With these comic villains, rehabilitation is a wasted effort: The tank crackers are the heart of the underworld of Duckburg. Somewhat worrying: no one knows exactly how many of them there are.
Berlin – “Harharhar!” Donald Duck fans know immediately who this is about when this lousy laugh is made: the gang from the Walt Disney world has its 70th birthday.
Comic artist legend Carl Barks had the Beagle Boys, as they are originally called, appear in the USA for the first time in November 1951, as announced by the publisher Egmont Ehapa in Berlin. In Germany the story later appeared as “Donald Duck and his rich uncle in America”. At that time, a large cannon was supposed to keep the escapees from Dagobert Duck’s money storage.
Because for 70 years the clique with dog noses, floppy ears, three-day beards, Zoro masks and red turtlenecks has always had only one big goal in life: to get Scrooge McDuck’s immense fortune.
How many tank crackers are there?
What have the notorious criminals with the convict numbers 176-167, 176-176, 176-617, 176-671, 176-716 and 176-761 already tried to do something crooked? As a diver, as a road worker or with a huge vacuum cleaner: In the end, the more ingenious plans were always just as unsuccessful as the dullest ones. The floppy ears were caught with beautiful regularity. Incidentally, like so many charming inventions in Duckburg, the German name comes from the translator Erika Fuchs.
How many tank crackers there are is still a mystery to Donaldism researchers. Counts on cartoon images range from 5 to 13 criminal dogs. So far so good. But then mathematics comes into play. Because for so many villains, the six common combinations of their prisoner numbers, which are usually clearly visible on the sweater, are actually not enough. Already with Carl Barks a seventh cracker was consequently only visible at the edge, so that its number could not be recognized.
The Funny Pocket Book (LTB) dedicates an entire issue to the crooks from November 5th: In the LTB Duck Edition Volume 72 “The Art of Cracking” the tank crackers are in constant use on 336 pages. And from November 9th, LTB number 552 “70 Years of Panzerknacker” will be in stores. dpa
