When the farm failed, Barks' father William got a job at the new railroad station in the neighbouring town of Midland. He had realized that there was a future in railroads, and both he and his boys were employed with the cattle transports feeding the livestock in the corrals before moving them down the line for slaughtering.

1911-1912

Years before, Barks' father had spent a fruitful time in California. One day he took the whole family with him to Santa Rosa where they started working in a large plum orchard. Unfortunately, those were the worst years within memory of man for harvesting plums, and the small family was forced to return to Merrill.

1912-1918

Carl spent several years helping at the homestead. It wasn't until the USA joined World War I in 1916 that he began to see the see some economic opportunities. All the farmhands in the neighbourhood were drafted, and Carl - who was just 15 at the time - was too young to go. So he earned 5 dollars a day as a farmhand at the surrounding ranches.

1918-1923

As the war came to an end, Carl found himself unemployed because all the farmhands returned to their jobs and since the family homestead could not feed another person, he decided to pack his gear and leave. He went to San Francisco where he hoped to sell some of his humorous drawings. Instead he got a job as an errand boy at a printshop. The editors of the local newspapers did nothing but look at his drawings but since the regular cartoonists were returning from the war, just as the farmhands were, the 'good' wartime was over for him.

1923

It was a turbulent year for Carl. He was sick and tired of his job, and his drawings were not accepted by any editors. Discouraged, he once again returned to the family in Merrill. But the whole area was suffering from drought. Carl went off again.
He tried out the large oilfields at Coalinga in California (where oil is still produced) but he was not cut out for that kind of work and so he resigned.

1923-1928

He had an acquiantance got him up for a job at the railroad junction in Roseville, California. Pacific Fruit Express had large facilities there manufacturing and repairing train wagons. Barks' job was to repair the undercarriages and wheels for the many wagons. And he hated it...
Then - finally - he had a stroke of good fortune. His drawings began to sell.

1928-1935

Barks had been unsuccessfully trying to sell his cartoons to local newspapers. Then he heard of a magazine called Calgary EyeOpener in Minneapolis in the distant state of Minnesota. The owner, Henry Meyer, had bought a run-down company with an inept staff, but with Barks he managed to turn things around.
In 1931 the young artist moved to Minneapolis. He worked for a good editor, Ed Sumner, who allowed him to practically run the magazine single-handedly although he was surrounded by incompetent colleagues. But Sumner had to leave and he was replaced by Annette Fawcett. Her attitude resulted in the degeneration of the company to such an extent that Barks was eager to leave.

1935-1942

After this bad experience he looked for something more secure. The USA was going through the depression during which anyone would be happy to have a steady job. An ad in the paper caught his eye. Disney's was looking for new employees.
Although Disney and his work was not all that well-known at the time, Barks did know two essential things; they worked with a cartoon character named Mickey Mouse and they were contemplating a long cartoon feature about Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. Barks applied immediately and he had the brilliant idea of enclosing 4 drawings that he had made rather quickly. Two picturing the mouse and two depicting his version of Snow White. Although Barks' version of Snow White bore no similarity to Disney's, the studio staff was so impressed with the young man's drawings and zeal that he got a job.

After completing a few art courses at the company, he started as an in-betweener at both the short cartoons and the long animated feature films. Luckily for him - and for Disney's - he was soon transferred to the story department where he could really use his talents for dreaming up good stories. During the time at the Disney Studios, Barks developed into a brilliant storyteller and sketch artist. When he left after 7 instructive years, those qualities stayed with him.

1942-1966

Barks had three good reasons for leaving the secure job at Disney's for a significantly less certain one at his next - and last - employer, Western Publishing, who had a branch office in Los Angeles.
First, his health had suffered from the constant use of air-conditioning at Disney's to such a degree that his sinuses were constantly dried out.
Second, he worked best alone. Since childhood his impaired hearing ability had made it painful for him to be in a room where many people were talking simultaneously.
And third, he felt secure enough with his abilities that he dared to take a job as a comic book artist at one of the companies that produced Disney material. Later on he realized this would also enable him to work alone and undisturbed.

From then on, Barks worked as a duck artist from his home in San Jacinto. This was quite unprecedented for Western - but both parties soon found it to be a fine arrangement. Barks did not have much contact with the different editors at Western but one of them stood out. It was Eleanor Packer who was known as a stern lady but she had a lucky hand in running the business.

Barks continued happily at Western until he retired in 1966 after almost three decades of fruitful work.

1966-2000

Barks did not by any means relax during his golden years. He was used to working and he enjoyed it. However, after he retired, he was totally free to decide what to do and he earned big bucks for doing it. At last he had become his own employer...