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The life of Carl Barks
Prince von Sayn-Wittgenstein, a collector of comic book figures needs to have a sense of humour… Everyone should have fun in their lives, not only collectors of Carl Barks, ‘the father of the Ducks and the creator of Duckburg’. But it is true that when you’ve had a hard day and you see a Barks painting or one of his figurines you just have to smile, and that in itself is good reason to love and collect his art. The definition of humour in Duden as the gift of handling the shortcomings of the world and of people with cheerful composure seems to embody Donald Duck in a particular way. But does that make it a subject for art? Art is a very broad term. One thing however is certain; the greatest art is that of delighting people. Carl Barks’ oeuvre has delighted almost the entire world. Countless children and adults have read Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck comic books. These stories are still read all around the globe, even in today’s more hectic world. I cannot think of another artist with so many fans of different nationalities as Carl Barks. For me, that is art. The invention of Donald Duck has wrongly been attributed to Carl Barks, the man who drew him. What role did this artist really play in the creation of the Duckburg panopticon? The Disney Studios had well-known illustrators and storytellers before and after Carl Barks, but he is the ‘greatest’ and the most famous. Donald Duck and Mickey and Minnie Mouse already existed before Barks started working for Disney. But Carl Barks is the spiritual father of world-famous characters such as Scrooge McDuck, Gyro Gearloose, the Beagle Boys gang, Donald’s infuriating cousin Gladstone Gander, the witch Magica de Spell, the Junior Woodchucks and many more ducks from Duckburg. Carl Barks was also dubbed the ‘Good Duck Artist’. As for Barks the painter and sculptor: what is epochal about his work? The word epochal sounds very heroic, but if we are to use this word, then in my opinion the truly epochal features of an oeuvre like that of Carl Barks are to be found only in the eye of the beholder. Barks understood like no other how to give his Ducks ‘character’, and he then ‘breathed life’ into them in the thousands of stories he told about them. His stories always reflect the zeitgeist, but things that happen in Disney/Barks comics could happen next door at any time and this is what makes Barks’ work credible.
With his stories and figurines, Carl Barks created a world parallel to our own that provided, and continues to provide entertainment, variety and fun to millions of people. So just as the Beatles changed the music world, Barks made comic books ‘socially acceptable’. Carl Barks, who died in 2000 aged 99, lives on today in his work and will continue to do so one hundred years from now. The ability to bring a smile to a large part of the human race in every continent, to distract people from their everyday worries and to make children’s eye light up – YES, the word epochal can be used, and YES, for me that is art. You own the most important collection of Barks’ work. What do people in the USA say about the great collector in Europe? Carl Barks has an incredibly large fan base. He was greeted like a pop star on his travels, also in Europe. In America, thousands of his fans camped in front of his farmhouse in Oregon for the chance to meet him, or just to be close to him. There are just as many fans of his comics in Europe as there are in the USA, but not many people in Europe are familiar with the name Carl Barks. He is much better known in America. For years his works of art have continued to increase steadily in value. Many businessminded Americans say art that makes a profit is good art, so it follows that Carl Barks is a top artist. But as I understand it, these are not true fans. In his stories, Barks always made gentle fun of his contemporaries whose highest ambition in life was to make as much money as possible (and he didn’t spare his manager either). A number of business men (tycoons, as Barks called them), famous directors and artists seem somewhat annoyed that a European owns the greatest collection in the world of original oil paintings and sculptures by ‘their’ artist. Steven Spielberg and Georg Lucas collect the art of Carl Barks, and large auction houses such as Heritage USA would like to bring at least his oil paintings back to the home – as they see it – of Carl Barks, for correspondingly high sums. But Carl Barks’ home was the whole world, and his spiritual home was Duckburg. I am proud to be the owner of this Barks collection and it gives me pleasure every day – long may it remain so. Thank you for talking to us.
is fans called him the ‘Good Duck Artist’ – because for so long time he worked unknown and in the background. But Carl Barks is now the most famous illustrator of American Disney comics. He invented stories about the Duck family and added a raft of original characters to the clan from the animated cartoons and comic books of Charles Alfred (Al) Taliaferro. Barks is the spiritual father of Scrooge McDuck, the richest man in the world, the brilliant inventor Gyro Gearloose and the gang of criminals, the Beagle Boys. He created Duckburg and turned his hero’s girlfriend Daisy Duck into a character in her own right. Donald’s nephews, the cheeky kids Huey, Dewey & Louie had already appeared in a Disney animated cartoon ‘Donald’s Nephews’ in 1938. Much of the animation was drawn by Barks, who had worked for the Disney Studios at the start of his comic book career. Here, the illustrator and writer came into contact with the great Walt Disney himself – the foundation stone of the world fame later enjoyed by the Duck clan. Barks’ characters also moved into the art market – as oil paintings highly valued by collectors.
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TranslaTion: Celia Moody, phoTos: Jan kohlrusCh/ supersTar
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