PRELUDE

In December 1977 Barks was contacted by the President of Abbeville Press*, Robert E. Abrams (son of the founder), who inquired if Barks was interested in writing an introduction for an American version of the Italian books Io Paperino (I, Donald Duck) and Io Topolino (I, Mickey Mouse) made by the Italian Disney publisher Mondadori. Since 1970, Mondadori had been publishing a series of large, white covered comic books containing Disney material (the series stopped in 1997 with issue number 29), and now the American publisher was contemplating a similar series for the American market.
Barks replied that he was interested in writing the foreword to an American version of Io Paperino and asked for more details.

* Abbeville Press, Inc. is a subsidiary company to Abbeville Publishing Group founded in 1977 by Harry N. Abrams. When Barks was first contacted in 1977 the letters came from Artabras, Inc., and when the correspondence terminated in 1981 the letterheads wrote Cross River Press Ltd. In the intermediary time the correspondence came from Abbeville Press. Still, all companies derive from the same mother company. In this page the company will be referred to as Abbeville.

DONALD DUCK - 1978

Initially Barks was asked to write forewords to the two volumes mentioned above, which would, in turn, be paid with 1,000 dollars each, but Barks immediately replied that he did not feel qualified to tackle the Mickey Mouse issue, but that he could 'possibly do an acceptable introduction for Paperino'. Abbeville's first letter makes it clear that the publisher had little knowledge of who Barks was, which accounts for his misplaced Mouse question.

In his next letters Barks inquired how the foreword was supposed to be handled: Was it to be an Americanized version of the Italian foreword, should he write a brand-new foreword, how long should it be? In the case that he was to write a foreword of his own, Barks was interested in knowing about the planned layout for the few pages and which pictures were supposed to accompany the foreword.
Abbeville simply answered that they would like Barks' 'thoughts, memories, and viewpoint' and make that part of the edition. In order to help Barks get the 'feel' of the upcoming book's atmosphere they arranged for a translation of the Italian foreword, and just 10 days later Barks sent in a foreword entirely of his own - and with a twist: As you will likely notice, I aimed this foreword at the type of buyer who might be just a little bit ignorant of what comic book style is all about. In other words, I try to do a selling job on those millions of people who might otherwise think this big book is strictly for children.
Abbeville promptly replied that this was just what they had hoped for and enclosed a check for 1,000 dollars. The foreword was later printed with minor alterations apart from Barks' closing thoughts, which were omitted entirely.

Shortly thereafter Barks suggested that two particular stories should be included in the American version namely A Christmas for Shacktown and The Golden Helmet. This was accepted. To this end it is important to know that the Italian book (in reality, Io Paperino was issued in two volumes) contained a hodgepodge of many stories - even Mickey Mouse stories! - and Abbeville wanted it to be a Barks volume exclusively.

UNCLE SCROOGE - 1979

Despite the deplorable breakdown and occasional changes and omissions of story panels Abbeville's first Disney Duck volume became an instant and huge success to new generations of Americans who knew very little of Barks' ducks due to a dwindling comic book interest and lack of steady Disney duck series. As Abbeville wrote to Barks in December 1978: The reception of Donald Duck has exceeded even our highest expectations. The printing is completely sold out, and a new printing is planned for spring. At the time the book filled a void and Abbeville was ready for their next volume.

In August 1978 Abbeville once again contacted Barks to have him write the foreword to what was to be the first hardbound anthology of Scrooge stories in the USA. The terms would be the same as for the first volume; a foreword composed entirely by Barks, 1,500-2,000 words, and payment of 1,000 dollars.

Barks had two issues: He had counted the net amount of story pages being prepared for the book and found that there were too many to fit a book equal to the first one. Therefore he suggested that Treasures of Marco Polo was removed, which was accepted, but the suggestion of removing Pirate Gold on the account that it was made far before Scrooge was even invented was surprisingly denied. Alternatively, Barks suggested that Rug Riders in the Sky could be omitted if needed. This was not to be, either.
Furthermore, Barks suggested that some of his new Money Bin paintings were used in the foreword, but this idea conflicted with another book which was in preparation, the lavish edition of The Fine Art of Walt Disney's Donald Duck by Carl Barks containing photographs of his first duck paintings.

At one point Barks was asked to have a look at a formerly written, introductory article called Uncle Scrooge and Money with reference to a new Disney cartoon, but he declined saying that it had nothing to do with him, and that he had not even seen the film. The very strange end result was that Barks' foreword was accompanied by pictures from the film!!!

INTERLUDE

In April 1979 Uncle Scrooge was about to be published and Abbeville wrote to Barks to invite him and his wife, Garé, to Los Angeles the last weekend of May in order to attend the annual American Bookseller's Association Convention, where he was to meet fellow artists and autograph books from the new series. The Barkses were invited as Abbeville's guests to stay at the New Otani, a Japanese style skyscraper hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Barks jumped at the opportunity in a semi-humorous letter, in which he also stated (excerpts):
...As per the phoned request of yesterday I am enclosing six photos of myself. You can see that most are of the snapshot type. I haven't posed for a formal photo portrait since the photomat machine broke down at a county fair in 1922 and I didn't get my quarter back...
...We think that the New Otani Hotel would be best for us, not only because it is nearer gasoline-wise than the Century City place, but because it is nearer Chinatown and the comic book stores and the places we want to revisit on a short nostalgia tour. Have to catch up on Chinese food and Dinty Moore's corned beef (Dinty Moore is a brand name for the food company Hormel known for its spam production. Corned beef was - according to his daughter Dorothy - Barks' favourite food - Editor's remark)...
...I see by the New Otani's ad in the Wall St. Journal that it is quite a tall edifice. I must state that Garé is chicken at any heights over ten floors. I'll have to blindfold her to get her up to the hotel's 'Garden in the Sky' for a Japanese dinner...

