Carl Barks Comic Book Art

SURVIVING ARTWORK

My Collection

of Carl Barks artwork



My Collection of Carl Barks Original Comic Art

I have been collecting Disney original art since 1993.

In this section I only show my original artwork by Carl Barks.

Please take a closer look below. Just scroll down on the page and you are able to see some of "The Masters" great pieces of original artwork.

I very rarely sell or trade anything from my private collecrtion, but you are always welcome to send me a request and I will consider your offer. 

If you own Carl Barks original comic book art I am always interested to hear about it. 

 


Carl Barks – ”Back to the Klondike” FC # 456 page 18 - Panel 7

Carl Barks – ”Back to the Klondike” FC # 456 - Original "Missing" Panel. Art submitted on September 18, 1952.


House of Haunts Page 11 - 1965.

Beautiful page which was bought in 1974 by a collector who owned it more than 40 years. You rarely see survived Barks comic book pages with both Scrooge and The Beagle Boys involved. Here is a wonderful example. 


Walt Disney Comics & Stories # 165 - 1954.

Description of the Cover from Heritage Auctions : 

Carl Barks Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #165 Cover Original Art (Dell, 1954). Barks covers for the 1950s are just about impossible to acquire -- by one count, seven published originals from the 1950s are known to exist, plus a couple of alternative unpublished ones. Of course Barks was a prolific cover artist during that decade, but almost all of the original covers were destroyed by the publisher after the comics were printed.
This is certainly a fine example of the artist's skill at characterization. Donald's expression is simply priceless as he sees his nephews race off. So many of us were the nephews' age when we first read this story, and now we sympathize more with Donald who just wants to read his paper in peace! And make no mistake: a lot of people bought this comic, as Comics and Stories was selling more than a million copies a month in those days.
Note that Western Publishing did make slight changes when they printed this -- the bottom of Donald Duck's chair was moved up, and the shadows under the feet of Huey, Dewey, and Louie were eliminated such that they appeared to be walking briskly on the printed cover as opposed to running. Also the shadow under Donald's arm disappeared. Frankly we like the image better the way Barks drew it, but we also recall hearing that Western Publishing did not like shadows on their funny-animal covers in general.



Carl Barks - Original inked Model Sheet from the 1950`ies.

Four inked drawings of Gus Goose, and one drawing of Grandma Duck.
 


WDC # 268. Page 2 - Upper half.

The upper half page 2 from "Christmas Cheers" from 1962. Published in January 1963 in WDC # 268.

Thanks to Mike for this one. 


WDC # 268. Page 2 - Lower half.

Published original lower halfpage 2 from WDC # 268 ; "Christmas Cheers" from 1962.


Walt Disney Comics & stories # 268

Page 7 from the story : "Christmas cheers" from 1962. Published in the WDC # 268 - 1963. 

The story was drawn by Carl in 1962.


US-08 / 1954: "The Mysterious Unfinished Invention". Lower half page 16.

Unpublished rejected artwork.


Thanks to Jim from Minneapolis for selling me this historic half page - and for taking care of it for more than 25 years..! 

Isn`t the size of Carl Barks`original artwork just amazing..?


WDC-175 / 1954 : "The Taffy Story". 

Lower halfpage 7.

Unpublished rejected artwork.


US-42 / 1962 : "Case of the Sticky Money". Page 2.

Published artwork. Original artwork`s outerframe has been trimmed. 


USFC-495 / 1953. Alternative cover art. Published cover : US-312 / 1998.

Pencil and ink : Carl Barks. Coloring : probably Gare Barks.

 


Scrooge McDuck - 1968

Portrait of Scrooge McDuck from 1968.

Drawn by Carl Barks for the 10 "Madisonians" on Wisconsin University when they established their club called "Society of the First Dime". 


Carl Barks Oilpainting :

"Terror of the River" is an original Carl Barks oil painting on Masonite board from 1974 based on the legendary work of the beloved "Good Duck Artist." The painting is inspired by Barks' story for Four Color #108 (1946). It features Donald Duck and his nephews encountering an enormous sea monster. This is the only time Barks painted a scene based on Four Color #108, and it is unique in both mood and motion. It's well known that Barks painted multiple versions of several of his celebrated Duck paintings, but this one stands alone as the technical detail involved in creating it was intense and Barks felt that painting it once was enough! The painting is also known to be one of the most popular among fans of Barks' work. It was featured in the 1977-1978 Overstreet Price Guide in a special color section devoted to the best of Barks' Duck paintings. 

"Terror of the River" is a magnificent painting, primarily because of the action and lighting effects. ... Carl said he would never paint one like it again because it was so time consuming with the shading of the light of the moon and lanterns on the water and the immense detail involved in the water action.

 


 


Carl Barks. Donald Duck # 26 ”Trick or Treat”. March, 31 - 1952

Carl Barks. Donald Duck in ”Trick or Treat”. March, 31 - 1952

From the iconic - and first in own title - hereby presenting the lower unpublished Half Page ( page 24 ) from the Donald Duck # 26 : “Donald Duck in Trick or Treat” from 1952.

