Carl Barks made more than 260 front covers for the issues of Western Publishing's different duck series (see them all HERE). Many of the covers were direct references to his stories within the publications, and the purpose was to make the potential reader of a volume curious enough to buy it. Thus Barks made sure that his covers conveyed a maximum of intricacy and mystery.
An early example is the front cover for FC0189 from 1948. The adventure story inside was The Old Castle's Secret, and Barks designed a well-balanced cover with interesting details; horrified ducks, a menacing skeleton arm waving a sword, and a suitable background. Furthermore, Barks added to the horrific events by placing the ducks in a dark and narrow corridor thus strengthening their feeling of constraint. All in all a well-designed and highly intriguing cover.

This page will attempt to show how later, similar front covers looked when they were published. The following covers - arranged in chronological order - are examples from the USA and Europe, and you will be able to register just how far from Barks' initial cover they often are. Some are mirrored, others without the menacing sword, some have Uncle Scrooge included - and several were not even drawn by Barks! There can be little doubt that he would have raised an eyebrow or two if he had ever seen them...

FC0189: USA - 1948	France - 1949	Spain - 1953
France - 1959	Italy - 1960	USA - 1964
Holland - 1975	Finland - 1982	Holland - 1982
Denmark - 1984	Germany - 1984	Sweden - 1984
USA - 1984	Greece - 1991	USA - 1994
Italy - 1995	Holland - 1996	Norway - 2008

BONUS

Barks' story was even published in the format of a book. In 1980 Abbeville Press published Uncle Scrooge and the Secret of the Old Castle as number 6 in their series titled Best Comics.