Talk:Carl Barks

Cruddy writing

Why is there reference (unsourced) to his former wife Clara swinging whiskey bottles at him? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.218.229.154 (talk) 23:23, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

It adds color and is accurate; it is mentioned in Michael Barrier's book. Dgabbard (talk) 04:18, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

First Disney story

How do you define "First Disney story"? Before Pirate's Gold he drew that Pluto Story; the first story he wrote for comics was the 2nd ten pager.

The first piece of comic Barks contributed to is (according to the best of our knowledge) a DD daily strip gag from 1938 for which he sold a gag idea. The second one is "Pluto Saves the ship" which he co-wrote with Jack Hannah and Nick George (1942). The third one is "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold" for which he drew half of the art with Jack Hannah (1942). The fourth one is "The victory garden", a Donald Duck 10-pager which he drew entirely (he also heavily rewrote the script that was submitted to him) in 1943. The fifth one is "The Lucky Rabbit Foot", a DD ten-pager which is the first he entirely wrote and drew. There are probably a few more Daily strip gag ideas that Barks sold in the late 30s-beginning of the 40s, but we will probably never know which one. The specialists suggest that the strip of 7/30, 1940 is one of them. Please see the Inducks database for the full accurate information. Herve661

Can someone explain how Barks contributed to The Plastics Inventor in 1944, if he left the Studio in 1942? RickK 07:55 26 Jul 2003 (UTC)

He left the Studio at 1943 while he had worked on the production of several shorts that weren't released yet. But the Plastics Inventor is not usualy mentioned as one of them. Perhaps he contributed to the plot? User: Dimadick

Mentioning the ancestry of the person who serves as the subject of an article is rather standar use in the Wikipedia. See for example the articles on Dickens, Disney and Emperor Norton I. It doesn't serve as a geneology but just mentions their family background for those interested. It doesn't mean that each of the mentioned persons gets his own article. Any other ideas of what to add to the article? User: Dimadick

I disagree with the Disney info, but at least his family has their own articles. The Dickens info is excessive, and the Norton info especially so. I will delete the birth and death dates and the bolding. If you want to create separate articles about the ancestors, then please give us info in this article, otherwise, what do they add? RickK 08:37 26 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I am going to mention their names and some of their decisions a the following paragraph and till the end of his school days so they might as well be listed at the beginning of his biography. Birth and death dates just contribute to an understanding of what generation they belong to. Wikipedia has several articles on American Generations. For example Carl himself is listed among the G.I. Generation. See those articles it. User: Dimadick

The successor

Would it be of any relevance to mention that Don Rosa is widely regarded as Barks' spiritual successor? In fact, Rosa idolizes Barks' style to the point that his confessed goal is to make their styles indistinguishable - and he usually succeeds. - 200.195.88.155

Could be, but Barks has had many successors. My own favourite is probably Daan Jippes. He maintains the same energy and movement in his comics as in the older Barks' stories. Personally, I think Rosa's style is quite stiff and lacking in emotion.

I met Rosa twice, and as he said, his style is very different from Barks, although he tried to follow Barks. There is a huge difference between the two, especially on personalities. And there are also many different successors, I agree that Jippes (with Fred Milton) is one of the closest. Herve661 19:14, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

I think every duckburgian artist can be praised as Bark's successor. Don Rosa itself can be regarded as successor since his story often referred to Carl Bark's stories. The same discussion also appear in Talk:Don Rosa. Kunderemp 23:30, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Info from Only A Poor Old Man

Hopefully there are some editors who watch this page. I don't know where to put this info. It should be merged into this article per Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Only A Poor Old Man. Thanks. --Fang Aili ^說嗎? 04:46, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Only A Poor Old Man is a Donald Duck story written by Carl Barks in March 1952.

