Certainly Carl Barks made his share of drawing errors during his time and that should certainly be forgiven, but it is only natural to comment on these goofs as another site - The Gems - functions as a counterweight.
The goofs found below are of the more innocent and funny kind and, of course, the many 'unnatural' scenes (i.e. banging heads into walls without getting hurt or unlawful actions like the young nephews driving cars) are not a subject here. Those things are just part of any funny animal comic book story.

No, the examples mentioned are of a more technical nature where Barks was not entirely attentive. One may feel confident that he would be the first to enjoy his small mishaps. And that is the spirit in which they are brought to you for your enjoyment.

 

 

 

THE FOURTH NEPHEW

WDCS0276 'Beach Boy'
 
WDCS0276 'Beach Boy' - AGAIN...

WDCS261 'Medaling Around'
 
FC1025 'Mastering the Matterhorn'

Of course it was not always easy to manage Huey, Dewey and Louie who are functioning as a unity without special characteristics. That may be the very reason why Barks happened to draw a fourth nephew 4 times in his long career. In the U.S.A. he was soon named Phooey.

 

MISREPRESENTATION

U$34
 
AA28/1962

In U$34 Mythic Mystery Barks shows Thor, the God of Thunder in Nordic mythology, in his chariot driven by four horses. This is not correct. Thor's chariot was pulled by two goats. This error was corrected in the Danish edition of the Donald Duck magazine.

 

CARELESS WORK

Page 2
 
Page 22

In U$46 Lost Beneath the Sea Donald works as a reporter. The interior of his editor's office changes in a number of ways, suggesting that Barks forgot to check his first rendering before drawing the second.

 

DELTOID KITES

WDCS068 'Kite Megalomania'
 
KG Donald Duck tells about Kites

In 1946 Barks made WDCS068 'Kite Megalomania' with multiple kites. A kite's basic form (at least at the time) was delta-shaped, but Barks drew the nephews' kites more as parallelograms, which basically makes them more difficult to fly. Furthermore, the nephews' flying kites are shown with the crossed sticks on the outside of the kites, which is wrong for a number of reasons; for example you would have to stick the line through the brittle kite paper in order to fasten it to the sticks, and the same paper would not have the required possibility of bulging in the wind.
In 1954 Barks must have studied the toy more carefully, before he drew KG Donald Duck tells about Kites. The kites presented here are fully correct.

 

TURNED DOLLAR SIGNS

U$08 'Election Campaign'
 
U$61 'Money Coat'

It frequently happened when Barks drew dollar bills that he turned the dollar signs in a way, so that they always appeared vertical, i.e. directly readable, no matter how the bills were turned. It can be speculated that Barks did this on purpose (as a gimmick), but maybe he simply did not reflect on the mistake. Above are shown two examples.

 

BITS AND PIECES

FC1095 Mixed-up Mixer

Not only is Gyro standing with his feet deep in the newly poured, wet cement, but his sheer weight should make the cement wall slush.


WDCS188
'Olympic Tryouts'

At the sports arena the shot-put takes place in the middle of the track! Also, in the 100 meter dash Donald runs the distance leftwards.


WDC
S133 'Truant Officer Troubles'

Donald drives in this truck throughout the story, which is quite an accomplishment, because his feet are far from reaching the pedals of the truck.


WDCS175 'The Taffy Pull'

Donald is going to play ice hockey in the winter - using a rounded land hockey stick.


FC0456 Back to the Klondike

In this panel Donald counts 5 amnesia pills, but several more are shown.


WDCS145 'Bing - You're Hypnotized'.

The band-aids on Scrooge's head keep moving around from panel to panel.


U$11 Riches, Riches Everywhere!

In this story (as well as in WDCS160 'The Christmas Camel' and WDCS191 'The Uranium Caps') the ducks are carelessly handling the very poisonous Uranium.


WDCS108 'Frog Hunting'

Donald's red car has been equipped with a windshield which is highly unusual. And, in the very next panel, Donald drives away in the car - this time without the windshield!


U$63
House of Haunts.

On the last page's panels the prison numbers of the assembled Beagle Boys keep changing, although they all stand to attention in front of the judge.


WDC
S203 'Delivery Boys'

Donald is swinging along upwards on a clothesline, which is attached to a pulley thus making a forward movement on his part almost impossible.


WDCS077 'Giant Garden Bugs'

It happened on rare occasions that Barks forgot to draw Donald's blouse buttons (whether they be 4 or 6 in number). This is one example.


WDCS075 'The Turkey Shoot'

In one panel the nephews are actually singing the Christmas tune of Jingle Bells, although the story takes place before Thanksgiving.


U$23 'Lights Off'

In this panel Scrooge is brightly illuminated from the front by a moon in its last, dwindling quarter - and it is situated to his left.


WDC
S083 'Vacation in Bed'

Donald's large bed is placed all over the bedroom (and changes shape) during the story, and the night stand with sandwiches mysteriously disappears.


FC0199 The Sheriff of Bullet Valley

Donald is stepping down from his horse in a manner, which clearly indicates that he must have travelled with his back to the travel direction.


FC0
367 Christmas for Shacktown

The mechanical train is able to move forwards as well as backwards without any human intervention.


U$33 Bongo on the Congo

Barks gave Donald a pince-nez, like the one Scrooge is wearing. It was deleted in later issues, though.


WDCS210 'Donald the Baker'

Donald bakes the giant pie in a portable swimming pool but how was the pie-crust made?


U$28 The Paul Bunyan Machine

Donald is holding what appears to be Dewey's cap instead of his own...


FC1161 The Reversed Rescue

Barks drew this Beagle Boy with real ears instead of his usual hanging ears.

How do Scrooge (and Gyro) keep their pince-nezs from tumbling down their hard and smooth beaks?


FC0189 The Old Castle's Secret

Scrooge is driving a lefthand steered car instead of the British righthand version.


FC0189 The Old Castle's Secret

A total of 4 panels have Scrooge's glasses missing.


WDCS138 - March 1952

Missing footprints in the snow from Daisy. No snow on the shovel's handle.

 

 

Barks made many other graphic goofs during his long comic book career, and they can be found scattered around in this website. Other theme pages are The Bad Drawings, The Inconsistencies and The Mysticism.

 

 


http://www.cbarks.dk/THEGOOFS.htm   Date 2008-06-11