1970s

 

  Letter from December 10, 1970, to Glenn Bray
 
...back in the 40s and 50s nobody could have convinced me that there would ever be anybody who would collect comic books for any reason (and for the literary or nostalgic value least of all)...
...I do have a few original Scrooges at $100 a page. When I retired in 1966 the Western editor used his weight to get me some pages from the scrap bin at the printery. I have sold a few pages to fans the last couple of years for $25 a page, but as it became evident that my pages are most likely the only ones in existence I stopped selling and did some Scroogian calculating...
 
  Letter from March 3, 1971, to Donald Ault
 
...We are both very busy. Garé has dashed off several small paintings to fill urgent orders ... I, too, am trying to get some small paintings finished ... I'll be glad when Garé earns enough money to support me, so I can retire for real...
 
Letter from May 5, 1971, to Donald Ault
...We are in a cyclone of overwork at the moment. Garé was snowed under with painting work that had to be done...
...I dropped my small painting endeavors and the Woodchuck story to work all day today stretching and priming canvases for Garé. There seems no hope that Garé can complete all the stuff she has to do and have time to exhibit at the art show. But it has to be done...
 

Large head and short legs		   Letter from March 23, 1971, to Klas Reimers (Sweden)
 
...Yes, I changed the drawing of the ducks every few years, it seems. My reason was that I would see changes in the movie Donald and realize that my Donald wasn't up to date. Also I was drawing many covers for the magazines and would get the anatomy of the ducks mixed up in my head. The cover drawings of Donald and the kids had to have very large heads and short legs. Without realizing it I once drew Donald and the other ducks short-legged and big-headed in the story pages for over a year. Then I over-corrected and drew them with small heads and tall bodies for a while...
 
  Letter from June 8, 1971, to Michael Barrier
 
...I could help you a bit by adding some grist to the interview you taped of my dull years with the Disney Studio. I was never one to store up memories of amusing events, and so my reminiscences of the past are usually expressed in banal generalities...
...we story crews had chronic arguments going all the time over politics, art, music, and each other's dubious honesty. There were horse racing pools and football pools, also games of skill like lagging coins and throwing pushpins. In some story units 'gridirons' were drawn on the storyboards, and pushpin throwers played a complicated game of 'football' with expertly thrown 'forward passes' and 'line bucks'. I was not athletic enough to participate in such rough sports, so my expertise was an occasional game of horseshoes at lunch hour...
...My hooting at longhair music, Shakespearean writing, and modern art got me many lampooning cartoons. I was also evidently a whip-cracking old toiler at the grindstone. My associates lampooned me as a Reichsfuhrer general who demanded enormous diligence ... I wish I could remember the lampoons I must have fired back at my detractors. The paper was wasted! Good highest grade water-marked bond!...
...The years at the studio were much more work than play. I was the workhorse type that missed most of the fun and the gossip. I didn't even see the celebrities that came and went. Stravinsky, Stokowski, and Snow White passed along the halls while I bent over my drawing board looking as if I was creating my wages worth...
...Garé is still grinding out paintings. She should be over the main rush by next week. Then follows the period I DREAD. Garé will start cleaning house, and when she cleans, she cleans...
 
Letter from June 17, 1971, to Donald Ault
...the latest news came from George Sherman, who called last night and said the Disney lawyers will send me a letter in a few days giving me limited (time wise) permission to do paintings of Disney subjects such as bursting money dams, covers, etc. ... now it appears I can go ahead...
...Garé finally got her big painting orders done. We hauled the last crate to the airport yesterday afternoon and came home and collapsed...
 
Letter from June 18, 1971, to Glenn Bray
...Still no definite word from Disney's ... However, George Sherman called the other evening to say that the Disney legal staff would write me soon and tell me how to make the work conform to their rules, and also the time period in which I could use the privilege...
 
Letter from July 1, 1971, to Glenn Bray
...Still haven't received any letter from the Disney legal dept...
 
Letter from July 12, 1971, to Donald Ault
...about the educational film of the great Barks producing a painting. Well - I guess anything is acceptable on Educational TV. I would think a bit of film showing me drawing a comic book page would be more of a promotion for comic books than my painting. However, either subject done well could add a touch of respectability to comic book art...
 
