THEHEATWAVEPAINTING

One of the many oil paintings Carl Barks made featuring the characters from the Disney duck universe was based on one of his comic book front covers. This is especially interesting as it was also the first front cover in a continuous line Barks had published, so it appealed to the special purchaser of the resulting painting for that reason also. The painting was made in 1996 during the second period that Barks had Disney's permission to produce Disney paintings that ran during the 1980s and 1990s and it is titled Heat Wave. This is the story.

THE TRIGGER

WDCS095 - August 1948

This is the front cover that triggered Barks' later painting. It was his first published cover during his long comic book career, and as such it might have held a certain reverence to him. At least Barks actually painted a rendering of the cover already in 1975 and it was officially numbered and titled 12-75 Heat Wave, but for some unknown reason set aside in a closet and marked Unfinished although it was indeed booked!
At the time it would probably have fetched 800-900 dollars.

No further records of the scrapped painting have survived, but it is plausible that it was more or less identical to the one made 21 years later. Maybe it was even the same that 'just' got a brush off...

THE PAINTING

Heat Wave - 1996

When Barks entered his second permission periode two major alterations were made: 1. He mostly made his paintings to be later reproduced as lithographs/serigraphs, and 2. He gave up his former system of numbering the paintings starting afresh each year (example 12-75 meaning his 12th official painting in 1975), only to furnish the new paintings with continuous numbers from the beginning of his Disney painting era. This means that the official coding of the above painting actually reads 146-96!
The painting measures 16x20" (405x510mms), and it was sold to the Danish Egmont Publishing Corporation (the world's largest publisher of comic books) for 40,000 dollars.

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There are quite a few differences between the initial front cover and the painting. This is not surprising as the works were made in portrait and landscape formats respectively meaning that Barks had different 'spaces' to fill. The most significant alteration is his adding of the nephews, who now have ample space to be included. Furthermore, the name of the fictitious newspaper differs slightly from that on the front cover (see more names HERE (top section)). Also, pay attention to the presence of the Saint Bernard dog, Bolivar, who was only used in one other painting, namely in 1-74 Snow Fun.
But the most 'disturbing' difference surely is that the overall motif has switched from a moderate gag situation in the front cover to a genuine horror scene in the painting, which is no longer remotely funny! Although it would seem that the family was warned about some approaching, serious weather conditions via the newspaper headline, we actually seem to be witnessing the deplorable demise of 5 ducks (the family plus the lifeguard). Chilling, to say the least...

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As if this is not enough the painting is filled with peculiarities, which are probably not always immediately registered (anyway, it was of course Barks' prerogative to paint exactly what he wished!!!). Here is a short breakdown of some of the curious results:
The sky under a scorching sun should be equally blue all over, and not lighter blue to one side ● The lifeguard lies half-roasted under a protective umbrella ● Bolivar can only have walked a very short distance, or else the ice cubes would have melted ● How will the thirsty ducks pay for their drinks, and what about a bottle opener? ● None of the Ducks are visibly sweating as Donald did in the front cover ● Ducks (or other birds) do not get sunburns because of their special skin structure. Only humans (and other mammals) do. ● The sun must be scorching the family's protective feathers sooner than their skin ● Donald's glasses are a mystery; either they are reading glasses (in which case he should remove them from his head in order to avoid a magnifying glass effect) or they are sunglasses (in which case he is better off wearing them) ● The nephews are wearing the expected swimsuit colours red, blue, and green, but one suit is striped ● Barks did not normally draw eyebrows on the nephews ● The Ducks could easily have withdrawn from the heat as there are shadows from dune formations in the foreground...

THE SERIGRAPHS

Barks had a number of lithographs and/or serigraphs made for each of his newer paintings. Heat Wave was exclusively made as a serigraph* and 400 were produced (a run of 195 slightly smaller pieces were specially made for the 1998 Disneyana Convention). They were all signed by Barks and this was also true as for the accompanying Certificates of Authenticity. Barks 'booked' the certificates by mentioning the total number. Notice that the working title for the painting (somewhat puzzling!) is referred to as Sunburn Ducks!

* There are huge technical differences between lithographs and serigraphs. A lithograph is made as a very high quality machine printed image made from a 4-colour separation process, while a serigraph consists of silk screened images that have been thoroughly scanned into a great variety of colour tones (typically between 80 and 130 individual colours!). Each resulting silk screen is applied by hand and allowed to dry for at least 24 hours, before the next colour is applied. This daunting process might take up to 6 months to finish.
Of course, the processes influence greatly on two major things: The number of work-heavy serigraphs would be considerably lower than the number of machine-made lithographs, and the prices of the items would be equally different.