1980 Barks interview (part 2 of 2)

[Mike Devery]

Hi everyone,

This is part 2 of the Barks interview from the fanzine "The Duckburg Times".

Mike.

***********************

KS: Another question: compared with Europe, American funny-animal comics - 
including Disney comics - sell much worse than they used to.  While in 
other countries like Holland the Donald Duck circulation is increasing, 
it's tapering off rapidly here.  Why is that?
Garé: One of the decisive reasons for this decline of the American comic 
industry is the terrific popularity of television here.  Children simply do 
not read as much as they used to.
KS: When did television arise in the US?
Garé: During the 1940s, but it didn't reach its full importance until the 
1950s. That's when it began to offer programming around the clock, 24 hours 
a day, on many channels; and why should one keep reading when all one has 
to do is look?  Reading is much more strenuous, even if it's "only" a comic 
book.
Carl: We've got broadcasts on Saturday mornings, and then again for an hour 
or two in the evening, when the children can watch non-stop cartoons like 
Bugs Bunny and the Roadrunner, and so on, and when one hour's up on channel 
X then they switch to channel Y.  They can do it for hours, and naturally 
they don't feel very much like buying a comic book - after all, TV's 
free.  I would say that children today just don't learn to read well enough 
that they get pleasure out of it.  But we've also heard that comics sell 
better in countries like Norway, Holland, and Germany - particularly the 
Disney comics.
KS: Are you familiar with European Disney comics?
Carl: Oh yes, and some are very good.  Jippes isn't the only one.  There 
are also good people in Denmark and Germany, and someone in Spain...
KS: Vicar.
Carl: Yes, that may be.  And then I like some of the Italian artists very 
well. I think that you in Europe are much more conscious of quality, that 
the stories are better chosen; you care more about the reader.
KS: In Holland, and more recently the Federal Republic, more of your very 
early stories are being reprinted.
Carl: I'm glad of that.  But to come back to television again: In Europe 
the children don't have much time to watch, since the programs don't run 
all day.  In this country, the set is never off, and what is offered is 99% 
junk! One can't stress the influence of American television on its 
population enough - it breaks people down and poisons them!
KS: To change the subject, what do you think of the interest being revived 
in old Disney comics today, of all the people who keep coming to visit 
you?  What do you think when you hear that old books that you drew decades 
ago now demand and get monstrous prices?
Carl: I don't dare to think!  Quite seriously, I never dreamed that this 
would happen, that people today would still remember these old stories and 
still like them; that completely surprised me, and I really don't know what 
to make of it!  By the way, that goes not just for my Donald Duck stories 
but also for other old comics like Superman and so on.  But apparently 
these stories must have made such a strong and lasting impression on 
children then that they with to recapture the feeling - they want to 
experience a piece of their childhood again, and that's why they collect 
these old magazines.
KS: But isn't there a difference between children who read Donald Duck and 
those who read Superman?
Carl: Among adults who read the magazines today, very definitely.  Whoever 
collects and reads Superman today wants to be reminded of the way he 
thrilled for the unconquerable hero, how he identified with the one who 
could do practically anything, who was invincible.  But the Ducks were 
quite different, more emotional somehow, and above all they were truer to 
life, and not exclusively, like say Superman, residents of the 
imagination.  Simply because they were closer to actual life, one could 
relate to them as a reader; what happens to Donald could happen to anyone 
in real life, and the problems one has are similar. And then of course the 
role of the nephews, who are often superior to Donald - every child dreams 
of outsmarting his parents, knowing more than they do. I remember as a 
child thinking similarly to the way the nephews do. As a child one tends to 
perhaps identify more with the nephews, as a grown-up more with Donald, and 
therein lies, I would guess, the popularity which the old stories still 
have today.
KS: When you received your first fan-letter years ago, you thought it was a 
joke.
Carl: Oh yes, I sure did.  I thought somebody was trying to put one over on me.
KS: Who was the first letter from?
Carl: It was from a young man, the brother [John] of Bill Spicer. He wrote 
a very nice letter about the ducks, how much he liked my stories, etc.
KS: When was that?
Carl: I believe 1959.  I read the letter with a great deal of caution, as I 
lived then near Bob Harmon, who wrote gags for Hank Ketcham's "Dennis the 
Menace", and Ketcham still lived at that time in Carmel, and it was from 
there that letter had come from Spicer.  I was convinced that Bob Harmon 
