A Guidebook to the Carl Barks Universe

Backstage: Made by Barks for his own reference. As he has explained, he would otherwise have had no drawings of characters available from the time he submitted the first stories with them until those stories were published, since making copies of his artwork would have been difficult and expensive in those pre-Xerox days.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set VII (USA): monochrome

Sources

CM 17 bearded hermit [studies]

Barrier: ---
CBL: 07A-014
Type: studies, [inked]
Creation date: 1943
Art: [none?]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: 1988, March
Issue: The Carl Barks Library - Set VII
Pages: [1]
Orientation: portrait
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch
Project: W WDC 39-01 in Salesman Donald

Additional credits: Two studies of the bearded hermit in «Donald Duck in Salesman Donald», drawn when Barks was working on the story in 1943.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set VII (USA): monochrome

Sources

CM 8 bombie the zombie [preliminary study]

Barrier: MBAC-199
CBL: 02A-016
Type: preliminary study, [penciled]
Creation date: [1949]
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: 1986, November
Issue: The Carl Barks Library - Set II
Pages: 1
Orientation: portrait
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch
Project: in "Voodoo Hoodoo"

Additional credits: One drawing of Bombie the zombie with vacant eyes.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set II (USA): monochrome

Sources | image: © [Walt Disney Productions]

CM 1 Magazine Comics Duck

Barrier: MBAC-199
CBL: 08C-564 (first half); 08C-699 (second half)
Type: model sheet, inked
Creation date: [1950, October 27]
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1950, October 27
Publication date: 1979
Issue: Donald Duck [Marcia Blitz]
Pages: 2
Orientation: [portrait?]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch

Additional credits: [Two half pages?]

Model sheet of Donald and the nephews. More information.

Publications:

Donald Duck [Marcia Blitz] (USA. New York): monochrome
The Carl Barks Library - Set VIII (USA): monochrome

Correspondence:

December 13, 1960 letter from Carl Barks to Ronald O. Burnett

Sources

CM 2 Scrooge McDuck [model sheet]

Barrier: MBAC-199
CBL: 08C-529
Type: model sheet, inked
Creation date: [1951, January 25]
Art: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1951, January 25
Publication date: 1981 (or 1982?)
Issue: Uncle Scrooge His Life & Times
Pages: 1
Orientation: [landscape]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch

Additional credits: One half page.

Model sheet of Uncle Scrooge. More information.

Publications:

Uncle Scrooge His Life & Times (USA): monochrome
The Carl Barks Library - Set VIII (USA): monochrome

Correspondence:

December 13, 1960 letter from Carl Barks to Ronald O. Burnett

Sources

CM 5 gyro gearloose [model sheet; inked?]

Barrier: MBAC-199
CBL: 06B-381
Type: model sheet, [inked?]
Creation date: 1955
Art: [none, or Carl Barks]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: 1981 (or 1982?)
Issue: Uncle Scrooge His Life & Times
Pages: [1]
Orientation: [portrait]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch

Additional credits: Four drawings, one with a faceless head.

Model sheet of Gyro Gearloose.

Backstage: Made by Barks for his own reference while developing Gyro Gearloose to star in his own short stories at the back of Uncle Scrooge comics. As Barks has explained, he would otherwise have had no drawings of characters available from the time he submitted the first stories with them until those stories were published, since making copies of his artwork would have been difficult and expensive in those pre-Xerox days.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set VI (USA): monochrome

Congruences:

CM 6 gyro gearloose [model sheet; penciled]: Gyro Gearloose model sheet

Sources

CM 6 gyro gearloose [model sheet; penciled]

Barrier: MBAC-199
CBL: 08C-632
Type: model sheet, penciled
Creation date: 1955
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: 1981 (or 1982?)
Issue: Uncle Scrooge His Life & Times
Pages: [1]
Orientation: [portrait]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch

Additional credits: [Two half pages?] Twenty-seven drawings, showing expressions and measurements. The drawings show Barks experimenting with nuances of expression on the tall, gawky inventor.

