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Carl Barks



Carl Barks retired in 1966 but was persuaded by editor Chase Craig to script stories for Western. The last new comic book story drawn by Carl Barks was a Daisy Duck tale (The Dainty Daredevil) published in Walt Disney Comics Digest issue 5 (Nov. 1968). When bibliographer Michael Barrier asked Barks about why he drew it, Barks' vague recollection was no one was available and he was asked to do it as a favor by editor Chase Craig.

He wrote one Uncle Scrooge story, three Donald Duck stories and from 1970-1974 was the main writer for the Junior Woodchucks comic book (issues 6 through 25). The latter included environmental themes that Barks first explored in 1957 ["Land of the Pygmy Indians", Uncle Scrooge #18]. Barks also sold a few sketches to Western that were redrawn as covers. For a time they lived in Goleta, California before returning to the inland empire by moving to Temecula.

At the urging of fan Glenn Bray, Barks requested and obtained permission from Disney to produce and sell oil paintings of scenes from his stories. These paintings quickly became highly sought after and their price rocketed much to Barks' astonishment.

Ode to the Disney Ducks

They ride tall ships to the far away,
and see the long ago.
They walk where fabled people trod,
and Yetis trod the snow.

They meet the folks who live on stars,
and find them much like us,
With food and love and happiness the
things they most discuss.

The world is full of clans and cults
abuzz as angry bees,
And Junior Woodchucks snapping jeers
at Littlest Chickadees.

The ducks show us that part of life
is to forgive a slight.
That black eyes given in revenge
keep hatred burning bright.

So when our walks in sun or shade
pass graveyards filled by wars,
It's nice to stop and read of ducks
whose battles leave no scars.

To read of ducks who parody
our vain attempts at glory,
They don't exist, but somehow leave
us glad we bought their story.
Carl Barks – 1999

In 1976 Carl and Garé attended their first comic book convention, New Con in Boston. Among the other attendees was famed Little Lulu comic book scripter John Stanley; despite both having worked for Western Publishing this was the first time they met. The highlight of the convention was the auctioning of what was to that time the largest duck oil painting Barks had done, "The Fourth of July in Duckburg", which included depictions of several prominent Barks fans and collectors. It sold for a then record high amount: $6,400.

Soon thereafter a fan sold unauthorized prints of some of the Scrooge McDuck paintings, leading Disney to withdraw permission for further paintings. To meet demand for new work Barks embarked on a series of paintings of non-Disney ducks and fantasy subjects such as Beowulf and Xerxes. These were eventually collected in the limited-edition book Animal Quackers.

As the result of heroic efforts by Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz and screenwriter Edward Summer, Disney relented and in 1981, allowed Barks to do a now seminal oil painting called "Wanderers of Wonderlands" for a breakthrough limited edition book entitled "Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life and Times." The book collected 11 classic Barks stories of Uncle Scrooge colored by artist Peter Ledger along with a new Scrooge story by Barks done storybook style with watercolor illustrations, Go Slowly, Sands of Time. After being turned down by every major publisher in New York City, Kurtz and Summer published the book through Celestial Arts which Kurtz acquired partly for this purpose. The book went on to become the model for virtually every important collection of comic book stories. It was the first book of its kind ever reviewed in Time Magazine and subsequently in Newsweek, and the first book review in Time Magazine with large color illustrations.

In 1977 and 1982 Barks attended the legendary San Diego Comic Con. As with his appearance in Boston, the response to his presence was overwhelming, with long lines of fans waiting to meet Barks and get his autograph.

In this period Disney also licensed a series of art prints of Barks' duck paintings released by Another Rainbow, which also produced a 30 volume hardbound Carl Barks Library including all the stories (in black and white) with accompanying scholarly commentary. Barks relocated one last time to Grants Pass, Oregon near where he grew up, partly at the urging of friend and Broom Hilda artist Russell Myers who lives in the area. The move also was motivated, Barks stated in another famous quip, by Temecula being too close to Disneyland and thus facilitating a growing torrent of drop-in visits by vacationing fans. In this period Barks made only one public appearance, at a comic book shop near Grants Pass.

From 1993-1998 the Carl Barks Studio guided Barks' career. This involved numerous projects and activities, including a tour of 11 European countries in 1994, Iceland being the first foreign country he ever visited, appearances at several Disneyana conventions and the release of prints of paintings along with high-end art objects (such as tiles and statutes) based on designs by Barks. This period was unfortunately also marked by Grandey's and Morby's hostile attitude towards Don Rosa and his loyalty towards Barks' classic works. Before the days of Carl Barks Studio Rosa and Barks had a constructive dialog when Don Rosa worked on his Donald Duck Family Tree.

In 1997 tensions between Barks and the Studio eventually resulted in a lawsuit that was settled with an agreement that included the disbanding of the Studio. The following year 1998 Barks invited Don Rosa to his home in Grants Pass, Oregon. During this meeting which took place on August 12th 1998, the two seems to have worked things out. (Michael Naiman: A Journey to Duckburg, Uncle $crooge #317, januar 1999).

