CARL BARKS : Walt Disney`s Comics & Stories # 165 - 1954. Original COVER ART

That specific morning in 2017 started just as usual : I made my nice cup of coffee and then started to check out the new stuff that had been added on CAF for the last 24 hours.
As always I first searched for my favorite artist ; Carl Barks, and almost knowing by fact that nothing “new” had of course appeared. For general information most of the original art by Carl Barks has been lost as it was routinely destroyed by Western Publishing. Only about 2 -3 % of Carl`s original comic book art has survived to present day.
But this morning was different ; 3 original inked published covers had been added over the night and with the intriguating description: “Not For Sale – Yet !”
I almost spilled my cup of coffee and mailed instantly to a good friend and fellow collector of Barks original art in Florida.
From where and how had these covers suddenly appeared and who was “maybe” selling them ?
I will spare you for what happened in the next years after seeing the originals but only go to the fact that I purchased 2 of the 3 covers. And I guess that "2 out of 3 ain`t bad". ;-)
If you would like to know the full story about the cover art check my website about : Carl Barks and especially this section here : http://www.carlbarkscomicbookart.dk/index.asp?loadContent=382565
My first purchase and absolute favorite cover of the 3 newly found covers back then was this 1954 Walt Disney Comics & stories # 165 cover by the legendary Carl Barks. And that is the one that I add to my CAF Gallery today.
Underneath follows a further and more detailed description of the specific cover :
Carl Barks Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #165 Cover Original Art (Dell, 1954). Barks covers for the 1950s are just about impossible to acquire -- by one count, seven published originals from the 1950s are known to exist, plus a couple of alternative unpublished ones. Of course Barks was a prolific cover artist during that decade, but almost all of the original covers were destroyed by the publisher after the comics were printed.
This is certainly a fine example of the artist's skill at characterization. Donald's expression is simply priceless as he sees his nephews race off. So many of us were the nephews' age when we first read this story, and now we sympathize more with Donald who just wants to read his paper in peace! And make no mistake: a lot of people bought this comic, as Comics and Stories was selling more than a million copies a month in those days.
Note that Western Publishing did make slight changes when they printed this -- the bottom of Donald Duck's chair was moved up, and the shadows under the feet of Huey, Dewey, and Louie were eliminated such that they appeared to be walking briskly on the printed cover as opposed to running. Also the shadow under Donald's arm disappeared. Frankly we like the image better the way Barks drew it, but we also recall hearing that Western Publishing did not like shadows on their funny-animal covers in general.