Carl Barks held a multitude of odd, paid jobs during his lifetime, and he went through them all with little education or prior knowledge. One of his driving forces was his ability to grab opportunities when they came along and make the most of them. Yesteryear's and today's fans of the results of Barks' undying curiosity in many fields can only be thankful that he was, out of the blue, contacted by Western Publishing to make Disney duck stories, and that his third wife, Garé, helped him into the world of oil painting thus starting his career as a high priced painter.

But there were downfalls as well. While Barks was employed at the girlie magazine The Calgary EyeOpener from 1928 to 1935 (see more HERE), he and one of its editors, Ed Sumner, founded a corresponding magazine intended to be of a slightly more respectable observance. Sumner settled as editor, while Barks was titled art director, and he drew about one third of the material. Unfortunately, the magazine - that premiered in 1932 and was titled Coo-Coo - turned out to be extremely short-lived, as only one issue was ever published!

In the sub-pages you are presented to this genuine one-shot, for which the two initiators undoubtedly had high hopes, but failing circulation forced them to continue their 'day job' at The Calgary EyeOpener. Probably, Barks never forgot the discouraging lesson, but he was self-ironic enough to make some sort of hinting to his one-shot failure in the opening panel of WDCS175 'The Taffy Pull' from 1957...