had written the letter, probably to tease me a little, and that's why I ran 
right over to him and confronted him with the letter and thought myself 
very clever to have found out the evil-doer so quickly.  But as I saw his 
astonishment over the letter, I realised that he had nothing to do with it, 
and slowly it dawned on me then.
KS: Now according to Disney regulations, the names of artists and authors 
were not to be revealed under any circumstances, so this is probably why 
you were surprised by the letter.  But I recall that your name popped up 
several times, once on a box [us: W WDC  78-00], and then again on a can in 
Donald's cupboard. [us: W WDC  75-01]
Carl: Those were not so much my ideas as those of Carl Buettner, who was 
then my editor at Western.
KS: Didn't this anonymity bother you?
Carl: Not at all!  I was seven years at Disney's studio, and saw there how 
all the animators, however brilliant they were, were never credited by name 
- the public only ever heard of Walt Disney. For me it was therefore only 
natural to expect that later, when I was drawing and writing my own 
stories, that would be continued; I never expected otherwise, after those 
seven years. Today I must say that I am quite glad of it, for if my name 
had been known then I would have received more letters and might never have 
gotten back to work. Who knows, that might even have influenced my work, 
for then I might not have drawn and written what I thought was right, but 
to please the letter-writers.  It's quite good to be fully isolated that 
way when you're working.
KS: Who's your favorite character among all the duck clan?
Carl: My favorite was always Donald, because I could do the most with 
him.  Everybody suffers changes in mood, and I am euphoric one day and 
rather depressed the next - and Donald was the same way.  The stories which 
I wrote for him always came off best, because I could always feel for 
him.  He was a part of myself and acted the way I do. On the other hand, I 
had nothing to do with Scrooge's problems.
Garé: (Laughing) That's what you used to think, but nowadays?
Carl: He sprang from the imagination, and had really little to do with my 
own personality.
KS: Do you have any favorite stories?
Carl: There are lots of them!  Of the 10-pagers, the story I like best is 
the one in which Donald has a chicken farm and stacks the eggs so high that 
when an earthquake shakes them loose they cover the town on the valley 
floor and have to be burned. [us: W WDC 146-01]
Garé: "The Saga Of The Omelet".
Carl: Yes, and then there's the one where the ducks move into a quiet 
neighborhood and Donald is naturally the loudest one of all.  That's really 
good, and even the secondary characters are well done - the cheese-taster 
who blows his alpenhorn! [us: W WDC 178-02]
Garé: At the time Carl was writing that story, we lived in an apartment 
house and had awfully loud neighbors; it was only quiet upstairs.
Carl: The woman was drunk all day, and the only noise that one heard from 
her was when another empty wine bottle fell to the floor. But next door - 
frightful!
KS: I've often thought while reading, that many real experiences must be 
worked into your stories. Experiences like the ones with neighbor Jones 
just can't be invented!
Carl: Yes and no.  Naturally, I knew how cement is poured, and that nobody 
is supposed to step in it; but the most part was made up. [us: W WDC  48-02]
Garé: One story with a real background was the one in which Donald, dressed 
as an Indian, tries to make it rain.  The idea was suggested by Carl's 
daughter, who lives up in the start of Washington, and there are real 
Indians for whom this weather hole was a reality; they believed in it. [us: 
W WDC 202-01]
Carl: Oh yes, and then there's the story of the square eggs, with lots of 
good gags which close in toward the end on a big surprise for the reader. 
[us: W OS  223-02]
KS: What are your plans for the future?
Carl: The future?  Well, I really will retire sometime, sit around and do 
nothing, but I don't know...that will be a while yet.  Two books are going 
to appear soon about me.  One will be published by Gary Kurtz, and contain 
twelve Scrooge stories. [Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge McDuck, Celestial Arts 
Press, 1981]
Garé: The other will contain about 120 of his oil paintings, those showing 
Disney figures.  The editor will be Russ Cochran. [The Fine Art of Walt 
Disney's Donald Duck, Another Rainbow, 1982]
KS: What about the Waterfowl series?
Carl: I will continue to make them. At present I have drawn about 50 little 
paintings with watercolors, 4 large ones in oils, and few more in the Kings 
and Queens series, all in all about 60 works without Disney figures. I 
began them in 1976.
KS: How long did you take for one of your duck paintings?
Carl: Between 10 days and 3 weeks, depending on size of course.  I can't 
paint very fast; there are just too many details to be carried out.  Just 
think of the money-bin with all those coins - a lot of work!
KS: You are now printing lithographs of some of your paintings?
