THESHEETS

Carl Barks used several professional tools when making his numerous Walt Disney comic book stories (see examples HERE). The most important element was, of course, the massive quantities of sheet paper that were the basis for laying down the graphic parts of the artwork. This page presents you to a few brief pieces of information on a subject not widely known by the readers.

Notice: It is not the intention to delve into a detailed account of how Barks' sheets of paper were made or which specific properties they had in terms of sizing, density, and finish, as such details are of little interest and relevance to the overall topic.

INTRODUCTION

Barks used the Strathmore 500 Series Medium weight Bristol in a few sizes over the years. It was made of short cotton fibers and long rag fibers, made acid free (i.e. greater longevity and no yellowing), and took repeated erasures and reworking without feathering.

Barks received the bundles of sheet paper from his employer, Western Publishing, that purchased them from the Strathmore Paper Company situated in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1892 by Horace Moses, who had once visited the Valley of Strathmore in Scotland. There he saw thistles in full bloom, and the trip impressed Moses so much that his company received the name of the valley as well as the thistle as a logo. Since then the company has been known for its high quality drawing papers that are still used by leading artists all over the world.

The sheets' additional name, Bristol, refers to a special process in which several layers of paper are pasted together thus forming a multi-ply layer. This makes the sheets stiff and strong without them having to be mounted. The term derives from the city of Bristol in England, where the process was invented.

SIZES

When Barks sat down to draw his comic book stories he followed his own special procedure. As an employee at Western Publishing he was furnished with the same sheets of paper that all the artists used, namely large sheets measuring 18½x25½" (470x640mms) on which he drew his panels inside an area of 17x23" (420x590mms)*.
Barks once said: My drawing paper was about two-and-a-quarter times the size of the printed page. And it was quite a large size of paper to handle without being forced to stretch a lot some of the time, so Barks always divided the paper horizontally in two equally large halves thus he could draw one half at a time without having to stretch. Before sending the finished stories to Western Barks always taped the adjoining halves together.

* Over the years Barks encountered a smaller sheet size containing an image size of 12½x18½" (320x470mms) meaning that the physical size of the sheets were reduced from the normal 2½ times to 2 times of the published comic book size (see more later).

INTERLUDE

One of the most cost intensive entries in a publisher's budget is the vast mounds of sheets of fine paper used for the artists' artwork. It was therefore natural that Western tended to experiment with different sheet makes and qualities in order to bring down the costs.
The most striking example of these efforts took place in 1957, when a German product was introduced to all of Western's drawing artists. It came from the (then West) German manufacturer Schoellershammer situated in the city of Düren in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia) but it was not well received by Barks (the following two commentaries were made on different occasions):
1. Then they got to buying some West German paper that was coated with kind of a clay surface, and it was very difficult to draw on. They got it much cheaper, they´d buy it in trainload lots, I guess. There were so many complaints coming in from the artists on the first batch of that stuff, they got this German company to make a better grade.
2. The company got a whole bunch of it in from Germany that was coated with a kind of soft chalk, and whenever I would make my rough drawing, the pen would make little trenches. I've always drawn that duck too tall, and with good paper I would just erase it and redraw him. But since there was a trench already made there by my pencil from making that tall duck, I was always getting my pen line stuck in that trench, and drawing him that way anyway. So I thought Oh heck with this, I'll just draw that duck the way he comes out in the first rough. If nobody likes it, why they better get me some better paper. So they did - in a couple of years' time...

Barks was not alone in criticizing the German product as most of Western's drawing artists worked with hard pens, but presumably the artists working with soft brushes did not have the same problems, because a brush would not dig itself into the paper's surface. Anyway, the clay coating problem was soon remedied: The company that made this new paper discovered themselves that the paper was too soft on the surface and started turning out a good product. So all of a sudden my paper was nice and firm again, and I was able to draw like I wanted to.

It is possible that the German sheets came from a series called Schoeller Durex, and that the product was responsible for the elongated ducks present in the 1957-60 stories (see below).

ELONGATIONS

WDCS218

WDCS220

WDCS228

As mentioned earlier, Barks had no access to his usual drawing paper during the latter part of the 1950s, and he had to make do with an inferior quality. When sketching lines on it, the pen made grooves that were impossible to smooth out, meaning that when he erased faulty pen lines, the grooves would still be there, interfering with his continued penciling and inking. The result was that Barks' ducks often, unwittingly, came out longer. This was especially true for Donald's overall appearance. Because of the long production time Barks did not become fully aware that his ducks had grown taller until the story was published several months later.

It is extremely hard to pinpoint the exact time span during which Barks actually used the cumbersome German sheets, as we only have the end products for comparison and not the actual pages from Barks' hands. But the distortions took place on and off from 1957 to 1960 (on and off means that Barks probably had a small stock of Strathmore that he would use in-between). Many stories were affected; for example most of the U$ and the WDCS series, i.e. U$16-26 and WDCS196-239.

In 1960 Barks wrote to a fan: Some writers have wondered about changes in the duck's appearance over the years. Perhaps you, too, have noticed that his beak is shorter and his legs vary in length at times. These changes happen mostly from switching the grade of paper I draw on. In the old days I was furnished the best grade of Strathmore, and my style was more detailed and the characters more expressive. Nowadays (except for a recent temporary period) the paper furnished us artists has been a clay-coated import from Germany. The pencil and pen digs into the surface. The result has been a tightening of the lines, less bounce to the characters. I've griped, but the economy of the cheaper paper wins out in the front office.

Above you will find 3 of the more telling examples of Barks' difficulties with Donald's appearance.