AFTERCarl Barks painting fine-art cartoons in oils

by Copyright 2010 by John Garvin www.johngarvin.com

Published by Enchanted Images Inc. www.enchantedimages.com

All illustrations in this book are copyrighted by their respective copy- right holders (according to the original copyright or publication date as printed in/on the original work) and are reproduced for historical reference and research purposes. Any omission or incorrect informa- tion should be transmitted to the publisher so it can be rectified in future editions of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-9785946-4-0

First “Hunger Print” Edition November 2010 Edition size: 250

Printed in the United States of America about the “hunger” print

“Hunger” (01-2010), 16” x 20” oil on masonite.

“Hunger” was painted in early 2010 as a tribute to the painting genre pioneered by Carl Barks and to his techniques and craft. Throughout this book, I attempt to show how creative decisions – like those Barks himself might have made – helped shape and evolve the painting as I transformed a blank sheet of masonite into a fine-art cartoon painting.

Each copy of After Carl Barks: Painting Fine-Art Cartoons in Oils includes a signed print of the final painting.

5 acknowledgements I am indebted to the following, in paintings and for being an important husband’s work. As the owner of alphabetical order: part of my life. Another Rainbow, Bruce Hamilton published The Fine Art of Walt Donald Ault. For permission to quote Jeff Cain. One of the original Disney’s Donald Duck By Carl extensively from his own research collectors of Barks’s cartoon Barks, the Carl Barks Library, and and work. Professor Ault purchased paintings, for sharing his knowledge most of Barks’s fine-art lithographs one of Barks’s first fine-art cartoon of Barks in the 1970s, for Carl Barks from the 1980s and ‘90s. It’s easy paintings and in the 1970s helped Remembered, and for permission to argue that Bruce, along with his manage Barks’s rapidly growing “list” to reprint some of his private partner Russ Cochran, was responsible of commissions. Ault is also one of the correspondence. for the success of much of Barks’s original Barks scholars, publishing cartoon painting career. Without numerous articles in the Carl Barks Daniël van Eijmeren. For Bruce’s work, my own would have been Library as well as editing Carl permission to quote from his extensive impossible. Barks Conversations. website: www.seriesam.com/barks/index.html David House. For being my editor Carl and Garé Barks. For the many and proof-reader and friend. Any hours spent mentoring an aspiring Jennifer, Andrew, Ryan, Ansen mistakes in the book, of course, are my artist from the backwaters of Southern and McKenzie Garvin. For being own. You can read more about House’s Oregon. models in my paintings and for being work online at: such great kids. www.space-worthy.com Patrick Block. For the encouragement and support both he Shiloah Garvin. For being the best Peter Kyling. For permission to and his wife Shelly have expressed for wife a painter of funny animals could reprint material from his extensive my work. And for being a painter! have and for helping to proof-read this website: book. www.cbarks.dk Christopher B. Boyko and Jerry Weist. Boyko and Weist organized Dan Gheno. For permission to reprint Alex Nielsen. For permission to and administrated the Barks estate photos of Barks at his easel taken in reprint his photos of Carl Barks. His sales, which made possible much of the 1970s. website is here: my research, providing behind-the- www.carlbarks.ws scenes material on Barks’s painting Dorothy Gibson. Barks’s daughter, career that would otherwise have been for permission to quote from Barks’s Dave Sim. For purchasing and impossible to obtain. personal correspondence taken from publishing my first page of original art, Peter Kyling’s website. in the 1980s when I was very poor and Stephanie Brown, my eldest needed it more than he could have ever daughter, her husband Shane, Helen Hamilton. I would like to imagined. and my grandchildren Hayley thank Helen for granting permission and Aidan. For being models for my to quote extensively from her late reference notes Barks’s own identification system is used for all paintings: “Title,” (No. - year), i.e. “Snow Fun” (1-74), is the first painting that Barks completed in 1974.

Reference citations use the following abbreviations:

Animal Quackers (AQ). Carl Barks: Conversations (CBC). Carl Barks and the Art of the Disney Comic Book (CBDCB). Carl Barks and the Disney Comic Book: Unmasking the Myth of Modernity (UMM). Carl Barks Library (CBL followed by set, volume, page) i.e. (CBL, II, 2, 22). The Comic Book Price Guide No. 7 (CBPG). The Fine Art of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck by Carl Barks (FA). Mickey Mouse In Color (MMIC).

Page numbers follow the abbreviation, i.e. (CBC, 12). Some material has been reprinted, by permission, from the following websites:

www.cbarks.dk www.seriesam.com/barks/index.html

Much unpublished material has been gleaned from material collected from the Barks estate auctions and from my own collection and correspondence. This material is noted. 6 contents

introduction 9 a short biography of the good artist 15 at the feet of the master 67 what’s the big idea? 113 narrative composition 119 dynamic symmetry 135 in unca carl’s collectery 139 cartoon-ality 145 research and reference 157 the layout drawing 167 painting dimensions: size is money 175 the painting surface 181 transferring the drawing 187 paints, brushes, media 191 underpainting 197 color theory 201 painting surface and texture 213 finishing a painting 227 a good artist’s studio 243 barks’s personal reference library 249 about the author 270

7 preview of “introduction”

8 introduction

In some ways this book is as Like almost every other skill phrases. I spent weeks literal as its title suggests, Barks possessed, his writing struggling to come up with a book that chronicles over ability was self-taught: “I got a title because my book isn’t 30 years spent painting into that stuff in the 1920s, just about painting fine-art fine-art cartoon subjects and I realized if I was going cartoons. It’s about who Carl in the style pioneered by to write jokes and things, I Barks was as an artist and Carl Barks – known to needed to be able to write is an attempt to understand his early fans as “the good intelligible sentences. ... his paintings. It’s about my artist.” But that’s not all That was a nice bunch of own journey as an artist. it’s about. One of the things years in which I would take It’s about how I see Barks’s I learned from reading about an hour or two every paintings and how I see my Barks’s correspondence and evening and look at the old own. Yes, the book is also comic-book stories is that he grammar books and see how about craft and technique, could use words the way a they phrased a sentence, and composition and meaning, poet uses them – colorfully, I would do it and take a line but it’s also about joy and deliberately, sparingly out of a newspaper or letter discovery. How was I going – but at the same time, and analyze it” (CBC, 190). to capture all that in just a meaningfully. Nowhere is T.A. Rickard’s Technical few words? This is all a sort this creative use of language Writing emphasizes many of long-winded preamble to more evident than in the of the principles Barks talking about the opening way Barks crafted his titles adhered to throughout his phrase in the title for – not just titles for his comic- career: “Your writing this book: After book stories, but titles for his must be natural, in the early 1970s, Carl Barks. oil paintings and watercolors clear, precise, Carl Barks invented the fine-art cartoon painting by as well. and convincing. turning cartoon subjects into ... A writer that works of art that were flings needless meant to hang on words about him is patrons’ walls. like a swimmer that splashes; neither makes speed.” (TW, 12, 22).

Years of writing succinct dialogue had taught Barks how to distill complex ideas into the fewest possible words, a skill he used to create evocative titles that could comment on a work, Barks’s copy of Technical Writing. Barks, add color to it, help who never attended high school, taught himself to write using books like this. An describe it or contribute inscription in the book reads, “Roseville to its narrative. Like Calif. ‘28,” which means Barks would have owned the book in the late 1920s when he the best poetry, layers was working as a laborer in the Roseville of meaning could railroad car shops. exist in the simplest 9 The apparent meaning of Duerrstein does “fine art” reproductions of “after” is chronological. paintings for the Disney Barks’s paintings Barks left behind a rich stores, but they don’t seem Note: After Carl Barks: Painting Fine-Art legacy of comic-book to have the level of craft Cartoonis in Oils assumes the reader has access to reproductions of Barks’s work and fine-art cartoon that Barks brought to his paintings, as none are reproduced in this paintings. How many work. The works published volume. Almost all of Barks’s pre-1981 fine-art cartoon paintings are printed in artists – working in comics in Die Duckomenta seem these two books: or other fields – claim they more like “tongue-in-cheek” owe a debt to Barks and his duck-beaked mockeries of The Fine Art of Walt Disney’s Donald comic-book stories? More famous works of art than Duck by Carl Barks (1982) collects most, but not all, of Barks’s Disney oils com- than a few: Volker Reiche, serious attempts to paint pleted between 1971 and 1976. Vicar, Don Rosa, Patrick in the Barks tradition. Kaj Block, Daan Jippes, William Stenvall has been painting Van Horn, Romano Scarpa, surreal landscapes and Freddie Milton and many figure studies featuring an others. Film producers enigmatic “Donald” Duck such as Gary Kurtz, George since the early 1970s. Lucas, Edward Summer Gottfried Helnwein, the and Steven Spielberg have highly respected German expressed their debt to him. artist, also paints surrealistic There’s not as many in the portraits of Donald Duck. world of painting – Patrick One of my goals in writing Block is doing some great this book was to show that watercolors and oils. CBR, it is possible for artists to or Carl Barks Remembered, take Barks’s fine-art cartoon is doing some interesting paintings seriously, to think work that strives to capture of them as art, and to create Animal Quackers, published in 1996, col- Barks’s style. Gilberto paintings that build on the lects most, but not all, of the non-Disney “Gil” Ugolini in Italy has tradition established by cartoon paintings completed by Barks between 1976 and 1982. been doing copies of Barks Barks. So in this sense, After paintings for years. Maybe Carl Barks describes how we could count Frank current and future artists Brunner’s duck paintings? might contribute to a Barks “school” of fine-art cartoon Why aren’t there more paintings. artists painting fine- art cartoon subjects? In the art world “after” Consider, for example, the means “indebted to,” as in, sheer number of fantasy “I give credit to Carl Barks.” painters who work in Frank An artist who copies or Frazetta’s style. Is the borrows heavily from the lack of artists painting in work of another gives credit Barks’s style attributable to by adding – usually beneath (as some critics incorrectly the signature – the phrase Barks’s post-1981 paintings were charge) Barks’s paintings “after” and the original published only as signed and numbered lithographs and prints in the U.S., and as being “pure kitsch?” Is there artist’s name. Barks himself low-cost calendars and prints in Europe. Unfortunately, all of the above are out of just no interest in fine-art did this at least once when print. funny-animal paintings? he signed a landscape “After

Low-resolution scans can be found online: Maybe copyright issues Ted Kautzky,” giving credit keep them all underground? to the Kautzky painting www.barksbase.de www.cbarks.dk Other artists paint cartoon he had copied. Copying www.seriesam.com/barks/index.html ducks from perspectives the works of a master is a different from Barks’s. Dick well-established technique 10 fine-art duck paintings

In Italy, Gilberto “Gil” Ugolini has been crafting meticulous acrylic copies of Barks’s duck paintings for years.

