A Guidebook to the Carl Barks Universe

Backstage: Making room for advertisements, stories had to be cut down. In a March 24, 1961 letter to Malcolm Willits, Barks wrote: "Now will come the grisliest butchery of all, I I fear - a page lifted from "The Terrible Tourist". It may be that the managers managed to confine their cuts to other stories in that issue. Only time will tell." No cuts were made this time.

Congruences:

CS WDC 64 christmas caroling at peoples' doors: Old version.

Correspondence:

March 24, 1961 letter from Carl Barks to Malcolm Willits

Sources

W WDC 249-01 Stranger Than Fiction

Barrier: MBAC-184
CBL: 10A-219
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1960, October 31
Publication date: 1961, June
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 249, Vol. 21, No. 9
Pages: 9

Changes: A total of one page has been cut from the story. It appears that the eight panels between page 8 panel 4 and page 9 panel 5 were cut from the (equivalent of) 16 that should fit there. Detailed information

Lost material: CZ WDC 249 Stranger Than Fiction [lost cut material]

Status: Original version is lost.

Backstage: As mentioned by Donald in panel 4 of page 3, the author of the science-fiction story "Ten Seconds to Mars" is "Spicer Willits", which is a reference to John and Bill Spicer and Malcolm Willits. They were three of the first comic fans to get in touch with Barks.

Joseph Cowles, who was also one of these fans, wrote in a July 29, 2000 e-mail:

The first time I visited Barks, must have been in 1960, he let me enter his little studio and look at the pages he'd finished for the WDC story he was currently working on. It was a story about a disintegration-reintegration machine, in which Donald got stuck. His butt was sticking out of the sending end of the device, and his head and upper torso were stuck in the receiving end. I was really moved by the beauty of his drawing. This was the first time I had seen it in black and white, and was amazed at how large the drawings were, how clean and precise his pen strokes were. That's when we first discussed his annoyance with the print quality of comic books. And, of course, the pages were shrunk down to 40% of the original art size.

Congruences:

W WDC 107-02 super snooper: Donald tries to teach the superhero comic book reading nephews a lesson by emulating superhero powers.

Sources

CZ WDC 249 Stranger Than Fiction [lost cut material]

Barrier: MBAC-184
CBL: ---
Type: story segment
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1960, October 31
Publication date: [none or unknown]
Issue: [none or unknown]
Pages: 1
Intended issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 249, Vol. 21, No. 9
Intended publication date: 1961, June

Additional credits: See Stranger Than Fiction, for more information.

Sources

W WDC 250-00 grill stacked with charcoal

Barrier: MBAC-184
CBL: 10A-185
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1960, September 19
Publication date: 1961, July
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 250, Vol. 21, No. 10
Pages: 1

Surviving material: Of this cover, which shows the nephews having stacked Donald's barbecue high with charcoal, a pen-inked pencil sketch exists. In this version, Donald also is carrying a long fork; there is more smoke coming from the barbeque; and - most important - the nephews are shown without charcoal dirt on themselves. This shows that the gag originally was that the nephews made piled up char coal so high that Donald's grill and steak won't fit on it. As published the emphasis lies on the gag that the nephews made themselves dirty while putting the char coal on the barbecue. Maybe the editor didn't find the cover gag visual enough and so they either added the dirt themselves or asked Barks to do it when inking the cover?

The pen-inked pencil sketch is published in Gottfried Helnwein's book "Wer Ist Carl Barks".

Sources

W WDC 250-01 Boxed-in

Barrier: MBAC-184
CBL: 10A-229
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Script rewriting: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1960, November 12
Publication date: 1961, July
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 250, Vol. 21, No. 10
Pages: 10

Additional credits: In a December 30, 1960 letter to Malcolm Willits, Barks wrote:

"I have just finished drawing two ten-page Donalds for Disney Comics that were scripted by an outsider. Editor Chase Craig sent me the two scripts while I was busy drawing the Gyro #3. I welcomed them as a chance to gain some time. Besides, I thought the writer might be some beginner who'd be encouraged by having his stuff used. Well, after days of rewriting and gag-propping on the scripts, all for free, I got them in shape and drew the art. Then, too late, I noticed on the border of one of the sheets the barely legible name of the author. It'd been erased, but I could make out the moniker of an old hack who has been around the game for years, and has never caught onto the duck style. Boy, do I feel let down."

Correspondence:

December 30, 1960 letter from Carl Barks to Malcolm Willits

Questions: Does someone know the name of writer whom Barks is referring to?