Don't worry, look on fr.wiki at Category:Carl Barks' Story. Sebjarod 10:12, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Barks and Andersen

It was Will Eisner who called Barks the HC Andersen of comics - I read that in a book, but I can't find it on the internet. 96T 11:16, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[1] (in Norwegian, unfortunately). If you could find out what book, that's an adequate citation too. Sam Vimes | Address me 11:34, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

This is not a reliable source and it is not even available any more (Morten Harper. "Den gode tegneren, quote TEGN, 1994" (in Norwegian). tegneserier.no. Archived from the original on 2007-10-15.). I added an alternative source for the claim that Barks has been compared to Andersen. Needless to say that the claim that Eisner made this claim first has not been verified yet. --Omnipaedista (talk) 02:31, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

"Fantagraphics Books called him "the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books.""   Well, in the reference that you show (reference number 2), Fantagraphics is CITING Will Eisner for calling Barks "the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books."! Benadikt (talk) 09:09, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

Censorship pre-80s

There were some Bark Stories in 50s and 60s which have been censored and redrawn such as "The Darkest Africa". Eric Shanower warned the reader in his recommendation. If someone know which stories were being redrawn, I think it would be interesting to put in wikipedia. I only knew one, "Darkest Africa", when the villain went to native village to hire some men. Kunderemp 23:41, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

It is a rather complicated situation. In some cases, Barks' work was censored by his publisher before publication (such as the 5 page sequence cut from "Back to the Klondike"). He also sometimes dropped pages to tighten and improve a story. Kim Weston's article "My Secret Life By Scrooge McDuck - Or, The Unpublished Carl Barks", published in Funnyworld no. 16 (1975) and distilled into Michael Barrier's Carl Barks and the Art of the Comic Book is the authority on this topic. Disney has also in contemporary times mandated some changes, although the redrawing you cite when "Darkest Africa" was published in the Carl Barks Library was actually because there was no good source material and they had to use inked tracings (albeit rather poor ones). Dgabbard (talk) 01:19, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

On the web, you may have a look here and here. Herve661 (talk) 07:08, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

A correcion: "Darkest Africa" had both censorship and problems with source material.Dgabbard (talk) 04:20, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

the oil paintings

I tweaked and improved the description of how Barks shifted from taking commissions to selling the paintings via auction. Even found a drawing dated Sept. 1974 where Barks confirms by then no more names were being taken. I also took out excess detail about the painting sold in Boston in 1975--we don't need to know who bought it, that it hasn't changed hands or its current value. Sounds like an ad not material that belongs in a biography of Barks. Dgabbard (talk) 18:19, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

I have again removed excess detail about the 1975 sale, that the buyer became a friend and spoke at the funeral. Comes across as egregious egoboo that has no place in a biographical article.Dgabbard (talk) 04:24, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

DuckTales

Could someone please fill me in why there is absolutely NO mention of DuckTales in this article? Like is it really that irrelevant? Didn't he help create the show? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Infinitysend (talk • contribs) 03:44, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

He created Duckburg from the 1940s up to the 60s, and the makers of Ducktails chose to ignore 99% of what he had done when they were doing the series around 1990. --79.193.62.12 (talk) 06:05, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

The article on DuckTales mentions Barks. That seems adequate.Dgabbard (talk) 04:28, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Good Duck Artist

I've inserted two sentences (and a print source) into the second bulleted point under http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Barks#The_Good_Duck_Artist before the last sentence. My idea here is to reinforce the significance of the adventures to Barks' corpus of work; hope it's not overly pedantic for an encyclopedia entry. Alas, I've got no access to the original hardback print of vol. 6 of the (black and white) Carl Barks Library to see if the Blum quote is the same in the original as it appears in the subsequent edit I've got, but 'Vacation Time' is beautifully colored where I have this cite from. If the insertion passes muster, I might later do a page for 'Vacation Time' such as other Barks tales below have. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Onundtreefoot (talk • contribs) 18:35, 5 March 2012 (UTC) Indeed, I ought to have signed: Thanks for that nudge! Onundtreefoot (talk) 19:26, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

I made it a separate paragarph and tweaked the wording.Dgabbard (talk) 04:41, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Top Importance?

There's a discussion on which comic-related articles should be listed as "Top Importance" on the importance scale, and I feel this article should not be included. If any user disagrees or wishes to contribute, please do so there. Argento Surfer (talk) 14:42, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• Carl Barks a Finnland 94.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 09:52, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Barks and Belief

In the Biography section titled, "Final Days and Death," a statement is quoted from a private conversation with Barks when his health was declining, about not believing in an afterlife, per se, but seeing death as "total peace ... beyond the clutches of all those who would crush you."

