THEHINDSIGHT

Carl Barks liked all of the primary characters he created, but with a varying degree of enthusiasm. All of them were introduced because they filled a need in a certain story and then stayed to be used in later stories. And that was Barks' overall problem; he did not always think his new characters through, before he introduced them. The best example of a successful new character is, of course, Uncle Scrooge who, although he was just a grumpy and wealthy family member in his first story, was developed into the multifaceted character we all love today. However, this was not always the case with other new characters as this page will demonstrate.

The quotes are all taken from numerous interviews Barks participated in over the years.

GLADSTONE GANDER

Gladstone Gander was created as an immensely lucky guy and as such he was a counterpart to Donald Duck's distinctive unlucky streak. He seemed to have two primary goals in life; to torment Donald and to win Daisy from him. Neither of these characteristics added much to his likability. Barks did not succeed in giving Gladstone either human values or redeeming features as he did with Donald and Scrooge.

Gladstone as a character is limited. You've got to be thinking of gags all the time that use his stupendous luck. It's kind of hard to keep thinking of fresh gags.

I don't think anybody likes a character who gets by with so little effort in the world. They like to feel that other people have just as much of a struggle as they themselves have, and Gladstone was a fellow who would just go along, skimming all the cream out of life, without ever sweating for it.

You feel superior to them (the characters), because you know that they're going to have to think that solution out by very laborious methods. The only one of my characters that you couldn't feel superior to was Gladstone; he was so darn lucky that the reader hated him because he had to look up to Gladstone for that one talent he had.

MAGICA DE SPELL

Magica de Spell was created as an evil witch in search of Scrooge and especially his number one dime. She has the unshakable belief that it will make her the world's richest and luckiest duck. Magica is considered to be Scrooge's strongest opponent.
Surprisingly, Barks never really liked any of his own criminal inventions (Magica, Flintheart Glomgold or the Beagle Boys). They were all developed as pure villains and antagonists to humiliate and frustrate Scrooge, and as such do not have the appeal that his other characters possess.

Magica was introduced intentionally, as a wicked witch who was always after Scrooge's first-earned dime. One can't always show the same thing; the characters have to be brought into new situations, hence the subtle changes in character.

Magica was a villainess. She had mean thoughts. She was acquisitive.

FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD

Flintheart Glomgold was created as Scrooge's evil doppelganger. Barks never really liked the South-African plutocrat Glomgold. He was developed to be a totally villainous opponent to humiliate and frustrate Scrooge - just as Barks created Gladstone to have a character to torment Donald. As such he does not have the same appeal and redeeming features that his other characters possess. Barks' frustration over having invented Glomgold is apparent because he only used him in 3 stories, and never in either one-pagers or front covers.

They (Glomgold, Magica and the Beagle Boys - Editor's remark) were people I had no sympathy with.

THE BEAGLE BOYS

Barks invented the Beagle Boys as a bungling band of thuggish thieves who prefer to work alone. Focused as they are on the old miser's money, the Boys are the main reason for most of Uncle Scrooge's worries. Barks was always rather careless when it came to the identification of the Boys; he often happened to give them wrong numbers, which might indicate that he did not have that much interest in their characters.

The Beagle Boys, I figured, had been raised under a certain set of circumstances and their thinking would be a certain way. I think what I used the Beagle Boys for more than anything else was just to create some action and plot sequences. Their characters were such that they were just as greedy for Scrooge's money as he was himself.

They were just professional crooks. The hardest job they could find was to bust into his money bin and get all that money. I didn't have them bothering much with banks and grocery stores.

GYRO GEARLOOSE

When Barks dreamt up Duckburg's finest inventor, Gyro Gearloose, he was only supposed to be an occasional visitor to the stories. Later, after the character became enormously popular, Barks expressed his vexation that he had not drawn him in a simpler way, i.e. without hair, hat, spectacles and waistcoat.

I needed a guy with lots of inventions. I had thought I would have old Gyro in one or two stories. If I had known he was eventually going to have a book of his own, I would have made him a character that was easier to draw. He is quite tall, and it's awkward to use a tall character along with the ducks, who are only about two feet high. I would made him a funnier looking character and put more thought about the development of his character into the actual drawing of him.