  Letter from July 25, 1971, to Donald Ault
...I'm still finding things to do to the 'Sheriff' and 'Money Lake.' Could keep on 'improving' them forever. I must get them finished this week!
My second 'Bullet Valley' is looking better now. I stole a sky effect from an old Tonto comic cover. Red, orange, black. Have managed to avoid the poster-like look in the red sky that soured my first effort. The blue sky 'Sheriff' still looks best to me, however. It looks like it could be a real scene...
...Right now I'm eager to get going on the 'Golden Helmet' cover. That can be a dramatic subject colorwise...
 
Letter from July 26, 1971, to Glenn Bray
...I finally got permission from Disney's to do paintings...
...the Disney attorney gave me a royalty-free license to do oil paintings of 'fine art' quality for a price of not less than $25.00 each. I can sign my name as the artist, and letter 'c Walt Disney Productions' on the front of the painting. The license runs to the end of this year and will be canceled if anyone else asks for similar permission...
...I am laboring on the Uncle S. #1 and two versions of 'Bullet Valley'. With a script to write and other interruptions I get in less than 5 hours a day at painting...
 
Letter from August 5, 1971, to Donald Ault
...I find it difficult to find enough time to paint; and to have a large influx of letters to answer and visitors to see would almost stop my production. For that reason I would appreciate it if you will contact the comic books stores that you've heard have my address in their windows and would ask them to remove my address from such public view. If the comic book stores could put a notice in the window instead saying that any inquiries about my paintings should be addressed to you, Don Ault, the interested fans could get in touch with me and still save a lot of painting time...
 
Letter from August 26, 1971, to Donald Ault
...we discussed my doing Mickey or other Disney character in a painting ... All that was ever mentioned to Disney's in our correspondence was that I would do paintings of my old comic book covers, panels from story pages, and possibly a few arrangements of the duck characters in original compositions. Nothing about Mickey or other funny animals was even thought of.
The Studio might not object to my Mickeys - if they considered the work of acceptable quality, but the fact that a duck man got away with painting Mickeys could open a whole can of worms. Mickey men could apply for licenses to do Mickey paintings plus the Barks ducks. I don't want to do anything that might in any way annoy the Disney legal staff. So I think it's best that I stick to the ducks and the other characters that I invented and used in the comic books...
 
Letter from September 23, 1971, to Donald Ault
...Your letter with all the orders arrived today. Looks like I can be busy for a long time. Surely now Disney's must be impressed by the sheer volume of demand, and may (I hope) renew my license at year end.
Garé tells me that in view of the number of orders in the backlog, I should raise my prices to $200.00...
 
Letter from October 13, 1971, to Donald Ault
...I think it is time now to stop encouraging any more orders. I'm becoming discouraged at the way I never get any time to paint. Looking back I find that I've had 100 days since I started cover paintings and I've finished only 10 with two more ˝ finished. That figures out to about 10 days per painting. I know I could do 2 paintings a week if I could get any working time...
 
Letter from October 19, 1971, to Donald Ault
...I now have over 50 unstarted paintings to do. Let us hope Disney's doesn't drop the axe on me...
 
Letter from October 25, 1971, to Donald Ault
...I think it is time to stop all advertising and promotion of my paintings. The number of orders is almost as big as the National Debt...
 

1976		   Letter from December 3, 1971, to daughter Dorothy
 
...The orders for my duck cover paintings now are running into 1973 with many guys wanting all the paintings I can paint. I don't even try to keep up any longer. Sad to say there isn't much profit in the work. I paint too slowly, and the customers are poor young people with lean bankrolls...
 

HDL17		   Letter from March 17, 1972, to Glenn Bray
 
...I have been extremely busy the past ten days trying to write a passable story script for the Junior Woodchucks (HDL19 Teahouse of the Waggin' Dragon - Editor's remark). Sometimes stories are very hard to come by.
Naturally, every day I spend writing and thinking is a day less spent painting. I am currently working on paintings I had fully expected to have finished in December. Unless someone comes along who can write scripts for Western Pub. I may have to give up painting. Certainly I sometimes feel like fleeing to the Canadian wilderness and hiding in a cave.
About the script of 'Be Leery of Lake Eerie' (HDL17 - Editor's remark), Garé already has put her claim on it. She read it in its original form and pronounced it the best I had ever written...
 

