A Guidebook to the Carl Barks Universe

Research: The philosophy of the "Flipism" in this story is the subject of a full-length novel by Luke Rhinehart, "The Dice Man" (1971). It is about a man who - as Donald Duck had done twenty years earlier - chooses to live his life by the flip of a coin.

Notes: More information can be found in a "Lost in the Andes" article in The Carl Barks Library (set 1).

Sources

W WDC 150-00 dunce

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-532
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Submission: 1952, September 18
Publication date: 1953, March
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 150, Vol. 13, No. 6
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 150-01 valentine mailman

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-543
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1952, June 30
Publication date: 1953, March
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 150, Vol. 13, No. 6
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 151-00 go stop signals

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-532
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Submission: 1952, October 2
Publication date: 1953, April
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 151, Vol. 13, No. 7
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 151-01 easter parade

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-553
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1952, October 23
Publication date: 1953, April
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 151, Vol. 13, No. 7
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 152-00 happy easter golf balls

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-565
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Submission: 1952, August 14
Publication date: 1953, May
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 152, Vol. 13, No. 8
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 152-01 unusual contestant quiz

Times are tough, huh, bud?
-- talking dog

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-567
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1952, October 30
Publication date: 1953, May
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 152, Vol. 13, No. 8
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 153-00 don't touch cake

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-566
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1952, October 2
Publication date: 1953, June
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 153, Vol. 13, No. 9
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 153-01 worms make fishing poles obsolete

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-577
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1952, November 27
Publication date: 1953, June
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 153, Vol. 13, No. 9
Pages: 10

Landmark: In a May 17, 1981, letter to Michael Barrier, Barks wrote that this was the first story on which Garé Barks worked: "she inked the scales of the fish."

Correspondence:

May 17, 1981 letter from Carl Barks to Michael Barrier

Sources

W WDC 154-00 grapejuice tuba

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-566
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Submission: 1952, October 2
Publication date: 1953, July
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 154, Vol. 13, No. 10
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 154-01 quackly hall clubhouse

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-587
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1952, November 27
Publication date: 1953, July
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 154, Vol. 13, No. 10
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 155-00 scout nephews and trumpet

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-566
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1952, December 6
Publication date: 1953, August
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 155, Vol. 13, No. 11
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 155-01 heirs at end of rainbow

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-601
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1952, December 24
Publication date: 1953, August
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 155, Vol. 13, No. 11
Pages: 10

Trivia: Scrooge thinks it's time that he picks an heir to inherit his fortune: "My only relatives are my nephew, Donald, and his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and my distant nephew, Gladstone Gander!... What a collection!" (1.7)

Sources

W WDC 156-00 mine and theirs

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-600
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1953, April 6
Publication date: 1953, September
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 156, Vol. 13, No. 12
Pages: 1

Changes: Originally drawn with only the black hand-prints on Donald's dirty towel. Western obviously thought it did not look dirty enough and had a staff artist add the grey fingerprints-type marks.

Sources

W WDC 156-01 master rainmaker

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-611
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1952, December 31
Publication date: 1953, September
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 156, Vol. 13, No. 12
Pages: 10

Appearances: Hiram Pumpkindew (farmer, 4.3 & 5.6); Idle Dandies (6.3); green-eyed monster (6.4); Greenwood Canyon (6.8)

Backstage: In 1983 notes for The Carl Barks Library, Barks commented that the inspiration "grew out of the news events of the period. Rainmaking by seeding clouds was getting a lot of publicity, and who could perfect the technique better than Donald Duck - and overdo it more disastrously?"

Congruences:

D 6886 Hang Gliders Be Hanged! [comic book story]: "Mount Demontooth"
W DD 68-04 The Master Glasser: Donald is an expert in his profession.
W WDC 222-01 moving expert: Donald is an expert in his profession.
W WDC 264-01 Master Wrecker: Donald is an expert in his profession.

Correspondence:

1983 notes for The Carl Barks Library

Sources

W WDC 157-00 truant officer and bushes

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-600
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1953, March 12
Publication date: 1953, October1953, October
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 157, Vol. 14, No. 1
Pages: 1

Changes: Possibly, Donald's eyes are changed. A theory could be that Donald originally had a frown because of seeing something suspicious, which was changed by the editor who might have felt that Donald's look was too negative for a comic book cover. The cover truant officer and state line also contains Donald having a frowned look, but there the nephews' smiles smooth over Donald's negativity.

Status: If changed, no original version is known to exist.

