GeezerVison is showing www.cbarks.dk — thecorrespondence1960s
1960s
| Letter
from April or May 1960, to John Spicer who wrote the
first fan letter to Barks |
...After eyeing
your letter with dark suspicions for several
weeks, I have decided to answer it on the
assumption that it could be a genuine
fan letter.
You see, I have a friend in Oceanside who just
loves to play practical jokes, and writing phony
letters to his chosen victims is one of his jokes...
...But, as I stated above, I'm going to write
this letter on the assumption that John Spicer is
a genuine, on-the-level young man with a better
than average discerning eye for differences in
art and writing styles. Ninety-nine readers out
of a hundred think that Walt Disney
writes and draws all those movies and comic books
in between stints with his hammer and saw at
Disneyland. It is a pleasure for us ghost writers
and artists to meet an occasional sophisticated
person who knows that he doesn't quite...
...You say you have all the Uncle Scrooges ever
printed - good! Glad to meet a customer...... Well, it was nice
getting a fan letter. The front office tells me
they get many letters, but over the past 17 years
they have shown me only three. Two of which were pan
letters that left me cringing for weeks. I
suppose it's just as well I don't get much mail.
Writing and drawing these comics is a full-time
job 7 days a week. I would have little time to
answer...
...I hope the stories you have read in the duck
and Scrooge books have helped to give you a
broader understanding of life, as well as
entertainment. I've tried to keep off the
shopworn cops-and-robbers kick that depraves so
much of TV and other mediums these days. If more
of my readers grow up to sit in the Senate
chamber than to sit in the gas chamber, I'll have
been richly rewarded for trying to turn out a
good product...
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Letter
from June 2, 1960, to Malcolm Willits |
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...I enjoyed
receiving your letter and would be pleased to
have you call for a chinfest while you are in
Southern Calif...
...It seems that I have spent 17 years wondering
what the readers of my stuff really wanted. It
would be an enlightening experience to meet and
talk to one...
...My wife will answer the phone in the event you
call. My hearing aids, which are okay for
ordinary conversation, are too sputtery for
telephone use.
Except for brief periods in the forenoon when we
go shopping, we are at home almost hermitically...
...Will be seeing you perhaps... |
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| Letter
from October 19, 1960, to Joe Cowles |
...In reply to
your letter of the 13th. I must say I'm not sure
my advice about cartooning would be very helpful,
as I am pretty ignorant on the subject, myself.
The Donald Duck comic book work is about the only
experience I've had in the business, and I just
feel my way along on that.
However, if you'd like to look at my work methods
and see how I develop my ideas into plots and
plots into drawings, you're welcome to pop in any
day, afternoon or evenings. The wife and I always
go shopping in the mornings...
...It would be a pleasure for me to meet a reader
who digs comic books. Up here in the bible belt
people only read the good book and the Walnut
Growers' Nutshell News... |
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Letter
from March 19, 1961, to Joe Cowles who was working
temporarily as a peanut vendor in Disneyland, California |
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...It's the
middle of March, and I'm just now getting around
to answering last January's letters. I'm ashamed
of myself. I noticed in your letter that you
mentioned you and Dave would like to stop by
again to see us, and I was going to write right
away and say 'come on up.' (This being a higher
elevation than Disneyland.) But some deadlines
were pressing, causing me to delay a few days.
The few days merged into the next month's
deadline race, and so it went. You and Dave feel
free to come by anytime you get the idea. My
deadlines are very flexible things, and besides,
I think I've got such things licked for quite a
while into the future. Just drop a card to say
when, so we won't be away on one of our rare
outings.
Tomorrow we're taking a ten-page Donald into
Beverly Hills. That's the first trip into the
city this year. I ran completely out of paper; so
we have to go. I'm going to ask for a big stack
so it'll be possible to give you a few sheets to
get the measurements from, and to try out for
drawing 'feel.'
