Four Color #178
Four Color #178 is the first appearance of Scrooge McDuck — Donald Duck's miserly Scottish uncle — in any medium, making it the foundational issue for one of the most globally beloved characters in Disney history. Carl Barks created Scrooge as a one-off antagonist to test Donald's courage, but the character proved so compelling that Barks returned to him repeatedly, ultimately spawning his own long-running comic series and, decades later, two separate DuckTales animated television franchises. The issue also captures Scrooge before his full design and personality were locked in, offering a rare snapshot of a character in the act of being born — rougher-edged and more genuinely misanthropic than the adventurous, globe-trotting tycoon readers later came to know. Its influence radiates across the entire Duckburg canon: virtually every major Scrooge storyline, from Don Rosa's biographical epic to modern Marvel revivals, traces its roots back to this single holiday comic.
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Carl Barks was already several years into writing and drawing Donald Duck stories for Dell when he conceived 'Christmas on Bear Mountain.' In a 1975 interview he recalled that the assignment was simply to produce a Christmas story and that, casting about for a dramatic engine, he naturally gravitated toward the Dickens archetype of a rich, isolated miser — 'a rich uncle' who could give the plot its inciting premise and its tension. Barks submitted the finished art on July 22, 1947, and the issue went on sale in the fall of that year with a December cover date; the cover itself was painted by Dan Gormley rather than Barks, who handled all interior story and art duties. Barks later confirmed he originally viewed Scrooge as a single-use character and had no plans to revive him, but found after publication that the character's potential for adventure-driven storytelling was too useful to abandon, leading directly to Scrooge's second appearance in 'The Old Castle's Secret' (Four Color #189, June 1948).
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Scrooge McDuck (Uncle Scrooge) in any medium — created, written, and drawn entirely by Carl Barks.
- Lead story is 'Christmas on Bear Mountain,' a 20-page full-color tale in which Scrooge invites Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie to his remote mountain cabin, planning to disguise himself as a bear to test Donald's bravery — a plan derailed when real bears show up.
- The issue's indicia title is 'Walt Disney's DONALD DUCK, No. 178'; cover art is by Dan Gormley, not Barks.
- A second feature, 'Santa Claus Land,' with art by Don Gunn, features Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Dumbo, Doc, and Grumpy working at Santa's North Pole workshop, where Goofy discovers that Prancer the reindeer has been stolen by Willie the Giant.
- Two additional one-page Donald Duck gag strips by Barks also appear in the issue, rounding out 36 pages of full-color content at a cover price of ten cents.
- Barks drew Scrooge in this debut without his later-iconic top hat and frock coat; the character is depicted as bearded, bespectacled, and leaning on a cane — a design Barks would refine across subsequent appearances.
- Scrooge's visual design may have been influenced by a nameless Scottish 'thrifty saver' duck character from the 1943 Disney wartime propaganda short The Spirit of '43.
- The 'Christmas on Bear Mountain' story has been reprinted in numerous formats, including Gladstone's Carl Barks Library series (1994), Boom! Studios' Walt Disney's Christmas Classics (2009), Fantagraphics' Complete Carl Barks Disney Library Vol. 5 (October 2013), and Marvel's Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime #1 (August 2024).
Cast · 10 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Donald's stingy old Uncle Scrooge McDuck lets the ducks use his mountain cabin for the Christmas holidays, planning to test Donald's bravery by coming to the cabin disguised as a bear. However, two real bears--a mother and her cub--turn up at the cabin soon after the ducks' arrival.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).