King Tutanbuono was a human man.
Description[]
King Tutanbuono was the Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt around 2800 B.C.. Widely considered a tyrant (and admitting himself, with seeming pride, that his word was worth nothing), Tutanbuono was obsessed with building pyramid after pyramid, not just as tombs, but as monuments to his glory. Two of his Royal Apothecaries schemed to overthrow him and ban slavery, and fed him a poison that froze him in time for nearly five thousand years before sealing him in a sarcophagus which they hid within one of his own pyramids.
The sarcophagus was found, however, and, owing to its gold plating, eventually came to be part of Scrooge McDuck's collection of treasures, stored in his Private Museum. By coincidence, the collection also included an ancient golden coin on which were inscribed the magic words Tutcom-Baktu-Uss, which would revive the petrified. One fine day in 1973, Scrooge McDuck himself read the words aloud on whim, and was promptly attacked by the enraged Tutanbuono.
Scrooge managed to knock him out cold and took him to Gyro Gearloose, who used an invention of his to implant knowledge of English in Tutanbuono's brain. Learning that he had the resources to take him back in time, Tutanbuono tricked Scrooge into believing he was a righteous ruler, and the apothecaries dangerous power-seekers. The Duckburgian adventurer fell for it and had Gyro get Tutanbuono "home" with his Time Machine. Back home, the Pharaoh had the traitors arrested, and his saviors with them. Uninterested in the Time Machine but unwilling to leave it lying around for anyone wishing to undermine him to find, he hid it within his pyramid.
Scrooge, Gyro and Donald managed to get their machine back and escape, but did not do anything to depose King Tutanbuono, who likely continued to oppress the people of Egypt until his death.
By the 21st century, he was known to Joe Torcivia, who reassured the Trio of the Talking Turkeys that they had little chance to run into the man during their stay in the Ennead of the Eigengrau Easter Eggs's Egyptian summer home.
Behind the scenes[]
King Tutanbuono appears as the primary antagonist of the 1973 story Money is the Root of Upheaval. He was only ever mentioned again in an in-character comment on Joe Torcivia's The Issue At Hand.
His English name (courtesy of Joe Torcivia) mashes up the name of the famous historical pharaoh King Tutankhamun with that of actor Victor Buono, who portrayed a supervillain calling himself King Tut, and not dissimilar to King Tutanbuono, in the 1960's Batman TV series starring Adam West.