THEPORKYPIGPAINTING

During the time that Carl Barks was between his Disney oil painting years, he was approached by editor and publisher Robert 'Bob' M. Overstreet from the Overstreet Price Guide, who placed an order for a painting that was meant to appear on the front cover of The Comic Book Price Guide No. 7, 1977. Although the requested characters and theme were different from Barks' normal painting sphere he agreed and produced his only painting of two Western Publishing primary characters that were not ducks - 5/76 Porky of the Mounties. This is the story.

PROLOGUE

In 1943, when Barks was already working for Western Publishing on stories featuring the Disney ducks, he was asked to do a series of stories besides those from his duck universe, because the war efforts had drained the office of manpower. The stories were all based on non-Disney cartoon characters such as Barney Bear and Benny Burro from MGM, Andy Panda from Walter Lantz, and Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig from Warner Brothers (see more HERE). Needless to say, that Barks was not exactly enthusiastic about the arrangement, and in 1947 he was allowed to work full time on his beloved ducks again.
In 1944 Barks was handed a manuscript written by one of Western's editors, Chase Craig, and requested to produce the drawings. He did so, and the result was published in FC0048 and titled Porky of the Mounties.

STORY

The rather boring 24-page story, from which a few panels are presented here, was by no means inspirational to the energetic and inventive Barks, but he finished it loyally doing the best he could. Among others it features Porky Pig, who coincidentally dresses up in a Canadian mounted police uniform on his way up north only to be mistaken for being the brave and heroic Dauntless of The Mounted Police. Later he manages to capture the criminal Pierre and his ruffians.
Barks was only asked to draw this story with Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny, and a contributing reason was allegedly that he was unable to draw the rabbit's facial expressions, so that editor Carl Buettner had to correct every single panel in which Bugs appeared.
Barks resigned and chalked up the story to experience, booked it as Porky Pig's Great Capture(!), cashed in 432 dollars for the inconvenience, and forgot all about it...

ORDER

In 1976 Barks was requested to produce an oil painting to appear as the front cover of next year's edition of the famed The Comic Book Price Guide that was edited and published by Bob Overstreet. The timing was fine, as Barks in those years was prohibited from painting Disney ducks. It was not the first time Barks was asked to produce a painting for a front cover (see more HERE), so he went to work churning out sketches, of which one of the latest is seen here.

PAINTING

5/76 Porky of the Mountains

The painting, that was made on Masonite in the size 14x22" (360x550mms), was finished in August of 1976, and it basically depicts a scene from the story, in which Porky is freeing a bear cub from a hunter's trap.
If you compare the painting to the sketch you will see a large number of differences, although they seem to be fairly identical at a glance. Examples: On top there is now ample room for the price guide header just as Barks did in his Pluto painting, the cross-strap on Porky's characteristic jacket (called Red Serge in the police force) has been moved to its correct position, several of the small animals have been moved and/or replaced, and a couple of quails have been added.
It is unknown how long it took Barks to get Bugs' facial appearance right, but the result is absolutely plausible. On the other hand Barks goofed with the carrot; Bugs never ate a carrot beginning from its side...
Notice that Barks signed the painting as usual but added the 'official' year, plus the required recognition reference to Warner Bros. Inc.

EPILOGUE

The result of Barks' hard work was published as intended and can be seen here.

The payment was 1,500 dollars that followed in two installments as 1,000 dollars in August and 500 dollars in September. Just as it was the case with Barks' booking of the story, he was very casual with the titling on Overstreet's receipt, where it reads Porky of the Mounted...

The sketch depicted above was later brought up for sale - at 10,000 dollars!