Carl Barks

So I decided that I want to read a lot more classic DuckTales comics after having seen a couple and remembering how awesome they were. However, looking into the collections and figuring out what I want to get has been pretty confusing. I remember someone on here trying to ebay a bunch of the Barks collections so maybe some people can point me in the right direction. I want to read lots of Scrooge adventures, where should I get started and what are the options? There has to be more availability than just the $2500+ massive library collection that came out in the 80s but that has more than just a handful of stories like it seems the current trades do?

Also, how do people feel about Don Rosa and his follow up works?

Don Rosa is a devout workman following in the steps of the master. He strived with every fiber of his being to honor and carry on Barks' work, and although his art is more mechanical in nature, the stories are always engaging, entertaining, and demonstrate a degree of continuity unmatched in the medium. Barks is the best, but you can't go wrong with Rosa. He stopped drawing the ducks in 2008, due partly to eyesight problems, and partly to becoming finally fed up with what amounted to his indentured servitude to Disney. If I were going to acquire new Duck books today, and didn't loathe reading digital scans, I would be tempted to torrent them and send the cash straught to Don. Not that he would accept the money -- he's too honorable a Southern gentleman for that.

I'm not familiar with the more recent reprints of Barks stuff, so I can't offer any suggestions on that front, but I'll ask around here at comic book school -- one of my fellow faculty members is a Barks fanatic.

Isn't Fantagraphics doing a complete reprint of the Carl Barks comics?

Mind you, you may have to wait a while (I believe they still haven't commenced the Pogo reprint they announced some time ago.)

Fantagraphics does great work, but they do it at their own pace. I've been collecting their Krazy Kat volumes for about 9 years now. almost done... almost done...

Jason Lutes wrote:

Don Rosa is a devout workman following in the steps of the master. He strived with every fiber of his being to honor and carry on Barks' work, and although his art is more mechanical in nature, the stories are always engaging, entertaining, and demonstrate a degree of continuity unmatched in the medium. Barks is the best, but you can't go wrong with Rosa. He stopped drawing the ducks in 2008, due partly to eyesight problems, and partly to becoming finally fed up with what amounted to his indentured servitude to Disney. If I were going to acquire new Duck books today, and didn't loathe reading digital scans, I would be tempted to torrent them and send the cash straught to Don. Not that he would accept the money -- he's too honorable a Southern gentleman for that.

Now I not only want to read his books, I want to give him a hug.

Yeah, definitely wait for the Fantagraphics Barks volumes.

It'll take a while. But that's mainly because there's so much stuff; there shouldn't be delays with this like with some of their other reprint projects (POGO!!!!!!!!!!), because there exist nice copies of the black and white line art to work with.

The only two English complete Carl Barks projects there have been up till now have been:

1) A complete hardcover Barks, with one (to me) fatal flaw: they're in black and white, and c'mon, Disney funny animal comics should be in color. However, my dad's copies of this series are what I learned to read with, so I really can't complain about it too much. You can find the more common volumes on eBay for fairly close to a normal cost; it's only stuff like the set of rarities that eBays for absurdly high prices.

2) A complete paperback Barks, with two fatal flaws: first of all, the coloring SUCKS. It's all computerized with photoshop gradients; yuck. The new Fantagraphics set is going to have good, flat coloring. Second of all, it's in these flimsy little skinny volumes, unlike the fatter hardcovers. I used to have a near complete set of these, and sold them off when Fantagraphics announced their complete Barks for over $2000, which tells you that despite being paperbacks, they're still pretty damn expensive, and were expensive even when .

The Fanta volumes will be in COLOR, in GOOD color, HARDCOVER, and CHEAP: $30 for a pretty fat volume.

The other thing that makes this the dream reprint for me is that instead of separating the Scrooges from the Donald Ducks from the 10-pagers, the stories will be grouped chronologically. Hell, I nearly took apart all my Bark Library and rebound it chronologically, so I'm a big fan of this. Even BETTER news is that, despite the fact that once the series is done you'll have the entire Barks chronologically, they'll be releasing the volumes out of order. This is great because it means you won't have to wait years for the best stuff: they'll be starting with the best volumes right off the bat.

Can you tell I'm excited?

Plus Fanta is just generally worth supporting for all the other great stuff they put out.

I think Mr. Stout has answered the question definitively. I had no idea about the Fanta reprints and now I'm super excited as well. My daughter will love them, and I too loathe the computer coloring in the most recent paperback run.

Awesome, thanks guys!

Addendum:

The B&W hardcovers I talked about above are from the 80s, the computer colored softcovers are from the 90s.

The most expensive stuff, other than rarities/odds&ends, is the later Uncle Scrooge stuff. Not entirely sure whay that's the case; might have something to do with when it came out and the ages of buyers. In any case, the later Uncle Scrooge comics are mostly pretty campy, and are far from his best stuff. The critical consensus on his best stuff is everything he did in the late 40s and early 50s; I'd include the first 20 or so Uncle Scrooge stories with that (i.e. up 1956 or so), but even better are the long Donald Duck stories from that era, like Lost in the Andes and Voodoo Hoodoo. Don't be fooled by Ducktales into only looking into the Scrooge stories.

Lastly, if you get any of the older editions (and probably the upcoming edition too), there'll be lots of academic essays about the deeper meaning of the duck stories included. Frankly, I think they're mostly ridiculous bullshit. Read the Barks stories for their exciting adventures and his great character creations, not for deep analyses on foreign affairs and the economy.

Haha yeah, dude wrote a mean comic but I don't think he's pulling Alan Moores with the social commentary.

I'm all about the Donald adventure stories too, I just have an unshakable fondness for Scrooge thanks to Ducktales.

Bummer that I have to wait till the Fall for the first Fantagraphics edition to come out, but at least it's going to be worth the wait.