Austrian Artist Gottfried Helnwein curated and organized the first museum-exhibition of Carl Barks. Between 1994 and 1998 the retrospective was shown in 10 European Museums and seen by more than 400 000 visitors.[4]

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Final days

Still living in a new home in Grants Pass, Oregon which he and Garé had built next door to their original home, Barks died in 2000 at the age of 99 just a few months short of his 100th birthday and a couple of years after Garé passed away.

Although he was undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia he was, according to caregiver Serene Hunickle, "funny up to the end."

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Barks' influence

Barks' Donald Duck stories were rated #7 on Comic's Journal list of 100 top comics; his Uncle Scrooge stories were rated #20.

For the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have acknowledged the rolling boulder booby trap was inspired by the 1954 Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge adventure the Seven Cities of Cibola (Uncle Scrooge #7). Lucas and Spielberg have also made comments that some of Barks' stories regarding space travel and the depiction of aliens had an influence on them. [2] Lucas wrote the foreword to the 1982 "Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life and Times". In it he calls Barks’ stories "cinematic" and "a priceless part of our literary heritage".

The Walt Disney Treasures DVD set Chronological Donald, Volume 2 includes a salute to Barks.

Carl Barks has an asteroid named after him, 2730 Barks. A Cornell scientist was inspired by Barks's tale "Island in the Sky".

A 1949 Donald Duck ten-pager features Donald raising a yacht from the ocean floor by filling it with ping pong balls. In December 1965 Karl Krøyer, a Dane, lifted the sunken freight vessel Al Kuwait in the Kuwait Harbor by filling the hull with 27 million tiny inflatable balls of polystyrene[5]. Although the suggestion is often made, Krøyer denies having been inspired by this Barks story. Some sources claim Krøyer was denied a Dutch patent registration (application number NL 6514306) for his invention on the grounds that the Barks story was a prior publication of the invention. However no definite proof of this story is available.[6][7] Krøyer later successfully raised another ship off Greenland using the same method, and several other sunken vessels worldwide have since been raised by modified versions of this concept. The television show MythBusters also tested this method and was able to raise a small boat.

For those currently drawing Disney Duck comics, the influence of Barks cannot be overstated. For artists such as Daan Jippes and Freddy Milton, Barks' comics have made a great impact.

Don Rosa, one of the currently most popular Disney artists, and possibly the one who has been most keen on connecting the various stories into a coherent universe and chronology, considers (with few exceptions) all Barks' duck stories as canon, and all others as apocryphal. Rosa has said that a number of novelists and movie-makers cite Carl Barks as their 'major influence and inspiration'. [3]

The popularity of Barks' work in Europe is high, and has been that way for years. When the news of Barks' passing was hardly covered by the press in America, "in Europe the sad news was flashed instantly across the airwaves and every newspaper - they realized the world had lost one of the most beloved, influential and well-known creators in international culture."[4]

Dozens of noted comic book artists have taken up elements of Barks' style, especially his ink and pen work.[citation needed] In the US elements of Barks' oil painting style of the ducks were evident in the computer animated, 3-D look Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas released to video in 2005.[citation needed]

The video game Donald Duck Going Quackers is dedicated to the memory of Carl Barks.

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Bibliography

  • Coo Coo #1, Hamilton Comics, 1997 (a facsimile of one of the racy magazines Barks did cartoons for in the thirties).
  • Our Gang comics #11-36 (May/June 1944-June 1947). Eight-page stories teaming Metro Goldwyn Mayer cartoon stars Barney Bear and Benny Burro that are his one substantial non-Disney series.
  • Carl Barks Library, 1984-1990, 30 hardback volumes in black and white published by Another Rainbow.
  • Carl Barks Library (graphic album format, in color) 1992-1998
  • The Collected Works of Carl Barks 2005+, 30 volume limited edition published by Egmont for Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany. Edited by Barks expert Geoffrey Blum.

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Notable stories

Partial (up to December, 1951) chronological List of Disney comics by Carl Barks.

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Awards

  • The Shazam Award for Best Writer (Humor Division) in 1970
  • The Academy of Comic Book Arts Hall of Fame Award in 1973
  • The Inkpot in 1977 from the San Diego Comic Con
  • Inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame in 1987.
  • The Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Writer in 1996.
  • The Walt Disney Company bestowed a Duckster award in 1971 and their Disney Legends award in 1991
  • The series Carl Barks Library received the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Novel/Album for 1996.

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References

  1. ^ Morten Harper. Den gode tegneren, quote TEGN, 1994. tegneserier.no.(Norwegian)
  2. ^ [1], Lucas comments on the influence of Bark's style of story flow.
  3. ^ [2], Rosa's comments on Barks
  4. ^ [3], Rosa's estimation of Barks' popularity in Europe

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Further reading

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External links




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