Congruences:

CB OIL 13 Truant Officer [71-25]: Donald as truant officer
CB OIL 32 Truant Officer [72-17]: Donald as truant officer
XUC BT 1DE The Most Efficient Truant Officer: Donald as truant officer
QMS 1941-011: Donald as truant officer
W WDC 100-02 new truant officer: Donald as truant officer
W WDC 104-00 truant officer and state line: Donald as truant officer

Sources

W WDC 157-01 stairway of money

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-621
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, January 15
Publication date: 1953, October1953, October
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 157, Vol. 14, No. 1
Pages: 10

Changes: WDC 157, alternate panel In an October 3, 1973 letter (to Kim Weston?), Barks says that this "was quite likely changed to a dream ending by me. I believe I recall looking at the panel of Uncle Scrooge's money ramp and deciding it looked too IMPOSSIBLE to be real".

Surviving material:

CX WDC 157 stairway of money [surviving cut material]

Alternate panel. A gloating Scrooge pursues an irritated Donald.

Caption: "So, from henceforth on -- every day!"

Scrooge: "WELL? When are you going to think of something else you can beat me at?"

The shape of this panel implies that it originally was on the place of published panel 10.7.

Status: No other cut art is known to exist. As published panels 10.6 and 10.8 also show Donald being awoken, these must have replaced alternate panels as well.

Appearances: Old Demon Tooth (mountain, 3.2).

Correspondence:

October 3, 1973 letter from Carl Barks (to Kim Weston?): Contains information on changes in this story and in W OS 203-02 in "The Golden Christmas Tree".

Sources

CX WDC 157 stairway of money [surviving cut material]

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-631
Type: story segment
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: 1983, August
Issue: The Carl Barks Library - Set VIII
Pages: 0 1/8
Intended issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 157, Vol. 14, No. 1
Intended publication date: 1953, October

Additional credits: See stairway of money, for more information.

Sources

W WDC 158-00 halloween apple

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-634
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Submission: 1952, December 6
Publication date: 1953, November
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 158, Vol. 14, No. 2
Pages: 1

Description: Donald and Daisy attempt to 'capture' a low-hanging apple. Daisy's eyes are closed; she wears red high-heeled shoes. Donald's eyes are open in surprise, as he has the view on the side of the apple from which a worm is emerging.

Changes: Reportedly the same scene as on worm in apple [inked cover preliminary], but with the nephews included.

Surviving material:

CR WDC 158 worm in apple [inked cover preliminary]

Appearances: Donald; Daisy; nephews

Sources

W WDC 158-01 hive of bees in yard

Parents worthy of being parents want their children to learn about nature!
Are you going to be different?
-- supreme instructor of the Junior Woodchucks

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-635
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, May 26
Publication date: 1953, November
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 158, Vol. 14, No. 2
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 159-00 candy cane photographer

Barrier: MBAC-176
CBL: 08C-633
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Submission: 1953, April 9
Publication date: 1953, December
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 159, Vol. 14, No. 3
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 159-01 fair price for house

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-645
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, April 6
Publication date: 1953, December
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 159, Vol. 14, No. 3
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 160-00 foot bath and toy-ships

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-634
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1953, June 8
Publication date: 1954, January1954, January
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 160, Vol. 14, No. 4
Pages: 1

Changes: Western had a staff artist alter the art on Donald's face. According to "The Carl Barks Library - Set VIII" (page 8C-634), the reason probably was to make him look sicker than he must have looked in Barks's original. (See the "questions"-field, for some comments on this.)

Status: Original version is lost.

Questions: Maybe Donald's face was changed too make him look LESS sick? Reason for this could be that Barks changed Donald's face too much by making him look sick, which made him less recognizable as cover character. As his sailor suit and cap are not shown, Donald's face is the only way to identify him as being Donald.

Sources

W WDC 160-01 christmas camel

WDC 160-01, gare's gag

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-655
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, April 23
Publication date: 1954, January1954, January
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 160, Vol. 14, No. 4
Pages: 10

Additional credits: In a January 8, 1983 interview, Garé Barks recalled that she came up with her "one gag" for a Donald Duck story while her husband was scripting this "ten pager". The nephews have just astonished Donald with a live camel they bought from a defunct circus for him as a gift. Donald hesitatingly asks if it didn't cost them a lot of money. Garé's gag is the nephews' answer in the next panel, saying: "Only FIFTY CENTS! If we'd had two dollars, we could have bought an ELEPHANT!" (2.4).

Garé Barks also was an artist and she helped with the lettering of the duck stories from the early 1950s, did extensive gagwriting for Dahl Mikkelsen's syndicated pantomime comic strip Ferd'nand.