Disney artist Patrick Block has written and drawn many duck stories and worked with Barks on “Somewhere In Nowhere.” Today he creates wonderful watercolor and oil paintings that carry on Barks’s tradition.

“Halloween Boo-Nanza,” one of Jeff Cain’s Carl Barks Remembered paintings. Cain’s goal is to keep the spirit of Barks alive.

Kaj Stenvall’s “Skiing Allowed.” Stenval has been painting surreal landscapes featuring an enigmatic “Donald” Duck since the early 1970s.

“Duck III” by Gottfried Helnwein, a Frank Brunner highly respected has been painting German artist and drawing fine- who is also a art cartoons like fan of Barks’s “The Duckaneer” work. since the mid 1970s. 11 diagrams of barks’s paintings In preparing the content for this book, I completed over 100 red-pencil drawings of Barks’s paintings. Scanned and reduced to grayscale, these capture the broad forms and essential details of Barks’s Disney and non-Disney fine-art cartoon paintings. Designed to provide visual reference for the discussions of Barks’s craft, the diagrams were also an important part of my learning process while studying Barks’s narrative composition and other techniques.

12 preview of “a short biography of the good artist”

13 14 a short biography of the good artist

“I would look at those Mickey Mouse newspaper strips and think, ‘Hell, I’m drawing things like that.’” Carl Barks (UMM, 30)

While there’s been a lot of painter, Barks the artist, as biographical information opposed to Barks the comic- published about Barks, book writer. In the 1980s, including Barrier’s excellent when I knew Barks, I often Carl Barks and the Art of wondered about Barks the the Comic Book, nothing’s artist, how he got to be who he been published that covers was, how he developed, who his entire life, or that focuses he learned from. This isn’t a on his development as an complete biography, by any artist. Understandably, means, but I felt it important, much of the material written for anyone wanting to learn about the man focuses on his to “paint like Carl Barks,” to years working for Western have some idea how Barks Publishing, when he wrote learned to paint like Carl and drew Donald Duck and Barks. For Barks, becoming Uncle Scrooge comic books, an artist was a lifelong the body of work he is most journey, a journey that began when he was a small child, a famous for. But as I pointed Krazy Kat was one out in my introduction to journey that didn’t end until of the few early strips that Barks this book, I’ve always been he was 97 years old, two years said he didn’t more interested in Barks the before he died. understand.

1901: comic strips on the Homestead

Start by understanding that school, Barks would work the (CBC, 24). “Those fellows Barks learned to draw over a fields with his brother, and were real draftsmen in pen period of years. Born in 1901, any time the horses would and ink; they all had distinc- he grew up drawing on every- stop, he would use his finger tive styles. I would read that thing: “I would draw pictures to draw on the dusty harness- Examiner Sunday section, with charcoal on the walls of es (A Tribute to Carl Barks, and not copy their stuff, but any kind of a building I hap- 5). Sometime in the early try to draw a similar situation pened to be in, and I would 1900s he began copying comic using their style” (CBC 24). scrawl all over my school strips such as “Thimble The- “Some of the main people who books and we had slates in ater” from copies of Hearst’s influenced my drawing style those days. Imagine that – San Francisco Examiner that were Winsor McCay, Opper, slates, those squeaky things. made their way up to Merrill, and Hal Foster. Roy Crane, And I would draw on those Oregon: “That’s how I hap- who drew ‘Buzz Sawyer,’ also slates and any kind of paper pened to take up cartooning. had a direct, simple style” I could find” (CBC, 81). After I was fascinated by cartoons” (CBC, 126). “So I was quite a 15 collector of comic strips that In 1911 Barks’s family moved membered it 75 years later. If had good artwork in them, to Santa Rosa, California. A you’re interested in seeing the like ‘Prince Valiant’ [by Hal kid at his school impressed course, a reproduction of it can Foster] and ‘Flash Gordon’ Barks with his ability to be found at: by Alex Raymond. I could draw: “He used to amaze me www.enchantedimages.com. just sit there and look at the with little old drawings he’d drawings and be inspired” make of Woodrow Wilson or As a teen, Barks continued to (CBC, 143). The comic sec- Theodore Roosevelt or some- read comic strips: “The news- tion also included illustrated body like that, little cartoons. paper comic strips I liked as a stories: “I remember ‘Old I would look at them and see teenager were mostly ‘Happy Mother West Wind,’ and the how he constructed them, and Hooligan,’ ‘Katzenjammer little foxes and the rabbits oh, I thought that the most Kids,’ ‘Bringing Up Father,’ that lived out in the mead- wonderful thing in the world ‘Old Doc Yak,’ ‘Little Nemo’” ow. These were a little sec- was to draw like that kid (CBC, 198). tion in the children’s pages could draw” (CBC, 58). Barks of a newspaper. Now, who started the correspondence Barks kept drawing, and in wrote them? It wasn’t Har- course The Landon School of 1918, as World War I was rison Cady or any name like Illustrating and Cartooning ending, Barks decided to leave that – they weren’t illus- – but didn’t finish it: “I think the lonely wheat fields of Or- trated very much except just I hadn’t quite turned 16 yet egon for the big city: “I wanted one little black-and-white when I talked my dad into to go to San Francisco and see drawing.” “Old Mother West letting me subscribe to that if I couldn’t get into cartooning Wind,” written by Thorn- Landon school of cartooning. down there. So I went to San ton Burgess and illustrated I got about four of the lessons Francisco and worked for a by Harrison Cady, was a under my belt when the war little over a year in a printing children’s feature that ran work [World War I] began to shop. That had nothing to do nonstop from 1912 to 1960 get so insistent” (CBC, 58), with cartooning, but it was at and may have been, along “but those little old things did least a living while I would go with “Old Doc Yak,” Barks’s help me” (CBC, 58). Still, the once in a while to one of the first experience with talking course made enough of an newspaper offices and show “funny” animals. impression that Barks re- them some sample cartoons

“Old Mother Westwind” by Thornton Burgess and Harrison Cady. 16 a cartoonist from the beginning

The Sunday comic sec- tion of the San Francisco Examiner made a huge impression on Barks as a child. Printed comic strips, in full color, were one of the few entertainments available to a small boy living on an isolated homestead in the wheatlands of Eastern Or- egon. Barks taught himself to draw by emulating the styles of famous comic-strip artists. He would collect and study comic strips until he started drawing the Disney ducks full time. A 1901 copy of the San Francisco Examiner , printed the year Barks was born.

Happy Hooligan by Some of Barks’s earliest cartoons, scribbled into a Frederick Burr Opper. gradeschool reader. He’s already beginning to think like a satirical cartoonist: Note how “pigeon,” “peaches” and “honey” are all illustrated with female figures.

Wash Tubbs by Roy Crane. 17 Landon’s School of illustrating and cartooning

Landon School of Reprint edition of the edited by Illustrating and Cartooning, John Garvin. Available at:

www.enchantedimages.com

Illustrated plates from the first lesson of Landon’s home correspondence school. One of the first courses to focus on cartooning, Landon’s pioneering emphasis on using simplified forms to convey action influenced a generation of cartoonists, including Roy Crane, Floyd Gottfredson, Milton Caniff, Sid Couchey and Chic Young.

18 Illustrated plates from the second and third lessons of Landon’s course. Barks recalled completing the first few lessons in 1916 or 1917: He quit the course to earn extra money during World War I, but said, “I could see that it had all the elements that I would need to learn the cartoons.”

19 Left: Illustration from Principles Above: The Barks estate turned up and Practice of Show-Card Writing numerous clipping files of comic (1922). In 1920 Barks dropped out of strips, including these panels from a class that would have taught him “Prince Valiant” by Hal Foster. how to do calligraphy for theater and advertising cards like these. Another example of the young Barks rejecting “formal” education, he also dropped the Landon course and never attended high school.

