Vault Disney Presents Disney Legends - Carl Barks (1997)

Carl Barks is nicknamed the "Duck Man" for his affiliation with the Walt Disney Ducks. He started at the Walt Disney Studios in 1935 where he was assigned to Donald Duck cartoons. Barks helped refine the character from his first appearance in the Silly Symphonies cartoon The Wise Little Hen to the personality he became. Barks drew from his real life experience of working various jobs to survive and applying that to Donald. Barks also worked on shorts that established Donald's relatives such as Gus Goose and the nephews as well as refining his relationship with girlfriend Daisy.

After Walt built a new animation studio for his artists with the profits from Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, the studio air conditioner system bothered Barks' sinuses and he resigned from the studio. For a few years Barks had been moonlighting as a comic book artist and this became his new career. Because of his experience with Walt Disney Productions, he began being assigned to Disney titles. His first Disney story was about Pluto and he then adapted an unproduced animated cartoon Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold into a comic book.

Over the next three decades, Barks continued to refine the world and characters surrounding Donald Duck. He refined the personalities of Donald, Daisy, and the nephews for print media as well as created numerous supporting characters to support his case. There was Donald's lucky cousin Gladstone Gander, crackpot inventor rooster Gyro Gearloose, Daisy's nieces, and his most famous creation Uncle Scrooge McDuck.

Uncle Scrooge quickly became a popular standout character in his own write spawning his own cast of supporting characters such as the maurading Beagle Boys, the witch Magic deSepll, second richest duck in the world Flintheart Glomgold, and others. Uncle Scrooge himself first appeared in animation for a cameo during the Mickey Mouse Club's theme song and kiddie records before getting his own animated short Scrooge McDuck & Money in 1967.

Barks continued to write and illustrate Disney duck stories until his retirement in 1966. He always worked anonymously where fans knew him as "The Good Duck Artist." Once his identity became known, he became a celebrity in his later years and began doing a series of fine art paintings based on the Disney ducks. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both credited Barks' Duck adventures for inspiring sequences in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The DuckTales animated series is inspired by many of Barks' comic book stories.

Carl Barks was made a Disney Legend in 1991. He passed away in 2000 at the age of 99.

Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.