Sometime in the 1940s Carl Barks made a - for him - uncharacteristic piece of work. He produced two rough watercolours on illustration board and they were connected by a small poem called The Little Star Angel. The reason for this unusual task remains uncertain, but it can be speculated that Barks considered the work to be illustrations for a children's book. The work was never published; Barks kept it in the privacy of his home for the rest of his life.

As we all know Barks would later produce much more elaborate paintings with different themes, but never again some featuring an angel. Also, he would from time to time write short poems as dialogue titbits in his comic book stories, but those were mainly of a more slapstick-like nature. In fact, the only serious poem he ever wrote - and had published - was made with his wife Garé, and it can be savoured HERE.

Do you ever look up in the heavens at night and wonder what's making those millions of lights? It's the little star angels, up there in the dark - a million star angels, each blowing a spark.  And each little spark that we see from afar becomes in the darkness a beautiful star.

Do you ever look up in the heavens by day and wonder who's taken the star lights away? It's the little star angels up there in the sky who've covered their sparks 'till the sun has gone by. They've covered their sparks and slipped into their beds and pulled a blue blanket up over their heads.