Exotic Locales

Carl Barks took us on so many adventures with Uncle Scrooge and the boys. The exotic locales were always my favorite, yours too?

Carl Barks — Adventure in Old Persia

(Rug Riders Last Flight)

Season to be Jolly

Carl Barks' paintings brought Duckburg to some form of reality. This one is entitled 'The Season to be Jolly', adding another layer of reality to Uncle Scrooge.

Snow Fun

Perfect for a December day, this is "Snow Fun", painted by Carl Barks.

This 'blog is nothing if it's not eclectic.

Copyright Disney, of course.

Then and Now

At one point in the early 80s I was completely without funds. But when I saw the Celestial Arts publication of Carl Bark's Uncle Scrooge McDuck, I just had to have it. The so totally cool bonus was this signed print. I scrounged up pennies, I dug through old pockets, I did odd (really odd) jobs. I didn't have enough money for food, but I finally came up with enough for the book and print. It was $200 back then, I've heard that the value is 10 times that now. I missed a few meals then, but I still have this now.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Uncle Scrooge #16 Dec-Feb 1957—back cover

It seems appropriate to begin this pictorial autobiography on the first day of the new year, with the first ten cent comic book I ever bought off a spinner, drawn by the good duck artist—Carl Barks. It's sort of my 'old number one dime', the 'spark plug of all of McDuck's vast fortune.' The comic is a bit worn, but has survived decades of the ebb and flow of my collection of pictorial treasures.

I intend to share many of my treasures in the months to come, some not terribly rare, but terribly meaningful to me. I would like to zoom in on details along the way and share what has inspired me in my career as an artist. And I would like to examine the value of pictorial images, not in terms of money, but in degrees of imagination.

I refer to myself as a pictorialist, not just in my set of skills, but in my lifelong appreciation of the skills and talents of artists, illustrators, cartoonists, sculptors, photographers, typographers, and graphic designers. I'd like to share that appreciation with anyone who stumbles into my little world.

It's a good little world!