Total peace is not the same thing as non existence. Not only is this quote insufficient to establish Barks as an atheist, there is evidence otherwise that's more substantial.

Important considerations:

1. At the very end of his life, Barks orchestrated his own memorial service that contained a lot of comforting religious content:

The 23rd Psalm, a quote from Jesus ("Let not your hearts be troubled") and a 'sterling' rendition of Amazing Grace by his caregiver, that he asked him to perform (Barks liked his renditions of old songs). The service was overseen by two friends, Bob Wood and Ed Bergen, who are both pastors. Bergen provided financial management for Barks after he discovered problems with his studio employees (who started a feud with Don Rosa, whom Barks reconciled with after firing them).

There are multiple accounts of the memorial by multiple attendees. Barks' detail for this event even included providing a meal for guests afterwards at his favorite restaurant!

2. Barks owned and frequently read a Bible that he kept handy and referenced in a video documentary ("Carl Barks: Et Duckumentarportrett").

In the video he says, "And I believe that it sort of parallels the old things that you read about in the Bible, the seven years of plagues of one kind or another [footage shows Barks' well-used Bible on a reference shelf between an almanac and a thesaurus]. It seems as if that's the way the tides of life run, in long cycles of about five to seven years."

(This trend has since been noticed in the financial sector, and there's now a New York Times best seller on the subject, "Mystery of the Shemitah").

3. In another video ("Carl Barks: The Duck Maestro"), Barks is documented saying that he believed the Bible contains real history.

Evaluating a painting of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, he said: "Now, you're gonna to have to read the BIBLE to find out about THIS, that being the Queen of Sheba! My only history is what I found out in the BIBLE. And it's real history, too. Thousands of people have read that story, and they KNOW who she is and who he is [using a pointer stick] and so I've got to be VERY CAREFUL how I present this. And I have started out, and I've made it too burlesque!"

4. Also on this video, when asked whether he had a motto, Barks responded with Jesus' 'Golden Rule'.

Emphasizing every syllable to get his point across, he said: "Yes, I have a motto, it's: 'Do . unto . others . as . you . would . have . them . do . to . you!'" [smiles].

5. Another documentary states that Barks often said his "salvation [from drudgery] was a sense of humor and a God-given talent."

6. Barks claimed that under extreme stress from his second wife, his usual methods of story production failed, and that the adventure story, "The Golden Helmet" was produced, "at least partly under divine inspiration."

She actually tore up all Barks' printed copies of his work, threw an entire unpublished story out the window, tore up two penciled pages and continued duck hunting! Barks fled to a motor lodge to complete and protect the first Uncle Scrooge story, and he created classics while homeless working out of an abandoned warehouse! Her crooked lawyers made him pay her $250/mo. alimony for 13 years (that was a lot back then)!

Interestingly, several characters in "The Golden Helmet" go Frodo's-ring-mad over the helmet. It hit the newsstands shortly after J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" was republished with the ring rewritten as a power-trip threat for his upcoming trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings." The helmet as a power object with its fires-of-Mordor type madness-and-disposal scene probably predates Tolkien's actual writing of the final installment of the trilogy. Both authors' takes on the under laying Germanic/Norse myths contain a strong warning about the modern world's efforts toward 'global governance'.

(Tolkien was religiously devout, and converted his close friend and fellow 'Inking' member, C.S. Lewis, who became the foremost Christian philosopher of modern times).

Reading Tolkien after retirement, Barks commented that Tolkien and he seemed to draw from the same well of inspiration, and Barks even likened his little ducks to Hobbits! He had actually thought of creating a human newspaper strip about midgets called "Little Squirts", with a temperamental lead resembling Donald. A couple of the better profile sketches in development show a similar-styled face, with the nose taking on the curvature of Donald's beak!

7. Barks made positive visual and textual biblical references and even used biblical story themes in his comic book work, and had to go out on a limb to do so because of Western Publishing's strict 'no religion' policy. Two Christmas stories even contain vignette panels of the Magi and the Star of Bethlehem, symbols of religious faith.

