Barks, Carl

Like so many others, I have admired Carl Bark's paintings for many years. One of his earliest fans, Malcolm Willits, was the second person who determine the identify of the "Good Duck Man" and to make contact with Barks. He was also one of those who encouraged the retired artist to paint recreations of his work on Donald Duck comics. Malcolm was one of the two owners of Collectors Book Store in Hollywood, CA. He happened to be the person who was tending the store late in the day on a Saturday in 1966, when the store was at its original location, on Wilcox Boulevard in Hollywood. As such, he had the pleasure of dealing with the 10 or 11 year old me. My parents told Malcolm to bring out some Superman or Batman comics the cost $5 each. Unfortunately, although I greatly preferred Superman as a character, Malcolm brought down high grade copies of Batman Nos. 21 through 30. After asking if Batman No. 23 was the first Joker issue, since the villain appeared on the cover, he said it wasn't. That was pretty good for Malcolm, since he was really only interested in Disney Comic. Leonard Brown, the other owner, was the expert on super heroes, but I wouldn't meet him until the next visit to the store. In any event, I selected the Batman No. 21 for my parents to buy for me, along with the newly published book on comic book heroes by Jules Feiffer, which contained reprints of several early D.C. stories. Those were the only comic book related purchases made by or for me from Malcolm over the the 34 or so years that I knew him and frequented his store. But they came at the very beginning, and therefore hold an important place in my collecting history and memories. After moving to a much more impressive and prominent location on Hollywood Blvd. just a few years later, in 1968, I would still see Malcolm all the time. One day, when I and my family were on the mezzanine of the store, we saw the first of many Barks paintings I've personally seen, which belonged to Steve Edrington, a friend of Malcolm and Leonard. I'm not sure if it was newly painted, but I learned that this artist was doing recreations. Malcolm said that he maintained the waiting list for Barks paintings, and he added my name for one of the $500 paintings. Years later, when Disney withdrew their permission for Barks to paint ducks (before Cochran and Hamilton got permission for Barks to start doing paintings for lithographs, for which DIsney would be compensated), I was finally number one on the waiting list! By then the paintings which had costonly $500 new were selling for many thousands of dollars, so I never got a Barks painting. But I did eventually get this storyboard drawing in color pencils, and it is really of greater historical significance. It shows the moment when Donald's nephews introduced themselves (one name misspelled) from the first cartoon in which they appeared (Donald's Nephews, 1938) In the 1980s, Malcolm, who was by then had been a friend of both Barks and Floyd Gottfredson for many years, had a party in honor of both artists at his home in Pasadena, CA -- still one of the nicest homes I have ever seen. Russ Cochran and Bruce Hamilton co-hosted the event. I was fortunate enough to attend as well, and it was the only time I met the two legendary comic artists from Disney. At one point, Malcolm had Gottfredson write an elaborate personalized autograph for me in the first reprint book of his Miskey Mouse dailies. Malcolm passed away a couple of years ago, and Barks and Gottfredson several years before him. The Gottfredson book and this storyboard drawing are all that remain of my interactions with the three men, plus, of course, the memories that are still in my mind.