Jesse James |
Frank James |
| Jesse Woodson
James ( 1847 - 1882 ) |
and | Alexander Franklin
"Frank" James ( 1843 - 1915 ) |
|
Jesse James |
Frank James |
| * List of the stories
they appear in :
- W OS 386 : "Only a Poor Old Man", from 1951, by Carl Barks (by name only) ; - W US 70-02 : "The Doom Diamond", from 1966, by Carl Barks (by name only) ; - D 92008 : "The Buckaroo of the Badlands" (Lo$#3), from 1992, by Don Rosa ; - D 96089 : "The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff" (Lo$ #6b), from 1996, by Don Rosa (Jesse only, by name only). |
* Their biography :
Alexander Franklin James was born on January
10, 1843 in Clay County, Missouri, and Jesse Woodson James was born
on September 5, 1847, at the same place. Their father, the Reverend Robert
James, was a Baptist minister.
They learned to kill during the Civil War, with
Quantrill's
Confederate Guerilla Raiders.
In 1866, they founded the James Gang, along with
other men from Quantrill's Guerillas.
This gang was responsible of many bank robberies, train robberies and
stagecoach robberies from 1866 through 1881.
The James Gang loved to travel as they roamed Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa,
Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, Minnesota, Colorado, Illinois, and Alabama with
their miraculous escapades drawing experience from Quantrills Guerillas
training
Living under the assumed names of J.D. or Thomas
Howard in Nashville, Tennessee, Jesse James lived quite peacefully
out of sight from his enemies. He was an outlaw à la Robin Hood.
Jesse James was murdered by Bob Ford on April 3, 1882.
Frank James died in Kearney,Clay, Montana, on February 15, 1915, after
30 years of life during which he stopped being an outlaw (farmer, shoe
salesman, race track starter, circus man,...).
Today Jesse and Frank James are among the best-known Americans
in the world.
They were distantly related to the Dalton
brothers.
* Their place in the Barks/Rosa stories universe
:
First, in "Only a Poor Old Man", Scrooge,
talking about his past life, says he "gummed up the James Gang and
outfoxed the Daltons".
Then, in "The Doom Diamond",
a Beagle Boys evocates them, telling something like "What would theJames
Brothers think about poor illicit little burglar like us?"
Then, they appear in "The Buckaroo of the Badlands"
: young Scrooge is in a train which goes to the West, when this train
is attacked by the James Brothers. But Scrooge finally defeats them
and the Jesse tells Frank that they should move to Missouri.
This story must take place in early 1882, as Jesse was in Boot Hill by
spring of that year. Don Rosa put these characters in this story in order
to make a reference to Barks' "Only a Poor Old Man".
In "The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff",
Pothole McDuck evocates Jesse James reading one of the stories he wrote.
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