American cartoonist, born in
1901 near
Merrill, Oregon. After spending his
childhood working on a
farm and
drawing, he got a
job drawing
animated cartoons for
Disney. After submitting a
gag about a
mechanized barber chair for a
Donald Duck cartoon, Barks was
promoted to the
story department, where he co-worked on a number of
famous Donald Duck cartoons, but in the early 1940s, a series of
irritations at the
studio convinced him to
quit to set up a
chicken farm.
To
earn a living in the meantime, Barks went to work for
Western Publishing drawing Donald Duck
comic books. Donald didn't exactly work in
comic books -- in the movies, he was a
lazy hothead who spoke in barely-
coherent quacking. To make Donald more
suitable for the
comics, Barks gave him a
personality, less
volatile emotions, and
articulate speech. He also created characters like
Scrooge McDuck,
Gladstone Gander,
Gyro Gearloose, the
Beagle Boys,
Magica de Spell, the
Junior Woodchucks, and
Flintheart Glomgold.
His original
contract with Disney didn't allow him any credits on the comics he created, but he was widely
acclaimed as one of the
best comic book creators and
storytellers around. After his
retirement, and after the
death of
Walt Disney, he has received much more
credit and
recognition from the
Walt Disney Company and from the world of
comics in general.
Died in the
summer of
2000 of
leukemia.