Model sheet of Gyro Gearloose.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set VIII (USA): monochrome

Congruences:

CM 5 gyro gearloose [model sheet; inked?]: Gyro Gearloose model sheet

Sources

CM 10 gus goose and grandma duck [model sheet]

Barrier: ---
CBL: 06B-484
Type: model sheet, penciled
Creation date: [1959?]
Art: [none?]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: 1990, May
Issue: The Carl Barks Library - Set VI
Pages: [1]
Orientation: [landscape?]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch

Additional credits: Four drawings of Gus Goose, and one drawing of Grandma Duck

Backstage: Made by Barks for his own reference in the late 1950s, when Western Publishing asked him to illustrate the stories in Grandma Duck's Farm Friends. No comparable poses of Grandma exist, but Barks had been drawing her on and off since 1945 and may not have felt the need for a model sheet.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set VI (USA): monochrome

Sources

Duck Family Tree [1950s]

Inducks: Qus/CBL 6D
Barrier: [not mentioned?]
CBL: 06B-476
Type: model sheet, text-only
Creation date: early 1950s
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: [1980 or earlier?]
Issue: [pre-1981 fanzine]
Pages: [1]
Orientation: [landscape]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch
Finished version, by others: The Duck Family Tree; D 11221 Donald Duck Family Tree

Additional credits: [One sheet.] Barks roughed out this genealogy when he was evolving Duckburg and creating a sense of community around Donald Duck.

Genealogy of the Duck family.

Publications:

pre-1981 fanzine: details unknown
Carl Barks Checklist (USA): ?; details unknown
The Carl Barks Library - Set VI (USA): monochrome

Correspondence:

April 22, 1991 letter from Carl Barks to Don Rosa

Congruences:

... duck family tree [March 1991]: Duck genealogy
... duck family tree [April 1991]: Duck genealogy

Sources

nephew [model sheet]

Inducks: ...
Barrier: ---
CBL: ---
Type: model sheet; pencil on parchment; ±1955; signed
Creation date: mid-1950s
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: [none or unknown]
Issue: [none or unknown]
Pages: 1
Orientation: portrait
Width: 25 inch
Height: 31 inch

Additional credits: A note seems to read "CU.7" (or "CU.1"?), and "mid-1950s"

Owners, past and present: For sale at Ebay on 12 August 1999 (#145505283)

Publications:

Unpublished?

Circulating material:

picture as on Ebay: colour

Other views: See "circulating material" field.

Questions: Has this material been published?

Sources | image: © [Walt Disney Productions]

CM 11 jivaro witch doctor

Barrier: ---
CBL: 05A-014
Type: model drawings, penciled
Creation date: [1960]
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: 1989, April
Issue: The Carl Barks Library - Set V
Pages: [1]
Orientation: portrait
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch
Project: W US 32-02 That Small Feeling

Additional credits: Two model drawings of a Jivaro witch doctor who appeared in «That Small Feeling» W US 32-02.

Backstage: Barks used similar witch doctors in «A Spicy Tale» W US 39-02, and «The Great Wig Mystery» W US 52-01.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set V (USA): monochrome

Congruences:

W US 32-02 That Small Feeling: witch doctor
W US 39-02 A Spicy Tale: witch doctor
W US 52-01 The Great Wig Mystery: witch doctor

Sources

CM 9 magica de spell [studies?]

Barrier: ---
CBL: 04C-676
Type: [studies?], penciled
Creation date: [1961?]
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: 1981 (or 1982?)
Issue: Uncle Scrooge His Life & Times
Pages: [1]
Orientation: [landscape]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch

Additional credits: Four drawings of Magica de Spell with her black hair shown.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set IV (USA. Arizona, Scottsdale): monochrome

Sources

magica de spell [model sheet]

Inducks: ...
CBL: 04C-676
Type: model sheet, penciled
Creation date: 1961
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [none or unknown]
Publication date: 1985, November
Issue: The Carl Barks Library - Set IV
Pages: [1]
Orientation: [landscape?]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch
Project: W US 36-01 The Midas Touch; W WDC 258-01 Ten-cent Valentine

Additional credits: Single model sheet. Eight drawings.

Magica de Spell with white areas for her black hair.

Backstage: Made by Barks for his own reference, tracing poses from the ink art for «The Midas Touch». He copied three of these into his second Magica story, «Ten-cent Valentine».

