Keskustelujen arkisto

from the NY Times...

Filed at 11:45 p.m. EDT

By The Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Carl Barks, the Disney illustrator credited with
giving Donald Duck his distinctive feisty and comical personality, died
Friday at the age of 99.

He had been receiving chemotherapy for leukemia, but ``was funny up to the
end,'' said his caregiver, Serene Hunicke.

Barks drew Donald Duck for Walt Disney Studios from 1935 until 1942, and
continued afterward as the creative genius behind the Donald Duck universe.

Although other animators had a hand in the duck's activities, Barks polished
up Donald, rounding him out and shortening his beak, and gave him a
personality that was more jolly, though still spiked with that trademark
temper.

Barks' early writing credits included the 1937 Donald Duck short, ``Modern
Inventions,'' in which Donald runs into trouble at an exhibit of
labor-saving devices, including a robot butler.

In 1942, he turned from cartoons to illustrating comic strips and books. He
gave Donald a hometown -- Duckburg -- populated by such characters as Uncle
Scrooge McDuck, Gladstone Gander, the Beagle Boys and Gyro Gearloose, and he
is credited with giving Huey, Dewey and Louie -- Donald's nephews -- their
distinctive personalities.

Barks got his start drawing one-panel ``gag strips'' for magazines when he
was in his 20s and 30s, but the job lost its allure.

``I was thinking then that I'd like to do comics with whole stories,'' Barks
recalled in a 1994 interview. ``You know, like Prince Valiant; stuff with
continuity, not single, one-shot gags all the time.''

In 1935, he saw an ad for cartoonists to work for Walt Disney Studios in
Hollywood. Leaving a steady paycheck in Minnesota, he packed his bag and
decided to take a stab at animation.

He quickly advanced from drawing the tiny details between the characters and
the main background to primary character artist, and his handiwork could be
seen in more than 60 short subjects, many featuring Donald Duck.

When Western Publishing gained the rights in 1942 to publish Walt Disney
characters in comic books, Barks was asked to illustrate a 10-page Donald
Duck story written by someone else.

``The story just didn't seem to hang together,'' Barks recalled. ``I made
some changes. Western kind of liked it and asked me if I wanted to do my own
stories. From there on, I was their fair-haired boy.''

Like every other artist in those days, Barks' name never appeared on a comic
book.

But that anonymity ended after he retired. Comic book fans came out of the
woodwork in the 1970s with the creation of specialty shops, trade
publications and conventions.

``I was astonished by the number of people who'd read my work and liked
it,'' Barks once said. ``These comic book fans seem to want to shake the
hand of the guy who drew all that stuff. It's still mystifying to me.''

Barks stopped drawing in 1966, but continued writing duck tales until his
retirement in 1973.

He painted Disney figures in oil at his home in Grants Pass until he
contracted leukemia 13 months ago.

Barks is survived by a daughter, Dorothy Gibson of Bremerton, Wash., four
grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and eight great-great grandchildren.
---
Gianfranco Goria
www.fumetti.org/goria/
c.so San Maurizio 55, 10124 Torino
0335.6139657 - fax 178.2252990

presidente Anonima Fumetti - associazione italiana professionisti del
fumetto
the Italian cartoonists society - www.fumetti.org/anonima/
Centro Nazionale del Fumetto
the Italian national centre for comic art - www.fumetti.org/cnf/

direttore agenzia quotidiana afNEWS
daily news about comic art - www.fumetti.org/afnews/

segretario generale
Sindacato Italiano Lavoratori del Fumetto/SLC/CGIL
the Italian national union of comic art workers - www.fumetti.org/sindacato/

I too like many others, wondered why I felt such a personal loss over a
person whom I've never met, and who's career (in my case) ended 11 years
before I was even born. A very good friend of mine was able to sum it up
for me though. She told me that even though I've never met him, he's
become part of my life through his works. He's part of who I am, and
part of what I "bring to the table" so to speak.

