Barks Duck Books

Another of my all-time favorite comic book creators was Carl Barks. His stories influenced the likes of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Every kid who grew up between the early 40s and the mid-60s and who read Donald Duck comics came to seek out and enjoy the particular comic stories written and illustrated by Mr. Barks. He had a great sense of story and a truly unique talent for illustrating action and wild emotions in all of his characters. Barks may not have created Donald Duck, but he gave him something no one else had been able to achieve: he made Donald intelligible. You didn't have to hear his insane quacking, but could just read his words and thoughts on the printed page in the form of word and thought balloons.

In addition, Carl Barks created an entire pantheon of supporting characters for Donald. Donald's nephews, Huey, Louie, and Dewey. Uncle Scrooge. Gladstone Gander. Flintheart McGlomgold. Magica DeSpell. The Beagle Boys. The Junior Woodchucks. Gyro Gearloose...the list goes on. He compiled over 500 stories for various Disney comic books during his career. He told stories in formats as short as a single page with just a few panels to vast epics of a couple of dozen pages. Comics doesn't have guys like Carl Barks anymore.

And, as with Kelly, his star is in decline at the moment and I've found myself able to buy up issues featuring his work as they are currently in low demand and thus affordable and easy to obtain.

I really like that.

One of my recent purchases, Four Color #318 featuring the epic tale, "No Such Varmint".