Beagle Boys

DisneyChar
name =The Beagle Boys


image caption = A Beagle family photo, as seen in "DuckTales". From left to right: Burger, Baggy, Bouncer, Bigtime, Ma Beagle, Bugle, Bankjob, and Babyface.
first appearance =Walt Disney's Comics and Stories issue 134
created by =Carl Barks
voiced by =Frank Welker, Chuck McCann, Peter Cullen, Terry McGovern, Brian Cummings
aliases =
relatives = Ma Beagle, Beagle Babes, Beagle Brats, Blackheart Beagle
friends =
enimes =Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, Super GoofThe Beagle Boys are a group of fictional characters from the Scrooge McDuck universe loosely based on the popular image of Ma Barker and the Barker-Karpis Gang. They are a gang of criminals who constantly try to rob Scrooge McDuck and were created by Carl Barks. Their introduction and first appearance was in "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" #134.

The Beagle Boys have lots of relatives who count each other as brothers and cousins: apart from Ma Beagle, there are the Beagle Brats (sons or nephews), the Beagle Babes (older generation which happens to be a trio of female cousins and a younger generation which happens to be their daughters or nieces) and their grandfather Blackheart Beagle. The brains of the Beagle clan is Intellectual-176 (or I-176) who wears a mortar-board cap and glasses over his black mask. Grandma & Grandpa Beagle have appeared in the strips at various times.

Beagle Boys in comics

In the comics, the individual Beagle Boys are referred to by their prison numbers, indicated on the tags seen on the chests of their distinctive red shirts (which appeared as orange in the comics). The three most common numbers are 176-167, 176-671, and 176-761. In fact, no digits other than one, six, or seven appeared on their prison ID tags. Carl Barks used to include the words "Beagle Boys Inc" on their shirts under their numbers, which was later deleted. In later years, they appeared in the comics as a trio (some combination of the most common numbers with 671-176, 716-617 and 176-176), plus cousins and other relatives of various talents as spin-off characters. They live in a small tumbledown hide-out in Duckburg; in 1980s American-produced stories, their pet cat Ratty often lived there as well.

According to Don Rosa's "Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck", Scrooge first met The Beagle Boys in his Mississippi riverboat days. Those Beagle Boys included Blackheart Beagle and his three sons. Scrooge first met the modern Beagle Boys during Christmas 1947, which was when he first met his grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie and met his nephew Donald for the second time. Since then the Beagle Boys have been a constant threat to Scrooge's huge money bin.

Sometimes they team up with other villains such as Magica De Spell, Black Pete, Mad Madam Mim, or hire out their services to Flintheart Glomgold, Ollie Eiderduck or John Rockerduck. During these occasions, it should be noted, they continue to operate out of their own interests rather than their employers.

In the comics, the Beagle Boys are led by their grandfather, Blackheart Beagle (number 186-802). The Blackheart character origined with two characters created by Carl Barks: Blackheart Beagle, a riverboat pirate from "The Fantastic River Race" and Grandpa Beagle, who appeared in "The Money Bin". Don Rosa later combined the character into one in chapters 10 and 11 of "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck". Many other authors use a character purely based on "The Money Bin" version as the Beagle Boys' grandfather. In particular, Italian authors use a "Grandpa Beagle" who differs from Blackheart in being much skinnier and constantly smoking a pipe.

Sometimes, they antagonize Super Goof, Mickey Mouse, or some other characters from Walt Disney's comic books.

Although the characters are obviously based on dogs, they in no way resemble the actual beagle breed.

Beagle Boys in "DuckTales"

On "DuckTales", the Beagle Boys were given names and different personalities. The usual character combination is Bigtime, Burger, and Bouncer, and sometimes Baggy, or Babyface, Bugle, and Bankjob. Other known names are Bomber and Blitzkrieg. Their leader is usually Bigtime, Bankjob, or their mother, Ma Beagle. In other words, the letter B is the first initial of all Beagle Boys' handles except Megabyte, the brains of the bunch.

"DuckTales" Beagles

There were many Beagle Boys on "DuckTales", but the most common seven consisted of:

Other Beagle Boys consisted of:
* Megabyte Beagle is the mechanical genius of the clan, and the only one whose name doesn't begin with the letter "B". He appeared in the five-part serial "Super DuckTales", in which he made a remote control with which to take control of GizmoDuck. He has a habit of confusing his companions with his technobabble, forcing them to make him "say it in Beagle talk!" Surprisingly, he didn't seem to have a comeuppance. Ma Beagle comments that she paid for him to go to college with stolen money paid off. His voice was done by Frank Welker.
*Bomber Beagle looks a lot like Bankjob in that he has a similar jawline and is very large. He appears in less episodes and is more intelligent than most of the other brothers. He is also a skilled pilot as seen in the episode "Top Duck" (episode 16).
*Backwards Beagle is one the smaller and the only Beagle who wears a full moustache. He has a strong Canadian accent and is the twin brother of Binky Beagle and Bacon Beagle. Backwards wears a Davy Crocket-like trapper's outfit as opposed to the normal jailhouse outfit of the Beagleboys. He is also the only person who is able to understand Bacon Beagle.
*Binky Beagle is a probably the only Beagleboy who is never seen speaking. He is roughly the same size as Baggy Beagle, wears a lumberjack outfit and has a full beard. He lives with Backwards and Bacon Beagle in the Ducky Mountains
*Bacon Beagle is the only Beagle boy who is not a Beagle. Bacon is in fact a pig. When Glomgold asked how he could be a Beagle Boy, Backwards explains that Bacon had a bad case of the swineflu as a child. Bacon cannot speak, but his oinks and grunts are, instead, translated by Backwards Beagle.

Cameo Beagles
*Bullseye Beagle
*Bulkhead Beagle
*Butterball Beagle

External links

*Inducks character|BB
* [http://ducktales.aniworld.ru/duckburg/beagles/1.htm Virtual journey in the Beagle Boys' hut]