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set IV (USA. Arizona, Scottsdale): monochrome

Sources

magica de spell [guide]

Inducks: ...
Barrier: ---
CBL: 04A-015
Type: model drawing; [inked?]
Art: [Carl Barks]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: [none or unknown]
Submission: [none]
Publication date: 1985, November
Issue: The Carl Barks Library - Set IV
Pages: 1
Orientation: portrait
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch

Additional credits: Barks intended this sketch[?] as a guide for other comic artists drawing Magica, but it remained in his files until 1971.

Magica takes a flash blinder (a.k.a. foof bomb) out of her purse.

Owners, past and present: Purchased from Barks by a collector in 1971.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set IV (USA. Arizona, Scottsdale): monochrome

Sources

CM 3 Huey, Dewey, and Louie [model sheet]

Barrier: MBAC-199
CBL: 06A-172; 06C-584
Type: model sheet, penciled
Creation date: 1971
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: [Carl Barks]
Hero: [none]
Submission: [1971]
Publication date: 1990, May
Issue: The Carl Barks Library - Set VI
Pages: [4?]
Orientation: [portrait]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch

Additional credits: [Four half pages?] Made for the Disney studio's publications department.

Model sheet of Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Some of the drawings show them in Junior Woodchuck uniforms.

Publications:

The Carl Barks Library - Set VI (USA): monochrome

Questions: According Carl Barks and the Art of the Comic Book, these model sheets were drawn for "Disney studio's publications department, not for Western."
According to The Carl Barks Library - Set VI, these model sheets were drawn "to guide Western Publishing's artists".
Which information is correct? Or is there a connection?

Sources

duck family tree [March 1991]

Inducks: ...
Barrier: ---
CBL: ---
Type: model sheet, text-only
Creation date: 1991, March
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1991, March 31 [as part of correspondence]
Publication date: 1998, March 10 ["03/10/98"]
Issue: Uncle Scrooge McDuck by Carl Barks - Uncle Scrooge Adventures 42
Pages: 1
Orientation: [landscape]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch
Finished version, by others: D 11221 Donald Duck Family Tree

Additional credits: [One sheet.] Part of March 31, 1991 letter from Carl Barks to Don Rosa. Apparently made from scratch, based on hours of combing pages of comic book material.

Analysis of the Duck family genealogy.

Publications:

Uncle Scrooge McDuck by Carl Barks - Uncle Scrooge Adventures 42 (USA): monochrome

Correspondence:

March 31, 1991 letter from Carl Barks to Don Rosa

Congruences:

Qus/CBL 6D Duck Family Tree [1950s]: Duck genealogy
... duck family tree [April 1991]: Duck genealogy

Other views:

larger picture

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duck family tree [April 1991]

Inducks: ...
Barrier: ---
CBL: ---
Type: model sheet, text-only
Creation date: 1991, April
Art: [none]
Pencil: Carl Barks
Script: Carl Barks
Hero: [none]
Submission: 1991, April ±22, more or less [as part of correspondence]
Publication date: [none or unknown]
Issue: [none or unknown]
Pages: 1
Orientation: [landscape]
Width: [unknown] inch
Height: [unknown] inch
Finished version, by others: D 11221 Donald Duck Family Tree

Additional credits: [One sheet.] Part of April 22, 1991 letter from Carl Barks to Don Rosa
Updated version, based on Duck Family Tree [1950s] and duck family tree [March 1991].

Analysis of the Duck family genealogy. In a September 23, 2003 e-mail to the Disney Comics Mailing List, Don Rosa wrote: "the second revised Tree that Barks sent me was a xerox of the first new one he'd sent, only with "Old Scotty", Matilda and Hortense penciled in on one side, and Gus Goose and his mother scratched off the other."
In Uncle Scrooge McDuck by Carl Barks - Uncle Scrooge Adventures 42, Geoffrey Blum mentions that Barks "provided names for Grandma's children". This is contradicted in Rosa's e-mail: "There were no names for Grandma's children added... I obtained/interpolated those from old Barks stories involving relatives which we fans all knew." (Rosa's own efforts refer to Donald Duck Family Tree.)

Publications: