Special Barks Creation

When I was a kid, I think my very favorite Carl Barks creation was Gyro Gearloose. Gyro had appeared as a supporting character who was soon starring in backup stories in various Disney Duck comics. It was hard to have a favorite Carl Barks character with competition like Donald, the nephews, and Uncle Scrooge. But somehow Gyro Gearloose was able to rise above the others, at least in my estimation. I guess, for me, it was because Gyro was an inventor and as a kid I was endlessly fascinated by science. Even when it was comic book science being studied by a childlike inventor with an enormous genius for fabrication.

I have the first appearance of Gyro in an issue of WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES (#140) which is supposed to be rare, but which has to be one of the single most common Golden Age comics of which I know. Study Ebay or the stocks of any decent comic dealer at the next convention you attend and you will likely find many copies of that book. I assume that the feedback must have been positive, because Barks returned to Gearloose again and again, finally culminating in his own tryout books in Dell's FOUR COLOR title. Alas, sales must not have been quite good enough, because after a few issues (at least three in that tryout format), he was not awarded his own continuing free-standing title.

He was also never used in the cartoons of that era. I've heard it said that this was likely because the Disney animators instead went with Ludwig Von Drake to stand in as the miraculous inventor within the Disney cartoon universe. There just wasn't room for two such characters in the Disney toons.

One thing that I got a kick from when I was a kid was Gyro's assistant, "Helper". This was a little metal robot about the size of a human hand (or a cartoon duck's hand). He moved about almost as a little stick-figure person, the gimmick being that his head was an a-ha moment light bulb. Barks was no dummy when it came to being uniquely clever. Gyro would often get himself into trouble with his inventions, and just as often his little helper would find a way to get him out of a jam. A faithful friend. Every kid likes the idea of a faithful friend.

Four Color #1047.

 

Four Color #1095.

Four Color #1267.

My copy of the supposedly rare (but not actually rare at all) WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES #140, featuring the first appearance of Gyro Gearloose, Duckburg's greatest inventor.

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The Great Carl Barks!

One of my favorite comic book creators was Carl Barks. He was an animator at Disney. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, Disney comic books were selling enormous numbers. Enough so that Walt needed someone reliable to put in charge of the Duck comics and to keep things on an even keel. This was house important the comic books were to the man who owned the company. So he searched his company talent and settled on one of his best storyboard artists to write and illustrate most of the Duck stories for Dell Comics. That man was Carl Barks.

Even when I was a very young kid...as young as eight...I wondered if the same men who drew the comics were the same men who were also writing the comics. Without ever knowing for sure, I decided that my favorite Duck artist was also writing the stories. This was because of a single panel. At the end of the story there was a panel with a tiny pair of silhouettes off in the distance. The story had involved an elephant and way, way, way back, almost out of sight, you could see this tiny silhouette of Uncle Scrooge leading the huge pachyderm away, the elephant's trunk hooked in Uncle Scrooge's cane.

That did it for me. I knew that only the man who could draw a delightful detail like that could have written the story. It wasn't until some years later that I learned that my favorite Duck artist was named Carl Barks, and that he indeed did write and illustrate the stories. And, of course, it later became obvious to me that Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were also writing the stories (even if that credit was stolen from them).

I still collect Carl Barks comics. Later in life, when he had retired from comics, he had been given permission by the Disney company to sell paintings of the Duck characters. He was doing quite well at this for a while until an unscrupulous businessman made posters of one of his paintings and sold them illegally. Disney got wind of it and withdrew their permission for Barks to do his paintings. Carl Barks created a tremendous number of characters for the Duck books that he wrote and illustrated. Uncle Scrooge. Gyro Gearloose. Gladstone Gander. Flintheart McGlomgold. The Beagle Boys. And so on. It had to be rough for him not to be able to render these paintings, especially when he had created them.

Below, some of my Disney comic books featuring art and stories by Carl Barks.

Donald Duck #26.

This was one of my favorite Donald Duck adventures when I was a kid. Donald and dinosaurs!

The deservedly famous "square egg" story.

Four Color #456, actually Uncle Scrooge #2.

Great Barks comics with great Barks covers!

Rare? Nope.

Certain old comics--even some from the Golden Age--are rather common. I've never quite figured out why this is so. I know the main reason for it--some specific issues just solder better than others. But why this is so, I can't say. What made one issue sell particularly well and thus made the odds for its survival as a collectible more even?

When I was a comic book dealer, there were just weird issues of books that I would always run into. Why were they more common than the issues that came out that particular year? Who can say?

For instance, I used to run into copies of Superman #63 and Superman #98 a lot! By "a lot", what I mean to say is that I rarely didn't have those issues in stock. And if you try to find a Superman #62, or a Superman #99...lots o' luck! Those are much more difficult to find!

One of the books in my collection is WALT DISNEY COMICS & STORIES #140. It's considered a "key" issue. That is, it's important to collectors because it has the first appearance of a Carl Barks creation who was used quite a lot over the years: Donald Duck's super-lucky cousin, Gladstone Gander. I always got a kick out of the stories that had Gladstone in them. They were a lot of fun.

However, this issue of the book is just very damned common. Many, many of them obviously survived over the years because I rarely go into a comic book convention when I don't find several dealers with at least one copy of that book in their stock. They're just very, very easy to find.

But what made it so attractive to kids that so many were purchased (and survived)? Was it the cover art? It's clever, but no funnier or more imaginative than many another Carl Barks cover. It couldn't have been the appearance of Gladstone, because it was the first story in which Barks ever used him. No one knew who he was, so the kids could not have approached the book with any amount of affection for him.

