Accidentally-Correct Writing: Whether Rosa meant it or not, we can't be certain, but his depiction of the Whiskervilles dashing harmlessly across quicksand in their panic in "The Last of Clan McDuck" is scientifically accurate, as quicksand is a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning that one can run across it without sinking into it.
Creator Backlash: Don Rosa claims he didn't like thinking of "Of Ducks, Dimes, and Destinies" as a Stable Time Loop, with Magica unintentionally behind the origin of Scrooge's fortune. He prefers to believe that Magica undoing the effects of her Time Travel undid her time travel trip entirely.
Creator-Driven Successor: Don Rosa and fans consider A Letter from Home, where Scrooge returns to Castle McDuck, reconciles with Matilda, and finds a message his father left for him before he died as a sequel/conclusion to the series.
Disowned Adaptation: Disowned is too harsh a word, but when Carl Barks heard about Don Rosa attempting to write Scrooge's biography using all his references, he reportedly thought it an impossible task and that the idea of him creating an official continuity was him somewhat missing the point of Duck-stories.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: This was once one of the most sought after comics in the Disney stable. Collected editions of the graphic novel at one point regularly reached multiple hundreds of dollars in price, as it was out of print for several years until Fantagraphics re-published the series in Volumes 4 and 5 of The Don Rosa Library in 2015-16, and as a standalone edition in 2019. Then in 2023, Don Rosa revealed that Disney no longer plans to republish the story in its entirety because of the presence of the character Bombie the zombie, which is considered a racist stereotype.
Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: An over-sized Deluxe Edition of the Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (Collecting both The Original Main Story and All the later Side-adventures) came out in October 2021. It cost $250 and it came with an commemorative coin and it was left to the reader to choose which side should face forward on the slip-case: A Duckified 1875 Lady Columbia side or a 1875 Number One Dime side.
Missing Episode: In 2023, Don Rosa revealed that Disney has decided to ban chapter 11, "The Empire-Builder from Calisota", from all future re-releases. The reason for this would be the presence of the character Bombie the Zombie, which is considered a racist stereotype and it would be impossible to cut the character without changing much of the art or story. This ends up causing problems for new readers, as this story is essential to explaining why Scrooge's family broke ties with him.
The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Rosa wrote and drew "Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies" in 1991, just as one of his editors, Nancy Dejgaard, asked him to become the creator of Life and Times itself. As a consequence "ODDD" got shelved due to the story covering much of the same events as "Last of the Clan McDuck", and was only published in 1995 after Life and Times had been completed in its entirety.
Shrug of God: In regards to The Prisoner Of White Agony Creek.
"I still never show exactly what happened that long night in the cabin on White Agony Creek... that's for each of us duck fans to imagine in our own minds. I have my own idea, but after all, this is a Disney comic!"
Rosa's drafts show several changes such as: a cut sequence telling the whole history of the Clan McDuck, a Cat Fight between Goldie and a middle-aged Grandma Duck, and Scrooge's sisters never accompanying him when he attacks the voodoo village in the Congo.
Many of these are (usually positive) cases of Executive Meddling. Egmont editor Byron Erickson persuaded Rosa for example to drop the seven-page prologue of dense family history (the story should be centered on Scrooge) and to completely rewrite chapters 3 and 8 (the first drafts were rather lame).
When Scrooge and Goldie have their fight in the cabin that suddenly... stops, Don Rosa wanted to draw the snow on the rooftop melting, but figured it would be the line with the censors he couldn't cross. (It does occur a page later though.)
"The Dream of a Lifetime" was originally planned as a time-travel story, but Don Rosa realized he needed Scrooge to know who Donald and the new generation of Beagle Boys were when they visited his past, hence it turned into a dream-visit story instead.
Working Title: Several chapters underwent title changes in the development process:
Chapter VI ("The Terror of the Transvaal") was originally "The Prey of the Transvaal Viper".note Changed at the request of Rosa's editor, who thought the original title was too negative. Note that the villain is referred to as "a viper" several times in the story.
Chapter VIII ("The King of the Klondike"), started as "The Phoenix of White Agony Creek", and then changed to "The Argonaut of White Agony Creek"note the title it goes by in European markets before settling on the current title.
Finally, chapter IX ("The Billionaire of Dismal Downs") was originally "The Pariah of Dismal Downs".
Provides images for:
Slap-Slap-KissandKiss-Kiss-Slap ("The Prisoner of White Agony Creek")note These two trope images actually share a frame, as the scene in question zig-zags the two tropes.
. It cost $250 and it came with an commemorative coin and it was left to the reader to choose which side should face forward on the slip-case: A Duckified 1875 Lady Columbia side or a 1875 Number One Dime side.