How
they first met (in 1943): She came over
to me at a time when my second wife (Clara
- Editor's remark) and I were in San
Jacinto. I was drawing the comic books,
and a little article had been printed
about me in the newspaper about how I was
working on duck comic strips, and I guess
Garé had heard about it, and she thought
maybe I might have some work that she
could do to help out. She came over and
talked and asked about it. I thought it
all over and I thought, well, do I want
to take on the responsibility of an
assistant, and how much work could I
provide for this girl if I did? And so I
handed her a bunch of duck model sheets
and told her to practice on those, and
see what she could do in the way of
inking and so on. She tried it out and
let me know, that she found it much too
difficult.
So it was years later that I persuaded
her to try out on the lettering. She had
been working at an aircraft office (McDonnell
Douglas - Editor's remark) during the
war, doing drafting of these big bombers
and so on, so she had gotten to have a
wonderful lettering style.
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Letter
to Donald Ault, Jun, 1971: ...Garé
finally got her big painting orders done.
We hauled the last crate to the airport
yesterday afternoon and came home and
collapsed...
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No
more trips to the redwoods... Unfortunately,
Garés health condition went
rapidly bad. A few days after Carls
90th birthday he wrote to a friend:
Mostly we stay close to the pill
bottles and try to avoid any social
activity. There will be no more trips to
the redwoods.
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Letter
to Glenn Bray, Mar, 1972: About the
script of 'Be Leery of Lake Eerie' (HDL17
- Editor's remark), Garé already has
put her claim on it. She read it in its
original form and pronounced it the best
I had ever written...
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We might as
well get married... Garé
started doing lettering and a
little of my inking in about
October of 1952. She kept doing
more and more of it, and I was
paying her more an more, so
finally we decided, hell, what's
the use of going on like this? We
might as well get married and
pool the money all in one bundle.
The couple was married in
Reno, Nevada, in 1954.
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Letter
to Donald Ault, May 1971: ...We are in a
cyclone of overwork at the moment. Garé
was snowed under with painting work that
had to be done...
...I dropped my small painting endeavors
and the Woodchuck story to work all day
today stretching and priming canvases for
Garé. There seems no hope that Garé can
complete all the stuff she has to do and
have time to exhibit at the art show. But
it has to be done...
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Letter
to daughter Dorothy, Feb 1976: ...We swear
that we will slow down and be like lazy
people, but somehow we always get
suckered into a string of rush jobs that
take all of our time and leave us cranky
and worn out...
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Garé's
contribution to Carl's work: ...I would hand
the page over to my wife, who would do
the lettering and ink in all the
background details. She'd ink in all
those things. And she would put in the
solid blacks in the duck's jacket and the
eyeballs, and so on. And then she would
hand it back to me for whatever finishing
was required...
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Letter
to Steve Eng, Aug, 1967: ...I've very
much lost interest in comic books since
retiring a year ago. My wife is quite an
accomplished artist in oils, and I get
much pleasure out of pushing her career.
We take her paintings around to galleries
in Laguna Beach, Palm Springs, and nearer
places to replace those that sell...
...We've just returned from a weekend in
Santa Barbara, where we showed on the
Beachwalk at their Arts Fiesta. Garé (my
wife) was probably the biggest seller of
the show. Certainly she had the highest-priced
paintings...
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Garé's
story The Menehune
Mystery (U$04 'Hawaiian
Hideaway' - Editor's remark)
had become Garé's story; we see that in
every leaf and flower she inked. She was
the authority for all that moolamoola, chuckled
Carl, I still don't believe that
those damned Menehunes ever existed.
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None
of my business... Cemeteries and
funerals are for the living. When I go
out to visit Garé's grave, I can almost
feel her presence, but to visualize what's
really there - by now a bunch of bones in
a coffin - I feel that's none of my
business.
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Letter
to daughter Dorothy, Sep 1973: ...The orders
for my duck paintings far exceed the
available time I have left in my life to
paint them. Garé is almost as bad
off herself. The demand for her
paintings from the card publishers and
print publishers and galleries keeps her
hopping...
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The
breadwinner Between
the late 1950s and the early 1970s Carl
Barks had a long transitional period, in
which he slowly turned from working full-time
with comic book stories to working full-time
with oil paintings. He started to paint
with watercolours, gouache, and oils,
under the supervision of his wife Garé
who was a very skilled landscape painter.
In the first years Barks mainly painted
portraits of young girls in exotic
surroundings. Then he started to paint
landscapes. But while Garé sold well in
exhibitions and markets in the
neighbourhood, her husband never sold
anything.
Being the realist he was Barks wound down
his activities in the early 1970s (as he
wrote to a friend: I'll be glad when
Garé earns enough money to support me,
so I can retire for real!).
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Letter
to Donald Ault, Sep, 1971: ...Your letter
with all the orders arrived today. Looks
like I can be busy for a long time.
Surely now Disney must
be impressed by the sheer volume of
demand, and may (I hope) renew my license
at year end.
Garé tells me that in view of the number
of orders in the backlog, I should raise
my prices to $200.00...
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You
only paint ducks... Carl and Garé
friendly teased each other about their
chosen painting motifs:
Here is another one of Garés
paintings, said Carl, As you can
see it is a lot of trees.
Garé responded: Oh, should you
say that, you only paint ducks!
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Letter
to Donald Ault, Mar, 1971: ...We are both
very busy. Garé has dashed off several
small paintings to fill urgent orders ...
I, too, am trying to get some small
paintings finished ... I'll be glad when
Garé earns enough money to support me,
so I can retire
for real...
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