There's themes from the lives of Noah, Jonah, David vs. Goliath and the Queen of Sheba. Donald dresses as a pilgrim, and in a banned '10 pager' he has a zeal for Christmas caroling (religious lyrics included!) In a story about running away, one of the boys makes up a gospel song, singing "Hallelujah, I'm a bum!" There's a positive portrayal of Franciscan monks and mentions of biblical or religious figures, such as Samson and Joan of Arc. Barks did duck pastels of Adam and Eve, David, Samson and even Salome and John the Baptist! (as well as preliminaries for Moses) and a watercolor of a duck St. George.

Barks used biblical symbolism in his stories - The ducks' travel pack in "The Mines of King Solomon" resembles the Ark of the Covenant and a cut half page 'splash panel' of Thor descending to the modern world (Barks was particularly upset about this being cut), resembled the Second Coming of Christ!

When asked about the 'Junior Woodchuck's Manual' in the documentary, "The Duck Maestro," Barks gleamingly describes the book in miraculous terms like the Bible: "Heh! Well, the Junior Woodchuck Manual is (heh!) the most magical book in the world! It has alllll the knowledge in the world.."

The Woodchuck Guidebook is a mysteriously information-packed volume that Scrooge has to humble himself to learn from through children, like Jesus' statement about mortal entrance to heaven's dimension through childlike humility. Only Junior Woodchucks can read it, mirroring Jesus' concealment of his teachings through parables, so that only those with "eyes to see" would understand, while the arrogant would be blinded, unless willing for a change of heart. A well-known fact is that the Bible was also used to make scientific discovery and find treasure - by John D. Rockefeller Sr. to discover the Mid East oil fields and by Matthew Maury for the discovery of ocean currents!

Rockefeller Sr. was a short, tough, self-made little man who was born into poverty and struck it rich to become the wealthiest man in the world (all traits of Scrooge). Andrew Carnegie had these characteristics too, as well as having been born poor in a cottage in Scotland (the two became friends), and Barks says they're the historical archetypes that Scrooge came from the same mold as. Although known for land conservation (Rockefeller), and philanthropy (Carnegie and John D. Jr.), John Sr. - although initially extremely devout - later became a major monopolizer. Scrooge seemed to steer clear of, and was more at odds with, politics and political scandals. Barks' character John D. Rockerduck was more directly based on John Sr.

8. Upon retirement, Barks took up an eccentric hobby of going around painting local churches. He made many drawings and preliminary sketches of churches and painted the same churches at different times of day and different times of year. His paintings didn't sell very well, and his wife's did, so he eventually adopted a theme they had in common, nature and the Old West (as well as accent marks on his signature like the one she used!) He was also working on a painting series of girls singing from hymnbooks, praying, and communing with nature, while dressed in their Sunday best, or wearing religious head coverings, with ancient church style mosaics of halos around their heads, and contemporary stained glass church windows.

Barks painted angels for an unfinished children's book, "The Littlest Angel" and co-wrote a published poem with his wife, "The Day After Christmas," about parents giving the "teaching of love" for the holiday, rather than B-B guns to shoot birds with (an animal lover, Barks had a pet duck in his chicken ranch days!)

9. In one of Barks' later Uncle Scrooge adventures, "The Phantom of Notre Duck," Scrooge catches a clever phantom recluse who is hiding out in a cathedral and its network of secret passages and catacombs, and upon unmasking him discovers that he is his own alter ego, side whiskers and all! The Duck Phantom's purpose for being the Phantom is his passion for constructing a massive coin replica of the cathedral! (from coins thrown into the cathedral wishing fountain over the centuries). Scrooge is thrilled and supports the Phantom's eccentricity with his own money, given one provision - that he gets to help the Phantom complete his masterpiece! Donald and the boys are baffled while Scrooge joyfully participates in constructing the coin replica of the cathedral!

