Newsletter

Carl Barks

August 25, 2000 - Carl Barks, the Disney illustrator credited with giving Donald Duck his distinctive feisty and comical personality, died today at the age of 99, of leukemia. Barks drew Donald Duck for Walt Disney Studios from 1935 until 1942, and continued afterward as the creative genius behind the world of Donald Duck.

Although other animators had a hand in the duck's activities, Barks polished up Donald, rounding him out and shortening his beak, and gave him a jollier personality, though still spiked with that trademark temper.

In 1942, he switched from animation to drawing comic strips and books. He created Donald's hometown of Duckburg, populated by such characters as billionaire Uncle Scrooge McDuck (1947), perenially lucky Gladstone Gander (1948), the evil Beagle Boys (1951), and inventor Gyro Gearloose (1952). Barks also gave Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie their distinctive personalities.

Barks was born on March 27, 1901, on a farm in Merrill, Oregon. He got his start drawing one-panel "gag strips" for the Calgary Eye-Opener in 1928, but the job lost its allure.

"I was thinking then that I'd like to do comics with whole stories," Barks recalled in a 1994 interview. "You know, like Prince Valiant; stuff with continuity, not single, one-shot gags all the time."

In 1935, he applied for a job with Walt Disney Studios in Hollywood. He quickly advanced from being an "in-betweener" (drawing the tiny details between the characters and the main background) to primary character artist, and his work could be seen in more than 60 short subjects, many featuring Donald Duck.

When Western Publishing gained the rights in 1942 to publish Walt Disney characters in comic books, Barks was asked to illustrate a 10-page Donald Duck story written by someone else (Four Color #9, "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold").

"The story just didn't seem to hang together," Barks recalled. "I made some changes. Western kind of liked it and asked me if I wanted to do my own stories. From there on, I was their fair-haired boy."

Barks' most popular creation was Scrooge McDuck, Donald's ultra wealthy yet miserly Scottish uncle, who first appeared in a story called "Christmas on Bear Mountain."

Like every other artist in those days, Barks' name never appeared on a comic book. But that anonymity ended after he retired.

"I was astonished by the number of people who'd read my work and liked it," Barks once said. "These comic book fans seem to want to shake the hand of the guy who drew all that stuff. It's still mystifying to me."

Barks stopped drawing in 1966, but continued writing duck tales until his retirement in 1973. Beginning in 1968, Barks painted Disney figures in oil at his home in Grants Pass, Oregon until he contracted leukemia 13 months ago. Some of Barks' paintings sell for more than $200,000. Ironically, Barks was paid only about $45 a page for his comic book art and did not start to make money until his painting career took off. Disney had given him permission to paint its characters when he retired in 1966, but withdrew its permission in 1976 when fans began to sell photos of his work for $500 apiece. Eventually, Disney relented and renewed permission for him to paint its characters and his prices reached into the six figures.

Barks is survived by a daughter, four grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and eight great-great grandchildren.