Carl Barks – ”Back to the Klondike” FC # 456 - Original

”EUREKA”...!!
I could hardly believe my eyes seeing this lost unpublished panel from the most iconic Uncle Scrooge story by Carl Barks.
”Back to the Klondike” is also known as Uncle Scrooge # 2, and was published in 1953 as FC # 456.
Back to the Klondike" was a key story detailing how Uncle Scrooge first struck it rich - by being "smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies”.

Barks received a lot of criticism for the story, because it involved different taboos. A half-page panel showing a barroom brawl was too violent and Glittering Goldie showed an unbecoming greed for gold. Furthermore, Scrooge also kidnapped the girl, made her live in his shed and forced her to work at his claim. Because they lived together in the small hut for many weeks, there is a suggestion that the two might have been lovers.The flashback sequences can be interpreted with either platonic or erotic undertones.
This panel + 3 other ( still unknown ) was sadly removed by the editors at Western in 1952 and has never since been officially seen again. That was until now off course.
Here is some background facts about the missing panel :
In it`s first printing, the ”Back to the Klondike” story was cut from 32 to 27 pages, since the editors did not believe the bar fight and abduction scenes were appropriate for a Disney comic read by children in 1952.
Later, all cut art, except for a seemly total lost half page ( or more likely, 4 cut out panels ), was recovered and the story was published in it`s entirety in the CBL from 1981 - and with the missing half page then reconstructed by Carl Barks.
The four and a half pages with censored segments has made it into more recent publications also.
But the last half page with 4 cut out panels seemed to be lost forever – just until very recently when it was discovered again.
In 1973 long time Barks fan and scholar Kim Weston wrote :
..>” By far the most important of the known unpublished Barks pages are the pages cut from ”Back to the Klondike”. Originally the story was thirty-two pages. As published it was only twenty-seven. A five page sequence was cut following page 11 of the published story, and another half page following published page 15. ( lower half page 20 ).
As said ; the four and a half pages were refound and those censored segments has made in into more recent publications.
But the last ”half page” with, what is believed to actually have been 4 individually cut out panels seemed to be lost forever.

So I was amazed when I got a mail on August 25, 2020 – in fact on the exact date of Carl Barks passing 20 years ago. That was pretty strange..
Anyway : The mail included a photo showing 1 of the 4 lost and missing unpublished panels from the story.
This important find gives Barks fans around the world some realistic hope that the remaining 3 panels from this iconic story is still out there to be discovered..
By this post on CAF I reach out to the owners of these important panels.

Now a little about the found panel : According to Kim Weston and Joakim Gunnarson this panel was meant to be originally placed as # 7 on the page 16. ( A very tiny needlepin hole in the lower left corner also indicates that strongly ).

Kim Weston wrote in the book ”Carl Barks and the Art of the Comic Book” by Michael Barrier in 1973 : ..”I suspect that nothing of real importance is in the eliminated panels, perhaps another panel or so to finish up the flashback, preparations for the trip, and a more extensive and scenic trip than is shown in the four remaining panels. Perhaps even those cut panels still exist, but I don`t know of anyone who has uncovered them yet..<

The newly found panel proofs just how accurate Kim Weston actually was in his prediction some 50 years ago..
The panel discovered exactly shows Uncle Scooge in a very scenic trip at the ending of his travel back to his ”claim” in Klondike.
The panel is a wonderful sceneri with the White Agony creek, gold digging equipment, rocks and pine tress behind a very optimistic Uncle Scrooge who is pointing out and eagerly pronounce : ”My claim is just around that bend”.

In fact this ”cut out” panel is extremely representative for the whole ”Klondike” story.
As Kim Weston said after I send him a photo of the panel :
”Soren - What a sight for sore eyes..!”

From my entire collection of original artwork by Carl Barks I consider this single “cut out panel” to be one of the most important and in the top.

Many thanks to Paul for making my personal ”Klondike” dream real..!