10. Barks later made a pastel of Scrooge himself building a cathedral of coins, mysteriously titled "Sir Christopher Wren, Who Was He?" (A wren is a type of bird, so there is a Duckburgian play on words here). Christopher Wren (that's his real name!) was actually a world renown church architect who designed and rebuilt the churches of London after a fire devastated the city in the seventeenth century. We are prompted by this unusual title to ponder Scrooge's own coin art masterpiece, reflecting Barks' quirky hobby of church painting.

Like the Phantom of Notre Duck, Scrooge must himself be unmasked - as Barks' own alter ego! They are one and the same in their mutual zeal for religious art. All three - Scrooge, the Phantom of Notre Duck, and Carl Barks the 'Phantom Church Painter', were each eccentric recluses.

Barks had a portrait of Scrooge hung over his casket at his memorial service, titled "Till Death Do Us Part," revealing in the most haunting way imaginable that he in fact did identify with his most famous creation! Barks used to be self conscious that Donald at times seemed more popular a character, but figured he helped make him that way by adding depth to Donald's personality. Scrooge is largely misunderstood as a hard shell individualist but is secretly a soft hearted sentimentalist. Scrooge's horde of coins are actually personal mementos of his adventures and he plays with them like they're his only friends. Barks got excitedly into character when talking about Scrooge's original comic book incarnation being stand-offish toward the outside world!

Barks also shared characteristics with Gyro and with Donald's 'everyman' relatability, particularly with his bad luck at jobs.

Calgary Eye Opener:

Barks created for a wide audience, such as might read the newspaper comics, and he aspired to work in that department from a young age. His contributions to and eventual editorship of a men's risqué humor magazine was to him just a step along the way and not a goal.

After being brought out of retirement by fans, Barks received encouragement for some further nude art. However, he did a recall on his first auctioned oil painting (of Scrooge sizing up Goldie in the Blackjack Ballroom - "She Was Spangled and Flashy") because the high kicking dance hall girls were wearing skimpy underwear. He painted knee length bloomers on them before returning it.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.220.73.191 (talk) 23:04, 22 April 2022 (UTC)

"Barks was particularly upset about this being cut" I have read several magazine articles on Barks' stories with missing panels or pages. Sometimes the editors chose to censor the stories to tone down the violence, various horror-like elements, or the social satire. Other times, they cut panels simply to make room for more advertisements. If I remember correctly, "Mythic Mystery" (1961) (which you mention) had two entire pages replaced by an advertisement. See the following article on the subject:

"Carl Barks enjoyed a great deal of artistic freedom when making his Disney stories for Western Publishing. But on rare occasions his work was slightly restricted, censored, or altered. The perhaps most often mentioned of Barks' altered stories is U$34 Mythic Mystery* from 1961, from which a total of two pages - cut from diverse page panels - were substituted for one full-page advertisement. The unpublished artwork probably ended in the editor's wastepaper basket!!! " Dimadick (talk) 19:29, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for the reference! It has some good insight.

Quoting Barks: "So Thor came down in his chariot with the kids and went over the busiest street intersection in Duckburg! I had all kinds of noise and traffic and smog, every unpleasant thing we have on the Earth was in that one big, massive panel - And here was Thor in his chariot coming down over this street intersection! I worked for a couple of days to make that drawing, and it was taken out of the story and, I guess, wounded up in a waste basket some place, because they needed a little space to print an ad for some kind of ... sugar candy, I guess. Made me very disheartened! My chin hit my knees when I saw the big half-page stupender I did of Thor and Vulcan and a nephew riding above the busiest street corner in Duckburg in the gold chariot, missing! Thor's horses terrified - thousands (at least) of people gaping upwards in disbelief! Autos bumper to bumper, smoking, clanking. In short, I gave Vulcan something to be scared about. All wasted effort!" ... From that point on, Barks stopped making half-page splashes ...Barks has called the deleted half-page Duckburg overview "the most complicated drawing I ever did."

Barks changed Thor's traditional goat-pulled chariot to have white horses like in Revelation chapter 19, also coinciding with the paranormal "chariot and horses of fire" at the rapture of Elijah.