Sources

W WDC 251-01 Duck Luck

Barrier: MBAC-184
CBL: 10A-239
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Script rewriting: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1960, December 28
Publication date: 1961, August
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 251, Vol. 21, No. 11
Pages: 10

Additional credits: In his 1969 list of work for Western, Barks wrote about this story: "This story was from the office. I rewrote it very much." (See quote from December 30, 1960 letter to Malcolm Willits in the previous entry.)

Correspondence:

December 30, 1960 letter from Carl Barks to Malcolm Willits

Sources

W WDC 252-01 Mr. Private Eye

Barrier: MBAC-184
CBL: 10A-249
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, January 10
Publication date: 1961, September
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 252, Vol. 21, No. 12
Pages: 10

Landmark: Barks' first WDC-story with the Beagle Boys since WDC 135.

Sources

W WDC 253-00 market baskets

Barrier: MBAC-184
CBL: 10A-187
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1960, September 19
Publication date: 1961, October
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 253, Vol. 22, No. 1
Pages: 1

Sources

W WDC 253-01 Hound Hounder

Barrier: MBAC-184
CBL: 10A-259
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, January 16
Publication date: 1961, October
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 253, Vol. 22, No. 1
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 254-01 Jet Witch

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-273
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, March 13
Publication date: 1961, November
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 254, Vol. 22, No. 2
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 255-01 Boat Buster

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-283
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, March 20
Publication date: 1961, December
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 255, Vol. 22, No. 3
Pages: 10

Landmark: First appearance of Scrooge's competitor John D. Rockerduck.

CBL-notes: Crayfish and jellyfish added in panel 8.9.

Backstage: On March 19, the day before the story's submission, Barks wrote to Joe Cowles: "Tomorrow we're taking a ten-page Donald into Beverly Hills. That's the first trip into the city this year. I ran completely out of paper; so we have to go. I'm going to ask for a big stack so it'll be possible to give you a few sheets to get the measurements from, and to try out for drawing "feel.""

Correspondence:

March 19, 1961 letter from Carl Barks to Joe Cowles

Questions: Has Barks ever commented on his creation of Rockerduck?

Sources

W WDC 256-00 snowman and snowballs #1

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-269
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1961, January 23
Publication date: 1962, January
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 256, Vol. 22, No. 4
Pages: 1

Additional credits: The same idea - but a different drawing - was used for the cover of Walt Disney Comics & Stories 341, Vol. 29, No. 5, 1969, February.

Sources

W WDC 256-01 Northeaster on Cape Quack

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-293
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, May 17
Publication date: 1962, January
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 256, Vol. 22, No. 4
Pages: 10

Backstage: This story - or at least its title - was inspired by Ted Kautsky's dramatic watercolor painting "Northeaster off Cape Anne".

Sources

W WDC 257-02 Movie Mad

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-303
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, June 5
Publication date: 1962, February
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 257, Vol. 22, No. 5
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 258-01 Ten-cent Valentine

Did another missile blow up on the launching pad?
-- Scrooge McDuck

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-313
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, June 14
Publication date: 1962, March
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 258, Vol. 22, No. 6
Pages: 10

Surviving material: magica de spell [model sheet]

Cross-references: Second appearance of Magica de Spell. The nephews remembers her as "the sorceress who almost melted Unca Scrooge's Old Number One Dime in Mount Vesuvius!" (2.5) This is a cross-reference to what happened during her first appearance, in «The Midas Touch».

Sources

W WDC 259-01 Jungle Bungle

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-323
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, September 14
Publication date: 1962, April
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 259, Vol. 22, No. 7
Pages: 10

Changes: The title panel of this story was revised following office suggestions. In the original splash-panel, one of the nephews is holding a stick with a prune on it and the other two are standing next to him. They call to Donald: "All set, Unca Donald! See if you can shoot the prune off this stick with your arrow!" Donald, in the panel front right, replies: "Ha! A prune! I could shoot a raisin at this easy distance!"

The panel was presumably revised because it is extremely unsafe as originally drawn. The published splash-panel shows the nephews standing next to Donald as he aims at the stick - now stuck in the ground - there is no safety hazard.

A look at the art of the second panel (in comparision with the original first panel) seems to reveal that this panel was also altered. No original version of this panel exists, because - instead of drawing a new one - Barks has most likely revised it by whitening out the nephews and filling in the background.

Surviving material:

CX WDC 259 Jungle Bungle [surviving cut material]: Rejected splash-panel.

Congruences:

... "kids at bat": Western Publishing [apparently] objecting to a situation that is dangerous in real life.

Sources

CX WDC 259 Jungle Bungle [surviving cut material]

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-272
Type: story segment
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, September 14 ?
Publication date: 1990, August
Issue: The Carl Barks Library - Set X
Pages: 0 1/2
Intended issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 259, Vol. 22, No. 7
Intended publication date: 1962, April

Additional credits: See Jungle Bungle, for more information.

