Bogford McDivot

This essay was originally featured in the 20th issue of the Danish fanzine Rappet.

INTRODUCKTION

We all know Donald Duck's wealthy uncle Scrooge McDuck and his cruel rival Flintheart Glomgold (both introduced by the Duckman Carl Barks in the '40-50s), but few people know that they are related. “What??? They are related? What have I missed?” Probably you are asking that. But it's true! 

According to D 99285 (Family of Fore), written by the American author John Lustig, creator of the Last Kiss Comics series, and drawn by the Chilean artist Victor Rios (aka Vicar), who passed away the last 3 January, Scrooge and “Flinty” had a common Scottish relative: Bogey McDivot.

Bogey McDivot

PART ONE: THE STORY (spoiler alert)

In D 99825, “Uncle Scrooge is in Scotland for the reading of Bogey McDivot's will.” Donald wants to learn how to play golf, but Scrooge tells him that golf has always been the curse of their family and then explains: “it's golf that's kept our ancestors poor! They were all more interested in chasing balls down gopher holes than in getting rich! But not me! I never wasted my time playing golf! And that's why I'm the only member of the family who's ever had any real money!”

Well, this isn't true! We see indeed Bogey's rich castle in the next panels and it also seems that Bogey played golf “at least once or twice”.

Bogey McDivot's castle

There, the Ducks meet Mulligan Pettifog, Bogey's solicitor and friend, who tells Scrooge that he isn't the only “long-lost relative who has a claim on Bogey's treasure”. Okay, the other relative is Flintheart Glomgold and the Ducks' reaction is quite similar to (y)ours.

Scrooge and Flintheart meeting in Bogey's castle

The plot is quite the following: Scrooge and Flintheart have to play golf to decide who the legitimate heir is. In Scrooge's words, Bogey was in fact a “golf nut”. At the end, Scrooge miraculously wins and inherits the golf course!

Bogey's treasure

PART TWO: THE CORRESPONDENCE

We saw that the World's two richest ducks are related and had a common relative: Bogey McDivot. But how are they related and where is Bogey in the Duck family tree?

Since the story doesn't answer our questions, I decided to ask John Lustig, the writer of the story, about Bogey's relation to Duck family.

The following text is part of the correspondence between Lustig and me.

Label:

SC: Simone Cavazzuti (I)

JL: John Lustig

SC: Hey John, I write to you because I need some information about your original plot of D 99285. Do Scrooge and Flintheart have a mutual relative? If yes, what is his name and how is he related to them?

JL: Hi, Simone. […] My idea was that two ducks who look and act so much alike would likely have a common relative somewhere in their family trees. Scrooge and Flintheart were both named in Bogey McDivot's will because they were both somehow related to Bogey. […] Personally, I think both Scrooge and Flintheart are related---although somewhat distantly. 

SC: Thank you, John. […] Since you are the "creator" of Bogey, would you like to define now the relation […]? 

JL: That's kind of you to offer. I don't have a strong feeling about where in the tree to place Bogey. […] Perhaps Bogey could be his Uncle Jake's son. That would make him Scrooge's cousin. […] Urk. I had a chance to think about it a bit more and I realized that Bogey should be more distantly related to Scrooge and further back on the family tree. […] How about Bogey being the grandson of Quagmire McDuck? Being that far back in the tree and not having a direct line to Scrooge means that Quagmire may have also sired a daughter who married a Glomgold. It would also explain why Scrooge and Glomgold don't know they share a common ancestor. Glomgold's never traced his family history that far back. And Quagmire isn't a direct ancestor of Scrooge's--so he probably never checked to see if Quagmire had any children. 

SC: This would put Bogey in Scrooge's generation and I like it, maybe he was elder than him. Scrooge and Flintheart didn't know him and the relation you suggested would explain that. Scrooge was never interested in his uncle's genealogy and the same for "Flinty". […] I suggest that Glomgold to be Flintheart's father's distant cousin, this would explain better the fact he had never heard about him. We can also suggest names for Quagmire's daughters since we are here; what about Margaret and Elizabeth?

JL: This all looks good to me. Margaret and Elizabeth are fine as well. 

SC: And what about making "Bogey" just a nick? He might be called […] "Bogford" […] or a more common Scottish name […]. What do you think about?

JL:  As for "Bogey" being a nickname...well, I suppose it could. Just so you know, though, Bogey is a golf term. (As is the "divot" in McDivot.) How about Bogford?

SC: I looked for the names in Google and I found that they were related to golf, good idea. I like the name Bogford, it sounds British.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we can say that now we have the answers we were looking for: Bogey McDivot is the son of Scrooge's great-uncle Quagmire McDuck's daughter Elizabeth, whose sister Margaret has married Flintheart's father's second cousin. That's all!

BONUS PART

While I was writing this essay, I found on the web the statuette of a golf player called Fergus “Bogey” McDivot.

I told John and he commented: “Ha! I'm surprised, but not shocked. It's such a natural for a golfing name. […] Funny.”

Literature:

• Heirloom Watch, Carl Barks, 1955
• Family of Fore, John Lustig, 2001
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The images here used are (C) Disney