Thanks a lot for the foreign editions of the duck
stories. I sure got a laugh out of the duck's
dialogue balloons. Those jawbreaking words they
use to express the simplest thoughts!...
...I'll make a note to do a drawing of the ducks
for you when we get back from town. A duck peanut
vendor, okay? Are you still at Disneyland?
Remember to keep a list of the grievances that
beset a peanut vendor. There may be possibilities
there for a Donald story. My error! That should
have been a popcorn vendor. (Barks used
Cowles' story idea in WDCS263
- Editor's remark).
We hope to pay another visit to Disneyland before
long. We have been there twice since it opened,
and enjoyed ourselves a lot. I'd like to see that
popcorn machine. Already scenes of Donald getting
the kids' firecrackers mixed up in the popper are
coming into focus... |
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| Letter
from March 22, 1961, to Ron Goulart |
...thank you for
your interest in my work...
...My original comic book material, which no
doubt you'd prefer, goes to the printing plants,
and I never see it again. It is kept around back
there, I think. (No, it was burnt after
scanning!!! - Editor's remark)...
...I do not know how the publisher's policy of
non-credit for comic book authors and artists
came about, but it's general throughout the
industry. I imagine, though, that it comes from
the complexities of keeping all the contributors
bits separated. Few comic book artists do both
script and art, as I do, and even fewer have the
stuff go through the editorial offices unchanged.
Most of the title panels of comic stories would
carry several contributor's names. A not unusual
one might read:
'Halp! Halp! My scalp!'
Story suggestion by Oliver Oldhat
Story script by Bleakwhistle J. Morningfog
Pencil roughs by Smearcase Smudgefinger
Dialogue lettering by Grimlips Firmhand
Pen inking by Scratchmore Vividly
Brush inking by Eustace B. Sloppy.
After this monumental title would follow four
panels of pratfalls by Pinhead Pigeon. I doubt
that the public would know which of the
formidable array of contributors most deserved an
accolade of whatever was handy... |
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| Letter
from October 21, 1961, to Craig Hayes |
| ...Your opinion
of my work is very flattering. I try to write
stories that I would be willing to buy myself. 10
cent is a lot of moola to ask a kid to lay out
for a few minutes of reading matter. It is the
duty of us writers and artists to do our best. At
15 cents, the present price, we should attach a
carrot, or something, to each magazine to beef up
the value... |
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| Letter
from February 16, 1963, to Malcolm Willits |
...last night I
got out my 1953 Disney Comics and read all twelve
stories. Then I read the first two I did in 1962.
The difference is alarming. I went to bed in a
cold sweat. My stuff certainly has deteriorated...
...Well, I'll do my best in my final three years
(if the duck-type comics last that long)... |
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| Letter
from October 8, 1965, to Barbara Anderson |
| ...You asked if I
keep copies of my works. Well, yes, but I'm no
avid collector. I keep only enough for a
reference file... |
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Letter
from February 20, 1966, to Michael Barrier |
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...Thanks for
your letter praising my duck stories and drawings.
I do the best I can at the writing and drawing,
so it feels good to know the effort is
appreciated...
...I will retire at the end of June this year. I
can hardly wait... |
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| Letter
from March 27, 1966, to Michael Barrier |
...You ask about
which Uncle Scrooge comic book story will be my
last. I'll do three more between now and the end
of June, which should keep the presses running
until sometime in '67 (They were U$69,
70, and 71
of which the latter was inked by Tony Strobl -
Editor's remark)...
...About my more recent Scrooge stories. I know
he's gotten younger or something, but in the
desperate grind of keeping up a flow of stories
year after year the old thinker gets to slipping
its gears. Besides, I get hedged in by taboos and
the ever-diminishing supply of interesting
locales and plot gimmicks. What Scrooge really
needs is a whole new set of writers and artists
with fresh viewpoints to bring him up to date... |
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| Letter
from June 9, 1966, to Michael Barrier |
...I did
deliberately shorten the duck's beak around 1949
when my slow wits finally awoke to the fact that
I'd been drawing them too long. Mellowing Uncle
Scrooge's personality came about gradually, but
was partly deliberate...