Sources

W WDC 260-00 scout knot in hose

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-272
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1961, September 7
Publication date: 1962, May
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 260, Vol. 22, No. 8
Pages: 1

Surviving material:

CR WDC 260 scout knot in hose [alternate version]

CBL-notes: Blurry reproduction.

Sources

W WDC 260-02 Merry Ferry

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-333
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, September 19
Publication date: 1962, May
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 260, Vol. 22, No. 8
Pages: 10

Sources

"kids at bat"

Inducks: ...
Barrier: MBAC-202, 212
CBL: ---
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1961, October 5
Publication date: [none or unknown]
Issue: [none or unknown]
Pages: 1
Intended issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 260, Vol. 22, No. 8 ?
Intended publication date: 1962, May ?

Additional credits: Art-only front cover for Walt Disney's Comics, listed as "kids at bat". According to The Carl Barks Library - Set IX, Barks intended the cover for Walt Disney Comics & Stories 260, Vol. 22, No. 8, 1962, May

Surviving material:

CR CU 4 kids at bat [layout #1]

Status: No inked art is known to have surfaced.

Remakes: ARC BL 9 kids at bat [remake]

Backstage: Surviving pencil drawings for this cover show the nephews standing three in row, with bats over their shoulders, as Donald prepares to pitch. The nephews would severely injure one another's head if they swung their bats. Western probably rejected the design for that reason, believing that children might be encouraged to imitate the nephews' three-bat trick.

Congruences:

W WDC 259-01 Jungle Bungle: Western Publishing objecting to a situation that is dangerous in real life.

Sources

W WDC 261-00 picnic in log

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-271
Type: cover
Art: Carl Barks
Script: [unknown]
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1961, April 21
Publication date: 1962, June
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 261, Vol. 22, No. 9
Pages: 1

Additional credits: The cover idea for this art-only cover was already used in Italy, before Barks' version was published in the USA. This Italian version was inked by Italian artist Perego and published as the cover of Topolino #302, 1961-09-10.

Questions: It is obviously impossible that Perego had seen a published American version before. So, maybe this cover was distributed to various publishers just as an idea, possibly a rough sketch, which was then independently worked on by the various artists, including Barks? Also, who's the writer of this "international" cover?

Sources

W WDC 261-01 Medaling Around

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-343
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, November 16
Publication date: 1962, June
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 261, Vol. 22, No. 9
Pages: 10

CBL-notes: Splash panel is lengthened at the lower border. Changed from a Donald Duck-story into a Junior Woodchuck-story. Apparently, the reason for this is that the reprint of Junior Woodchuck comic No. 23 of November 1973 was used. Since it wasn't the opening-story of the comic, the room which was left open for the indicia of WDC 261 wasn't nescessary anymore and therefore filled in that reprint.

Sources

W WDC 262-02 Way Out Yonder

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-355
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, December 5
Publication date: 1962, July
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 262, Vol. 22, No. 10
Pages: 10

Sources

W WDC 262-08 Rags to Riches

Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob!
-- Scrooge McDuck

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 04C-552
Type: gag
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Uncle Scrooge
Submission: 1961, November 1
Publication date: 1962, July
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 262, Vol. 22, No. 10
Pages: 0 1/2
Filled out with: [unknown material]

Layout: Doesn't end with a full page.

Questions: What material fills out the comic book page?

Sources

W WDC 263-01 The Candy Kid

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-365
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1961, December 13
Publication date: 1962, August
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 263, Vol. 22, No. 11
Pages: 10

Additional credits: In his 1969 list of work for Western, Barks wrote: "I dreamed up this story to feature Joe Cowles, a fan who was working on a popcorn machine at Disneyland." Detailed information

Correspondence:

March 19, 1961 letter from Carl Barks to Joe Cowles

Sources

W WDC 264-01 Master Wrecker

Barrier: MBAC-185
CBL: 10B-375
Type: story
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: Donald Duck
Submission: 1962, February 9
Publication date: 1962, September
Issue: Walt Disney Comics & Stories 264, Vol. 22, No. 12
Pages: 10

Additional credits: Barks credits the idea for this story to Joe Cowles. Detailed information

Research: In panel 4.7, Barks included a few bars of music. Matt Rosenblatt has pointed out that "The first seven notes are 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star': the melody comes from a Haydn symphony. The last three notes are the ones that follow in the symphony, but not in 'Twinkle, twinkle little star.'" Barks, questioned about this, replied in a 22 November 1968 letter to Michael Barrier: "The music from Haydn's symphony must have been lifted from the book 'The art of enjoying music' by Sigmund Spaeth. I used the book for many references to musical forms and titles. Actually, I can't read a note."

Correspondence:

Sources