THEGERMANCONNECTION

When Carl Barks became a well known figure in his golden years, he also became much sought after for a multitude of business actions and marketing events. He was constantly bombarded with mail from enterprising people wanting him to produce a special sketch or painting, autograph a magazine or book, or endorse a product. As for the latter group Barks had far the most requests from his own country, but foreign countries would occasionally partake as well. The country that he most often heard from was Germany.
Barks had both good and bad experiences handling the requests (see some of the negative aspects HERE), but he went along with some of the projects. Some came through and some failed. This page concentrates on just one of these business schemes...

In September 1990 Barks was approached by a German businessman (all identification has been deleted by this website) with a three-part proposal for a mutually beneficial business deal. Barks promptly responded that he was not inclined to embark on such projects, but in the following months more and more Germans - some of whom Barks already knew - joined up behind the ideas, and in March 1991 Barks finally signed a contract to be part of the venture. By that time the total number of signatures was fixed on 750 for which Barks was to receive the initially proposed fee of 7,000 dollars.

U$61 'The Money Coat'

WDCS084 'The Waltz King'

Signing the two series of lithographs would be a fairly easy transaction (see more HERE), while the figurine project required another sort of participation from Barks' side as he was to take part in the first production stages. Above you can see the initial ideas (in black and white) as they appeared in Barks' stories.

The figurine project (a Donald Duck lamp designed for a bedside table) progressed slowly. Early on Barks received a number of photographs (a few of which are shown above), and in the coming time he would mail Germany with helpful and advisory remarks for the intentionally fairly simple porcelain figurine such as It needs eyes, It needs brows to take the 'ball' look away, and The lips are a little thick.