Editing Uncle Scrooge (section)

==U.S. publication history==
{{Update|section|reason=Prose doesn't reflect the end of IDW publication|date=September 2022}}
{{main|List of Uncle Scrooge comics}}

* [[Dell Comics]]: 1952–1962 (''[[Disney comics#Four Color|Four Color Comics]]'' issues 386, 456 and 495; issues 4–39)
* [[Gold Key Comics]]: 1962–1984 (issues 40–173 as Gold Key, 174–209 as Whitman)
* [[Gladstone Publishing]]: 1986–1990 (issues 210–242)
* [[Disney Comics (publishing)|Disney Comics]]: 1990–1993 (issues 243–280)
* Gladstone Publishing: 1993–1998 (issues 281–318)
* [[Gemstone Publishing]]: 2003–2008 (issues 319–383)
* [[Boom! Kids]] ([[Boom! Studios]]): 2009–2011 (issues 384–404)
* [[IDW Publishing]]: 2015–2020 (IDW #1-56, with "legacy" issue numbers 405–460 in brackets)<ref name="IDW-0115"/>

Scrooge made his first appearance in the Donald Duck story "[[Christmas on Bear Mountain]]" as a curmudgeonly man who decides to test Donald and his nephews to see if they are worthy of inheriting his wealth. Barks found the character and his wealth a useful springboard for stories and re-used him in a number of subsequent Donald Duck one-shot adventures and ten pagers appearing in ''[[Walt Disney's Comics and Stories]]''. By 1952 the popularity of the character convinced Dell to give Scrooge a try-out as a lead character in the seminal "[[Only a Poor Old Man]]" in Dell's ''[[Disney comics#Four Color|Four Color]]'' anthology series, a story Barks expert [[Michael Barrier (historian)|Michael Barrier]] has termed a masterpiece. After two further ''Four Color'' appearances Scrooge was granted his own title starting with issue number 4 (counting the try-out issues as one through three).

The series continued uninterrupted (though not always on a monthly schedule) until 1984, when [[Western Publishing]] (the parent company of Gold Key/Whitman, who were publishing the title at the time) withdrew from the comic book business. Western had held the Disney comic book license since the late 1930s, and their withdrawal left the license, and ''Uncle Scrooge'', in limbo for two years, when [[Another Rainbow]], who had been publishing hardbound compilations of Carl Barks's work for several years, acquired it and launched Gladstone Publishing, resuming the title where Whitman had left off.

Gladstone continued publishing ''Uncle Scrooge'' until their license expired in 1990. At that point, the series shifted over to [[Disney Comics (publishing)|Disney Comics]] with little change in editorial direction. It was one of only three monthly titles to survive the "Disney implosion" of 1991 (the others being ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'' and ''Donald Duck Adventures''), and continued to be published by Disney Comics until 1993, when Disney Comics folded and the license was reacquired by Gladstone Publishing. Gladstone went through their own implosion in 1998, and ''Uncle Scrooge'' was briefly converted into a double-sized (64 page), "prestige" format series, before Gladstone ended publication entirely later that year.

No further issues were published until 2003, when Gemstone Publishing (whose editorial staff included several former employees of Gladstone) acquired the license and resumed publication of ''Uncle Scrooge''. Gemstone maintained the prestige format previously adopted by Gladstone, and continued to publish the series until November 2008. Financial difficulties at Gemstone ended its run then, and the license was acquired by [[Boom! Studios]], who reverted to the standard 32 page format when they began publication in late 2009. Boom's run ended in 2011, when the Walt Disney Company's acquisition of [[Marvel Entertainment]] lead to the consolidation of all Disney comics licenses under [[Marvel Comics]].

In January 2015, [[IDW Publishing]] announced that they would be publishing the title, starting in April 2015.<ref name="IDW-0115"/> Apart from the single issues of the comic book, IDW Publishing also publishes the run in trade paperback collections compiling three issues each, but did also at one point collect the issues in hardcover collections under the title ''[[Timeless Tales (Disney comics)|Uncle Scrooge: Timeless Tales]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.forcesofgeek.com/2018/01/traded-up-uncle-scrooge-timeless-tales-3-review.html |title=Traded up: 'Uncle Scrooge: Timeless Tales #3' (Review) |website=www.forcesofgeek.com |date= 31 January 2018|access-date=2019-07-10}}</ref> However the hardcover compilations ceased to come out after the third volume. The Trade paperbacks soon followed, and the last regular issue printed was 460 (IDW 56), leaving the series ending on a cliffhanger as the story was to be continued in the next issue.

===Other titles and spinoffs===
Over the years, Scrooge McDuck has proven popular enough to appear as the main character in a number of other comic book series. Many of these series include republications of stories originally written for the "main" ''Uncle Scrooge'' title in the United States or various European countries.

Scrooge often appeared in ''[[The Beagle Boys]]'' alongside his frequent adversaries, published irregularly by Gold Key from 1963 to 1979.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Beagle Boys|url=http://www.wolfstad.com/dcw/united-states/the-beagle-boys/|work=DCW: Disney Comics Worldwide|access-date=17 February 2013}}</ref> When that title ended, it was relaunched as ''The Beagle Boys Versus Uncle Scrooge'' in March 1979 and lasted for twelve issues, until February 1980.<ref>{{cite web|title=USA: The Beagle Boys Versus Uncle Scrooge|url=http://coa.inducks.org/publication.php?c=us/BBVS|work=I.N.D.U.C.K.S.|access-date=17 February 2013}}</ref>

In 1987, Gladstone Publishing began publication of ''[[Uncle Scrooge Adventures]]'', which they would continue to publish until 1998, excluding the period from 1990 through 1993, when Disney Comics held the license to publish Disney comics.

Scrooge was also a major character in three different comic book titles tied in with the ''[[DuckTales (1987 TV series)|DuckTales]]'' television series. The first of these consisted of 13 issues and was published by Gladstone Publishing from 1987 to 1990.<ref>{{cite web|title=USA: Ducktales|url=http://coa.inducks.org/publication.php?c=us/DT|work=I.N.D.U.C.K.S.|access-date=17 February 2013}}</ref> The second consisted of 18 issues published by Disney Comics from 1990 through 1991.<ref>{{cite web|title=USA: Ducktales (Disney Comics)|url=http://coa.inducks.org/publication.php?c=us/DTD|work=I.N.D.U.C.K.S.|access-date=17 February 2013}}</ref> The final (to date) was published over six issues by [[Boom! Kids]] in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|title=USA: DuckTales (Boom)|url=http://coa.inducks.org/publication.php?c=us/DTK|work=I.N.D.U.C.K.S.|access-date=17 February 2013}}</ref> Several ''DuckTales'' comics starring Scrooge would also appear in the pages of ''[[Disney Adventures]]'' in the early 1990s.<ref>{{cite web|title=USA: Disney Adventures|url=http://coa.inducks.org/publication.php?c=us/DA|work=I.N.D.U.C.K.S.|access-date=17 February 2013}}</ref>

Finally, ''The Adventurous Uncle Scrooge McDuck'', published by Gladstone, ran for two issues in 1998. A third issue was planned but cancelled along with the rest of Gladstone's output other than ''Uncle Scrooge'' and ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'' following a collapse in comics sales.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Adventurous Uncle Scrooge McDuck|url=http://www.wolfstad.com/dcw/united-states/the-adventurous-uncle-scrooge-mcduck/|work=DCW: Disney Comics Worldwide|access-date=17 February 2013}}</ref>