Undated, unauthorized "interview". Two pages, one numbered. The questions seem to suggest that the material is from 1994 or thereabouts, as it refers to Barks's visit to Italy.
Taken from compilation pamplet 'Carl Barks - Background Material and Current Events'. A pile of stapled pink-coloured pages, monochrome xerox-quality, lacking any clear internal coherence. Apparently, this compilation was made during the Carl Barks Studio years and sent to people requesting information on Carl Barks. My copy was supplied in a promotional package by the Carl Barks Studio, received by post on 20 December 1997. The compilation has also been identified as an "Orange Pamphlet".
The first page of the "interview" contains a picture of Mickey Mouse centered on top, and the non-proportional text appears to done with a manual typewriter. The second page is numbered "2" in center on top, and the proportional text appears to be done with an electronic type-writer (or a computer).
The "From"-field on the first page is empty on the xerox. In question 6 the writer is identified as being one of the "world biggest group of cartoonists" in Italy, writing "stories of characters you created from forty years". In question 9 the writer asks for a message "for the readers of Topolino".
In September and/or October 1998 notes, Barks has identified some of the contents in the compilation pamplet as being fake or at least dubious. According to a October 8, 1998 email by a Barks intermediary, who described Barks's margin notes, the page with a MM icon entitled "Questions for Carl Barks interview" is inscribed "I was never shown questions like these before interviews", and the answers beginning on page 2 "This seems to be something Grandey wrote". (Indicated should be that "these notes only represent Carl's best recollections.")
Have these unauthorized answers been used for publication, elsewhere than in the compilation pamplet?
Who is the questioner?
- - - - - - - - - -
[first page]
[text at the left]
Questions for
Carl Barks
interview.
[MM icon in center]
[text at the right]
From:
To: CARL BARKS
[line]
1 - What daily strips and Sunday pages did you read when you was
a boy or a young man ? What cartoonistsand characters influenced
you more ?
2 - Do you identify yourself with the personality of some character
of the "Duck Family" ? And, if the answer is positive, why ?
3 - Did you insert messages for the readers when you wrote your
stories ?
4 Why you decided only now to visit Italy and the other European
Countries where you placed some of your unforgettable stories ?
5 - All we Italian fans think that you have a special love for
Italy. We think also that one of your more charming character
is Italian, I am speaking of Magica De Spell: she lives in
Italy but, in your intention, is she Italian ?
6 - In Italy there is the world biggest group of cartoonists and
writers ( I am one of them and I write stories of the characters
you created from forty years ! ) which produce Disney's comic
stories. I think you have seen their works: what do you think
of their artworks ?
7 - After many years at last you wrote a new Donald story. I think
that you did it in layout form and it will be drawn by another
cartoonist. Who will be the lucky one that will draw your
story ? And why you choose him ? ( Your story will be published
also in the weekly magazine Topolino ).
8 - Do you think you'll write other stories of Duck Family in the
future ?
9 - Do you have a special message for the readers of Topolino and
the millions of fans that you have in Italy ?
- - - - - - - - - -
2
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Doc Yak, and Krazy Kat...Prince Valient and Tarzan were particularly well drawn. The single most influential strip I followed was Floyd Gottfredsons' Mickey Mouse. The drawing and the story lines were amusing. In 1935 I was hired by the Disney studio by submitting drawings similar in style to Gottfredsons. I was lucky to get promoted to the story department. I was fortunate to be able to work with Walt Disney. He had a knack at story telling. He adjusted my initial work to make it flow smoother on the storyboard. This was a great asset in my future comic book years.
2. I have been told that my personality encompasses all my characters. Today I am paying bills and feel like Uncle Scooge. Generally I feel like Donald. However, on inventive days I am no doubt like Gyro.
3. No
4. My managers Bill Grandey and Kathy Moby are good travelers. My wife didn't like to fly. However, in former years I simply didn't have the money for this type of travel.
5. Yes, I do have a special love for Italy. Magica is Italian. She lives at mysterious Mount Vesuvius.
6. I like the few stories I have seen. However, the only comics I get sent from Europe come from Holland.
7. The new story is a 24 page adventure. It has a climax at the end of each 8 pages so it could be run in a series. I got the idea when Bill Grandey and I were tossing around ideas for a new money bin painting. We were thinking of all the ideas that could include the many things Uncle Scrooge might put in his money bin. The story is titled "Horsing Around With History". It took me two weeks to type out the script.
Two artists that I am in contact with are Daan Jippes and Willlam Van Horn. Daan Jippes is tied up with animation at Steven Spielbergs'...So I asked Van Horn to illustrate the story. We met on it, when he had done the pencil drawings. He lives in Canada and had a 12 hour drive. The only things I had to edit were to cut the size of the villains' beards in half (they looked ethnic) and to reduce the size of the horse in the story. I chose Van Horn because his art has an animated flare. It is very Disney and animated. There was a recent history of Scrooge done that filled in gaps of Scrooges life in odd ways. For instance they had Scrooges father manipulate him in strange ways to teach poor Scrooge to work hard. They also overstaged the naming of the Beagle Boys, claiming they were able to nick-name themselves...they didn't. This is the type of thing I wanted to avoid.
8. Right now I am doing 17 projects. It's hard to forcast if another new story might fit the future. In the controversial history of Scrooge they claimed he was born in 1877. This is not true as he is in his 60s having an adventure in my new story. He certainly is not 117.
9. Thanks to the many children who have bought my comics for a dime...and now sell them for $3,000.
- - - - - - - - - -
transcription: v20061222.01
The font of the questions on first page is best viewed non-proportional, as in the source. The text "Questions for Carl Barks interview", the Mickey Mouse, the "From" and "To" are on one horizontal row, on top of the page.
In question 1, the word "cartoonists" is typed as "cartoonist" with an handwritten added "s".
The second page is proportional. The page number and capital header on top are centered.
Note that the answers on the second page have been identified by Barks as being written by someone else, as explained in the introduction to the transcription.