Vacation Time		   Letter from September 15, 1972, to Donald Ault
 
...I did the drawings for the 'Flying Dutchman' and the opening panel of 'Vacation Parade' (later retitled Leaving Their Cares Behind - Editor's remark). They only need a bit of refining and they're ready to transfer onto 18x24 panels to paint. I've added additional menaces in the 'Vacation' opening layout to fill the space that looked bare after deleting dialogue balloons and story title. Also I enlarged the ducks and their car to make a better balanced composition. The price I'll have to charge for these larger (18x24) paintings will depend on how much trouble I run into in getting dramatic effects. Tentatively I've estimated $300 for the Dutchman, which is mostly water and sky, and $350 for the Vacation, which has more components than a hippie has flies...
...I have just read the 'Golden Helmet' story for the first time in many years. The amount of plotting in the script is amazing, and every device and situation seems to develop easily from what has gone before. I can offer no explanation of how I did it other than to say that I wrote and rewrote and repolished and double checked backward and forward and counted syllables in the dialog and read the stuff dozens of times for effectiveness and 'flow'. The bogus Latin legal phrases are really meaningless other than as points of reference in a running gag...
...The work date on the story, November of 1951, indicates that it was done at a time when my fortunes were at a very low ebb. I had just given everything I owned to my alcoholic wife (Barks' second wife Clara Balken - Editor's remark) in exchange for my freedom. Broke and in debt and facing years of stiff alimony at the age of 50, I chose to keep on working, and I can recall one day when all the bad news had struck me and I should have been heading for a bar, and instead I sat like a zombie with a pad of paper and jotted down gags and plots and situations that seemed to pour onto me from somewhere...
 
Letter from December 1, 1972, to Glenn Bray
...About my old artwork, it is still in storage. I am not eager to sell any of the stuff at this time...
 
Letter from December 7, 1972, to daughter Dorothy
...I still plug along at doing my paintings of comic book subjects. My first wild guesses at how many paintings I could do in a year has had to be revised downward drastically. The ducks are such complex little round-headed characters that they require much slow painting with tiny brushes. I'm gradually moving my prices up, but the young people who buy the paintings can't pay a hell of a lot...
 
Letter from March 21, 1973, to Scott Matheson
...I used a #356 Esterbrook art and drafting pen which could do everything from thin 'fadeaways' to broad accented curve sweeps on foreground circles such as the ducks' forms. The trick of breaking in a new pen, I discovered, is to soak it for several minutes in the ink bottle. Then wipe off the ink and the pen's varnish. For some weird reason most new pens then start out flexible and free-flowing...
...In pen work on the ducks' faces, a heavier line on the outside of the heads and beaks, and a thin line defining the inside forms such as eyes, top of beaks, and mouth line makes a better-looking duck...
 
Letter from May 24, 1973, to Chris Kuchler
...Recently a collector in Iowa, Russ Cochran, contacted me with an offer to advertise some of my paintings in his collector's catalog of original comic strip art for $500 each, just to see how the market would go at that price. I hurriedly did two paintings for him. They sold immediately, and he could have sold several more...
...Now I am doing four paintings in a hell of a hurry for Cochran to take to conventions ... to see what comes out of them pricewise...
 
Letter from September 2, 1973, to daughter Dorothy
...The orders for my duck paintings far exceed the available time I have left in my life to paint them. Garé is almost as bad off herself. The demand for her paintings from the card publishers and print publishers and galleries keeps her hopping...
 
  Letter from October 3, 1973, to Kim Weston commenting on the ending of the story WDCS157 'Old Demontooth'
 
...it was quite likely changed to a dream ending by me. I believe I recall looking at the panel of Uncle Scrooge's money ramp and deciding it looked too impossible to be real...
 
  Letter from July 9, 1974, to John Verpoorten
 
...As you may have noticed, my paintings are now selling for wild prices. Garé and I have paid off our mortgage ... Now comes the $3400 sale in N.Y. Saturday (Nobody's Spending Fool was sold at an auction in New York City - Editor's remark), which jogs the running average to too much in my humble opinion ... I expect I'm a poor business artist. Instead of dashing off rapid work to take advantage of the high prices, I get more meticulous and slower and I cram more and more detail into the paintings to try and justify the values...
 
Letter from October 27, 1974, to David Kunzle
...We got a laugh from our discussion of the lack of fathers and mothers among the Disney characters. Always there are nephews, nieces, uncles, and aunts. I was never a party to the decision making on that family planning, but I think one reason should have been the necessity for mischief (for gags' sake) by the younger ducks and mice. Making them nephews gave them a limited license to bedevil their uncles, whereas the same bedevilment of parents would be bad audience fare...
 
