thedrawings

From 1942 to 1966 Barks wrote and drew 6,715 comic book pages for the American comic books. He excelled in many types of stories, but the bulk of them were the 10-pagers which primarily took place in Duckburg. Then came the One-shots, which usually filled a single comic book and where the plots almost always took the ducks abroad. Additionally, Barks made a number of 6-pagers featuring Gyro Gearloose accompanied by 4-pagers starring Daisy Duck. He would also draw Gus Goose, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse and Mickey's nephews from time to time.

Barks was a master of laying out his pages. At the time, it was quite common to draw pages consisting of 8 equally sized frames, but Barks broke out of this constricting system. He would even let panels break into other panels in order to create strikingly dynamic pages.
But it was the great - often epic - half-pages that had a special place in his heart. One can easily see, just by looking at them, how much Barks must have enjoyed creating these 'paintings' which are worth studying due to their many details.

You can observe Barks' love of drawing in the ingenious flipism story (WDCS149) in which Donald trusts his whole life to the tossing of a coin. There is no telling how long it took to construct the numerous roads but he must have loved every minute of it.

Or how about the beekeeper story (WDCS158) in which Donald is forced to go to the city dump in protective gear in order to get rid of the nephews' beehive. The route takes him through downtown Duckburg and the result is pure chaos. Donald is seen walking quietly in the middle of the page while the Duckburgians literally 'explode' away from the center.

We are presented with an excellent study in psychology in FC0256 Luck of the North. Donald has succeeded in luring Gladstone to Alaska and now he is having second thoughts. Look through the panels and discover how Donald gradually gets mentally downtrodden by his own thoughts. Masterly!

Movement was one of Barks' trademarks. He could create situations which made the reader gasp for air. This example combines, in a simple and straightforward way, speed, rage and horror. Donald and the nephews are running at such a pace that their legs don't even touch the ground, and Donald shows every possible sign of rage (fists clenched, teeth bared, bloodshot eyes, 'hair', and forceful forward movement), whereas the nephews are horror-struck (legs barely seen, 'goosebumps' on the heads, and a backward bend to their movement in order to get their behinds as far away from the stick as possible).

Barks also mastered the use of silhouettes. It is very hard to draw large black areas and still be able to see who and what is depicted. Barks took it even further, as he was able to put feelings and thoughts into the two-dimensional black shapes.

In the left frame it is quite obvious that Scrooge and Donald are engulfed in a quiet discussion about something they see in the sky, while the nephews are more unsettled about the situation.

In the right frame Barks ends a story by showing an argument (to say the least) in the ducks' house. We are not shown the actual scene, but it is overwhelmingly obvious what's going on inside.

Barks drew a large number of covers which can be divided into two groups. One group consisted of pure gags to amuse the reader, while the other consisted of descriptive illustrations of the contents of the comic. Below are a few examples of each: