It is not commonly recognized that Carl Barks' employer Western Publishing, besides his numerous Disney comic book stories actually produced several hardcover children's books containing his material as well (see more HERE). Most of the issues did not involve Barks, as Western simply published series of children's books under diverse subsidiary names featuring stories or parts of stories that he had made previously, and normally he was not even credited. The only exception came in TTT2465 The Lemonade King from 1960. This is the story.
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THE WORK |
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Short s ynopsis:Scrooge McDuck's lemonade stand at the beach has dwindling sales since a competitor, Lemonade Leo, entered the scene. Donald Duck suggests that Scrooge begins to sell larger amounts of his lemonade. This happens by the bucket size which turns out to be a success amongst the thirsty customers, but soon after Leo sells by the barrel. Then Scrooge sells in bathtub sizes, and right after Leo starts selling by the truckloads. Finally, Leo gives up when Scrooge fills an entire lake with lemonade... A few comments: Barks received instructions on how to go about his artwork. Examples: The illustrations should be kept at least ¼" from the texts and at least ½" away from the center fold, they should be rendered in at least 1 and ⅓" of the printed size, and they should fit to the arrangement of texts. Barks worked from texts written by author Annie North Bedford (née Jane Werner Watson), who also wrote a free adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novel 'A Christmas Carol' for another Barks book (see more later). McGary worked under diverse aliases such as Norm or Norman as his Christian name, and McGary, Mc Gary, and Mac Gary as his family name. He worked for several comic book studios as an illustrator, and at Disney's he is especially known for his watercolour front cover versions of sketches by the duckman Tony Strobl and the mouseman Paul Murry. Although McGary attempted to follow Barks' precise artwork to the letter, he strayed a few times. Examples are several of the portrayed children that Barks had drawn as animal characters. McGary changed them into human ones. Barks recalled: I think I asked Tom McKimson (Western's children's books editor at the time - Editor's remark) once for a change to do some illustrating for such books. I had an idea it would add glamor to my name. The scripts sent to me were in the form of dummy books. The type was pasted into place on the pages, and the blank paper was left where the illustrations were to fit. My drawings were to be in cleaned-up pencil on thin paper that could be put on a lighted board. The finish-up artist then laid good watercolor paper over the pencil drawings and traced off the lines with the aid of the illumination from beneath. I had no say as to what colors he would use in painting the final art. In a 1974 interview Barks said that he had anticipated that the artwork 'would be pleasant, and a nice break', but that it was instead too exacting, because the pencil drawings had to be precise guides for the colour artist. |
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THE FRONT COVER |
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As usual, Barks made a number of idea sketches before he made his choice. In one he had Scrooge bearing the book's title on a handheld sign (1), and in another he had him sitting on top of a giant lemon dressed as a king in the middle of a fruit bowl sipping lemonade from a big glass, while his nephews are filling their glasses. The submitted choice was rather similar except that Scrooge's giant lemon is now sitting on a mound of normal-sized lemons, while his nephews are presenting empty glasses (2). McGary then painted a 'zeroing-in' version of that drawing (3). But the book version omits Donald's nephews (who were not in the story anyway!), and transferred Donald to the other side for a better balancing of the motif (4). |
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THE STORY |
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Below you are presented to the 5 double-page illustrations from the story: To the left is Barks' finished sketch, in the middle the relevant text for that particular situation, and to the right McGary's finished art. |
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BONUS |
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Earlier, Barks had worked on two other children's books but without receiving any credit: |
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Synopsis: Comments:
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Synopsis: Comments:
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http://www.cbarks.dk/THELEMONADESTORY.htm |
Date 2017-07-25 |
