Flintheart Glomgold is a cartoon character created in 1956 by Carl Barks. He is a South African American Pekin Duck and the business rival of Scrooge McDuck, usually portrayed as an ambitious, ruthless, and manipulative businessman who shares many of the same qualities as Scrooge—the drive for massive wealth and the cunning and creativity to obtain the same—but he lacks any of Scrooge's tendencies towards generosity and compassion. In Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, he is said to be a Boer.
Glomgold is one of Scrooge's main rivals along with the Beagle Boys, Magica De Spell, and John D. Rockerduck, and also holds the title of being the "Second Richest Duck in the World" while Scrooge is the richest. His appearance is deliberately similar to that of Scrooge, but he is usually drawn with a full beard and sideburns as opposed to simple side-whiskers, black or purple frock coat instead of Scrooge's red or blue one, and a dark tam o'shanter instead of Scrooge's top hat.
Comic history
Under Carl Barks Glomgold was originally created in 1956 by Scrooge McDuck artist and creator Carl Barks, the creator of much of the Duck universe. Characterized as an unrepentant miser, tycoon, plutocrat, and general villain, he rarely sees any problem with breaking the law, cheating, or using other unfair tactics in order to fulfill his goal of becoming the world's richest duck. That makes him a "broken mirror" of Scrooge McDuck, whose own avarice is tempered with his belief in earning money strictly through honest means.
Glomgold first appeared in "The Second-Richest Duck", first published in September 1956. In this story, Scrooge, who holds the title of the Richest Duck in the World, learns that a businessman from the valley of the Limpopo, South Africa has also claimed this title. Scrooge decides to confront this claimant to his title and travels to South Africa along with his nephew Donald and three grandnephews. The rest of the story concentrates on comparing and contrasting the two rivals during a race through "The Heart of Africa" (a recurring phrase in the story), by seeing who has the largest ball of string, because they are shown equal in everything else, from cash to gold mines to even who has the most pumpkins. The race is supposed to determine which one of them deserves the title.
The two characters resemble each other both in appearance and behavior though their main common point seems to be that they are extremely competitive, and neither of them can accept the idea of someone else being equal or superior to them. Flintheart, like Scrooge, keeps a percentage of his fortune in his own Money Bin, identical to that of Scrooge (with the exception of the external logo: a dollar sign on McDuck's and a pound sign on Glomgold's), while the rest of his fortune is invested in a worldwide financial empire of his own that equals that of Scrooge, although Scrooge's main sources of wealth are his industries, while Flintheart's are his diamond mines.
However, the main difference between them seems to be their way of life. Scrooge's Money Bin is at the center of Duckburg, Calisota, United States, a constantly expanding industrial city, while Flintheart's is in the center of a valley, located somewhere in the lands around Limpopo, surrounded by wildlife and away from human activities. While Scrooge finds himself surrounded by an extended family (see Clan McDuck, Duck family, and Coot Kin) and a large number of allies and rivals (see Scrooge McDuck Universe), Flintheart lives a life of solitude and seems to have no family, friends, or for that matter rivals except Scrooge himself. While Scrooge has his nephews helping him or advising him, Flintheart faces every situation alone. This appears to have hardened him – he is considerably more ruthless than Scrooge – but also leaves him vulnerable to being simply outnumbered by his rivals. Even at the end of the story, when Scrooge has won and Flintheart passes out after finding he is only second best, he has to be carried home by Huey, Dewey, and Louie because he has no one else to help him.
The solitary South African re-appeared to challenge Scrooge to a rematch in The Money Champ, first published in September 1959. This time the confrontation takes place in Scrooge's grounds in Duckburg with the city's population witnessing the event, and they only count their wealth in cash and not their investments, so they have to liquidate much of their fortunes. Flintheart uses a number of underhand plots against Scrooge, but his plans backfire when their cost in money also costs Flintheart his chance at victory. The story adds little to what was established in the previous one. However, for the first time, some panels concentrate on Flintheart's thoughts, revealing that his insecurities about his own worth are the driving force behind both his efforts to best Scrooge and his dishonest tactics (since he doubts his ability to win in a direct confrontation), and that Flintheart believes said tactics are betrayals of his "dear old mother's fondest hopes".