I can't say anything that hasn't already been said, and I thought that I
had adequetly prepared myself for this, but I suppose one can never do
enough to prepare himself for the passing of someone that he respects as
much as I respect Carl Barks. The man left us with a great legacy of
work, and a contagious zest for life, and for that I thank him immensly.

I just wish more people here in the USA would recognize what's happened.
The greatest story teller of the 20th century is gone, and so few of us
realize it. It simply doesn't seem fair to me.

Thank you Unca Carl, for everything.........................

Rodney Bowcock

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Reading the messages about Carl Barks brings me to tears.

Reading and being influenced by his work has been a great joy and privilige.

--
Henri Sivonen
henris at clinet.fi
http://www.clinet.fi/~henris/

In a message dated 8/25/00 7:45:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
dcml-admin at stp.ling.uu.se writes:

> >I'm pleased to report that it seems that Carl Bark's Duck universe isn't
> >quite as dead in the US as it appeared to have been. Ubi Soft will soon =
> be
> >releasing a Platform game starring Donald Duck for the Nintendo 64 and t=
> he
> >Playstation 2 video game consoles.
>
> Nice to hear, but is it coming out for a simple PC, too? (Possibly in a m=
> ore
> distant future.)

My immediate thought was "not likely", since console games unfortunatly don't
tend to work that way, but two things make me pause:

A) I think Disney Interactive, who I think is publishing the title, tends to
release PC versions of anything that they also release for consoles.

B) The game is built around the same technology that was used to create the
game Rayman 2, and there was a PC version of that game.

I'll keep an ear out, and if I hear of a PC version, I'll post the news to
the list.

I'm glad that other people have been posting comments here about Carl. I've
been so depressed that I just haven't been up to it. Frankly, my reaction
surprised me. We've all known that Carl could go at any moment--and he'd
lived a very full and incredibly productive life. But it still seems
impossible to imagine that he's gone.

Yesterday morning (the 25th--the day of Carl's death) I learned from one of
my editor's at Comics Buyer's Guide that if I wanted to write something
quickly about Carl then he might be able to squeeze it into the next edition.
I got it in a few minutes later than the deadline so I don't know if it'll
make it in. Here's what I wrote:

<<Letter to Editor:

Knowing that CBG's deadline for letters is just a few minutes away, I'm
finding it impossible to sum up what Carl Barks' passing means to me. There's
no time for me to give a proper eulogy. There's no time to explain how
incredibly important Carl was to American comics. There's no time to talk
about what a vast influence Carl had on generations of comic book readers
around the world.

All that will have to wait.

For now, all I can tell you is that for me Carl wasn't just a genius. He was
an inspiration to me both professionally and personally. I always found him
to be a kind, gentle man...a true gentleman. He was ...oh, damn. This is
impossible. Trying to describe who Carl was...can't be done like this. It's
like trying to describe a mountain. For many of us, Carl was this huge,
unscalable peak of creativity...a monument of nature that you think will
always be there.

Unfortunately, today the mountain erupted. Carl died. And the world is full
of ashes and flame.

--John Lustig>>

It's very touching too see the amount of mails on this list that express
feelings about the death of Carl Barks.
For me it's not easy to write down my feelings. So I'm glad many others
already did.

My condoleances to his friends and family.

--Harry.
Harry Fluks, Leidschendam, The Netherlands

I just came back from a vacation weekend when I read that Carl Barks died on
my birthday. Although I never knew him personally I feel like a friend has
died and it makes me really sad. My condolances to his family and friends.

:'o(

Arthur de Wolf

Hello,

all over the worl, the news of The Good Artist's death was heard with
sadness.
On DCML digest # 242 I already did say some words about my feelings as
so many did here and elsewhere.
Anyone who can read German, please, feel free to have a look at the
following URL:

http://members.aol.com/rastwack/index.htm

Usually this is the homepage of the comedy-team Rastetter & Wacker, of
which I am one half.
But on the entrance you'll find now a little tribute to our late hero
Carl Barks.
If you follow the link on the lower left, you'll get more informations
and some pictures.
Thank you for your interest.

Erik Rastetter, Germany