Titles can be misleading and deceptive, eh? Calling this page The Westerner, which in itself can refer to a number of subjects, was simply chosen because Carl Barks' publisher, Western Publishing, issued its internal staff magazine by that name, and this page presents titbits from it. The company itself has been the focus of several of this website's pages (examples are The Publisher, The Showings, and The WDCS Magazine), and now the company and its affiliates get the opportunity to 'speak' of its own merits; this page consists entirely of material taken from said magazine, which Barks received regularly.

Let us remember that Barks would never have been able to have one single comic book story published if the necessary publisher and printing plants had not been there. Chances are that the world might have not even heard of Barks! So we owe a lot of credit to the obliging units that spewed out millions of copies during Barks' productive comic book years. These unsung companies are credited below using photographs from Barks' years of employment.

 

 

 

THE MAGAZINE

   

A typical Westerner front cover
(February 1955 issue)


The Westerner's logo during the 1950s

The magazine premiered in November 1949 as a monthly 24-pagers issue distributed among all its employees. In it they could read relevant articles about the company and its affiliates. The company was focussed on the employees' welfare, and many of the covers had a leisure theme.

 

THE WHEREABOUTS

The head company's full name was Western Printing and Lithographing Company, but normally it was referred to as Western Publishing. The head office address was 1313 West Eighth Street, Los Angeles 17, California.
Barks' comic book stories were primarily printed in two sub-divisions: 1220 Mound Avenue, Racine, Wisconsin, and North Road, Poughkeepsie, New York 12601.
The division office Barks frequented was Whitman Publishing Company, 9916 Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, California, which was also referred to as the West Coast headquarters.


The West Coast headquarters building in Beverly Hills. This is the place Barks visited roughly once a month to deliver his latest stories in person.

When Barks left Western in 1966 the company had 7 sub-divisions located in 6 states.

 

THE EMPLOYEES

The listing below only covers a few of Western's better known employees, all from the Whitman building.


Robert S. Callender, Vice President		    
Editor Alice J. Cobb (sitting)		    
Editor Chase Craig (sitting)
       

Editor Carl von Buettner		    
Editors Buettner and Craig flanking Callender
 

Some of Western's many artists assembled in the lobby of the West Coast office.
Standing: Phil de Lara, Carl Barks, Alfred Abranz, John Carey, Tony Strobl, Michael Arens, Philip Evans.
Sitting: Alan Hubbard, Ralph Heimdahl, Carl Fallberg.

 

THE TECHNIQUE


A high-speed rotary rubber plate relief press installed in Poughkeepsie. This was the place where most of Barks' stories were printed.
 

One of the company's four-colour offset presses.
 

1965: Western introduces computers in their plants. This is a part of Racine's Univac III.

 

THE VISIT

The company was visited by numerous business relations during the years. This example is from the Racine plant in 1966, where a delegation of Disney executives had the grand tour of the premises. The thin haired gentleman wearing a grey suit and glasses is Roy Oliver Disney (Walt's older brother).

 
 

 

THE CREDIT

When Barks retired he was mentioned
in the August 1966 edition as follows:

 

 
http://www.cbarks.dk/THEWESTERNER.htm   Date 2010-06-16