Letter from January 16, 1975, to David Kunzle
...I've been puttering at my painting. The demand has not slowed down, but in anticipation of leaner wallets ahead I've been switching to smaller sizes and simpler compositions. Don't expect to make any big money in 1975; even so I am not eager to come out of retirement to do comic book stories...
 
Letter from February 1975, to Kim Weston commenting on FC0456 Back to the Klondike, the bar room scene:
...The sequence was cut out of the story at the editorial office in Beverly Hills in 1952. I was a little skeptical of whether I could get by with such a bar room atmosphere but I did it anyway for fun. Such pages, when cut from stories were never returned to me ... the sequence was cut because of violence and dance hall atmosphere...
 
  Letter from March 20, 1975, to Keno Don Rosa
 
...Thank you for the nice things you say about my duck stories. I tried during those years to write as good as I possibly could. It seems that quite a few people like yourself noticed the extra effort. That to me is better payment than high page rates.
I hope you attain your goal of doing Scrooge stories and drawing them in the one-shop way I did. To see a complete story in print, and to know that everything in that story from first synopsis to inked art is your own handiwork, is a bit fulfilling...
 
  Letter from 1975 to Kim Weston commenting on U$12 The Golden Fleecing
 
...I almost had to eat those 32 pages of drawings because I'd used some harpies as menaces. It seems that Harpy or Harpie is an obscure nickname for a street-walker. I managed to save the story by renaming the old girls LARKIES...
 
Over the years Barks made a few form letters which he sent out to fans whom he did not have the necessary time to answer personally. This was the first of several - and the only one published on these pages - from January 1976
Dear Fan:
Please accept my apologies for having to use this printed form as a reply to your interesting letter of recent date. The amount of mail I receive has outrun my ability to answer individuals effectively.
To those who inquire about my reasons for creating certain situations for certain stories I can only say that at all times my writing was intended to entertain, and that any offbeat business which appeared in stories got there because I thought it might make the reading more interesting. As for business that seemed to carry political or philosophical meanings I assure you that such meanings were either unintentional or were burlesqued to beef up the humor. In twenty-five years of writing I thumped drums for all sides of many issues without, I hope, preaching convincingly about anything.
To those who would like me to see and to criticize their drawings or their writings I say that I do not have the time, and that I am a poor judge of what is bad about other people's works. Almost everything other artists and writers produce looks good to me. My criticisms would be very weak instructively.
To those who ask for a sketch or a finished drawing of the duck characters I must explain that my time is fully occupied by my present work of painting and selling pictures of the ducks in their familiar adventures, and I must explain, too, that many old line drawings which were once 'scrap' from my productive years of comic book work have long since become scattered among fans and collectors in every section of the country. Some of those fans paid money to obtain the sketches, and are now wishing to sell. It would be unfair for me to dash off new free drawings and thus undercut their market.
To those who inquire about my personal history and background I can only say that I hope they have formed illusions that are flattering and interesting. In my seventy-some years I have always been one of those faceless bystanders visible in the out-of-focus edges of crowd photos of anonymities gathered in nameless places for events that no one remembers.
Again let me apologize for the impersonal way I must answer letters like yours which come as rays of sunshine into the dark shadows of a towering grindstone ..... Sincerely your friend,
 
Letter from February 2, 1976, to daughter Dorothy
...We swear that we will slow down and be like lazy people, but somehow we always get suckered into a string of rush jobs that take all of our time and leave us cranky and worn out...
 
Letter from July 30, 1976, to daughter Dorothy
...I enclose a print of my latest painting which sold in N.Y. July 4th for $6400. All on the cuff. The two previous paintings also sold on 'lay-away'...
 
Letter from August 17, 1976, to Richard Pryor
...I have to return your check and the print. My permission to do paintings of the Disney characters extends only to doing the original art, and the permission is based on nothing more binding than good will. I want no part in any project that aims to make money from the paintings illegally...
 
Letter from August 21, 1976, to Scott Shaw
...Since I wrote you I have heard from Richard Pryor and from the Disney Studio. He did not have permission to make prints of the painting, and as a result I no longer have permission to paint pictures of the ducks.
Well, I knew it would happen sooner or later. Too many fans and collector types have no knowledge or respect of copyright laws. Disney's had done me an unprecedented favor in allowing me to paint and sell pictures of their characters. It was a favor no other company would give an ex-employee, I'll wager. Ever hear of General Motors giving an ex-employee permission to make and sell Chevrolets?
Somehow I am not grieving about it. The constant pressure from fans for the paintings was getting me down. I was just now thinking how nice it is to have nothing to do. Upstairs in my studio there is not one damn job that has to be started or finished. I'll miss the money, but my wife is a capable (though lazy) artist. She will keep us in beans and gasoline...
 
