John D. Rockerduck

John D. Rockerduck
John D. Rockerduck
First appearance	Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #255 Boat Buster, 1961
Created by	Carl Barks
Aliases	Roller Dollar（as a supervillain）

John D. Rockerduck is a fictional character from the Duck universe. He is one of Scrooge McDuck's main rivals. His name is a play on that of John D. Rockefeller, the American capitalist and philanthropist. Though a relatively obscure character in the United States, Rockerduck is an example of a character who has become notable in the foreign market, particularly in stories produced for the Italian market.

Rockerduck was created by Carl Barks, who used him in one story: Boat Buster, first published in December, 1961. In that story, he was portrayed as an oil tycoon who argued with Scrooge McDuck, portrayed in that story as another oil tycoon, over which one of them made the best gasoline. To settle this, Scrooge and John agreed each one to enter a boat at an upcoming race. Scrooge was so confident of his victory he said he could win regardless of who was driving his boat. Trying to prove his point, Scrooge randomly picked somebody from the crowd watching their argument but lost confidence when the somebody happened to be Donald Duck. To increase his chances of victory, Scrooge saw to it that all other boats in the race (there were a hundred boats counting Donald's and John's) were powered by his gasoline. Near the end, several boats (Donald's included) crashed and a loose motor pushed him into the finish line in the first place. Scrooge claimed victory but Rockerduck pointed out they first must find out whose gasoline was powering that motor. Despite the odds being for Scrooge, the motor happened to be the one powered by John Rockerduck's gasoline. Rockerduck was jumping in celebration while an enraged Scrooge chased Donald.

The character has rarely appeared in American stories but appears regularly in Latin American and European stories, and especially in Italian ones. He also appeared in stories produced by the now defunct Disney Studio Program. His first appearance in an Italian story was Zio Paperone e il kiwi volante ("Uncle Scrooge and the flying kiwi") by Giampaolo Barosso and Giorgio Bordini, first published on March 1, 1963. After this, the Disney Studio Program developed the character, and since then the Italian creators have further developed Rockerduck and explored various aspects of his relationship with Scrooge.