(CBC, 105). But without lar jobs, including lumberjack- every ‘Tarzan,’ ‘Buck Rog- success: “They were well ing, farming and railroading, ers,’ and the like that I could stocked with real good artists but during his evenings and buy” (CBC, 199). At least one and didn’t need to take on any spare time Barks continued to of the Landon lessons stuck young kids. They’d glance at work at his drawing. It even because Barks started keep- [my samples] and give them cost him his first marriage: “I ing a collection of clippings back to me” (CBC, 59). Barks was always trying to figure from his favorite strips. When didn’t give up. In 1920 he out a comic strip or something asked if he bought newspa- again traveled to San Francis- I could do. That’s what used to pers just for the strips Barks co, this time to take a class in irritate my wife at that time. said: “Oh, lord, yes. I’ve got show-card writing: “I went to …I was using our evenings a whole bible of Hal Fosters. the YMCA show-card school and all our spare time work- Hal Foster was a tremendous there, their night class, for a ing at this darned stuff” (CBC, influence” (CBC, 25). Barks’s few lessons, and I soon found 60). Barks also continued to estate turned up large clip- that the lettering came so study comic strips: “In the ping files of “Prince Valiant.” hard for me, that that wasn’t 1920s many new comic strips “I was always able to look at one of my natural talents” were introduced. I read every the cartoons in the newspa- (CBC, 59). one that I could get my hands pers, the comic strips and the on. Elzie Segar’s ‘Popeye’ feature pages and so on, and Barks spent the next few and other strips had a strong get something out of looking years working his way influence on my art style at how other guys did their through a number of blue-col- and humor creation. I read cartoons” (CBC, 58). 20 preview of “at the feet of the master”

65 66 at the feet of the master

“As for your idea of learning technique from me, you’ll be disappointed. I have no technique.”

(Letter to John Garvin, October 1983) Carl Barks Barks’s work was unique, especially when compared to other “cartoon” paintings of the period. In one of the first letters I ducks were unique, done wrote to Carl Barks I asked with a craft and technique I’d him to write a Walter Foster- never seen applied to comic style book on “how to paint characters. A technique I like Carl Barks.” His answer was determined to learn. was typically modest: “As for your idea of learning My first exposure to a paint- technique from me, you’ll be ing by Barks came in 1976 disappointed. I have no tech- when I was 16 years old. Wacky Packages series 9, 1974. nique. The whole painting While exploring a dingy builds itself as I paint over comic shop in San Francisco one blunder after another. I (my family was there for use a very small brush and a “Star Trek” convention), literally draw the shading I stumbled across an art and values and blendings catalogue of some kind. On like I would draw them with its cover was a painting of a pen. I follow the rules of Donald Duck on a golden color mixing and layering beach, gleefully exulting over that I read in instruction a treasure chest of pirate books. I would not make gold. I’d never seen anything an interesting subject for a like it before. I collected com- Walter Foster-type book.” ics, bubble-gum cards and (letter to me dated Oct. 9, paperbacks and had seen 1983.) At that point, the fall plenty of “painted” cartoon of 1983, I had been painting characters, but even as a kid copies of Barks paintings for I knew that this painting of seven years, and I thought Donald Duck was unique and Turok Son of Stone No. 96, 1975. he was wrong – I thought his different. At that time I had oil paintings of the Disney no idea who the artist was, but I knew his technique wasn’t like the simple, re- alistic painted comic covers of Turok or Space Family Robinson, the Dell and Gold Key comics I collected. Or the painted Mad Magazine cov- ers by Norman Mingo. Or the painted covers of the Disney Dell giants, which had garish colors and vacuous charac- ters. Or the “Wacky Pack- Graphic Gallery No. 7 was my ages” cartoon paintings. This first encounter with a painting by Carl Barks. painting was more refined, Donald Duck Beach Party No.1, 1965. 67 Above: My battered copy of The Comic Book Price Guide No. 7, which has been on my shelf since 1977. Right: The Comic Book Price Guide was the first book to publish reproduc- tions of Barks’s Disney paintings. It became my first guide to learning how to paint like Barks. You can still see the grid lines I drew on top of the tiny reproductions. the colors and lighting more its cover – Bark’s “Porky of were paintings of adventure, subtle, the composition the Mounties” painting – at alive with character and somehow more compelling. It the photos of Barks at his story and place, all rendered was a painting of a cartoon easel, and the duck paint- with a unique, cartoon-like character, yes, but painted ings. The reproductions were reality. Not the realism of a realistically, with color and small and sometimes fuzzy Norman Rockwell, to be sure, light that seemed to shim- but even so, the paintings but real nonetheless. Barks’s mer. The painting of Donald were all as amazing as the paintings had an almost Duck on the beach seemed one I’d seen the year before, magical appeal. to have more kinship with impossible panels of light the Frazetta paintings that and color and imagination. Almost all of these paint- graced my collection of Ed- There was greedy Scrooge, ings were based on his gar Rice Burroughs paper- back-lit by the golden light comic-book stories, which backs, or the James Bama of an ancient cliff city as he took Uncle Scrooge, Donald paintings on my collection reveled in armfuls of gold, Duck and the nephews to of Bantam Doc Savages. I jade and silver. There was the far-flung corners of the remember looking at that Donald and the boys look- globe in search of fantastic painting and being intrigued ing anxious as their canoe treasure. And many of the – who would paint like that, was lifted from the frigid paintings reproduced in the and why? A year later, I had arctic sea by an angry polar Price Guide were recreations my answer. bear, surrounded by slop- of the covers to those comic ing sheets of glacial ice and books. “The Golden Helmet,” 1977 was a turning point in the eerie northern lights. for example, reproduced the my life. This was the year Scrooge again, and the boys, cover to Four Color No. 408; the “Carl Barks” issue of the in the “Cave of Ali Baba” “Lost in the Andes,” was the Comic Book Price Guide was swimming in a treasure cover to Four Color No. 223, published, the year I discov- trove of fabulous loot, all but and “Luck of the North,” was ered who Barks was and the one oblivious to the looming the cover to Four Color No. year I decided to become an shadow of danger approach- 256. But Barks was doing artist. I remember looking at ing down the tunnel. Here something new with these 68 images. I had seen the comic shows. My mom had bought other. After a couple of years, covers before, in fact all of me some art supplies, a I ran out of Barks paintings the covers to the Four Color starter set of oil paints, some to copy. Remember that in Barks issues were reprinted cheap brushes, and even the late 1970s the world had in color in that same issue cheaper canvas board. Then not yet been inundated with of the Price Guide. But the I opened my Price Guide and the cavalcade of Barks col- paintings – with the charac- drew a grid over the small lectables we currently enjoy. ters and settings fully mod- reproduction of the Barks There were no Barks prints, eled with light and shadow painting. Using the grid as a calendars, lithographs or – were somehow more com- guide, I copied the painting books. The Internet, which pelling to me than the pen- by drawing right onto the has so revolutionized the and-ink renderings of his canvas board. Despite the way we gather information comic work. Maybe it was today, was still a quiet spark because Barks had control in Al Gore’s brain. And as an of the palette – he never isolated kid living in South- colored any of his comic- ern Oregon, I had no idea book work. Maybe it was the there was a “Barks-collector way two-dimensional line underground” – a mail-order drawings were translated community of fans who fran- into three-dimensional life. tically exchanged photos of Maybe it was because I was Barks’s paintings, informa- looking at the master work tion, stories and originals. of a genius. Regardless, those paintings inspired me. But, along with the rest of I began to wonder if I could comics fandom, I did have do paintings using the same access to at least one source style and technique. of information: Alan Light’s The Comic’s Buyer’s Guide. I I had always been an “art- remember scouring an is- The very first Barks copy I ever attempted: ist,” but by 1977 – at 17 Barks’s “Sheriff Donald’s Last Stand,” sue for early copies of Turok years old – I had not done painted in 1977 when I was 17 years old. – this was back in the days much in the way of actual when the “adzine” was filled hard work. I had won awards grid, my drawing wasn’t very with hundreds of ads from at grade school for charcoal close to Barks’s: My ducks individual collectors – when drawings of steam engines, were off model with distorted I stumbled across a small and I had impressed friends shapes and proportions. And black-and-white ad for a with drawings of spaceships, at the time, I had no idea you magazine called Graphic monsters and copies of “Bea- weren’t supposed to draw Gallery. There, in glorious, tle Bailey” characters. But I directly on canvas – you fuzzy, newsprint black and never really worked at it. In can still see the dark pencil white, were reproductions 1977 I got serious. I was go- lines beneath the paint. As of three Barks paintings I’d ing to teach myself to paint rough as the drawing was, never seen before and a re- like Carl Barks, and I was the paint was worse – thin, production I had seen before, going to do it by painting washed out, and garish. I but had forgotten: It turned copies of every Barks paint- knew nothing about color out the catalogue I had seen ing in the Price Guide. mixing, or glazing, or layer- in San Francisco, the one ing, or media, or anything with the cover that showed I still have the very first oil else. But ignorance was bliss. Donald Duck finding pirate painting I ever completed: a After several weeks, I fin- gold, was an issue of Graphic copy of Barks’s “Sheriff Don- ished it, thought it a mas- Gallery. I clipped the ad (im- ald’s Last Stand.” I had no terpiece, and immediately ages of Barks paintings were clue what I was doing, and it started on another. Then an- so rare back then, I kept 69 Left: An ad for Graphic Gallery that ran in The Comics Buyer’s Guide in the late 1970s.

