Eronen, Matti :: Carl Barks

Lemonade King cover preliminary

Artist: Carl Barks (All)

2 Comments - 622 Views - 2 Likes

Lemonade King cover preliminary Comic Art

Additional Images:

Barks' cover preliminary & Lemonade King book

HA's photo

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Artwork Details

Title:	Lemonade King cover preliminary
Artist:	Carl Barks (All)
Media Type:	Pencil
Art Type:	Cover
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	622
Likes on CAF:	2 3
Comments:	2
Added to Site:	8/27/2025
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Carl Barks made this cover preliminary in 1959, and this story was the only time when he received artist's credit during his Western Publishing career (1942-66). His name appears on the title page together with Norman McGary (who made the inking).

This was also the very first hardback book to feature Uncle Scrooge in the title and on the cover. Scrooge was now the first time the star of his own book! But now speaking about children's books, of course then Uncle Scrooge comic book was printed many years already.
First appearance of anything... sometimes fascinating collectors... ;-)

But then into more interesting facts, the provenance of the artwork and why it has been missing from all published Barks libraries and collections?

When Another Rainbow published Carl Barks Library vol 4 in 1985, there were known 6 different pencil sketches which Barks made for this Lemonade King cover.
First Barks made a version where Scrooge straddled a massive lemon in a mammoth punch bowl, and held glasses in his both hands.
https://inducks.org/story.php?c=CR+TT+2465e
Then Barks enhanced this and changed Scrooge to hold a massive sign bearing the book's title.
https://inducks.org/story.php?c=CR+TT+2465b
2 other original preliminaries with this setup, massive lemon in the punch bowl, left unknown then.

After them Barks made 4 other pencil sketches, where Scrooge was seated atop a huge lemon, sipping from a giant goblet. Only 2 of those were published in CBL vol 4 and later in Egmont's Barks Collection vol XXI.
Their links are here:
https://inducks.org/story.php?c=CR+TT+2465a
https://inducks.org/story.php?c=CR+TT+2465c

When this European Barks collection vol XXI was published in 2006, then there was available 1 more first version preliminary, even with more detailed then previous 2 of them. This artwork was actually imported to Finland already in the 1980s/90s. And Egmont happily published it, it is here:
https://inducks.org/story.php?c=CR+TT+2465f

And then finally into my original artwork which looks to be the most detailed preliminary of those known six pieces.
It looks that Bill Cole acquired it directly from Barks in the early 1970s, and once it was in his collection all the following decades, until Heritage Auction sold it in 2019, there simply weren't any photos available. And Bruce Hamilton neither didn't know about its existence.
I am sure Bill Cole selected the best and most detailed preliminary when he had this luxury to select ;-)
After being a few years in Germany this artwork appeared again in HA's auction. In the previous time I was the silver medalist, but in 2022 I won the gold :-)

The visual appearance of this artwork is enhanced a lot simply by changing its decades old and brownish backboard by a new white backboard: then the pencil linework is much more visible.

Social/Sharing

About the Owner

	Matti Eronen
Joined:	March 2017
Last Login:	September 2025
Website:	http://Illusi0n.com
Country:	FINLAND
On CAF:	Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Comments on this Artwork

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Monty B
Member Since 2006

Posted on 8/27/2025

Absolutely gorgeous piece! Congrats Matti, it was a privilege owning this for a while... 🙂

Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

Posted on 8/27/2025

Terrific! For a prelim, it looks so close to completion, ready for those Barks inks to be applied to it.

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