...About modernizing Uncle Scrooge. I hope
somebody does it. The new generation of writers
have a way of slanting material to the present-day
scene ... Some newer writer will undoubtedly
create a whole new wealth-personality to replace
Scrooge entirely. Characters like Uncle Scrooge,
Barney Google, Popeye, Pogo, etc. seldom stay
popular more than a few years... |
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Letter
from December 18, 1966, to Michael Barrier |
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| ...You ask what's
my opinion of other funny-animal comic books. I
usually thought their stories were weak or
monotonously formulated or both. Woody Woodpecker
I liked. Porky Pig I detested, probably because
of his stutter. Bugs Bunny was often very funny
in a slapstick sort of way. Actually I read very
few comic books of any kind. I was afraid the
formats might be catching to the extent that my
own stuff would start following the same patterns... |
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| Letter
from January 14, 1967, to Michael Barrier |
...Your curiosity
about how scripts are written, pages drawn, etc.
makes me fear you might end up in a comic book
career. Plumbing pays more money and the hours
are shorter.
My writing procedures have usually been:
1. Get an idea for a story gimmick...
2. Plan the locale...
3. Figure out some business for the gimmick...
4. Figure out how to involve the ducks in the
business.
5. Get a plausible reason for the ducks'
involvement and spring it early in the story.
6. Figure out a surprise ending. This part
usually comes to mind after three or four days of
writing gags for the script.
7. The foregoing should fill a page or two of
longhand note jotting. Now try to think of as
many gags as possibly can be related to the
planned business. Fear gags, cold gags, spooky
gags, stingy gags (for Uncle Scrooge), gags using
Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook, etc. etc.
8. Among those gags will be several that suggest
lengthy pieces of business. Start the story with
the weaker ones and polish the dialogue with lots
of shortening and rewriting...
9. Start drawing when a script is broken down
into panels and pages. I drew direct onto the
drawing paper with a Scripto light blue pencil,
and inked with a 356 Esterbrook pen. My wife
inked the dialogue with an A-5 or B-6 speedball,
and blacked the solid areas with a #2 sable brush.
I seldom made preliminary sketches on other
sheets of paper, except for model drawings of a
new character or prop or special costume.You ask if I took into
account the fact that color would fill out my
drawings. Yes, but after years of doing ducks in
outline with little inked shading the bare
formula became second nature. When I knew a one-strip
gag would be printed in black & white I
usually shaded them a little...
...The top sales figure for Walt Disney Comics
was above 3,000,000 in its heyday...
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| Letter
from April 17, 1967, to Michael Barrier |
...I ordinarily
worked on only one story at a time. Never could
comfortably mix them up or start a new one while
one was still unfinished. The stories were a
continuous chain-of-thought thing with me. They
grew and were subject to change right up to the
inking of the last panel. Besides, I liked a
little mental rest after finishing a story.
Fan letters had very little to do with my choice
of stories until the very late years... |
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| Letter
from July 14, 1967, to Michael Barrier |
| ...I usually
changed locales and formulas to avoid boredom to
myself, and I hoped the readers would like the variety
of plots and the switching around of roles (characterizations)
of Don and the other ducks. Also there was the
necessity to change formulas at times because of
criticism from the office, such as toning down of
conflict between Don and the kids... |
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| Letter
from August 22, 1967, to Steve Eng |
...I've very much
lost interest in comic books since retiring a
year ago. My wife is quite an accomplished artist
in oils, and I get much pleasure out of pushing
her career. We take her paintings around to
galleries in Laguna Beach, Palm Springs, and
nearer places to replace those that sell...