Below: In 1979 I was 19 years old and had been copying Barks’s paintings for two years. Here, I was working on a copy of “Time Out For Therapy.” the clipping!) and ordered a own challenges. view all of Barks’s work. But copy of every issue they had. In the early 1980s I caught that was all about to change. Put out by collector Russ glimpses of reproductions Cochran, Graphic Gallery too tiny for me to use. In 1981 was the “big bang” of was filled with high-quality Graphic Gallery No. 4 there the Carl Barks universe, a reproductions of rare, origi- was a small color photo of year in which a number of nal art. Paintings by artists Barks holding a brush up important books and articles such as Barks and Frazetta, to a money-bin painting I’d were published. Michael were reproduced in full color. never seen. I remember find- Barrier’s Carl Barks and Issue No. 11 reproduced ing an ad placed by someone the Art of the Comic Book Barks’s “Old King Cole,” my named Leo Holstein in the provided comprehensive first exposure to his non- back section of the Price biographical information Disney paintings. Guide: The ad had a tiny and was my first exposure to black-and-white reproduc- the idea that Barks’s work Armed with new color repro- tion of a Barks bicentennial might be worthy of seri- ductions of Bark’s paintings, painting: “I paid more for ous study. Celestial Arts’ I started painting furiously, this painting than a dozen Uncle Scrooge McDuck His one amateurish copy after such others would another. I painted “Business cost!” For the first As Usual,” “Time Out For time, it occurred Therapy,” “McDuck of Duck- to me there must burg,” and “Rug Riders Last be many Barks Flight.” Oddly enough, while paintings I would I had given away most of my never get to see. Price Guide paintings, I still Museums didn’t have most of these Graphic collect his work – Gallery copies. I kept them fans did. Living because these were the first in rural Oregon, paintings I would eventu- with limited ally show to Barks, the first means, I had no paintings he would critique. way to track them Each of them presented its down, no way to 70 a gallery of graphics galleries

A part of my collection of Graphics Gallery art catalogues from the late 1970s. Before the publication of The Fine Art of Donald Duck, and long before the Internet, these art catalogues, published by collectors Bruce Hamilton and Russ Cochran, provided almost the only source of Barks reproductions. I learned to paint by copying these reprints of Barks’s oils.

Detail from my copy of “Time Out For Therapy.” Detail from my copy of “I Found It, I Keep It.”

Details of four of the copies I painted in the late 1970s. Note that “Time Out For Therapy” was copied from a reproduction (top right) that was less than four inches wide. My eye- sight was much better in 1979. Detail from my copy of “Business as Usual.” Detail from my copy of “McDuck of Duckburg.” 71 Life and Times reproduced – to information on Barks’s a brand new Barks Disney technique. Some of the paint- painting, “Wanders of Won- ing descriptions contained derlands,” and story-book tidbits of information about style “Go Slowly Sands of how he worked, his palette Time,” which reproduced the and craft. More important, first Barks watercolors I had the book’s introduction re- ever seen. The second issue printed six work-in-progress of Panels introduced me to images from Barks’s painting Barks’s non-Disney water- “Menace Out of the Myths.” colors from the “Famous For the first time, I was able Figures of History as They to see examples of Barks’s The Spring 1981 issue of Panels. Might Have Looked Had process – how he used two or Their Genes Gotten Mixed more layers of paint to build Up with Waterfowl” series. I up color. In the six years I discovered two Barks fan- had been painting Barks zines, The Barks Collector copies, it had never occurred published by John Nichols to me that the use of under- and The Duckburg Times coats and layers were impor- published by Dana and tant painting techniques. Frank Gabbard. The Comics Journal published its Barks Most important, Fine Art in- issue. But the book that had spired me to paint something the most profound effect on original and to make contact me was Another Rainbow’s with Barks. Using photos The Duckburg Times No. 19. The Fine Art of Walt Disney’s of Barks I had found in the Donald Duck by Carl Barks. Price Guide, I painted a por- Every page was a revelation. trait of Barks sitting at an Barks’s composition, draw- easel inside Uncle Scrooge’s ing and visual storytelling money bin, the nephews skills had been honed by a reading a copy of Fine Art, lifetime of drawing. Flipping the “Mona Lisa Duck,” the through the book from start 1977 Price Guide sitting on to end, I could see his paint- Scrooge’s shelf. I wrote to ing skills evolve. In the early Another Rainbow and asked paintings, Barks’s detail for Barks’s address, and work was unrefined and the they sent it to me. A couple The Barks Collector No. 27. work was a little rough as of weeks later, in December he worked out palette and 1982, I got a reply from him shading techniques. But just in which he thanked me for a few pages in, the paint- the painting and talked a ings begin to glitter, and by little about how difficult it the time you get to his later was to paint money bins. work, paintings such as “She Enclosed with the letter was was Spangled and Flashy,” a small reproduction of his “Nobody’s Spending Fool” first litho “Sailing the Span- and “Hands Off My Play- ish Main,” the first of the things,” you are looking at lithograph paintings Barks the work of a true master. would complete for Another Rainbow. I was thrilled: A The July 1982 issue of The Comics The Fine Art book also gave hand-written letter where he Journal, a tribute to Carl Barks. me access – for the first time wrote a little about his work, 72 Making contact with “the good artist”

“The Good Artist,” the first oil painting I completed that was not a direct copy of a Barks painting. I sent it to Barks in 1982 and saw it at their home in 1983. I didn’t see the painting again until 2008, when it was sold for $600 on eBay as part of the Barks estate.

Letter from Carl Barks, December 1982:

Dear John – Many thanks for your amaz- ing painting of “The Good Artist.” It is not often that people put that much good work into paintings that are only intend- ed for gifts. I’m sure that you now have an idea of how much hard effort I put into my paintings of Uncle Scrooge and the ducks in the money bin. I painted 17 of those complicated mountains of coins and gimmicks. I apologize for not writ- ing sooner. Have been busy making sketches for a future money bin paint- ing for the limited edition series being published by Another Rainbow Pub Co. Have to spend the next few days being interviewed for promotion ballyhoo. No fun.

Sincerely, Carl Barks.

73 Left: A photo of Garé and Carl Barks from the Barks estate. This is how the Barkses looked when I knew them.

Opposite: A map of Southern Oregon. Barks was born in Merrill; I grew up in Medford. When I was 22, Barks retried to Grants Pass, which is where I had purchased my first old comic,Uncle Scrooge No. 9. as well as praising mine, was in 1983. Barks had sent me Barks grew up in Merrill, too much to hope for. And as miniature lithographs of which was a little over an I was to discover, I was lucky them, but there was no way hour away to the east. Years to get a personal response I could afford the full-size later I discovered that in the at all. Years later, Garé told lithographs – in 1982, while 1930s Barks had also strug- me Barks’s address had supporting a wife and three gled to raise a young family somehow ended up on some small kids, I quit my job as in Medford. The coincidences kind of newsletter sent out a grave digger in a Medford kept piling up. I learned to autograph hounds: The cemetery and enrolled in col- Barks was retiring to Grants text read something to the lege, no small feat for a kid Pass, a small town just 20 effect of “Please write to Carl who had dropped out of high minutes north of Medford. A Barks, the daddy of Uncle school in the ninth grade. In few years before I had pur- Scrooge, and ask him for a 1983 I somehow managed chased my first collectable sketch. The poor old gent is to scrape together enough comic book – Uncle Scrooge retired now and has nothing cash to purchase the first set No. 9 – at small paperback better to do than write nice of Another Rainbow’s Carl store in Grants Pass. In 1983 letters to fans.” The Barkses Barks Library, which re- I worked part time at that were inundated with fan printed all of Barks’s Disney same store. My boss called mail and had taken to using comic stories as well as a fair me: “Guess who just stopped form-letter replies. For all its amount of information on his by to look at books?” Carl faults, my painting of “The paintings. and Garé Barks! It turned Good Artist” got me in the out Garé read Harlequin Ro- door. In 1983 I began to feel that mance novels by the bushel, the hands of destiny were at and the Barkses had stopped In the following year Anoth- work. I had read enough of by the shop to browse. Barks er Rainbow began publishing Barks’s biography to realize mentioned he had a new lithographs from new Barks we actually shared some of painting on the easel and paintings: “Sailing the Span- the same “roots.” I grew up that when it was further ish Main” in 1982 and “An and lived in Medford, a small along, the shop owner could Embarrassment of Riches” town in Southern Oregon; come by to see it. Barks 74 preview of “narrative composition”

117 118 narrative composition

“If they don’t know the story, the painting will be kind of meaningless, and so I believe the stories will be the thing that lives on into posterity.” Carl Barks (CBC, 194)

Barks spent his life creating So it’s not surprising that all the elements necessary to gags and telling stories, the vast majority of his tell a story “at a glance.” So penning risqué comic panels cartoon paintings are how are “gags” or narrative for the Calgary Eye-Opener narrative. In fact, out of compositions constructed? and other magazines, then approximately 226 known How do they work? animation gags for the cartoon paintings, Disney duck shorts at Walt Disney and non-Disney, only 11 are Bruce Hamilton, writing studios, and finally, gag- non-narrative – portraits about “An Embarrassment laden covers and stories for mostly. Seventy or so of Riches” (1983), described Western Publishing’s Disney of his Disney paintings how the painting’s story and MGM comic books. After were based on comic book evolved as Barks worked on retiring, his paintings slowly gag covers he had drawn the composition: “Barks’s evolved from non-narrative decades before, so they refinement here of a landscapes and portraits were inherently narrative. construction theme is an of churches and little girls Not that Barks would have example of his efforts to tell to narrative compositions described them that way. If a whole story at a glance, depicting the lives of ancient he had heard me talk about even down to the nephews’ California natives. He once “narrative composition” use of surveying equipment, wrote that he “retired the he might have raised an all the elements are included little girl paintings because eyebrow: “Aren’t we just so that even a non-Barks they weren’t Barks.” I think talking about gags?” He’d fan, unfamiliar with the the reason they “weren’t have been right. “Narrative comic, would have no trouble Barks” is because they composition” and “gag” both understanding it.” The key weren’t narrative. Barks describe the same thing: a concept here is the word was a storyteller. single image that contains “elements.” Story elements

ELEMENT 1 ELEMENT 1 ELEMENT 3 Not con- tained in the image IMPLIED INTERACTION ACTION

Elements are partially interactive ELEMENT 1

INTERACTION ELEMENT 2 ELEMENT 3 Elements are ELEMENT 2 non-interactive

Compound-narrative composition Non-narrative composition Simple-narrative composition

A compound-narrative composition is a self-contained image in which three or more visual elements interact to imply action. Non-narrative compositions contain just one element, or have elements that don’t interact at all. A simple narrative relies on information not contained in the image, or has visual elements that interact in limited ways. 119 ELEMENT 1: Implied action: Construction worker ...which is being ducks measured by...