Letter from August 25, 1976, to Bill Peckmann
...I don't usually get around to answering mail this promptly, but things are suddenly different here. My Disney duck painting permit was revoked last week, so time is no longer scarce in the Barks household...
...The Disney matter opens up a whole new life style for Garé and me ... Never have I had such a feeling of freedom...
...The future looks very interesting now. Some of the painting ideas I have been shelving for years can now be put on canvas. I may not sell anything much, but I'll have a lot of fun experimenting...
     

Garé and Carl in 1973		   Letter (written by Garé) from September 4, 1976, to Dorothy
 
...big change in Carl's status-quo with the Disney Duck paintings. Some fool 'fan' published reproductions of one of Carl's paintings and sold a number of the prints at the San Diego Com. Convention without O.K. from Disney. When Disney got the word they told Carl - 'Paint no more Ducks. We can't be chasing the infringers on our copyrights around all the time.' So as of 2 weeks ago Carl's career as a high priced 'Duck' painter came to a sudden end. He had anticipated such action from Disney all thru the last five years. Since he's worked hard on the paintings for 5 yrs and made a good profit and since the pressure to do more and more paintings was getting heavier all the time, he is not sorry about the cancellation. It will give him a breather and a chance to paint something different - he's full of ideas and the orders for paintings are starting to come in. Guys wanting to get on his new list!!...
 
Letter (written by Garé) from September 17, 1976, to Dorothy.
Carl and Garé were investigating mobile homes; they needed one with LOTS of storage space for all their art equipment
...What we want to do is continue painting - but not at such a pace as we have been. The work is good for both of us to a point - it's interesting - but we want to be able to relax a bit and enjoy life a bit, too, be able to take a few trips, etc. and not feel bound to the house...
 
Letter (written by Garé) from December 11, 1976, to Dorothy.
Carl and Garé had finally selected their new mobile home and were waiting for it to be delivered and set up. They were looking forward to less maintenance, particularly yardwork.
...Carl's back working on a new drawing and the orders are coming in - so he'll be able to do as much as he wants to...
 
Letter (written by Garé) from December 31, 1976, to Dorothy.
Carl and Garé put their house up for sale. Garé was looking forward to living in the mobile home, with the kitchen and her studio near each other.
...(Now) the kitchen is downstairs and the studios upstairs. And when I'm working, painting, and trying to cook it's impossible - I don't try to do both together anymore, burned too much stuff...
 

Silent Night		   Letter (written by Garé) from October 2, 1976, to Dorothy
 
...Gotta go and get to finishing the last painting - till we get moved. It's one of those Xmas card things with a million animals in it. And it's awfully hard to concentrate when there are so many other things waiting to be done...
 
  Letter (written by Garé) from September 19, 1977, to Dorothy.
Carl and Garé responded to Dorothy's sending clippings from a Howard the Duck comic strip
 
...Carl for diplomacy's sake always lets the guys think he likes all that stuff - underground comics - anything - it pays dividends for him to be diplomatic about it. They all adore him. And in many cases they sincerely think their work is inspired by having read his and they tell him so!...
 
  In October 1977 Carl and Garé sent a congratulation to the Dutch Donald Duck Weekly in the form of a special postcard. It bore a motif from one of Garé's paintings named 'Song of the South' from 1976. The text reads as follows:
 
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE DUTCH DONALD
DUCK WEEKLY FOR 25 YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL
PUBLICATION.

CARL & GARÉ BARKS
 
  Letter (written by Garé) from November 11, 1977, to Dorothy
 
...Carl sold his last King Painting - King Cole - to an art collector who buys paintings from the local gallery, which handles my work...
 
Letter (written by Garé) from March 16, 1978, to Dorothy
...It's been many years since Carl 'gave' anything away except an autograph and quickie little stick-figure sketches, and if anyone pays big money for one of those he's askin' to be 'took.' He is selling off a lot of his old drawings these days and getting good money for them. Of course, someone will get more but that's the way it is - as they get advertised for higher prices - he gets more for what he sells...
...lots of work, Carl's and other's, has been stolen from publishers ... Carl knows the culprits and the work and the culprits never come near Carl and Carl has refused to autograph any of these pages several times. Once he did autograph one but charged a hundred dollars just to sign his name!...
 
