THEGLOMGOLDSTORIES

The number is three! Although Carl Barks invented Flintheart Glomgold as one of his primary characters in the duck universe, he gave him up and more or less denounced him after only three adventures. Glomgold was introduced as an opponent to Scrooge, but Barks made him too sinister and unforgiving to last. Sadly, because the main idea of introducing a - financially - worthy competitor to the fantasticatrillionaire* Scrooge was quite logical and gave the possibility for a great many potentially exciting adventures, but Barks never followed this path beyond the few adventures. A telling indication of Barks' dislike for Glomgold can be seen from the fact that the character never made it to the prestigious front covers, a fate he shared with Gladstone, whom Barks disliked as well (see more HERE).

* One of Barks' many eloquent word labels to illustrate Scrooge's wealth in a convincing and overpowering way (taken from U$07 'Cibola').

Scrooge eagerly propagates the blessings of being rich to Donald.	Donald is more interested in a piece of string tied to Scrooge's Dime.	Scrooge learns about a foreign plutocrat, who claims to be richer than Scrooge.
He immediately races to South Africa where the plutocrat lives - in a money bin.	Glomgold is only too eager to display his wealth to Scrooge.	It turns out that Glomgold and Scrooge are equally rich apart from their balls of string.
They unwind the balls across the plains of Africa to measure who has the most.	Glomgold is kind enough to suggest a safe place for Scrooge's string for the night.	The 'kindness' results in a heavily diminished ball of string due to termites.
The ball is reduced even more, because Glomgold has drenched it with syrup.	On the bright side; Scrooge can now easily protect the string under his hat.	Scrooge retains the title as the richest duck due to his extra length of Dime string.
COMMENTS Right from the start Barks presents Scrooge's nemesis as he would continue to look and act. He also makes sure we understand that he is in a similar financial position as Scrooge (he has his own money bin). But it does not take long before it becomes clear that Scrooge and Glomgold have little else in common; after all Scrooge has a heart and a conscience! Glomgold has neither.

Scrooge is highly esteemed in Duckburg for being the richest duck in the world.	Glomgold does not agree and challenges Scrooge to a contest to find out who is.	Scrooge displays some of his assets, but Glomgold is not at all impressed.
To compare their wealth the adversaries begin to turn their property into cash.	Among others Scrooge tries to sell his oil wells, gold mines, and diamond mines.	But everywhere he goes his assets have been sabotaged by Glomgold.
The dollars slowly stack up in two gigantic piles at Duckburg's old airport. The nephews are quite puzzled to see that Glomgold's stack is growing faster than logically possible.		Scrooge argues that he is cheating, which Glomgold calmly denies - until it is proved.
Desperately Glomgold buys shrinking juice to be used on Scrooge's pile.	The nephews fend off Glomgold's dastardly attacks with their JW homing rockets.	Finally, the surveyors can declare Scrooge the winner by just five gallons of dollars.
COMMENTS It gets worse! Glomgold challenges Scrooge to a rematch in order to dethrone him as the world's richest duck. Glomgold tries to make sure that he comes out the winner this time, so he resorts to egoistic negativities - he swindles, destroys, and cheats! In the end he reaps what he has sown, and his crimes land him in prison! Still, his missed chance of beating Scrooge causes him far more grievance.

Scrooge is leaving for an auction in Africa, and Donald and the nephews are invited.	They are chased by Glomgold, who also wants to attend, and they get trapped.	All on their own the ducks strive across the plains on foot to reach the auction.
The nephews' special JW animal call whistles save their lives repeatedly.	The determined ducks use whatever options they can think of to reach the goal.	Their means of transportation are hippos, buffaloes, gnus, ostriches, warthogs.
As well as elephants, giraffes...	...rhinos, impalas...	...zebras, gemsboks, and jackals.
A disguised Glomgold lures the ducks into a hut, and the whistles are confiscated.	The prison is smashed when the natives summon elephants with the whistles.	Scrooge reaches the auction in time to bid against an equally determined Glomgold.
COMMENTS Glomgold finally shows his true colours as an even darker and totally reckless individual who several times tries to murder the ducks! And the stakes are not even especially high. Scrooge and Glomgold only want to be bidders at a trivial auction! But with Glomgold it obviously becomes personal. He is a mentally sinking duck, who has finally lost touch with reality, and Barks mercifully lets him slip back into oblivion.