...We've just returned from a weekend in Santa
Barbara, where we showed on the Beachwalk at
their Arts Fiesta. Garé (my wife) was probably
the biggest seller of the show. Certainly she had
the highest-priced paintings... |
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| Letter
from September 1967, to Alberto Maduar (Brazil) |
| ...My more recent
stories have been pretty poor. I worked just as
hard on them, but the ideas didn't flow as freely
from my tired old brain. I guess I'm like any
other piece of equipment. I just wore out... |
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| Letter
from January 9, 1968, to Carlo Chendi (Italy) |
...When I retired
in 1966 one of the editors in the Los Angeles
office got me a few pages of originals from some
of the last few stories. Up until that time I had
never been able to get anything back...
...I don't know the main line of prices per page
paid for art and stories by Western Printing and
Litho. The price varies according to the type of
subject matter. Tarzan stories, for instance, I'm
sure get higher prices than duck work. My payment
for the last several years was $11.50 a page for
stories, $34 a page for art. Cover ideas were $20.
Cover art $50. I've been told that some other
publishers paid higher rates. I didn't feel
cheated, however, because I was a regular
employee after 1953, and as such I got free
medical and life insurance, bonuses twice a year
and a company-paid trust fund that built up into
quite a figure by 1966. I had no rights, however,
on anything published...
...My wife's paintings, landscapes with deer and
birds, etc., sell very well, but my paintings
stack up in towering piles. I like to paint
pictures of people in slightly satirical
situations. They are fun to do and the public
stands around and admires them, but they don't
sell worth a damn... |
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| Letter
from January 23, 1968, to Michael Barrier |
...I get anti-nostalgia
every time I approach my files of old D.D. comics.
There's so little about my years of comic book
work that I care to remember that I shudder when
I pick up a stack of comics and become snowed
under with recollections...
...Man! How I feel about a kid who yearns to make
a career of writing and drawing comics - better,
I say, he should take up something exalting and
invigorating like sewer engineering...
...Back to the rocking chair. (To hell with
painting until tomorrow.) |
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| Letter
from March 8, 1968, to Dick Blackburn |
...I conceived of
Uncle Scrooge as an old-fashioned plutocrat of
the Jay Gould, John D. Rockefeller vintage. He
was given the name Scrooge to relate to the
Dickens character. That name having become a noun-adjective
synonymous with miser. I had no idea he
would become a popular character in the Donald
Duck stories. My intention was to use him on rare
occasions when an eccentric foil was needed for a
gimmick...
...Some Uncle Scrooge fans have complained that
in the late years I turned the Uncle Scrooge
stories into mere adventure strips. They are
right. I was afraid to keep repeating money and
miser gags over and over...
...Frankly, I was incapable of writing much in
the way of hidden 'messages' into my stories. In
personal background I am a backwoods bumpkin. My
education consists of eight grades in a one-room
Oregon schoolhouse. My art training was part of a
course from the Landon Correspondence School
about 1916. I learned mostly by imitating the
styles of published cartoonists...
...On the physical plane, however, my experience
during my early years when I worked as a farm
hand, muleskinner, pseudo-cowboy, and
steelworker, always terribly inefficiently, gave
me practical knowledge for complicating many of
Donald Duck's problems...
...In my own sphere, I was a loner, working in a
small town far from any contacts with other comic
bookers...
...My wife was my expert helper during the most
of the last dozen years. She inked the dialogue,
drew backgrounds such as countless vats of
diamonds and bins of money, and did all the solid
blacks and shading... |
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Letter
from October 14, 1969, to Klas Reimers (Sweden) |
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| ...I have no
favorite 10-pager anymore. The issue of March
1951 (WDCS126 'The Cyclone
Money Crib' - Editor's remark)
I've always considered technically well done. It
had a rhythm that could have almost been set to
music... |
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| http://www.cbarks.dk/thecorrespondence1960s.htm |
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Date 2004-02-13 |
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