Barks may be history's most widely read anonymous storyteller. When he wrote and drew the Donald Duck comic books in the 1950s, they had an estimated monthly readership of more than 10 million, and the only real person's name that appeared on the comic was Walt Disney. The lovingly drawn stories, encompassing uproarious comedy and rousing adventure, also expanded Donald's one-note animated-cartoon personality and introduced Donald's magnificent skinflint uncle, Scrooge McDuck. In keeping with Barks' obscurity, the 24 interviews collected here come from small-circulation fanzines or are first publications. The earliest was conducted in 1968, after Barks' retirement; he lived another 30 years, painting fine-art renditions of the Disney ducks. In the interviews he veers from seeing himself as a nameless hack to revealing how seriously he took his work. His anonymity allowed for no reader feedback, and when he received his first fan letter in 1960, he thought it was a fellow cartoonist's joke. He probably would have been bemused yet impressed by this tribute to his work's lasting significance.
Chronology (excerpt)
1992Gottfried Helnwein conducts an extensive interview with Barks (11 July) at Grants Pass1994-97Helnwein organizes the first retrospective museum show, “Die Ente ist Mensch geworden – Das zeichnerische Werk von Carl Barks” (And the Duck Became Flesh – The Art of Carl Barks), consisting of more than 400 original art works, 290 from the collection of Helnwein, which opens in Münchner Stadtmuseum, in Munich; the exhibit appears in ten different museums in Europe and is seen by more than 400, 000 people.
University press of Mississippi, books and cataloguesFEBRUARY, 6 x 9 inches, 248 pages (approx.), chronology, 25 b&w illustrations, indexISBN 1-57806-500-3, unjacketed cloth, $46.00SISBN 1-57806-501-1, paper, $18.00TConversations with Comic Artists SeriesBISAC ART004000BISAC BIO001000BISAC SOC022000 Photo credit: Courtesy of Barbara Boatner