ELEMENT 3: Scrooge’s wealth

Interaction: ...use equipment to extend the...

Interaction: ...which is being buried by... ELEMENT 2: Depth gauge

Above: Diagram of Barks’s “An Embarrassment can be anything in the the tip of the nearly buried of Riches.” Note: The captions for the narra- painting: figures, props, depth gauge; the yard tive diagrams are read in a counter-clockwise setting, actions. “Story” stick that is being used to circle, beginning with Element 1. is created when elements extend the depth gauge; interact with each other and the construction to imply action. I call it a tools. Scrooge holds the “compound” narrative when yard stick so Donald can three or more elements tighten the hand vice that interact in a cause-effect will hold the yard stick chain of action. The more in place, extending the interacting elements there depth gauge so it won’t are, the more complex the be buried by the Scrooge’s narrative. In this example, wealth. The nephews use the story being told is that the surveying equipment Scrooge’s wealth has grown to ensure the yard-stick is so much that he must straight. Early versions of extend his money bin’s the composition included depth gauge. The visual additional props – the elements are: the money nephew’s hardhats – that bin full of wealth, the “hole” reinforced the story, but that has been dug out these were removed for Diagram of an early version of “An Embarrass- ment of Riches.” around the depth gauge; commercial reasons. 120 ELEMENT 1: Bursting dam

ELEMENT 2: Distraught ducks

ELEMENT 3: Deluge of coins

Diagram of Barks’s “Dam Disaster At Money Lake.” In simple-narrative compositions like this one, it isn’t apparent how the narra- tive elements interact with each other, or understanding their interaction requires information not contained in the painting. If a painting’s subject reproduction of it be I sifted through a couple matter required too much accompanied by a reprint of libraries looking for a explanation to be understood of Uncle Scrooge FC No. definition or description at a glance, Barks resisted 386, the story on which the of how narrative gags doing it. According to Barks, painting was based – for are constructed. Because fans had been asking for a good reason. Though there I couldn’t find one, painting of the “bursting are many visual elements I’ve written my own: of the money dam” since in the painting, they don’t A compound-narrative the 1970s. Barks always interact with each other to composition contains three turned them down because imply action: We see Scrooge or more visual elements that the subject “would take and the nephews; we’re in interact with each other to too much explanation. It’s an outdoor setting; there’s imply action. You can almost something that needs a a river of money; coins are write it out as a formula: long build-up so that you flying everywhere; Donald Element (1) interacts understand what it is. It’s has a toolbox; and Scrooge, with Element (2), which the climax of a series of with his battered hat, is interacts with Element (3), attempts by the Beagle Boys looking very dismayed. which implies action with to take over that money.” But what do any of these (usually) Element (1). It’s When Barks finally agreed elements have to do with the implied action that to paint “Dam Disaster each other? There is no conveys the story. Removal At Money Lake” (1986) he way of knowing strictly by of any one element will insisted that the lithograph looking at the painting. result in the collapse of the 121 narrative. Simple-narrative told, but Porky’s costume element interacts to tell the compositions have just two and setting do suggest some story. If the composition visual elements, or have narrative elements: Porky was Porky by himself, it elements that interact in is a Mountie, and he’s in would be a portrait. The limited ways, or elements Canadian (presumably) trap by itself would be a still not contained in the image mountains. When Barks life. The bear cub by itself itself – the painting’s title, reworked the composition would be a wildlife painting. for example. Compare the he added elements that Combine any two of these titles of these two paintings: interacted to imply actions: elements, and you have a “An Embarrassment of Barks’s “Porky of the simple narrative: Mountie Riches” enhances what we Mounties” (5-76) tells the Porky holding the injured already see: a whole lot of story of a Mountie who has bear cub would result in riches forcing Scrooge to rescued a bear cub from us asking how the bear got extend his depth gauge. a trap. The formula looks injured (we wouldn’t know “Dam Disaster At Money like this: Porky (Element that Porky rescued the cub); Lake” is doing some 1) flings away (interaction) Mountie Porky holding heavy lifting to help us the steel trap (Element the trap – with no animals understand what’s going 2), which has injured present – would leave us on: I don’t even see a money (interaction) the bear cub wondering whether he’s lake and could not have told (Element 3), who is being confiscating it or setting you that the submerged held by Porky. The implied it. Only the presence of all posts in the middle of the action is the rescue. Each three elements – Mountie coin avalanche were once part of a dam. A non- narrative composition might have just one element or have elements that don’t interact with each other at ELEMENT 1: all. Many landscapes, still- Mountie Porky life paintings and portraits are non-narrative.

Probably the best way to demonstrate the difference between compound and simple-narrative compositions is to watch Barks transform a simple- narrative comic cover into Four Color No. 48, Barks’s a compound-narrative only Porky Pig painting. When he was story. Barks did asked to do the cover for not draw the ELEMENT 2: original cover the seventh edition of the Mountain Setting and reworked Price Guide, he chose to the composi- tion consider- do a painting based on ably for his his only Porky Pig story, painting. “Porky of the Mounties.” The original cover, not by Barks, is a simple Opposite: narrative: We see Porky, Diagram of Barks’s dressed as a Mountie, “Porky of the standing in the wilderness. Mounties” (5-76). Not a lot of story is being 122 Porky, the trap, the injured Porky isn’t doing anything celebrating the rescue. bear cub – tells a compound other than standing there. Barks “snaps the picture” at narrative because their Compound- narrative the moment of highest action interaction implies an compositions require verbs while clearly revealing action: Porky has rescued to describe them: Porky events that came before the bear cub by removing flings the trap away, the and after: The bear cub has the cub from the trap. That’s bear-cub’s paw is hurting, stepped into a trap and has really the difference between Porky is holding the cub, hurt its paw (past); Porky the comic-book cover and the rescuing it from the trap, has rescued the cub (past); painting: In the comic cover and the other animals are the flung trap is still in the air (present); the rescued cub is still in pain (present); the other animals celebrate (future). Condensing the narrative action allows Barks to heighten the drama: The cub is still in pain, paw throbbing; the trap is still in the air, as if Porky has just flung it; and the other animals celebrate the rescue as if it already has happened. ELEMENT 1: Mountie Porky In Barks’s best compound- narrative compositions every Interaction: visual element – settings, ...flings away props and characters – the... Implied action: ...who is being reinforce the story. Both held by... the comic cover and the painting show Porky dressed as a Mountie, but the painting adds props and characters to make the ELEMENT 3: Bear cub costume matter – Porky’s not just a Mountie; he’s a protector of the animals. Another visual element that Barks uses to reinforce the story is facial expression: Gone is the comic-book cover’s vacuous smile; in the Barks painting, Porky looks at the trap with anger, clearly communicating that it has been set in his Interaction: ...which has in- forest illegally. Porky’s rage jured the... provides counterpoint to the ELEMENT 2: Steel trap small cub, who regards the trap with fear. Barks wasn’t above using illustrative conventions if they helped reinforce the story: The red 123 “pain” lines above the cub’s the idea of the nephews the outside knowledge paw indicate that it has been outsmarting their uncle. that Uncle Scrooge is a injured, visually linking it to Again, everything in the “fantasticatillionaire” with the trap. composition reinforces the a money fetish. Most of story: The one-room school the “story” covers require Not all comic-book covers are house in the background familiarity with the comic- simple narratives. “Truant implies that school is in book story on which they’re Officer” (17-72), a painting session; the nephews’ based. “Klondike Kaper” (15- based on one of Barks’s own smug faces communicate 72), for example, has all the comic-book gag covers, is a that they’ve outwitted the elements that could make compound narrative that truant officer; their fishing up a complex-narrative uses the interaction of facial poles show why they’re not composition: We see Scrooge expressions, characters, in school; the warm color with a pick (1) digging into props and setting to tell implies late spring, early a cache of gold nuggets (2) a story: Truant officer summer – a time of year that as an old woman with a Donald (1) is stopped by no kid wants to be in a stuffy gun (3) approaches. But the (interaction) the state classroom. The gag is almost composition doesn’t contain line (2), which has been unchanged from the comic enough information for us crossed by (interaction) the cover on which it’s based. to know how these elements hooky-playing nephews (3), interact with each other. preventing Donald (1, again) In total, Barks completed The ducks are obviously from dragging them back over 72 paintings based threatened by the arrival to school (implied action). on his comic-book covers. of the old lady and her pet Remove any element and Nineteen of those were bear, but why? Scrooge the narrative collapses: based on gags. You could might be trespassing, but If the state line wasn’t argue that the “money” gag nothing in the composition there, for example, the paintings, such as “Banker’s suggests that the land narrative would become Salad,” which shows Scrooge belongs to the old woman. “the nephews are about tossing currency in a salad The old woman could be to be caught,” which isn’t bowl, are simple narratives a thief, but nothing in as funny because we lose because they require the image suggests she’s

Interaction: ELEMENT 1: Truant officer ...who can’t ELEMENT 1: cross the... Goldie and Bear

Implied action: ...to escape the... ELEMENT 2: State line

ELEMENT 2: Far left: Scrooge and pick Diagram of Barks’s “Truant Officer” (25-71).