Barks would use Flintheart for a third and last time in So Far and no Safari, first published in January 1966. This was one of the last stories Barks created before his retirement. The themes of the story are considerably darker than the two previous ones. Flintheart's intentions towards Scrooge are clearly depicted as murderous. The story starts with Scrooge planning to participate in an auction for an old South African gold mine. It is considered exhausted, but Scrooge's mechanics believe that the main vein of gold has not even been reached. While Scrooge is piloting his private plane over South Africa, with Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie as passengers, Flintheart appears piloting his own plane. It is equipped with machine guns, with which he shoots down Scrooge. While Scrooge is still trying to reach the auction, Flintheart repeatedly tries to get rid of him.
When Scrooge manages to reach the Kalahari Desert, Flintheart's plane is revealed to be a bomber as well. Flintheart bombards Scrooge and his nephews, but misses. When he returns for a second bombing run, the Ducks have dressed some rocks with their clothing and have taken cover elsewhere. Flintheart mistakes the rocks for his targets and destroys them, noting that his rivals are now dinner for the jackals. His victory is short-lived, however. Because he was flying low, the bomb explosions damaged his plane's fuel tank. He crash-lands the plane and finds himself in no better condition than Scrooge. The rest of the story presents Scrooge's and Flintheart's rival efforts to cross the Kalahari and reach the auction. The end of the story finds them at the auction, tired from their difficult treks, but still rivaling each other, while an exhausted Donald has fallen asleep. (Who finally obtained the gold mine is not revealed.) It is considered Flintheart's darkest appearance and among his strongest and most memorable ones.
After Barks During the ten years that followed his creator's retirement the character made infrequent appearances, appearing only in four comic book stories. He was not nearly as recognizable as other rivals of Scrooge, like Italian sorceress Magica De Spell, who appeared far more often. Flintheart returned to prominence in 1979, when Egmont editors Lars Bergström and Stefan Printz-Påhlson decided to revive the character. Since then, Flintheart Glomgold has appeared in more than 100 Egmont stories, some of which depict him as an influential member of Duckburg's Billionaires Club (which also includes Scrooge and John D. Rockerduck).
In Werner Wejp-Olsen and Daniel Branca's 1981 comic book story "The Top Treasure in Town", Flintheart's grandfather, Stoneheart Glomgold, who in 1870 worked as a hansom cab driver in London, is introduced. In John Lustig and Vicar's comic book story "Family of Fore" (2001) it is stated that Flintheart and Scrooge are both distantly related to the then-deceased Scottish golf enthusiast Bogey McDivot. McDivot has only been mentioned in that story. In Lars Jensen and Vicar's 2002 comic book story "Happy Birthday, Flintheart Glomgold", Glomgold's nephew, Slackjaw Snorehead, is introduced. Slackjaw is a genial slacker; very friendly and cheerful as well as a genius with a talent for business. He prefers to hang around with his friends and do nothing all day rather than use his intellect productively, which is infuriating to Glomgold. In the English translation, Slackjaw at times uses South African slang (e.g. howzit or brasse).
In Lars Jensen and Marco Rota's 2005 story "The Glomgold Heritage", Flintheart's father, Brickheart Glomgold, and mother appeared briefly. It is also revealed in this story that Flintheart's grandfather, Stoneheart, was a Scotsman who moved to London and later on, together with his son Brickheart, traveled to South Africa after being wrongly accused for theft. From this experience, the Glomgolds learned that the world was unfair and cruel, and that they had to look out for themselves even if that meant acting outside the law.
In the 1988 DuckTales comic book story "The Smart Nephew" by Bob Gregory, Cosme Quartieri, and Jorge Sanchez, another nephew of Glomgold appears: the smart and brave Junior.
Under Don Rosa In 1987 Keno Don Rosa created his first Scrooge McDuck story, "The Son of the Sun", first published in July 1987. Rosa's detailed style of drawing, references to Barks stories (by then considered classic) like "Lost in the Andes!", detailed references to often obscure historical figures and events and strong characterization would later make Rosa fans consider him one of Barks' most popular "successors". Those themes are all evident in his first story. It begins with Flintheart questioning Scrooge's many successes as a treasure-hunter. He claims that discovering riches that are already concentrated by others is not that hard and that he could do it better than Scrooge if he decided to try. Soon, he is following Scrooge and his nephews in their latest treasure hunt, locating a hidden temple of Manco Cápac, who was the legendary founder of the Inca dynasty. The temple is hidden somewhere in the tops of the Andes and, according to inscriptions earlier found by Scrooge, supposed to contain a great treasure. In the course of the story Flintheart is shown to be one of Scrooge's most charismatic, resourceful, and ruthless rivals.