The amount of material axed out of Barks' work is FAR more than people realize, and happened throughout his entire career! There's two entirely lost ten page stories, two entirely unpublished stories (that were rediscovered), stories where "the best gag" was cut to Barks' dismay, and on and on, including many quarter pages for ads and entire scenes! It had also been a regular thing to cut and throw away half-page splash panels, but this particular cut upset him so much that he refused to ever again make another splash panel in any of his stories! It's unfortunate they didn't have a policy of returning his excised work to him or at least conserving it. They knew they had something special. According to Barks, the pressure to cut specifically for advertising came from "salesmen back East in Poughkeepsie."

In spite of all this, when asked about his 'dream', Barks responded, "I can't think of anything that would make me happier than just being a guy drawing ducks." Even his project of developing midget humans as alternate characters was only a backup plan in case the ducks ever fell out of fashion. Barks would have loved, however, to regularly have used human characters as supporting cast, if allowed to, as he did in "Dangerous Disguise" and other stories. While he tended to think of the ducks as having more of a human thought life than the other writers did ("I thought of them as humans"), he also tended to draw them more duck-like than the other artists did (until compelled to draw them straighter-standing, a tad taller and with shorter beaks).

Please sign your posts. "It's unfortunate they didn't have a policy of returning his excised work to him" Standard practice for the time, if I recall correctly. The publishing company was the legal owner of Barks' artwork and could do whatever it wanted with it. Compare this with Jack Kirby's years-long legal struggle to regain his own artwork:

• • "In the twilight of his life, Kirby spent a great deal of time sparring with Marvel executives over the ownership rights of his original page boards. At Marvel, many of these pages owned by the company (due to outdated and legally dubious copyright claims) were given away as promotional gifts to Marvel clients or simply stolen from company warehouses. After the passage of the Copyright Act of 1976, which greatly expanded artist copyright capabilities, comics publishers began to return original art to creators, but in Marvel's case only if they signed a release reaffirming Marvel's ownership of the copyright. In 1985, Marvel issued a release that demanded Kirby affirm that his art was created for hire, allowing Marvel to retain copyright in perpetuity, in addition to demanding that Kirby forego all future royalties. Marvel offered him 88 pages of his art (less than 1% of his total output) if he signed the agreement, but reserved the right to reclaim the art if Kirby violated the deal. After Kirby publicly slammed Marvel, calling the company thugs and claiming they were arbitrarily holding his creations, Marvel finally returned (after two years of deliberations) approximately 1,900 or 2,100 pages of the estimated 10,000 to 13,000 Kirby drew for the company."
  • I have loved comics since I was first able to read at age 5. But the comics industry has a long history of exploitative practices, and corporations always profit more than their struggling employees. Dimadick (talk) 10:34, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

What I'm getting at is the brutality against Barks' original material that was never printed or preserved in any way. His satirical works got hit hard because they got into a habit of toning him down, and it's like they crossed some sort of line where they lost all sense of decency in editing (They would tell him "Another good one" about his stories, so they knew they were good). It was so horrible that Barks would tremble every time he finished a story, and he started intentionally creating pages of mediocre 'padding', hoping that when the story got mauled those would be the pages to disappear forever, and they would still destroy a better part! His storytelling and art style slowly became more and more depreciated over time because of this heavy burden of discouragement. Barks was a real trooper - For him it wasn't about whether he got paid enough or got royalties or even got his art back, it was about his work even making it onto the printed page. This has to be the worst case of anything of this sort imaginable, against the greatest, most influential imagination imaginable.

I'll take it further - Seeing that Barks' fantastic perfection of the mixed media of art and text surpassed the great novelists in creating vivid characters and worlds, as well as in sheer amount of readership and impact (see 'influences' in the following talk section), this is technically the worst case of editing in human history against the single greatest, most influential storyteller in human history (even more so than the Bible, but only because the Bible was written by multiple prophets and apostles, not by a single individual, unless one counts the author as the Holy Spirit, working through their different personalities to paint a cohesive, albeit dispensationally progressive, message).

The next closest bibliographic brutality to what Barks' works suffered would be the (post-Augustus) Roman Emperors' mass destruction of Christian texts (but they survived, so this is worse) and the brutal change the Egyptian Gnostics made to the New Testament, removing the story of the woman caught in adultery, causing it to be doubted in modern times (but we still have it, so this is worse, with a far greater percentage of material, and with it being totally lost). According to the Bible, God feels so strongly about not being edited-out, that at the end of the book, Jesus says, "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book!"

