Blackheart Beagle

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Blackheart Beagle

Blackheart, drawn by Don Rosa

First appearance	The Fantastic River Race, 1952
Created by	Carl Barks

Blackheart Beagle is a fictional character in the Scrooge McDuck universe, created by Carl Barks.

Blackheart Beagle and Scrooge McDuck first encountered each other in 1880 at Louisville when Blackheart was hired by the river boat gambler Porker Hogg to get rid of Angus McDuck (whom Scrooge was working for) in exchange for Hogg's fastest riverboat, the "River Witch" while Hogg tried to find the treasure of the "Drennan Whyte" before Pothole would. After Blackeart succeeded to wreck Pothole's boat he betrayed Hogg and threw him overboard and planned to find the treasure by himself. He is however beaten by Scrooge and sent to prison along with his sons, thinking that they would never have to bother robbing Scrooge McDuck again. His three sons would later become the fathers of generation of Beagle Boys who often appear in Scrooge McDuck stories.

Blackheart is arguably identical with Grandpa Beagle, the Beagle Boys grandfather who acts as the leader of the gang in Italian stories. Grandpa Beagle is recognized by his usually skinny appearance (in fact, all the Beagle Boys are much skinnier in Italian stories) and pipe-smoking. He is undoubtly smarter than his grandsons.

Blackheart has the convict number 186-802 and is married to Grandma Beagle, but she is never shown.

Blackheart is the only beagle in the comics that actually has a name while his sons and grandsons are referred to by their prison numbers.

[edit] Combination of two characters

The modern Blackheart Beagle arises from two different characters from Carl Barks's stories: Blackheart Beagle, a riverboat pirate from the story The Fantastic River Race (which takes place in the past), and "Grandpa Beagle", who appeares in The Money Well (the Italian version of grandpa Beagle is mostly based on the latter). Don Rosa shows in chapter 10 and 11 of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck that Blackheart Beagle is just a younger version of Grandpa Beagle. This means that both The Fantastic River Race and The Money Well can be considered Blackheart's debut stories.