Barks' vouchers (Parrot sketches and other hidden/lost Barks treasures #3)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

KLAUS HARMS to me, 25-11-2000:

> It is very difficult to attribute authorship of a comic book story
> to a certain author, and it is almost impossible to do the same with
> a one page story consisting of few more than a gag.

If we give it a try, we might at least find the most likely candidates.
For example, in case of the "tennis match" gag (mentioned in my previous
email), we can try to find all the gags which contain tennis. As it was
submitted on October 15, 1953, it should most likely be somewhere in a
1950s comic, published in or after 1954. 

(Such an investigation has been on my "to do" list for a long time,
as well as finishing a project which attempts to find the cuts in
Barks' stories which were shortened by the editors.)

> If there is some certainty that one of the cover gags IS written
> by Barks (and Barrier's bibliography usually is very accurate, and
> the printing scedules of Western Publishing usually matches with
> Barks' records at that time), then the parrot sketch would be the
> likeliest candidate (though I haven't seen the other ones).

Barrier indeed is very accurate, but since Barks' vouchers were not
nescessarily intended to be used for historical research, but 
apparently mostly to keep track of his payment administration,
some answers are not instantly given. In some instances, the 
vouchers even raise *questions*. For example: 

- The cover for WDC 140 is listed on two dates. Barrier does not
  know if the first date refers to the cover idea, or to some
  unlisted cover-dates from that time.

- Some art-only stories contained unlisted heavy rewritting, for
  example "Delivery Dilemma" (WDC 291) about which the CBL says
  that it almost is a story done by Barks himself.

  In other instances, the additional credits seem to heavily
  depend on Barks' additional notes, like "Got this story idea
  from my daughter" under "The Wax Museum" (WDC 231).

  Barks made notes in about 1969, in his voucher-based list 
  for Michael Barrier, but I have no idea if he did that from
  memory or by using (for example) additional notes on the
  vouchers.

- According to the vouchers, "King Scrooge the First" was a
  24-page story instead of 21 pages as published, about which
  Barks wrote to Barrier that this was a mystery to him as well.

As Barks' vouchers apparently never have been publicly shown, it is
unknown (at least to me) if they contain additional information and
clues which remain unseen or unnoticed.

For example, maybe there could have been instances in which Barks
was paid a different amount to correct an earlier payment, like 
unspecified additional work for which he still wasn't paid?

Since Barks is a legend, with historical importance, I hope that
one day his vouchers will be reproduced either in a book or for
research reference in (for example) a Barks museum / archive. 


Best wishes,

--- Daniel