Barks' reference material, the Bible, seems to indicate that the Holy Spirit understands how it feels to have one's work tampered with!

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.220.73.191 (talk) 14:59, 27 April 2022 (UTC) 

Influence, accuracy and legacy

Influence:

At his artistic peak, Barks' comics outsold not just all other comics, but all national magazines in America! And his influence completely revived film and animation in America and helped launch Japanese comics and animation. Barks' works are still the best sellers in Europe and parts of Latin America, and on his European tour, he was hailed as the uncrowned master storyteller, thronged by crowds and visited by dignitaries; when he passed on, the continent mourned, with the front pages of newspapers all over Europe announcing his departure.

Barks' storytelling influence on George Lucas and Steven Spielberg brought filmmaking out of the 'New Hollywood' deadness of the 1970's, while in-house production for the 'kid-friendly' DuckTales TV series based on Barks' work caused the Animation Renaissance in film and television, starting from the late 80's, going into the 90's (The show's video game version was one of the most popular of early home gaming, and "Moon Theme" from its soundtrack has been performed by various orchestras as perhaps the greatest video game song of all time, and was used as Della Duck's theme for the 2017 Ducktales reboot). The biggest comic book influences of Japan's manga and anime godfather Osama Tezuka were Carl Barks and Floyd Gottfredson because of their fluid, animated style of comic art. Tezuka owned a bunch of their stories and sent Barks a Christmas card of AstroBoy hugging the bejabbers out of Donald!

Uncanny accuracy:

A patent office denied a successful method of raising a boat with ping pong balls for stealing the idea from a comic book (by Barks), and coin collectors had to wonder if Scrooge really did rarify 1916 quarters - the 1916 'Standing Liberty Quarter' is so rare that coin collecting albums used a cardboard insert in its place! Barks' keen social satire was taught as sociology as far back as the late 1960's by Professor Donald Ault (Barks essayist Geoffrey Blum was his protégé), and a scientific journal analyzed how a fictional duck could conceive of a then-unknown substance, only to find out later Donald also utilized it in the only way that's chemically possible!

Barks' legacy:

Much research and reconstruction of Barks' comic book work has been necessary, because editors devoured numerous of his stories to make room for advertisements.

They also hid all his fan mail from him, and for several years switched his paper supply to a non-comic-art medium that negatively effected his art because he couldn't make corrections. All while keeping him on meager pay and raking in a fortune off of what he single handedly made into the best selling publications in the nation - period! (not just among comic books). Readership complaints would pour in any time a non Barks duck appeared!

Barks was concerned whether his stories would be able to be accessed by future generations, or whether his work would eventually become neglected for things like technological distractions and unthoughtful media consumption.

A local comic publisher had the Disney comic license recently, and I talked to them about bringing back the ducks by printing Barks stories with Barks covers at low cost for checkout stands at stores and so forth, and it was hard to get a hold of someone because they were 'Covided' off, but I finally found out that the American license is solely with Fantagraphics now, who've been doing the Carl Barks and Don Rosa libraries in expensive book form.

In Germany, they actually have a Carl Barks labeled comic book ("Donald Duck Von Carl Barks"), but it uses sized-up art from the stories for cover art, as most collected works seem to have done since Gladstone Publishing's library-in-color series. Holland seems to have a preference for Barks style ducks, and Dan Jippes there, and Daniel Branca in Argentina and Vicar in Chile each led comic production studios in a Barks inspired style. Romano Scarpa in Italy created a Barks/Gottfredson hybrid style that Giorgio Cavazzano radically changed by infusing it with a French comic style that he had worked with elsewhere.

This newer, rather bizarre style has impacted the global duck story market with what many feel is an immature look for the ducks that tends to degrade their respectability for intelligent satire (it started as a style for digest sized pocket books). This began to be heavily published in America and now Fantagraphics has started publishing it, mixed-in with more classic style artists (such as Freddy Milton, Marco Rota, etc.) in expensive volumes of randomly selected material!