Letter (written by Garé) from August 8, 1978, to Dorothy
...Carl can't take time to be sick he's too busy working - God! what a fiend for work - if it's there to do it has to be done! And that's it!...
 
  Letter (written by Garé) from November 13, 1978, to Dorothy
 
...Now, the producer of 'Star Wars' (Gary Kurtz - Editor's remark), who it seems is an Uncle Scrooge fan has succeeded in getting permission from Disney's to put out a deluxe edition (book) of a bunch of the Scrooge stories in their original form, plus a biography (short) and bibliography - plus a few paintings - in one big book (Uncle Scrooge McDuck - His Life and Times - Editor's remark). Carl is going to have to do a bunch of work for them for that for the next 2 or 3 months. The editor of the book, Ed Summer, will be out here from N.Y. some time late this month to stay out here at our local motel and work with Carl for several days on it. Carl will be paid for his time and work! (The first time any of these interviewers & book writers has volunteered such a thing.) The fact that Disney's has granted permission for such a work is what has floored everyone - but it's because of the status of this Gary Kurtz in the movie industry, no doubt. Anyway, I'm sure it will sell well - it's long overdue!...
 
Letter (written by Garé) from February 9, 1979, to Dorothy
...Carl is in the throes of working on the big book that Disney O.K.'d. (We have one of the Abbeville Press editions of the Duck book to send you - the whole edition (10,000) sold out of the publishers within 10 days.) We had the young editor (Edward Summer - Editor's remark) here for 4 days picking Carl's brain - we were both exhausted when he left, all be it he was a real nice guy and easy to have around and thoroughly enjoyed being here - particularly some home cooked food. He's a bachelor out of N.Y. So Carl is now doing the preliminary drawings and will really have his hands full for a couple of months - thank god it's not football season!...
 
Letter from March 6, 1979, to daughter Dorothy
...Had to pick up a visiting comic book authority who was here to see about a possible professorship at Riverside University. Some of my stories will be among his textbooks...
 
  Letter from June 2, 1979, to daughter Dorothy
 
...We spent most of Memorial Day weekend in L.A. as guests of Abbeville Press, which outfit prints the big hardback DONALD DUCK and UNCLE SCROOGE books. The occasion was the American Booksellers Convention at the Convention Center. I was asked to come in and autograph uncountable copies of the books. Sadly, the Uncle Scrooge books never arrived from the printers, but the number of Donald books I signed staggers the imagination...
...I enclose an ad of the Broadway department stores, at one of whose chain I autographed books for over an hour, or until they sold out, I'm not sure which ... Donald and the other ducks are really riding a wave of popularity...
 
  Letter from July 21, 1979, to daughter Dorothy
 
...We may have mentioned the books before in letters to you. They are the American editions of some massive volumes of comic book reprints that first appeared in Italy about ten years ago. Since all of the stories were my work, I was asked to write a 'foreword' for each book. I don't expect you to read the tales. The books may be worth something as conversation pieces, my name being on the cover. However, if you do try to read the stories, please bear in mind that some panels were dropped out here and there, and the dialog in the balloons is not always vintage Barks. In many places the editors almost lost my original meaning in retranslating the words from Italian back into English. Oh, well, the books are better than nothing. They do spread my name around, and as a result, the demand for my current paintings rises astronomically...
...We still wait patiently for the OTHER Uncle Scrooge book (The Fine Art of Walt Disney's Donald Duck by Carl Barks - Editor's remark) to be published. That will be the one that reprints some of my paintings, and on which I will hopefully get some royalties. Not much speed is being made on getting that book to press. The publisher is still occupied in England making Star Wars II, and until he returns to America to sign checks and make decisions, nothing moves...
 
  Letter (written by Garé) from November 12, 1979, to Dorothy
 
...Carl is working like a beaver on a large Xmas painting (Santa's workshop theme) (Santa's Christmas Mail - Editor's remark) for the Canadian, Richard Foster, who, as someone put it, goosed the market with a fire hose! It will be a beauty - very complicated - with dozens of little animal people working on different things with Santa in the middle...

 

  
http://www.cbarks.dk/thecorrespondence1970s.htm   Date 2004-02-13