Carl Barks Comic Book Art

SURVIVING ARTWORK

THE FIRST OWNERS...

 

Over time, Carl Barks sold most of the few unpublished panels he had kept. However, when he retired from comic book work, Western presented him with six full adventure stories and 4 one-pagers of his own artwork as a retirement present. They had been saved from incineration thanks to a thoughtful publisher. Now, Barks had full stories to enjoy, but he was also aware of the rapidly growing interest in his drawings, and he decided to sell the stories, mostly one page at a time, to dedicated fans in order for them to enjoy his work firsthand. Today, the surviving artwork is still highly sought after by collectors of comic art.

The five full 24-page stories that Barks received as a token of appreciation from his publishing editor and friend, Craig Chase, were as follows: Uncle Scrooge adventures: U$59: "North of the Yukon", U$60: "The Phantom of Notre Duck", U$61: "So Far and No Safari", U$62: "Queen of the Wild Dog Pack", and U$63: "House of Haunts". Also, a complete Donald Duck 10-pager and three Uncle Scrooge one-pagers were given to Barks by the editor.

Of the five Uncle Scrooge stories, Carl Barks only made personal notes of the buyers' names and prices for the four U$ stories; U$60-U$63. Although Barks was no bookkeeper, he still managed to add notes with new names to his lists if he found that pages were resold later on. Carl also made notes about the prices he sold the pages for. Sometimes the editors wrote page numbers for the story in the margin. In several cases, these do not match the right page numbers. That situation happened when they calculated an advertising page within the story. Most sold pages by Barks were signed and sometimes dedicated to their first owner in the lower right corner.

Carl Barks kept for himself the whole 24-pager from U$59: "North of The Yukon" and some few other pages from the other four U$ stories. Mainly the opening pages and pages with a Splash panel. But later, these pages were also sold, and the 24-pager from U$59 was sold as a complete story to the American comic book distributor, publisher, and former comic store owner Steve Geppi. (Later on, Steve Geppi sold the U$59 story separately on Heritage auctions).

Of the total of 134 pages, Barks kept 42 pages for himself and noted that 92 were for sale.



Carl Barks in a Letter from December 10, 1970, to fan Glenn Bray :

>...back in the 40s and 50s nobody could have convinced me that there would ever be anybody who would collect comic books for any reason (and for the literary or nostalgic value least of all)...
...I do have a few original Scrooges at $100 a page. When I retired in 1966 the Western editor used his weight to get me some pages from the scrap bin at the printery. I have sold a few pages to fans the last couple of years for $25 a page, but as it became evident that my pages are most likely the only ones in existence I stopped selling and did some Scroogian calculating...<


THE FIRST OWNERS OF CARL BARKS ORIGINAL PAGES

              Carl Barks Original pages sold in Chronological order :

 

