This page is about the birthdays of two of the Disney comic book giants - Donald Duck and Carl Barks. The first one is still running through the panels totally unaffected by his high age, and the latter has left his indelible fingerprints on most of the Disney comic book industry.
Common for both is that their birthdays were publicly recognized at a late stage in their existence, which explains why the material shown below is relatively recent.

DONALD DUCK JUNE 9, 1934

1984 It was only when Donald turned 50 that the world began to celebrate him by issuing special editions of albums and magazines. Here is an example from Denmark. The Spanish Barks enthusiast Daniel Branca made the cover. 1984 The small Kingdom of Bhutan in the Himalayas issued a series of Donald Duck stamps to celebrate the famous character. The motifs were taken from both animated shorts and comic book stories. They immediately became a collectors' item. 1984 One of many books that year was 'Walt Disney's Donald Duck - 50 Years of Happy Frustration'. Besides several stories by different artists it also contained drawings by Barks as well as 3 of his - until then - fairly unknown paintings.

1994 In the days when Donald could celebrate his 60th birthday Barks was in Denmark on his great European tour. It seemed appropriate to celebrate in the famous Tivoli Gardens in the heart of Copenhagen. 1994 Barks made this figurine called Sixty Years Quacking to celebrate Donald's birthday. The motif came from the painting Hi, I'm Donald Duck! 1994 Barks also paid tribute in a complicated painting containing no less than 15 characters. The painting was named Surprise Party at Memory Pond and depicts a surprised Donald being 'ambushed' by well-wishers.

2004 Walt Disney Treasures (Donald Duck cartoons on VHS and DVD) 2004 Danish Donald Duck Weekly from June 10th, 2004 2004 Danish Special Edition with Donald Duck in the limelight 2004 Hall of Fame. Tribute albums by different artists (shown: Don Rosa's) 2004 Danish tribute book featuring several artists from all 7 decades of Donald's life

CARL BARKS MARCH 27, 1901

Barks was a very private person, but on his birthdays he always found himself surrounded by some of his many friends, who wanted to celebrate him. Here is a small selection of some of the last memorable moments.   1991 Don Rosa paid tribute to Barks by presenting this drawing   1996 Steve Geppi invited Barks and friends to a celebration at Liberatore's Restaurant in Baltimore   1997 Barks made this bronze figurine named Tantrum on the Way to celebrate his 96th birthday!   1998 After a quiet dinner with Ed Bergen, Malcolm Willits, Gerry Tank, and a few others   1999 With longtime friend Gerry Tank   2000 A quiet moment before dinner...