Very few of Carl Barks' original comic book pages that have survived to the present day. Some may find it strange to learn that just a fraction of the thousands of pages have actually survived, but there is a reason; In the days when Barks drew his stories, comic magazines were not considered to be of lasting value - in fact, Barks himself just regarded comic books to be nothing but a passing fad - so there was no incitement to save the originals.
At the time Barks' publisher, Western, employed dozens of artists who were producing a broad variety of comic book titles, and Western had no place for storing the humongous number of finished art sheets. And they didn't think they had any reason to do so. After they had received the material from the artists the large sheets were photographed for printing, whereupon the sheets became unnecessary. They were taken to the publisher's incinerator and unceremoniously burned!

Today we may find some consolation in the fact that about 2% of Barks' artwork has been saved for posterity. There are several reasons for this: some of the artwork was rejected by the publisher (and consequently stayed with Barks), some pages or panels were scrapped (and then filed by Barks), and some pages were rescued from the incinerator by employees at Western. Most of the surviving artwork was later published in various organs such as the Carl Barks Library, but only in the pages of this website will you find a full account of all the finished, i.e. inked, artwork (stories only, not one-pagers and front covers) and what has happened to it.
Much of the material is now in private hands, and it is not the intention of this website to disclose any confidential information about the whereabouts or purchasing prices of the artwork. Still, you will be able to find much new information seasoned with brief comments from Barks himself about his surviving artwork.

Notes:
A. Most of the surviving stories and panels mentioned were in Barks' possession for the rest of his life. He filed the sheets for his own collection - with a few exceptions. He did not keep them to sell them.
B. The drawings used in these pages have all been coloured by the website in order to show them at their best.