Interaction: Left: ...which was Diagram ELEMENT 3: ELEMENT 3: crossed by... of Barks’s Hooky-playing Gold cache “Klondike” nephews paintings. 124 preview of “dynamic symmetry”

133 134 dynamic symmetry “For an artist who wishes to express action, animation, or movement, Dynamic Symmetry answers better for all his requirements.” Michel Jacobs (The Art of Composition, 13) I always used to wonder how canvas. The crossing line were meticulously planned and Barks was able to make his should be angled so that it designed. Dynamic symmetry original painting compositions meets the diagonal line at a was an important tool that so perfectly balanced, yet at 90-degree angle, creating four, Barks used to achieve some of the same time, so alive with right-angle corners. The point the magic in his paintings. motion. How did he choose where the lines cross defines where to place his figures, the composition’s focal point. his props? One of the more The four quadrants are used interesting books that came out to proportionately distribute of the Barks estate is the remaining elements of the Michel Jacobs’s The Art composition. The diagonal lines of Composition: A Simple also create “action” lines, which Application of Dynamic can be used to orient forms in Symmetry. motion.

“Dynamic symmetry” is a We know Barks used concepts composition technique that from the book because creates balance and “action” preliminary sketches have by dividing a canvas into survived that show his unequal quadrants. This is application of Jacobs’s diagonal done by drawing a diagonal and crossing lines. More line lengthwise from the important, we can see the lower-left corner to the upper principles at work in almost right corner, then drawing a all of his original, horizontal crossing line from the lower- paintings. Like everything in Barks’s copy of The Art of Composition: A Simple Application of Dynamic Sym- right corner to the top of the Barks’s craft, his compositions metry by Michel Jacobs.

Diagrams from Jacobs’s book illustrate This diagram shows how dynamic symmetry works on a 16” x 20” how the diagonal lines are used to find composition – Barks’s favorite size. The point where the lines cross the focal point, create action lines and defines the composition’s focal point. The four quadrants are used to define spaces. distribute elements of the composition. 135 dynamically symmetrical Barks compositions

“Danger, Tycoon at Play,” (10-74). Scrooge’s head is the “Nobody’s Spending Fool,” (13-74). Scrooge is again the focal point, and his body follows the diagonal line of action. focal point. The complex grouping of small figures in the left The nephew and crown in the left quadrant is offset by quadrant is offset by the smaller grouping of larger figures Donald and the desk in the right quadrant. in the right quadrant.

“Season to be Jolly,” (16-74). Scrooge’s sack of money is “A Binful of Fun,” (12-74). Scrooge’s head is the focal point, and the focal point, and his body follows the diagonal line of ac- his body follows the diagonal line of action. The newphews and tion. Santa and friends in the left quadrant are offset by the bucket in the left quadrant are offset by Donald and the tractor match girl, homeless man and dog in the right quadrant. in the right quadrant.

“This Dollar Saved My Life at Whitehorse,” (24-73). “Much Ado About A Dime,” (18-73). Scrooge’s head is again Scrooge’s head is the focal point (the dollar is at dead the focal point, and again the figures are balanced by their center). The nephews form a pyramid defined by the lower placement in the left and right quadrants. quadrant. 136 preview of “cartoon-ality”

143 144 cartoon-ality

“I wouldn’t draw outlines if I were painting a bunch of sailors; I would draw them with colors. And I did that with the ducks.”

Carl Barks (CBC, 139)

Two of the best “how to” books written by artists. Both Gurney and Rockwell are “realists,” but each handles his subject matter quite differently.

Norman Rockwell’s James Gurney’s How I Make A Picture. Imaginative Realism. Descriptions of Barks’s subject realistic, but the or impressionistic. Nor do paintings tend to involve a treatment is gently romantic” they fit within any of the lot of words that begin with (CBL, Vol. 3, 700-1). Barks modern or post-modern R: realistic, researched, would never have placed schools of painting. In fact, representational, refined, himself in the regionalist I had trouble finding an art rural, royal, rich, risqué. school, of course, because term or label that precisely Geoffrey Blum adds he would have considered described what Barks did four more: reminiscent, such a designation too high- until I stumbled onto James regionalist, reassuring and brow. For Barks, painting Gurney’s Imaginative romantic. “Reminiscence, was more about craft and Realism. In his introduction, conservatism, and a strong commerce than politics and Gurney writes “this book narrative streak – these philosophy. While he would explores the question of how qualities place Barks in the probably have appreciated to paint a realistic picture of tradition of the American an early landscape by Grant something that doesn’t exist. Regionalists, a movement Wood, the stylized murals of When you make a still life, that flourished in the wake Thomas Hart Benton would a portrait, or a landscape, of the Depression, when the have left him scratching his you generally begin with nation needed reassurance head. the subject in front of you. and a sense of continuity … But it doesn’t help much with its past. And Barks’s While Barks’s pre-cartoon if you want to paint a canvases are reassuring, for paintings might be thought mermaid, a Tyrannosaurus each celebrates its subject, so of as regionalist, how do rex, or a Civil War battle.” that the most ruined barns we classify his cartoon Or if you want to paint a appear wistful rather than oils and watercolors? cartoon subject realistically. gaunt. … The draftsmanship They’re not obviously “Imaginative realism” is an may be precise and the romantic, photorealistic, almost perfect description of 145 Barks’s cartoon paintings. techniques – are the same The history of Barks’s work, for both. When Barks first both comic-book stories and began to experiment with this oil paintings, is the history of style he said: “I’m going to do making fantasy into reality. away with the outline on the ducks. They won’t look like For Barks’s cartoon colored cartoons; I’m going paintings “realism” doesn’t to see if I can’t make them refer to his choice of subject look like real, round ducks.’ matter but to specific I wouldn’t draw outlines if techniques for achieving I were painting a bunch of authenticity, using research sailors; I would draw them Detail from Uncle Scrooge: The Lemonade King, by Norman McGary. Barks provided and reference material to with colors. And I did that drawings for McGary’s paintings, which correctly render light and with the ducks” (CBC, 139). have a very illustrated look to them, unlike shadow, surface and form. The ducks might be cartoon Barks’s more realistic style. Looking at the examples characters, but Barks painted below, it’s obvious that the them as if they were solid, in approach. Barks’s duck figure in “Oblivious” three-dimensional beings, technique was a hyper- is not realistic in the same defined by light and shadow. stylized realism that brought way “Tundra Swan” is – Compare Barks’s paintings to the real world’s appearance, the figure in “Oblivious” the Mickey Mouse paintings physics and history into his is a cartoon character, not by Floyd Gottfredson or even cartoon world. Skies, clouds, a real duck. But the craft the Uncle Scrooge story- waves, rocks, grass, saloons, used to create a Barks-style book paintings by Norman mountains, gold, jewels – painting – the rendering McGary to see the difference anything you could find in

Six ways to see a duck.

1. Photography: Photo of a duck.

2. Romanticism: Detail from “Mallard Ducks and Ducklings on a River Bank” by John Frederick Herring, Sr.

3. Impressionism: Detail from the oil painting “Five Ducks in a Pond” by William Koester. 1. 2. 3. 4. Photorealism: Detail from the acrylic painting “Tundra Swan” by Peter Ma- thios, 2009.

5. Modernism: Detail from the oil painting “Look Mickey” by Roy Lichtenstein, 1961.

6. Imaginative realism: Detail from my oil painting “Oblivious” (7-2006).

4. 5. 6. 146 preview of “the layout drawing”

165 166 the layout drawing

“much work has to be done on such layouts. the position of every element, even each coin, must be carefully studied.” Carl Barks (FA, 53)

All of the craft that Barks the ideas, the characters, the worked on in the 1960s. would have put into a paint- setting and the story, all set Using a light table, Barks ing up to this point – the out in the tightest possible would place a sheet of vellum narrative and dynamically drawing. over his rough sketch, which symmetrical approaches to was used as a guide for the composition, the collectery To achieve these tight draw- final drawing. Vellum was approach to detail, the car- ings, Barks used vellum and also useful for experiment- toon-ality approach to re- tissue paper to revise and re- ing with different composi- search and reference – would fine the layouts for his paint- tional elements. The Barks have culminated in the ings. These are examples estate turned up numerous layout drawing. Probably the of Barks’s drawings for two examples of these geometric single most important step of his “little girl” paintings, background drawings which in Barks’s painting craft, the a series of small, 8” x 10” could be used with any of the layout drawing contained portrait studies that Barks little girl figures.

Barks used vellum and tissue paper to refine his rough drawings. Here are a number of layout drawings for his little girl paintings, done in 1967: “Fancy Stranger” (19-67, above left); “Black- Eyed Susan” (18-67, above right). 167 From first idea to final layout

These original drawings done for Barks’s “Menace Out of the Myths” (11-73) provide a good example of how Barks refined the layout drawings for his paintings.

Upper left: The initial idea sketch (6” x 9”) contains all the important ideas that will define the painting: the setting, story, antagonist and actions.

Upper right: The first detailed rough sketch (8” x 10”) refines everything and adds details to props, background elements and costumes.

Middle: the next two drawings (8” x 10”) are mostly tracings of the rough sketch. Important details such as the poses of Donald and the larkie, are still being worked out.

Bottom: Even the final layout drawing (18” x 24”) shows changes as Barks continued to refine the larkie’s head.

168 preview of “underpainting”

195 196 underpainting

“The whole painting builds itself as I paint over one blunder after another.”