  1. 1. 1968 ( Jan. ) One-pager : "Fur Coat" US-61 : Carlo Chendi. Carl gave this page away for free. 
  2. 2. 1969 ( Dec. ) Page 4 / US-60 : Richard McKinney
  3. 2. 1970 ( Febr. ) Page 3 / US-60 : Kaj Wicklander ( Sweden )
  4. 4. 1970 ( March ) Page 2 / US-62 : John Bullis
  5. 5. 1970 ( March ) Page 23 / US-60 : Dick West
  6. 6. 1970 ( Apr. 9) Page 20 / US-63 : Craig Young
  7. 7. 1970 ( Apr. 9 ) Page 14 / US-61 : Craig Young
  8. 8. 1970 ( Apr. ) Page 8 / US-60 : Jeff Cain
  9. 9. 1970 ( Apr. ) Page 22 / US-63 : Russ Meyers
  10. 10. 1970 ( Apr. ) Page 19 / US-60 : Lawrence de Coster ( Later sold : GG#5/75 )
  11. 11. 1970 ( Aug. ) Page 24 / US-63 : Don Ault
  12. 12. 1970 ( Aug. ) Page 7 / US-61 : ( Don Ault – “for Allan`s girl” )
  13. 13. 1970 ( Sept. ) Page 24 / US-60 : Allen Dodge
  14. 14. 1970 ( Sept. ) Page 10 / US-63 : Don Ault
  15. 15. 1970 ( Nov. 6 ) Page 13 / US-63 : Tom Andrae
  16. 16. 1971 ( March ) Page 5 / US-60 : Geoffrey Blum
  17. 17. 1971 ( Nov. ) Page 22 / US-60 : Geoffrey Blum
  18. 18. 1971 ( Nov. ) Page 23 / US-63 : Guy Rosebrook
  19. 19. 1971 ( Nov. ) Page 23 / US-61 : Guy Rosebrook
  20. 20. 1971 ( ? ) Page 24 / US-61 : Patrick and Mary Snead
  21. 21. 1972 ( Jan. ) Page 6 / US-63 : Patrick Snead
  22. 22. 1972 ( Apr. ) Page 3 / US-61 : Tom Tallmon
  23. 23. 1972 ( Apr. ) Page 9 / US-60 : Geoffrey Blum
  24. 24. 1972 ( Apr. ) Page 13 / US-60 : Dennis Geare
  25. 25. 1972 ( Aug. ) Page 10 / US-60 : Kim Weston
  26. 26. 1972 ( Sept. ) Page 21 / US-60 : Tom Collins
  27. 27. 1974 ( Febr. ) Page 11 / US-63 : Richard Krawitz
  28. 28. 1974 ( Febr. ) Page 21 / US-62 : Jeff Gorrell ( Jeff Gorrell and Richard Kravitz switched pages )
  29. 29. 1974 ( Apr. ) Page 7 / US-60 : Russ Cochran ( GG#4/1974 )
  30. 30. 1974 ( May ) Page 5 / US-63 : William Z. Ryan
  31. 31. 1974 ( July ) Page 22 / US-61 : Russ Cochran sold later to J. Summer
  32. 32. 1974 ( July ) Page 12 / US-61 : Russ Cochran sold later to J. Summer
  33. 33. 1974 ( Dec. ) Page 12 / US-62 : Bob Young
  34. 34. 1974 ( ? ) Page 16 / US-63 : Russ Cochran sold to Bob Young ( GG#4 )
  35. 35. 1974 ( ? ) Page 17 / US-63 : Russ Cochran
  36. 36. 1974 ( Dec. ) Page 22 / US-62 : John Burchfield
  37. 37. 1974 ( Dec. ) Page 19 / US-63 : John Burchfield
  38. 38. 1975 ( March ) Page 3 / US-63 : Russ Cochran ( Graphic Gallery # 6 / 1976 )
  39. 39. 1975 ( March ) Page 18 / US-60 : Russ Cochran
  40. 40. 1975 ( March ) Page 8 / US-61 : Russ Cochran later sold to Dr. Stuart
  41. 41. 1975 ( Oct. ) Page 14 / US-63 : Goran Broling
  42. 42. 1976 ( Jan. ) Page 4 / US-61 : Robert Brown
  43. 43. 1976 ( Sept. ) Page 9 / US-61 : Craig Crawshaw
  44. 44. 1978 ( Febr. ) Page 15 / US-63 : Bill Cole
  45. 45. 1978 ( ? ) Page 16 / US-62 : Terry Taylor
  46. 46. 1978 ( Apr. ) Page 15 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  47. 47. 1978 ( Apr. ) Page 23 / US-62 : Russ Cochran
  48. 48. 1978 ( Apr. ) Page 3 / US-62 : Russ Cochran
  49. 49. 1978 ( ? ) Page 2 / US-63 : Wes Parker
  50. 50. 1978 ( Apr. ) Page 6 / US-60 : Russ Cochran
  51. 51. 1978 ( Apr. ) Page 11 / US-60 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  52. 52. 1978 ( Apr. ) Page 20 / US-60 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  53. 53. 1978 ( Apr. ) Page 6 / US-61 : Klaus Stryzz