I just deliberately invented Gyro as a crazy inventor. I only figured on using him once in a very great while, so I just made him a big awkward looking chicken. If I had known that I was going to have to do a book of Gyro stories, I would have made him about the same size as Donald or Uncle Scrooge, so that he could have been handled more easier. He was this big tall gawky chicken, and it was difficult to work him in the same panels with the ducks.

APRIL, MAY, JUNE

Daisy's three nieces were introduced briefly in the story in which Donald bases all the decisions in his life on tosses of a coin. The nieces are, of course, meant to be a counterpart to the nephews; the resemblance is obvious.
It is more than likely that Barks had more stories with the girl trio in mind when he created them, but as time passed by, they only appeared in very few stories. Barks probably had difficulties finding special girl related problems for them to solve. The fact that they were 'just' nice girls also made them fairly limited compared with the much more interesting nephews.

JOHN D. ROCKERDUCK

Besides Glomgold, Barks created a few other super rich characters for Scrooge to compete with. John D. Rockerduck was one of them. He was only used in one story (WDCS255 Boat Buster) and presented as a highly competitive and choleric businessman, but Barks must have realized his limited potential, and Rockerduck never appeared again. Instead, over the years several other characters with the same characteristics appeared in his place. Barks must have felt it more fulfilling to invent new types all the time instead of using the same character.
However, Rockerduck went on to be a big hit especially in Brazil and Europe, and many Disney artists still use him.

HUEY, DEWEY, LOUIE

In late 1937 the idea arose of introducing Donald's three nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie to Disney's animated shorts. At the time Barks worked at the story department and he was against the idea. It would just be two more characters to draw, he felt. But by the time he started his long career with comic book stories just 5 years later, he had accepted the three nephews.

They were hard to draw, believe me!

MICKEY MOUSE

In the start of his career at Disney's Barks was assigned to write and sketch a Mickey Mouse story for an animated short called Northwest Mounted. Barks wrote the story and drew close to 400 storyboard sketches, but then it was shelved.
Barks did not care very much for Mickey Mouse whom he felt to be not as funny and versatile as Donald. After he had completed the task of drawing The Riddle of the Red Hat, he asked to be excused from future assignments with the mouse.

I believe someone sent me a synopsis of the plot from the studio. The whole thing didn't match my style. They normally had enough artists for him; this time was an exception. But, it was wartime, and I had to fill in. I think I could have drawn Mickey quite well. Mickey was simple.

I liked Mickey for his purposes. He was good in adventure-strips. But the thought of having to draw something like this did not appeal to me. I enjoyed working with the duck because I could knock him around, have him get hurt - I could let him fall off cliffs. It was lots of fun with Donald. With Mickey it would have been kind of dangerous, because Mickey always had to be right. With the duck I had a comedian that I could treat badly and who I could make fun of.

PLUTO

When Barks worked in the story department at Disney's he had to work with Mickey Mouse's dumb yellow dog Pluto as well. It resulted in 5 animated shorts, and Barks also wrote one story together with two colleagues during the Second World War. But in his stories Barks never drew Pluto, because he felt that the dog had no interesting qualities. Perhaps Barks mellowed during his golden years, because he painted no less than 3 paintings in which Pluto participated...

Pluto was in a lot of their comic-strips, but he was a very artificial dog, so different from any idea one might have of a dog. I never liked him very much. He was a dumb dog, you might say.

GOOFY

Barks only used Goofy in one story. He never liked the character, because he was normally reduced to being the laughing stock for all the other characters.

There was one I couldn't stand: it was Disney's Goofy. Goofy was simply a half-wit. I could never understand what was supposed to be funny about a half-wit.

BUGS BUNNY

In 1943, when Barks started working for Western, he was asked to do a series of stories besides those from his duck universe. The stories were all built on non-Disney characters such as Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig from Warner Brothers and other studios. Needless to say, that he was not exactly enthusiastic about the arrangement.

The one I couldn't draw was Bugs Bunny. In the story in which I drew Porky Pig (FC0048 - Editor's remark), Carl Buettner had to correct every single panel in which Bugs appeared.