Twilight vampire is fiction's richest man

Thanks to supernatural stockmarket practices, Carlisle Cullen is fiction's richest character. Photo / Supplied

As the world recovers from the global financial crisis of 2008, the fortunes of the rich, famous and fictional have rebounded in a similar fashion.

Forbes magazine has released its annual ranking of fiction's richest people, which this year includes six new characters.

The nine returning members have an aggregate net worth of $112.2 billion, an increase of 9% on 2009's figures.

The 2010 Fictional 15 is led by Carlisle Cullen, the patriarch of Twilight's coven of vampires, who has accumulated a personal fortune of $47.9 billion during his 370-year lifetime.

Cullen's fortune stems largely from long-term investments planned with the help of his adopted daughter, Alice, who is able to give excellent stock advice because of her ability to see into the future.

A first-time entry onto the list, Cullen poses as a small-town doctor in the US state of Washington.

Scrooge McDuck (Duck Tales, $47.1 billion) and Jed Clampett (The Beverly Hillbillies, $10.1 billion) enjoyed a fruitful year thanks to surges in the gold and oil sectors.

Notable names falling off the list were Wall Street's Gordon Gekko - who found that greed was not as good as he had preached - and Star Wars villain Jabba the Hutt.

The magazine said he was found dead "under salacious circumstances."

* The Forbes Fictional 15

1: Carlisle Cullen - Twilight
US$34.1bn

2: Scrooge McDuck - Duck Tales
US$33.5bn

3: Richie Rich - comic book hero
US$11.5bn

4: Tony Stark - Iron Man
US$8.8bn

5: Jed Clampett - The Beverly Hillbillies
US$7.2bn

6: Adrian "Ozymandias" Veidt - Watchmen
US$7bn

7: Bruce Wayne - Batman
US$6.5bn

8: Tooth Fairy - Traditional character
US$3.9bn

9: Thurston Howell III - Gilligan's Island
US$2.1bn

10: Sir Topham Hatt - Thomas the Tank Engine
US$2bn

11: Artemis Fowl - Artemis Fowl novels
US$1.9bn

12: C. Montgomery Burns - The Simpsons
US$1.3bn

13: Chuck Bass - Gossip Girl
US$1.1bn

14: Jay Gatsby - The Great Gatsby
US$1bn

15: Lucille Bluth - Arrested Development
US$950m

- NZ HERALD ONLINE