Carl: In limited editions, but not of the Disney paintings.  So far there 
have appeared "Xerxes and Harem", then "King Beowulf", and then I plan a 
painting with a wild-west theme.  The prints are always limited and signed. 
It's difficult - if I print only a few copies, a lot of people are 
disappointed because single prints are too expensive; if I print a lot of 
copies, then others are disappointed who are concerned with the 
appreciation in value.  In any case, I will not print more than 300 
copies.  "Xerxes" was printed in an edition of 250, and the demand was so 
great that "King Beowulf" had to be 300.
KS: What do you feel when you hear that at an auction, for example, one of 
your Disney paintings is sold for 10 times the price which you originally 
asked for it - do you regret letting the paintings go so cheaply then?
Garé: Much more than 10 times, sometimes!  Carl sold them originally for 
$150 to $250, and today they go for $20,000 to $40,000.
Carl: That doesn't matter to me - why shouldn't people make a little 
business?  Look, if people didn't over-pay for my Disney paintings today, 
I'd never be able to sell my prints.
KS: Why did Disney take away the permission to do further duck paintings in 
1976?  Were you very disappointed?
Carl: The fans were much more disappointed that I was.
KS: Did you find Disney's decision then right?
Carl: Of course.
Garé: Disney had good reasons for it.  At that time, about eight other 
artists were retiring from the comic business, and if they had left Carl 
with the permission they would have had to given it to the others as 
well.  And then there was something else; somebody or other had made an 
illegal reproduction of one of Carl's paintings and sold it, and that was 
too much for Disney, because that would have kept on happening.
KS: Floyd Gottfredson has just been redrawing some scenes out of old Mickey 
Mouse strips in watercolors - why did he get permission?
Garé: He has the permission to paint, but not sell. Floyd draws them for a 
private party in Hollywood, who is also not allowed to reproduce them.
KS: Another question about the stories you wrote not for Disney, but for 
other companies, like Andy Panda, Porky Pig, or Barney Bear and Benny 
Burro. How did those stories come about?
Carl: That was during the war then, and most of the artists were off in the 
Pacific someplace, except me.  The editors asked me to do those 
non-Disneys.  I drew them together with the Donald Duck stories.
KS: The similarity between Barney and the early Donald is amazing.
Carl: Yes, and later people used to say to me that I could go ahead and 
draw the stories over again, but using Donald.  It's not that easy 
though.  Barney does have hands and can do some things that Donald could 
also do, but he was somewhat too dumb to do them; Benny on the other hand, 
was smarter, but had hoofs and was therefore very limited in his range of 
activity.  But it is certainly true that there are some similarities in 
plot development.
KS: But for Donald Duck you did use some gags or storylines more than once?
Carl: Toward the end, it got more and more difficult to come up with good 
stories, and when my editor then said I should redraw some of the old 
stories, I agreed.  The stories were, after all, twelve or I don't know how 
many years old - nobody was expected to remember them, to have saved the 
old magazines.  Why not?  I did make some changes, however.
Garé: Nobody counted on collectors saving their old comics.
KS: And what was the story behind your single Mickey Mouse comic, "The 
Riddle Of The Red Hat"? [us: W OS   79-01]
Carl: I believe someone sent me a synopsis of the plot from the 
studio.  The whole thing didn't match my style?
KS: And why didn't you draw any more stories with Mickey?
Carl: Well, they normally had enough artists for him; this time was an 
exception.  But, as I said, it was war-time, and I had to fill in.
KS: I ask because, besides Floyd Gottfredson, there are hardly any 
outstanding Mickey Mouse artists left.  Could you have gotten to be friends 
with the mouse? There are artists who claim that Mickey is much more 
difficult to draw that Donald.
Carl: Not for me, and I think I could have drawn Mickey quite well. Mickey 
was simple; the one I couldn't draw was Bugs Bunny.  In one story, for 
example, in which I drew Porky Pig, Carl Buettner had to correct every 
single panel in which Bugs appeared. [us: W OS   44-??]
KS: One last question: in the late 40s and early 50s, you only drew a few 
stories in which real humans occurred, such as for example the spy story 
"Dangerous Disguise" [us: W OS  308-02] or "In Old California" [us: W 
OS  328-02].  Why were these characters not continued?
Carl: That was an order from Western, saying that they disturbed the 
imagination of the reader.  They had those little black noses, but were 
otherwise real people and not funny animals anymore.  I didn't have any 
particular reason for them, and the characters were just intended as a 
change.  I was tired of funny animals; but as I said, Western told me: 
once, and never again!
KS: Thank you both very much for this interview!