Barks offered to stay the whole Monday as well if he could be of any help in further autograph sessions, but this was not to be the case, so the couple left Sunday after the convention and drove home. The following week Barks sent thanks for the nice stay and expressed his pleasant surprise that the hotel had only charged the couple for half a day's stay Sunday. He had paid the bill in cash, so he knew. The bill was later reimbursed as previously agreed with Abbeville.

Barks also expressed how fulfilling and successful his time at the convention went: ...We got a great deal of enjoyment out of the convention. Had never guessed there were so many publishers in the whole world. Had never imagined, either, the wide extent of the ducks' charisma. Even people from the Superhero comics field came over to get DD books...

Regrettably, the stay was influenced by a major setback; Abbeville did not manage to release the new Uncle Scrooge book in time after all, so Barks 'only' had to autograph the first one!

In the beginning of June Barks wrote a letter to Dorothy summing up the events. Some of it read:
...We spent most of Memorial Day weekend in L.A. as guests of Abbeville Press, which outfit prints the big hardback DONALD DUCK and UNCLE SCROOGE books. The occasion was the American Booksellers Convention at the Convention Center. I was asked to come in and autograph uncountable copies of the books. Sadly, the Uncle Scrooge books never arrived from the printers, but the number of Donald books I signed staggers the imagination...
...I enclose an ad of the Broadway department stores, at one of whose chain I autographed books for over an hour, or until they sold out, I'm not sure which ... Donald and the other ducks are really riding a wave of popularity...

DONALD DUCK AND HIS NEPHEWS - 1982

In June 1981 Barks was approached for the last time, when Abbeville invited him to write the foreword to their last Barks opus. Also, they would like to have it accompanied by reproductions of some of his paintings. The fee was to be 1,250 dollars (at one point Abbeville offered 1,500 dollars but that offer was soon retracted).
Russ Cochran, who acted primarily as Barks' painting agent, sent him a number of Ektachromes (transparent slides of Kodak's manufacture) from which he could choose about 15 for the book. It should be remembered that all Barks' paintings were sold immediately on completion, wherefore he did not have access to reproduceable photos himself. Barks chose 5 - Rug Riders Last Fight, Unsafe Vehicle, Duck in Iron Pants, Rude Awakening, and Slow Boat to Duckburg - of which only the last-mentioned made it to the book.

In July, Abbeville did for the first and only time, present Barks with a written, ironclad contract covering his part of the new project. The contract removed all his potential, future claims or objections to the end product and Barks signed it only after having forced a few alterations. One of them being that he was in no way responsible for Abbeville's use of his paintings as they were covered by Disney's copyright.

After the dust had settled Barks received a rough translation of the Italian foreword, which he found of little use, and he sent in his own new-written foreword in October. In the accompanying letter he pointed out that 'some short paragraphs can be cut harmlessly if the length of approximately 1,770 words is too long'. It should be remembered that Barks made all his correspondence on a typewriter and he meticulously took time to count the number of words one by one...
The foreword appeared in the published issue just as Barks had written it.

Aftermath: The agreed check arrived soon after. Barks also received a complimentary copy of Abbeville's latest, lavish art book titled Disney Animation the Illusion of Life, for which he cordially thanked his publisher. In the letter he, among other subjects, reminisced: ...I was working at the Disney studio back in the 1930s when the 'Nine Old Men' were just shavetail beginners. I saw several animated classics taking shape on the story boards. The work looked impossibly complex, and I welcomed the chance to flee to the boondocks where there was only me and my drawing board and my ideas for comic book stories. I am glad to see how well the studio got along without me...

EPILOGUE

The Best Comics series was quite shortlived. It contained the following titles: 1. Donald Duck, 2. Mickey Mouse, 3. Goofy, 4. Uncle Scrooge, 5. Animated Features and Silly Symphonies, 6. Donald Duck and his Nephews.

One of the contributing reasons was no doubt the ridiculous and unprofessional mangling of Barks' stories; the story panels were placed in totally different settings thus destroying Barks' intended layout system where every page should end with a so-called 'cliffhanger', panels were resized or cut to fit into the format, and sometimes whole scenes were omitted! The worst example came from Lost in the Andes, in which the two important punchline endings - that Barks was so proud of - were unceremoniously cut out!!!
The layout for all the books came from Mondadori, and, regrettably, both Abbeville as well as publishers in countries all over the world followed suit thus degrading Barks' meticulous and well-planned work.
Luckily, a new series called The Carl Barks Library (CBL) was in its planning stages, and this was to be published in fine unity with Barks' wishes and intentions. What he thought about Abbeville's books is anybody's guess...