Would-be Disney duck artists are especially interested in knowing just how long it takes for a professional to make a finished page for a duck story. Unfortunately, such a question can hardly be answered to everybody's satisfaction, because a lot of factors are involved: How long time will it take for the writer to dream up the plot, make a synopsis, write the detailed manuscript? How long will the artist take to sketch the drawings, confer with the writer, ink the pages? Normally, the task of making a story involves several people starting with the idea man and ending with the colourist, thus it is very hard to assess the actual average time consumption for making, say, one duck story page.
But Carl Barks did it! During the years 1952-1954 he made a list containing the time that was spent to make an average story page. It is very important to understand that Barks' notations were for the graphic part of the page only. Whatever time he used as a writer was never recorded, probably because this process was done on a much more nebulous basis, in which he may have worked with ideas and formulations even when he was doing other things.

The resulting list rendered below in short form carries Barks' own texts (with a few explanatory comments from the editor added), and it gives you a unique insight into Barks' working methods and daily workload at a time when he had become very good and efficient at his job.