a special Junior Woodchuck gift!
Scrooge and Donald are more than a little shocked when their nephews decide to take Flintheart up on his offer and see for themselves whether the family’s old enemy is really a good guy now! Don’t you believe it…
We’re excited to share an exclusive Q&A with Francesco Artibani, writer of “Flintheart Glomgold’s Sinister Secret” in its Italian original!
Fantagraphics: Francesco, you first wrote for Glomgold in another multi-part epic story, “Scrooge’s Last Adventure” (Uncle Scrooge #417-420, 2016). In that tale, Flintheart teamed up with another of Scrooge’s tycoon enemies, the spendthrift playboy John D. Rockerduck, in an effort to sink Scrooge once and for all. What interests you about Flintheart as a character? How did that interest inspire “Scrooge’s Last Adventure,” and was that story connected to the new “Sinister Secret”?
Francesco Artibani: Flintheart is an extraordinary character: complex, obsessive, and haunted. His motivations and his personal history have always fascinated me. He’s a villain without morals, a Captain Ahab with Scrooge as his white whale. In “Last Adventure,” I compared and contrasted Flintheart with Rockerduck; in this new story, I focused more on Flintheart directly—and there’s so much I wanted to say before it was over!
Fantagraphics: We’ve heard many refer to Flintheart as Scrooge’s “evil twin,” suggesting that Flinty is what Scrooge would be if Scrooge lacked honesty and integrity. Do you think more differentiates them than that?
Francesco: It’s not just that Flintheart lacks honesty and integrity; he also lacks humanity and empathy. One can be dishonest and criminal yet still have values, be attached to one’s family or loved ones; but Flintheart has nothing beyond his obsession with becoming the richest duck in the world and outdoing his eternal rival. This is precisely what I like about Flintheart’s character: his desperate loneliness, which he sublimates in his challenges to Scrooge. It would be interesting to see what would become of him if he were to win his race one day!
Fantagraphics: Is Flintheart your favorite of Scrooge’s classical enemies? Do you have another favorite?
Francesco: The other Scrooge villain I really like is Magica De Spell (and not because she’s Italian like me!). Like Flintheart, she has an obsession, a mission, a goal; but she’s much more human and likeable. She’s a villain who’s always surprising, never boring.
Fantagraphics: In “Sinister Secret,” you’ve brought back two seldom-seen characters created by beloved Italian Disney comics creator Romano Scarpa. One of them, Scrooge’s moralistic little brother Gideon, runs the “County Conscience” newspaper—and in your story, Giddy has been baited into tracking down the legendary Lost City of Z as part of an investigative report. This lost city was theorized to exist in the Brazilian wilderness by Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British surveyor of the early 1900s. What made you want to explore Z in a Scrooge adventure?
Francesco: Gideon is an interesting, underused character, and while he’s had cameo roles in a number of more recent Italian Disney stories I thought he could have played a more serious part in this one. The city of Z has always fascinated me; it’s now almost as legendary as Atlantis. I thought I’d involve it because it represents one of the last mythical places undiscovered by—and deserving of—Scrooge (and, of course, Flintheart).
Fantagraphics: The other Scarpa character who returns in your story only makes a quick appearance, but Fantagraphics readers met Donald’s and Fethry’s even wackier cousin, Kildare Coot, in our Disney Masters Vol. 23 last year. What led to Kildare’s kameo… er, cameo in our latest adventure?
Francesco: I liked to convey the idea of a sense of family outside the circle of Scrooge, Donald, and the nephews, to suggest that far from the Money Bin, the extended duck clan still lives and works. And Gideon and Kildare have lives no less interesting than those of our favorite lead characters.
Fantagraphics: Huey, Dewey, and Louie, awfully brainy kids, seem surprisingly trusting of Flinty’s supposed reformation… Do you think they’re totally taken in?
Francesco: Of course not… but the nephews are also sensitive young ducks, and in their hearts they hope Flintheart can change. They’re intelligent and attentive, but they still have the hope of children, in contrast to the cynicism and disenchantment of adults. Only in the end will we find out if they really believed Flintheart!
Fantagraphics: Uncle Scrooge and Donald have their own needs, of course. Francesco, what are your favorite kinds of stories to tell with Scrooge and Donald, and does “Sinister Secret” qualify?
Francesco: I love telling any kind of story with Scrooge and Donald as the protagonists; the dynamics that unfold between uncle and nephew make every tale special. My favorite stories are those that blend adventure and comedy with a touch of emotion. “Sinister Secret” has a little of all of this.
Fantagraphics: Beyond Glomgold, our American readers will remember you from many other stories published here, including some issues of Duck Avenger New Adventures, “Mousetropolis” with Mickey as Mictor Mouser, and stories about Magica De Spell’s infamous family! Do you have a favorite you’d like to recommend readers jump back to?
Francesco: One story I’m very fond of, published by Fantagraphics, is “The River of Time” with Mickey Mouse (Disney Masters Vol. 25); but after thirty years of stories, it’s a bit difficult to choose only a few. I’m very happy about those published in the United States because they’ve had beautiful editions—thanks also to the extraordinary work of Jonathan H. Gray, Dwight Decker, and Thad Komorowski, who have effectively translated and localized the stories, successfully overcoming the linguistic pitfalls they occasionally encountered along the way!
Stay tuned for another exclusive Q+A with Disney artists and writers — next we talk to Jonathan H. Gray, translator of “Flintheart Glomgold’s Sinister Secret,”!