For the majority of his career, Carl
Barks toiled anonymously creating comic books under the Walt Disney logo. His
fresh take on the medium had many comic book readers noticing his inventive
storytelling and highly skilled drawing ability. By combining quirky,
children’s characters with stories from National Geographic, Barks created a
globe-hopping masterpiece without ever leaving the United States. His readership called him the “Good
Duck Artist” and clamored to the comic stands to get each new issue from this
unnamed hero. Not only did he
excel at making comics, but his creations in Donald Duck’s extended family
(Scrooge McDuck, Huey Dewey, Louie, Gladstone Gander, Gyro Gearloose, etc) have
sparked the imaginations of pop cultural titans like Stephen Spielberg and
George Lucas in Indiana Jones and an
entire generation with the animated series, Duck
Tales. Struggling with his own
money problems, Barks made these stories (which focus primarily on Donald Duck
and Scrooge McDuck) as a means to fulfill his own wishes and dreams.
In the 1980’s the public became aware of Carl Barks, then in his
80s, and finally gave him the accolades he so rightly deserved. Another Rainbow Publishing, a publisher
dedicated to printing Bark’s work, printed a large format, black and white
omnibus collection of his Duck stories, so the fans that collected the comics
as children could get them in a more substantial book form. There are ten slipcovers with three
hardcover books inside each (with content for the collection exceeding 7,000
pages). The gold foil lettering on
the spine, a clear numbering system, color covers and crisp page scans made this
reprint hugely desirable for collectors.
After the 1980s and 1990s, these editions went out of print and,
themselves, became collector’s items (fetching prices up to $4,000 on Ebay for
the entire set). Fans in Europe
have enjoyed many reprints due to the much larger Barks fan base over the
years. These collections were also
lovingly made for the middle-aged people trying to recapture some childhood
magic.
Responding to a need in the United States, Fantagraphics gained
the rights from Disney to re-print the entire collection under the moniker The Complete Carl Barks Library in 2011.
This Seattle-based comic book publisher saw this new collection as a
chance to re-introduce a comic masterpiece to a fresh audience, update the
colors and line art to their original state, showcase some rarely seen “special
features,” discuss Bark’s personal history and conclude each volume with an
academic-level analysis of each story featured in that particular volume. “Meticulous” is the word that comes to
mind when looking at the level of detail and care given the subject matter
within. These dissections of these
comics feel like knowledgeable film historians discussing movies on Criterion
Collection Blu-ray sets. These are not just lovers of comics
giving their opinion, but Professors from around the world, looking at the
meaning behind each and every panel.
Historians discuss the subconscious critique on daily life while English
Professors discuss Barks’ story arcs.
In many cases these substantial commentaries take up one fifth of each
volume, prompting the viewer to go back to the comic panels and review what was
missed. The design of the books
themselves reflects the highly saturated joy of comics with a tight uniformity
when it is placed on the shelf (a must for any collection selling to the
aesthetically savvy audience it desires).
The highlighted art gives the viewer an indication of what the main
story is about without giving too much away or watering down Bark’s style. It all just feels genuine...the typography, the colors, subtle textures and layout. In its entirety, the collection will be 30 volumes long and take over a decade to release.
*From the Collection of Chase Quarterman*
Fantagraphics is making a bold statement about comics. They should be
taken seriously, revered as high art, and dispersed as important pieces of
literature. If the beautiful
crafting and content of their books is any indication, Fantagraphics is absolutely right.