Interviews:

January 8, 1983 interview

Sources | image: © [Walt Disney Productions]

W WDC 161-00 rare stamps olde stamps

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-667
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Submission: 1953, June 1953
Publication date: 1954, February
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 161, Vol. 14, No. 5
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 161-01 fix-it shop

Here's Mrs. Beaver's power mixer! Her little boy was mixing concrete, and it hardened!
-- nephew

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-669
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, April 30
Publication date: 1954, February
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 161, Vol. 14, No. 5
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 162-00 fence duel

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-668
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Submission: 1953, July 9
Publication date: 1954, March
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 162, Vol. 14, No. 6
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 162-01 railroad station master

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-679
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, June 25
Publication date: 1954, March
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 162, Vol. 14, No. 6
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 163-00 musical instruments baseball

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-668
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Submission: 1953, November 6
Publication date: 1954, April
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 163, Vol. 14, No. 7
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 163-01 antique chair raffle

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-689
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, July 2
Publication date: 1954, April
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 163, Vol. 14, No. 7
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 164-00 donald riding golf-bag carrier

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-701
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks [Garé Barks ?]
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1953, April 9
Publication date: 1954, May
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 164, Vol. 14, No. 8
Pages: 1

Details: One of the rare instances where Barks neglected to give the Ducks pie-cut eyes. The pie cuts were classically the last thing Barks did to his originals, so it appears that in this case he simply forgot to do this final step before mailing the cover off to Western. Barks later re-did his cover as an oil painting entitled as "The Compleat Golfer" (with pie-cut eyes). It is reproduced in "The Fine Art of Walt Disney's Donald Duck".

Questions: Did Barks really ink this cover? Judging from the reprint in "The Carl Barks Library - Set VIII", the ink style seems to be different. Maybe Barks only made pencils for this cover, inked by another artist? (His wife Garé Barks, for example?)

Sources

W WDC 164-01 flour demonstrator

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-701
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, August 27
Publication date: 1954, May1954, May
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 164, Vol. 14, No. 8
Pages: 10

CBL-notes: According to an issue of "Der Donaldist", the editors of "The Carl Barks Library - Set VIII" have changed the Sowbuggian directions in the dialogue of panel 3.2 while retouching the story. (In The Carl Barks Library, the directions are "UMLX CYZK BCOUFSK GOO". It seems that the "U" in the "BCOUFSK" is in error.)

Research: The term or phrase "Penny Wise" dates back, perhaps to Ben Franklin's "Poor Man's Almanac"? (i.e., "Penny wise and pound foolish.").

Questions: What are the exact Sowbuggian directions in the original publication? Also, which issue of "Der Donaldist" contains this information?

Sources

W WDC 165-00 "kids with tools"

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-702
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1953, December 31
Publication date: 1954, June
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 165, Vol. 14, No. 9
Pages: 1

Additional credits: Barks's list includes two entries for the front cover of Walt Disney Comics & Stories 165, Vol. 14, No. 9 - one for November 6, 1953, for "art", and one for December 31, 1953, also for "art". Barrier says the second listing is unquestionably the correct one, since it is identified as "kids with tools". Barrier concludes that the earlier listing is thus for another cover, possibly that of Walt Disney Comics & Stories No. 168, which is the only cover published at this time for which there is no entry on Barks's list.

Sources

W WDC 165-01 tv station audition ambition

Say, I do have timbre in my voice! I'm mildly surprised!
-- Donald Duck

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-713
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, August 27
Publication date: 1954, June
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 165, Vol. 14, No. 9
Pages: 10

Research: Both Perry Como and Liberace were very successful musical superstars even as early as the time of this story. Barks has acknowlegded their fame on the very first page of the narrative, in the form of the anthropomorphized "Perry Cougar" and "Lizardace", whose popularity the nephews use to goal Donald into striving for fame of his own.

Sources

W WDC 166-00 dog under bed cover

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-702
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Submission: 195,
Publication date: 1954, July
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 166, Vol. 14, No. 10
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 166-01 midget auto races

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 08C-723
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1953, September 17
Publication date: 1954, July
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 166, Vol. 14, No. 10
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 167-00 "fly on beak"

Barrier: MBAC-177
CBL: 09A-018
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1954, March 18
Publication date: 1954, August
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 167, Vol. 14, No. 11
Pages: 1

Additional credits: Barks's list includes two entries for the front cover of Walt Disney Comics & Stories 167, Vol. 14, No. 11 - one for November 6, 1953, for "art", and one for March 18, 1954, for "art and idea". Barrier says the second listing is unquestionably the correct one, since it is identified as "fly on beak". Barrier concludes that the earlier listing is thus for another cover, possibly that of Walt Disney Comics & Stories No. 168, which is the only cover published at this time for which there is no entry on Barks's list.

Sources