Carl Barks (Letter to John Garvin, October 1982)

The underpainting mat and as dull a surface Barks worked in layers: accomplishes three things: effect as possible is desirable “With the style of painting I it provides a unifying coat for an underpainting, for any use, the more coats of paint of color; it provides a layer paint that dries with a gloss you put on, the richer it of oil paint that helps the is difficult to paint over” (98). gets. That first coat doesn’t opacity of subsequent layers; For this reason, linseed oil even have to be related to and it establishes the values should be used to thin the the color of the final coat. that will define lights and colors for the underpainting, It’s just something to get the darks for the entire painting. not Barks’s medium. board covered with paint so Usually the underpainting that the next coat goes on is applied with colors that It’s evident that early on, easier and it gradually builds have a low oil content so that Barks’s painting technique up” (AQ, 44). they will dry quickly. The didn’t specifically include an colors Garé used included underpainting layer. Many By the time I met him in the Venetian red, emerald photos of works in progress 1980s, however, Barks was green, cobalt violet, Indian from the 1970s show that using an underpainting as red, ultramarine blue and he painted entire sections part of his process. In “An cadmium maroon. Low oil at a time: The background Embarrassment of Riches,” content also ensured that could be completely filled for example, we can see how underpainting would not in, for example, while broad areas of color and have a glossy finish: Gasser, the characters were still shadow were roughly blocked in Oil Painting: Methods and completely bare masonite. in: The coins were blocked Demonstrations, writes: “As But there’s no question that in with a large swath of Photo © Dan Gheno Dan © Photo

Barks in 1974 painting “Sport of Tycoons” (9-74). Barks did not paint an underpainting layer in Garé’s note describing colors with low oil the 1970s but instead built up his layers of paint using color. (Photo by Dan Gheno). content for use in the underpainting. 197 dark sepia hues; lights and which doesn’t use color better control of the lighting. darks on the jade elephant for the underpainting but Regardless of the technique were established with base instead creates what is used, a Barks-style fine-art coats of green paint; and called a “dead layer” using cartoon painting requires so on. Overall lighting was a monochromatic palette. I several layers of paint. Each established with thin washes was having trouble keeping successive layer builds on of color. the values of my paints the previous, enriching the consistent, and I found color as it builds up to the Over the years, I slowly that if I could work out the gem like quality for which adapted Barks’s layering values of the entire painting Barks originals are famous. technique to one closer to without the distraction of This layering process begins the Flemish technique, color, I would have much with a solid underpainting.

Underpainting: what a gasser!

Above: Detail from “work in progress” photos of Barks’s “An Embarrassment Of Riches.” These images provide some of the few examples of Barks’s underpainting technique, where large areas of light and shadow are blocked in using broad masses of color, providing a rich base for the detail that is added in subsequent layers of paint. Below: Details of Gasser’s underpainting techniques from Barks’s copy of Oil Painting Methods and Demonstrations.

198 preview of “color theory”

199 200 color theory

“I tried to keep my palette as close to the primaries as possible, and to get my grays and the intermediate colors by mixing. I still paint with a very simple palette.”

Carl Barks (FA, 66)

Over the course of his he gave up. Thinking about techniques, and many of painting career, Barks color was a luxury that a the ideas here, such as probably discussed color comic-book artist, scrambling the importance of graying more than any other aspect to turn out stories for colors, were explored by of his craft. The reason low page rates, could not Gasser. J. H. Bustanoby’s for that is obvious: Color afford. When Barks retired, Principles of Color and was the most important that all changed. Through Color Mixing devoted an thing that differentiated watercolors, then gouache, entire book – 131 pages – to his comic-book work from then acrylic, and finally oils, the subject, approaching his painting. Composition, Barks finally began to work color theory in a historic drawing, humor, storytelling with color. and scientific way. We – these were things Barks know Barks used this book had been doing since the Barks had written to me that because the estate auction 1920s. Color was the one “I follow the rules of color revealed an original Barks thing he had never gotten mixing and layering that I drawing tucked inside. a chance to play with. He read in instruction books” But to me it seemed that was often asked if he had (letter to John Garvin, the most influential books anything to do with coloring October 1983). Many of the on Barks’s shelf were the his comic book stories, and books in his library outlined simplest. he was always adamant: the fundamentals of color “No!” Sometimes, when color mixing. We’ve already seen In Color With Palette Knife was important to a story, how influential Gasser’s and Brush, Merlin Enabnit he would offer suggestions, Oil Painting: Methods discusses three important but, he lamented, these were and Demonstrations was concepts that Barks used ignored often enough that on Barks’s oil painting in almost all of his fine-art

201 surprising use of color

Barks’s copy of Merlin Enabnit’s Color With Palette Knife and Brush. Enabnit focused on how to mix tints and values using pure color, without adding black and white, how to gray colors to intensify the brilliance of hues, and how to juxtapose cool colors against warm ones. 202 primary colors are primary

Barks’s copy of Walter Foster’s How to Do Water Colors. Foster focused on creating richly colored paintings using only the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. This technique would have appealed to Barks, who often spoke of using the same limited palette in his oil paintings. 203 The Barks estate turned up many examples of the Barkses experiments with color. Garé took her experiments so seriously that she kept copious records of her color experiments: Garé’s inventory pages of notes detail notes Carl’s stock successful combinations of of gray oils. color. Garé even created a custom color wheel for her cartoon paintings: “Color “Gray to Rest the Eye” own use. You can see where Surprise,” “Gray to Rest the describes another important she’s laid out the primary Eye,” and “Warm Against technique: graying colors colors by name, including Cool.” “Color Surprise” is down so they don’t become intermediaries such as the technique of adding too saturated. We know Winsor violet, viridian, and adjacent colors on the color from Barks’s inventory of alizarin crimson. The inner wheel to create lighter paints that Carl and Garé ring contains versions of the and darker tints – NOT by both used a number of stock colors that are lighter and adding black and white. grays, which come premixed grayer. This would have While adding black and in a range of tints. Adding been an immensely useful white will change the value just a tiny amount will tool because it would have of a hue, they also dilute the remove the garish effects shown her how the colors she color’s vibrancy, creating of pure color, while still was actually using looked dull, washed-out colors. keeping its richness and when mixed and dried. Here’s an example (opposite intensity. page). Let’s say I need a Also from the Barks estate, range of greens, going from Finally, Enabnit discussed “Grumbacher’s Color light to dark. If I add white the importance of Computer” is an ingenious to create the lighter tints, contrasting cool colors device that displays all the the green does get lighter, against warm, and vice primary and secondary hues but it also becomes more versa. This is a technique in the visible spectrum. pale. If I add black to create that happens almost As you spin the wheel, the the darker tints, the green automatically if you are hues pass through a window does get darker, but it gets using analogous harmonies that defines the “key color.” more dull and murky as and complementary colors The other windows at the well. Using the technique in your palette because top define the analogous of Color Surprise, I don’t warm and cool colors are harmonies for that key add black and white, but opposite each other. To see color, while the windows colors that are adjacent to how this works, let’s look at the bottom display green on the color wheel. To at the color wheel. Every complementary and triadic make it lighter, add yellow artist (and most third- colors for the key color. The or yellow green. To make graders) know that mixing back of the computer offers the green darker, add blue the three primary colors instruction on color mixing. green or blue. Comparing (triangulated on the wheel) In painting after painting, these two ranges of color, produces secondary colors: throughout his career, you it’s easy to see why Barks red + blue = purple; yellow + can see how Barks used this used this technique. His blue = green. Less commonly wheel when refining the paintings were famous for understood is how a color’s palettes for his paintings. their rich, vibrant color, position on the wheel can In “The Makings of a which he achieved by make it analogous, triadic or Fish Story,” the dominant avoiding the dulling effects complementary to another colors are rich blues and of black and white. color. greens. The color wheel 204 Wheels of harmonious color

Garé Barks’s home-made color wheel was useful because it showed her how the actual pigments she was using would look when dried. Photo © Dan Gheno Dan © Photo Barks’s “Grumbacher’s Color Computer.” The color harmonies in Barks’s cartoon Barks in his studio in 1974. “Grumbacher’s Color Computer” can be clearly seen paintings suggest that he used this on a work table to the left of Barks’s easel. Photo by Dan Gheno. extensively.

color surprise: mixing rich color

Black Green White

An example of Color Surprise: In the top swath of color, black and white were used to tint the hue darker and lighter; in the bottom swath, yellow and blue were used. This Blue Green Yellow results in richer color. 205 shows why Barks chose yellow – and duplicate them? In August 1971 Barks was his specific accent colors: I mix the colors together in commissioned by Norma The warm golds in the different values [but] they Clemens of the Publications treasure and mermaid’s can’t do it with their big, Department at the Walt hair are harmonious triadic clumsy lithographic plates” Disney Studios to paint colors; Scrooge’s deep-red (CBL, Set 3, Vol. 1, 65). He “Blue Composition of Ducks” diving suit, the light-orange would go on to elaborate: “I (21-71). In a letter to her, seahorses, the warm-purple realized that the basic colors Barks described the color fish, are all painted in colors of all those comic books were scheme he was proposing that are complementary to just the three primaries, red, for the painting: “For color I blue green. blue and yellow, so I tried submit this scheme: sky (left) to keep my palette as close deep royal blue (ultramarine Also prominent on Barks’s to the primaries as possible, base); sky (right) lighter studio bookshelf in the and to get my grays and royal blue (cobalt added); 1960s was Walter Foster’s the intermediate colors by moon – powder blue and How to Do Watercolors. mixing. I still paint with a white; small 24-carat moon This was an important book very simple palette. I figured – green gold (umber); distant because Foster emphasized that if I couldn’t get brilliant mountain peaks, powder the immense power of the colors with the colors you’re blue + white; minarets + primary palette, of using just supposed to get brilliant pagodas, powder blue; money red, yellow and blue, and colors with, I’d better not bin – turquoise; $ sign on mixing secondary colors and even tinker with them” (FA, bin, amber gold, gold under grays from those. By limiting 66). blue glaze; spilled coins in his palette to the primaries, foreground – bright gold; Foster was able to create This didn’t mean that Barks the characters – in standard stunning effects, surfaces limited his palette to just comic-book colors with bluish and textures. In the example three colors. Even from the cast, called a saturated color on page 203, Foster is able beginning of his painting scheme.” “Blue Composition to paint a richly colored career, Barks’s palette of Ducks”(21-71) is pretty scene of brightly colored was more complex than he simple as far as color apples, shiny-metallic would have had us believe. schemes go, yet Barks copper, opulent platters and a golden table cloth, with nothing but primary colors. Foster also emphasized the purity of color: Lights and shadows are all achieved by layering intensity of color – tints are never created using black and white. These are all concepts that Barks followed throughout his career: On several occasions Barks complained that the lithographers couldn’t capture his palette: “Why can’t they take a painting like the one of Uncle Scrooge and the money bag on the old chair, that’s painted with the same colors they use to mix their three ink colors Barks’s color notes for “Blue Composition of Ducks.” No less than seven shades of blue are – the same red, blue and mentioned, evidence that Barks’s claims of a limited palette were exaggerated. 206 preview of “barks’s personal reference library”