One wonders why they don't simply continue doing library collections artist by artist. Their styles are so far apart, and many duck readers STRONGLY disagree with how the characters are not being timelessly depicted while others are simply alienated by it and drift away. It's like a new form of mass market merchandising depictions, but from within the comics themselves. Bad duck artists used to be bland, but now they're bizarre!

Silvia Zilche at least does a cartoon comic-strip-style take on this, but generally the style's so completely different that it was originally published in separate, more 'kid-oriented' titles, such as 'Junior' series for early readers and large-paneled digests (They even have Disney Babies stories with baby versions of the duck characters in this style! Will they mix that in with classic stories too?)

Related articles:

I think that fellow Barks fans would like to see the main picture for Scrooge McDuck's Wikipedia page be a depiction by the character's creator (Carl Barks), but people seem to change it.

I've done some work on the "Disney comics" Wikipedia page ("Disney comics" with a small 'c', not the 90's publishing company) at the 'notable writers and artists' section by adding brief notes to several names that should be distinguished within the list and by re-categorizing the list by country (matching the rest of the article). Also, see comments and suggestions on the talk page for this article, under 'notable writers and artists'. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.220.73.191 (talk) 18:59, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

"I think that fellow Barks fans would like to see the main picture for Scrooge McDuck's Wikipedia page be a depiction by the character's creator (Carl Barks), but people seem to change it." Wikipedia has had problems with using copyrighted art, in fear of litigations. As a result, many articles on fictional topics feature low-quality images or no images at all. Dimadick (talk) 19:42, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

I'd rather see no picture at all than a bad one.

First-hand insight:

One of the nice things Barks' employees did for him, was to have him finally meet a young fan (This was before his European tour). Barks worked in obscurity, so by the time his American fans broke through the red tape (through Disney, because Western Publishing refused to reveal him), they were adults, who thronged him with huge lines when he appeared at comic conventions. By the time his work started being reprinted by Gladstone Publishing (only in the newer, niche specialty of 'comic book shops', because newsstands were a thing of the past by then), he wasn't making appearances. We got free tickets to a comic convention, because my dad worked at the convention center. Barks' employees at his "Carl Barks Studio" booth found me to be a thoughtful and appreciative young fan, and they invited me to meet Mr. Barks at an event being held at the Disneyland Hotel.

Although Barks said he didn't write for kids in particular (while keeping in mind they were smarter than people thought and needed it straight about the world being a difficult place), he always wanted to see a child buy an Uncle Scrooge comic and would hide behind an issue of Popular Mechanics to watch, but to no avail. People would always buy them "on the sly" when he wasn't watching! Well, I was the young fan that he finally got to meet!

We sat down together at a table, surrounded by his oil painting lithographs on display, and Mr. Barks asked me what my favorite duck story was. I told him I couldn't pick just one, because I liked ALL of them! I gave him a humorously wild-eyed drawing of Scrooge in the Klondike, inspired by the censored 'flash back' scene from "Back to the Klondike" that had been restored in an 80's comic album. Barks laughed out loud and said, "So THAT'S what you think of my DUCK!" He framed and hung up the drawing in his office, and it was said to be an inspiration for him during his final decade.

My grandpa was the local magazine distributor back in the day and was sent a special yearbook from the Calgary Eye Opener. When I asked Mr. Barks to sign it, he denied working for the company, so I had to 'prove' it by showing him a (fortunately non-risqué) cartoon by him, "The Garbagemens' Parade," that he signed.

Jeff Smith of "Bone" fame stated that Barks said reading physical comics is better than online, because you can "slam the thing down afterward." A duck comic I gave Barks to sign avoided a severe slamming, but Barks rolled up the cover! This was because someone suggested he sign the first page (I had him sign the cover, too). He held it crumpled like that while we were mobbed by a photo session and had to pose for the cameras. Although damaged, the comic survived, because his duck-hostile second wife wasn't there to shred the thing! - I've no doubt she would have pulverized it into SAWDUST!

We also met Barks' Lutheran pastor friend, Ed Bergen, who told us he was using Barks-story antidotes from the pulpit!

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.220.73.191 (talk) 02:58, 28 April 2022 (UTC)