For this story Barks originally made at least 33 and a half page of artwork but it was reduced to 23 pages.

A Donald Duck cartoon of the same title was under process, and Barks had been asked to do a story adaption of it.

The plot of the half page : After having some very intense troubles with the orge “Smorgasbord” at last Donald seems to get rid of “Smorgie the bad” forever.. With an explosive imitative “BA- WOOM” word in the first panel Barks very dramatically made the ogre disappear from the storyline.

Hazel the Witch and the 3 Nephews thereafter looks very puzzled - and so it seems that Donald finally gets the upper hand on that last panel by spreading out a vicious and evil laughter..: HAA ! HAA ! HAA-HAA ! HAAA !

Though the readers never saw that happen in the published story back in 1952 this was Barks own take on the story. Sadly the editors on DELL was In another opinion and cut-out this half page with some other 10 pages

Many years later the full story has of course been published.

Still we have only seen very few examples of original cut-out art - so probably not all of the 10 pages has survived to this day. As a fact the published story on 23 pages has all been destroyed.

Notice that the first panel of the next page ( page 25 from published story ) bear some clear evidence of it`s connection to this unpublished half page, as Hazel the Witch jumps up and down on the orge “Smorgasbord`s” bowler hat..

At the time back in 1952 readers may have thought that the black hat was only a shadow - but by looking more closely it`s obvious it`s the bowler hat of the ogre..



Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge # 20 - 1957.

Uncle Scrooge # 20 – Original Cover drawn May 29, 1957.

( Published for sale December 1957 – February 1958 ).

Not many of Carl Barks original published Covers has survived..!

8 inked covers by Carl Barks from the entire Uncle Scrooge run is known to exist - and of these only 2 are from the prime 1950`ies period.

Uncle Scrooge # 20 from 1957 is one of them !

Seen from the view of composition and Scrooge McDuck`s identity as the “richest of the richest” this cover simply is the best survived example in my noble opinion.

Here you have a very proud Uncle Scrooge posing in a great gag weighing his money bags - and actually paying for it..

Also it`s a very well drawn and composed cover that has an easy understandable and humoristic gag.

The cover has also another dimension, as it costed me something very close to all the moneybags on the weight.

But to me it was worth it !!

The character Uncle Scrooge or Scrooge McDuck was Carl Barks own invention.

He was brought into the Ducks universe in 1947 in the famous season story : “Christmas on Bear Mountain”.

7 years later Uncle Scrooge was so popular that Dell decided to publish a comic magazine with the character Scrooge on it`s own run. After 3 “try out” Four Color comic issues Uncle Scrooge # 4 ( first in the officially US run ) was finally set up for sale in December 1954.

The Uncle Scrooge comics was published 4 times a year - every 3 months.

This 1957 cover ( published and sold in December 1957 - February 1958 ) are from the prime period of the Uncle Scrooge stories.

The inside story from US-20 was “City of Golden Roofs” and in this period Barks let the ducks go out on many fabolous adventures in different parts of the world ; US-14 : “The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan” – US-15 : “The Second Richest Duck” – US-16 : “Back To Long Ago” – US-17 : “A Cold Bargain” – US-18 : “Land of The Pygmy Indians” and US-19 : “The Mines of King Solomon”..

The cover has been published way over 70 times and in 19 different countries.

Thanks to my good friend Gary for letting me be the next caretaker of this iconic 1950´ ies Uncle Scrooge cover.



Carl Barks : "Phantom of Notre Duck" page 22

Carl Barks - Uncle Scrooge : ”Phantom of Notre Duck”. 1965. Page 22.

Donald and the boys help Scrooge corner the mysterious Phantom, in this rousing page from one of the only 5 fully surviving epic stories Carl Barks wrote and drew for Uncle Scrooge.

For so many years I have been looking for a nice page from one of my favorite Barks Uncle Scrooge stories : Uncle Scrooge # 60 – “Phantom of Notre Duck”.

With the help from Barks scholar Prof. Don Ault yet another early fan and later Barks scholar and author, Geoffrey Blum purchased this beautiful page directly from Carl Barks in November 1971 - and I DO understand why Geoffrey picked exactly this one..

All 5 main characters from the story ; Scrooge, Donald, The Nephews, the Junior Woodchuck Dog and the mysterious Phantom of Notre Duck are all a part of this page. ( all of the 5 main characters only appears on 3 out of the 24 pages from this story ).

Add to that some great panels with details from inside the Duckburg Cathedral and the Catacombs – and even a glimpse of the “Money-Cathedral”.

This page captures the very moment when the ducks finally achieves capturing the mysterious Phantom at his secret hiding place deep underneath the Cathedral.

Panel 6 and 7-8 where the Phantom surprisingly learns that the game is over is simply priceless..

I really couldn`t have asked for more..

Thanks to D.S. for selling me this beautiful page.

Published in 17 countries in 108 publications.

Synopsis of the story :

The remainder of the story is a chase between the ducks and the strange phantom, who really knows his surroundings and tricks his pursuers time and time again.

In the end it turns out that the phantom is none other than a dedicated and harmless person who is building a model cathedral out of coins - and Scrooge himself sits down to help him !