247 Barks relaxes in his studio with a copy of National Geographic, one of his favorite reference sources. 248 barks’s personal reference library

The following bibliography is a partially complete list of books and periodicals owned by Carl Barks. Compiled from over a dozen estate auctions (eBay and Bonhams) that took place from May 2007 through October 2010, the bibliography does not include fanzines, foreign editions, catalogues or works written by Barks himself. It is impossible to know, with a few exceptions, when Barks purchased the books or whether or not he actually read them. Some books undoubtedly belonged to his wife Garé. Some were given to Barks as gifts. But some books contain physical evidence that Barks did use them: handwritten marginal notes, bookmarks, sketches or tear sheets of related reference material. Other books are referred to directly by Barks in published interviews. Indirect evidence for the use of some reference books can be found by comparing existing Barks artwork to the reference material.

Broad categories include: • Below: My collec- Instructional books (art, crafts) tion of over 100 • Reference books (visual, historical, and general) books once owned • Books collecting the work of other artists by Barks. His per- • Books that were gifts to Carl and Garé sonal library reveals clues as to how he The bibliography is alphabetized by title. Author, publisher and date of used the books for publication are given if known. reference.

249 The 50 Greatest Cartoons As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Jerry Beck, ed. (Turner, 1994). 110 Years With Josephine: The History of Josephine County Oregon. (1966). 1846: Portrait of the Nation. (National Portrait Gallery, 1996). A Complete Guide to Drawing, Illustration, Cartooning and Painting. Gene Byrnes. (Simon and Shuster, 1948). A Field Guide to Insects. Donald J. Borror, Richard E. White. (Houghton Mifflin, 1970). A Field Guide to Little-Known & Seldom-Seen Birds of North America. Ben, Cathryn & John Sill. (Peachtree, 1988). A Field Guide to Western Birds. Roger Tory Peterson. (Houghton Mifflin, 1941). A Folk Legend. (Egmont, 1992). A Gallery of California Mission Paintings. Edwin Deakin. (Ward Ritchie Press, 1967). A Gallery of Rogues: Cartoonists’ Self-Caricatures. Robert C. Harvey. (Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library, 1998). A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor A Night in Tivoli. Helle Melander. (Forum Denmark, 1992). A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics. Michael Barrier, Martin Williams, eds. (Abrams, 1981). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Gary Gygax. (TSR, 1979). AFAS Quartely of the Automotive Fine Arts Society. (Fall 1990). Ain’t We Got Fun: Frogsville 1933-1934. Rex Schneider. (Blue Moose Studio, 1982). All Color Book of Egyptian Mythology. Richard Patrick. (Octopus, 1972). All Color Book of Roman Mythology. Peter Croft. (Octopus, 1974). All In Color For A Dime. Dick Lupoff, Don Thompson ed. (1970). Amazing Bats. Frank Greenaway. (Knopf, 1991). Amazing Bikes. Trevor Lord. (Knopf, 1992). Amazing Science Fiction. (Jan. 1983). American Artist. (Nov. 1995, Apr. 1996, Mar. 1997). American Birds. Roland C. Clement. (Bantam, 1973). American Characters: Selections from the National Portrait Gallery. R.W.B. Lewis & Nancy Lewis. (Yale University Press, 1999).

250 American Shelter: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Home. Lester Walker. (Overlook Press, 1981). America’s Forgotten Architecture. Tony P. Wrenn, Elizabeth D. Mulloy. (Pantheon, 1976). An Artist In Nature. Robert Bateman. (Random House, 1990). Anatomy and Drawing. Victor Perard. (Victor Perard, 1934). Anatomy for Art Students. Arthur Thomson. (Oxford, 1906). The Anatomy of the Costume. Robert Selbie. (Crescent, 1977). Ancient Herbs Calendar. (1983). Ancient Tribes of the Klamath Country. Carrol B. Howe. (Binfords & Mort, 1968). Architectural Presentation in Opaque Watercolor. Chris Choate. (Reinhold, 1961). Arizona’s Cactuses. W. Taylor Marshall. (Desert Botanical Garden of Arizona Science Bulletin, 1953). Art and Artists. (Desert Art Center). Art In the United States Capitol. (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976). Art Nouveau Borders on Layout Cards. (Dover, 1986). The Art of the Brothers Hildebrandt. (Ballantine, 1979). The Art of Central Asia. (Paul Hamlyn, 1965). The Art of Color and Design. Maitland Graves. (McGraw-Hill, 1951). The Art of Composition. Michel Jones. (Citadel, 1956). The Art of Drawing Heads and Hands. (Grumbacher Library, 1966). The Art of Enjoying Music. Sigmund Spaeth. (Garden City Publishing, 1938). The Art of Laughter. (Cartoon Art Trust, 1992). The Art of Marc Davis. (1993). The Art of Mickey Mouse. Craig Yoe, Janet Morra-Yoe, eds. (Hyperion, 1991). The Art of Painting Wild Animals. John Schoenherr. (Grumbacher Library, 1975). The Art of Rakusan Tsuichiy: A Famous Print Maker of Japan. (Walter T. Foster). Art of the Golden West. Alan Axelrod. (Abbeville Press, 1990). The Art of the Old West. Paul. A. Rossi, David C. Hunt. 251 (Knopf, 1971). The Art of Walt Disney. Christopher Finch. (NAL, 1975). Art Secrets and Shortcuts. Fritz Willis. (Foster Art Service, Inc.). Art Through the Ages. Helen Gardner. (Harcourt Brace & Co., 1936). Art Treasures In the British Isles. (McGraw-Hill, 1969). Art Treasures In France. (McGraw-Hill, 1969). Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World. Simon Welfare, JohnFairley. (A&W, 1980). Arthur Rackham. David Larkin, ed. (Peacock Press, 1975). The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques. Ralph Mayer. (Viking, 1966). Austrian Painting. Bernard Smith. (Oxford, 1965). Bears: Their Life and Behavior. Art Wolfe. (Crown, 1992). Beautiful California. (Lane Publishing, 1978). The Best of Robert Service. (Dodd Mead). Birds: A Guide to American Birds. Herbert S. Zim. (Simon & Schuster, 1949). Birds of America. T. Gilbert Pearson, ed. (Garden City Books, 1936). The Blue Poetry Book. Andrew Lang, ed. (University Microfilms, 1967) The Book of the American Indian. Hamlin Garland. (Harper & Brothers, 1923). The Book of Fairies. Beatrice Phillpots. (Ballantine, 1979). The Book of Giant Stories. David L. Harrison. (American Heritage Press, 1972). The Book of the Old West. Foster-Harris. (Viking Press, 1955). Boris Vallejo Fantasy Calendar. (1980, 1981). Brand Book Number Five: The San Diego Corral of the Westerns: Travel and Transportation in the Far Southwest. (San Diego Corral of the Westerners, 1978). Building A Better Mouse: An Exhibition at the Library of Congress. The Cahuilla Indians. Harry C. James. (Westernlore Press, 1960). Calgary Eye-Opener: 1930 Annual. Bill O’Donnell, ed. (Bob Edwards Publishing Company, 1930). Calgary Eye-Opener. (April 1934). California Missions in Full Color. (Hubert A. Lowman). Carl Barks’ Survived Comic Book Art. Matti Eronen. (1994). 252 about the author

John Garvin is an artist, designer and writer who has written and directed numerous award-winning video games, including Resistance: Retribution and the Syphon Filter series. At his studio in the high desert of Central Oregon, Garvin paints “fine art” oils of cartoon characters – a craft learned from the late Disney legend Carl Barks. In 2008 Garvin wrote and published the first edition ofThe Landon School of Illustrat- ing and Cartooning, a history of the early-20th century correspondence course that shaped a generation of cartoonists, including Roy Crane, Milton Caniff, and Chic Young. In 2009, Garvin’s comic strip “Peggy” was a semifinalist in Andrews McMeel Publish- ing’s “Comic Strip Superstar” contest, hosted on Amazon.com. The strip was judged by comic professionals including Garry Trudeau and Lynn Johnston. Garvin obtained his MA in Literature from the University of Oregon in 1989. He lives with his wife, two youngest children, two dachshunds and a golden retriever.

Louie, Dewey and Murphy. I know, I know: Where ‘s Huey?

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