  54. 54. 1978 ( Apr. ) Page 13 / US-61 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  55. 55. 1978 ( May ) Page 17 / US-61 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  56. 56. 1978 ( May ) Page 10 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  57. 57. 1978 ( May ) Page 11 / US-61 : Wes Parker / Gerber later sold to T. Taylor
  58. 58. 1978 ( ? ) Page 2 / US-61 : Wes Parker
  59. 59. 1978 ( ? ) Page 7 / US-63 : Terry Taylor
  60. 60. 1978 ( ? ) Page 9 / US-63 : Terry Taylor
  61. 61. 1978 ( ? ) Page 8 / US-63 : Bill Cole
  62. 62. 1978 ( June ) Page 4 / US-63 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  63. 63. 1978 ( July ) Page 24 / US-62 : Wes Prker / Gerber sold later to “Mike”
  64. 64. 1978 ( Nov. ) Page 5 / US-61 : Wes Parker
  65. 65. 1979 ( Jan. ) Page 17 / US-60 : Russ Cochran / Gerber
  66. 66. 1979 ( Jan. ) Page 19 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  67. 67. 1979 ( Jan. ) Page 19 / US-61 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  68. 68. 1979 ( Febr. ) Page 7 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  69. 69. 1979 ( Febr ) Page 16 / US-60 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  70. 70. 1979 ( Febr. ) Page 8 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  71. 71. 1979 ( March ) Page 12 / US-60 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  72. 72. 1979 ( March ) Page 18 / US-61 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  73. 73. 1979 ( March ) Page 17 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  74. 74. 1979 ( March ) Page 20 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  75. 75. 1979 ( July ) Page 9 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  76. 76. 1979 ( July ) Page 12 / US-63 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  77. 77. 1979 ( Oct. ) Page 14 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  78. 78. 1979 ( ? ) Page 14 / US-60 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  79. 79. 1980 ( March ) Page 4 / US-62 : Wes Parker
  80. 80. 1980 ( March ) Page 5 / US-62 : Wes Parker
  81. 81. 1980 ( March ) Page 6 / US-62 : Wes Parker/ Gerber
  82. 82. 1980 ( March ) Page 10 / US-62 : Bill Cole
  83. 83. 1980 ( March ) Page 11 / US-62 : Bill Cole
  84. 84. 1980 ( June ) Page 13 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  85. 85. 1980 ( June ) Page 15 / US-60 : Wes Parker / Gerber later sold to M. Farthan
  86. 86. 1980 ( June ) Page 15 / US-61 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  87. 87. 1980 ( June ) Page 16 / US-61 : Wes Parker / Gerber
  88. 88. 1980 ( Aug. ) Page 18 / US-62 : Wes Parker / Fantazy Comics Tucson
  89. 89. 1981 ( Febr. ) Page 21 / US-61 : “Missing” ? Russ Cochran / Terry Taylor sold to Don Lineberger.
  90. 90. 1981 ? “Missing” ? Page 20 / US-61 : “Candy Store” ?
  91. 91. 1981 ( March ) Page 1 / US-60 : Bill Grandey & Kathy Morby
  92. 92. 1981 ( March ) One pager “Parrot” : Bill Grandey & Kathy Morby
  93. 93. 1994 ( Apr. ) Page 18 / US-63 : Axel Werner
  94. 94. Noticed as Still have page ( ? ) Page 21 / US-63 : Sold to ?
  95.  
  96. Carl saved the following pages for himself :
  97. 95. Page 2 / US-60,
  98. 96. Page 1 / US-62,
  99. 97. Page 1 / US-63.
  100. 98.All 10 Pages from “Beauty Business” and all 24 pages from US-59 + 3 One pagers.
  101. 99. “Give Away” pages by Carl : Page 1 / US-61 : Mario Gentilini