One thing I've always wondered about was if the color stock had anything to do with it. The cover is dominated by a bright yellow the surrounds Donald. Maybe all of that glaring yellow cover stock grabbed the eyes and attentions of a hundred thousand extra kids that month. Was this issue part of a promotional giveaway? I've never heard that. It's a mystery.

But I do have a very nice copy in my collection. They supposedly are priced at a slight premium because of Gladstone Gander's first appearance. But I always see them end up going for a lot less than the Guide price. Supply and demand rules.

My copy of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories #140.

More Old Disneys

I added a few new books to my collection, all WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES. I bought a #63, #72, and #77. The main appeal to me are the Carl Barks stories, but there's plenty more to see in these great old comic books. I look at this material and mourn for what American kids are missing in these modern times.

WDC &S #64 I wonder about the editorial process for the covers.

Each month the artists had to come up with something relatively original and funny enough to amuse the editor. Knowing Disney's detail-oriented approach to business, I wonder if he ever had a say in any of these. I do know that he hand-picked some of the artists who created the comic books based on his characters.

You can see changes in style and material as the years progressed. This issue was published in 1947 and still had an old-fashioned feel to it. Within a couple of more years the cover art began to change.

One thing about these old comics is that there was almost no need to advertise. The publisher made money just from the sales of the books alone. Of course comics in those days were selling many times more than comics today. Some publishers (such as Quality Comics) even had a policy of royalty bonuses for creators of high-selling comics. For instance, Jack Cole routinely earned sizable bonus checks for his brilliant PLASTIC MAN comic. This issue had a full back cover advertisement for the then-upcoming SONG OF THE SOUTH film.

Two Recent Additions

Here a a couple of books that I just added to my collection. Strange and different from one another, which goes to show you how wide and varied the market was in its day.

Filling in some more gaps in my Walt Disney Comics & Stories collection (isse #113 here). I was really happy with this one. A nice, tight copy in really nice condition. I'm amazed at how great these old books were. No ads, really, except for blurbs and illustrations for other Disney comics.

GET LOST #2. This book looks like an early copy of Mad because that's what it was trying to be. I'm not sure who wrote this stuff, but it was both illustrated and published by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. These guys are most famous to fans from my day as being the team responsible for both THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT in Star Spangled War Stories, and the cool METAL MEN comic book, and WONDER WOMAN during the late 50s and early 60s.

GET LOST was their attempt to capitalize on the truly scary popularity of Mad, which was then a comic book. Everyone was trying to ape Mad and get in on the act. Even Mad was copying Mad! With their spin-off comic PANIC. In this case, Andru and Esposito even self-published this book (from what I can gather). What amazes me was how well they were able to imitate the look and feel of the stories in Mad. Of all of the copy-cats, they seem to have come the closest of mimicking those very early issues of MAD.

Once again I lucked out and landed a really crisp, nice copy of this book.

Two More from Barks

I landed copies of WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES #120 and #122 this week. This gives me just about every issue from the years 1949 through 1953. This is the kind of collection that I'll be adding to for years.

There are certain Golden Age comics that seem to still be around in large numbers. This is one of them. I rarely attend a comic book show where there aren't at least a dozen or so of this particular book available for sale. This tends to make me think that this issue sold better than others. I can't say why, as this cover seems no more appealing to kids (or their parents) than any others around this time.

In contrast, this issue came out just two months later, and yet I don't see nearly as many copies offered for sale. I will assume that it sold far fewer copies than issue #120. Why? Damned if I can figure it out.

Old Disney Comics

I landed some nice comics for my collection yesterday. In this case, it was some 1940s-era Disney comics, all with stories written and illustrated by Carl Barks, my favorite Disney artist. Barks influenced many artists and writers over the years. Two notable influences by this most-talented of the Duck artists were Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas.

Walt Disney's Comics and Stories was a great comic. There's nothing like it on the newsstands anymore. Probably because there aren't any newsstands anymore. The book was 52 pages and featured stories with Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and various other Disney characters. You could always count on the lead story to be about Donald and his nephews, though. Donald has pretty much always been Disney's most popular character, despite the fact that it's Mickey Mouse who's on all the trademarks.

I know that when I was a kid, I didn't give a rat's ass about Mickey Mouse and would ignore the stories that featured him.

WDC&S #91

WDC&S #96

WDC&S #101

WDC&S #105

WDC&S # 106

WDC&S #109

WDC&S #114

WDC&S #121

More Carl Barks Goodness

Too tired to post anything of substance today. Except excellent cover art by the late Carl Barks. My Disney comic collection has grown substantially. I need to get it all boxed and the books protected.



This issue of Walt Disney 's Comics & Stories contains the ten-page yarn that Carl Barks often referred to as his all-time favorite. That's saying something, considering the enormous volume of stories he produced in his long career as a comic book writer/artist.

Barks Duck Books Part II

Lately I've been buying up old Disney comic books with stories created by one of my favorite cartoon artists, Carl Barks. He was a very busy guy for decades, producing many stories for his main employer, Disney and Dell Comics. Dell (and later, Gold Key/Western) had the then-lucrative Disney contracts locked up, and with guys like Carl Barks writing and illustrating wonderful fiction, it was one of the best publishers for kids' comics. It's my opinion that the Disney comics were far superior in just about every way to the films.

What's really good is that, for some reason, a lot of the books that I want to buy are in a kind of slump. Books that were very hard to buy when I was a collectibles dealer are easy to find and, not only that, in low demand. It's a real buyer's market if, like me, you enjoy reading comic books drawn by the likes of Carl Barks, John Stanley, and Walt Kelly. These geniuses seem to have fallen out of favor. Oh, well. Good for me.