Recalling Carl : A Pictorial Dissertation

REMEMBERING CARL by Joseph Robert Cowles, is a compilation of essays, articles and images regarding the work of the world's most prolific best-selling storyteller and master cartoonist, Carl Barks. For some twenty-three years, Carl wrote and drew Disney comic book stories of Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge (whom he created) and other denizens of his mythical Duckburg, USA. These stories have been reprinted many times in every major language worldwide, making Donald and his fellow waterfowl the best known and perhaps most loved fictional characters of all time.

However, Carl Barks was an unknown name throughout most of his career, as his work was attributed to Walt Disney. It was not until he retired from cartooning and with permission of the Disney organization turned his talents to creating oil paintings of the Disney-owned characters (based primarily on scenes from his comic book stories), that Carl was able to sign his own name to his work.

Joseph Robert Cowles, author of REMEMBERING CARL, is one of the several young "Duck Fans" who were privileged to meet "The Good Artist" while he was still producing comic book stories. This dissertation springs from recollections of the friendship that developed between Barks and Cowles, insights regarding his craft that the old master shared with his young fan, and the potential for the work of "The Good Artist" to become the most valuable motion picture franchise of all time.

Joseph Robert Cowles is a publisher, author, editor, designer and marketing maven, but when he and Carl Barks met over a half century ago, Joseph Robert Cowles was a teenager working at Disneyland as a popcorn boy. A conversation with Disney cartoonist Roy Williams, the “Big Mooseketeer” on the original Mickey Mouse Club television show, led Cowles to locate and become friends with “The Good Artist” who created Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge and for more than two decades wrote and drew over 400 Disney comic books—comprising some 6,000 pages of story and art. This astounding volume of work has been translated into every major language and republished again and again worldwide, entertaining billions of readers and making Barks the most prolific published talent the world has ever known.

Now, as Special Projects Coordinator for the international Carl Barks Fan Club, Cowles is on a quest to inspire the production of major motion pictures and television programs based on the crème de la crème of Barks’ work, which he contends has the power to become the most valuable motion picture entertainment franchise of all time.