THEUNPUBLISHED

Carl Barks drew thousands upon thousands of images which have never been published. There is a good reason for that. When any artist sits down to produce, for instance, a front cover, he will sketch the theme many times - drawing many different ideas of which only one will finally get inked and published. These preliminary sketches are rarely filed away. This is also what usually happens to the multitude of ideas the artist gets during his day. However, Barks kept a whole cabinet of unused ideas and gags on file. He would from time to time look into it for ideas though he never actually used any.
So it is hard to track down images and ideas that were never published but a few of them have survived. This is a small collection.

IDEAS
U$10	In 1955 Barks was asked by the Disney Studio if he would be free to write a script for a Scrooge animated cartoon. At the time Scrooge was a great success in the comic books and Disney now wanted to introduce the miserly duck to theater audiences as well. Not only was Barks free - just 6 days later he delivered a 9-page script (which has since been lost). The script was accompanied by a synopsis telling the story of the happy-go-lucky Donald Duck working for the troubled Scrooge who tries to save his money from a hungry rat. The script was never used as Disney soon after decided to concentrate on TV shows instead. However, one idea from the story survived and the resulting drawing was published as the front cover for U$10.
SFR8/1964	In 1962 Barks suggested that the popular story Swiss Family Robinson should be adapted into a space odyssey. His publisher at Western, Craig Chase, filed the letter but later he decided to give the idea a chance. Since then Space Family Robinson ran for many years in comic books and as a TV series called Lost in Space. In 1998 it was even made into a film based on the TV series.

COMIC STORIES

In 1952 Barks wrote and drew a 10-page Donald Duck story titled The Golden Apples but it was vetoed by the editor. It has since been lost. To the best of Barks' recollection it was built on the Greek myth of The Apples of the Hesperides, and took place during an apple festival at which Daisy appeared as a jealous and crusty battle axe. It was her temperament that got it rejected.

In 1957 Barks wrote another 10-pager which was never published. It was titled Bobsled Race. The plot circled around heated discussions between Donald and the nephews but that was too violent for the editor. It has since been lost.

In 1961 Barks had intentions of making a U$-story about floods in Egypt inspired by the ongoing Aswan Dam project. In a letter to a friend he wrote: I'm kind of mulling the idea of having him take a contract to move the ancient Egyptian palaces and statues that are threatened with flooding by the Aswan Dam. Naturally, he finds a hidden shaft leading down into the bowels of history, and therein finds uncountable tons of sparklers. The rains come early to the Ethiopian highlands, the Nile rushes toward the newly completed dam. The shaft and all the toiling ducks in the awesome treasure pits will be submerged as the roiling torrent slams against the unyielding barrier of the towering new dam. Does Uncle Scrooge get the rocks out of the cellar in time? However, Barks scrapped the idea fearing that it might turn out to be too political.

ALTERED STORY TITLES

(Lost in Davy Jones' Locker)

Throughout his comic book career Barks named several of his adventure stories differently from what they turned out to be known as. Here are some examples:
U$46 should have been either Strangers under the Sea or Lost in Davy Jones' Locker but was finally named Lost beneath the Sea. U$50 was supposed to be titled Rug Bugs in Old Bugdud but ended up as Rug Riders in the Sky. And U$63 was titled His Shining Hour by Barks but the publisher changed it to House of Haunts.

In the 1980s Barks was asked to give titles to some of his untitled adventure stories. Here are some examples:
FC0495 is commonly known as the Horse-Radish Story but Barks now suggested it to be Trouble from Long Ago. He also suggested these titles: U$04 The Menehune Mystery, U$05 The Secret of Atlantis, U$06 Tralla La, U$07 The Seven Cities of Cibola and U$08 The Mysterious Stone Ray.

SKETCHES
FC1329 When Barks made a cover he would send a handful of idea sketches to choose from to a Western editor who usually picked one for publishing. No telling how many ideas went straight into their big wastebaskets...
(U$19)	Barks drew many sketches as suggestions for covers of many of his adventure stories. Some were used, many were not. This example shows one of his versions for U$19 The Mines of King Solomon but as it turned out the editor had already decided on a gag cover - also by Barks - instead.
Dam Disaster at Money Lake (131/1986) Barks always made numerous sketches for his paintings. He would divide the picture area into smaller areas and then sketch on tissue paper which - because of its transparency - enabled him to move the different tissues around on the painting area in order to find the best composition.
Sketch (1994)	When visiting Europe in 1994, Barks drew a small number of 'national' sketches in some of the countries. Before leaving Denmark, Barks drew and coloured this sketch, which was later lithographed in a limited edition of just 54 copies. The 93-year youngster had not forgotten his vocation...

FILMS
Northwest Mounted (1936) Barks wrote a story in which Black Pete kidnaps Minnie Mouse in order to force her into showing him to a gold mine but Mickey Mouse intervenes. Barks drew 400 storyboard sketches plus modelsheets showing Mickey and his horse Tanglefoot. The story was later shelved.	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) In 1936 Barks contributed a few gags to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when it was still in the planning stage. None of them were used in the final film a year later. This sketch is from a sequence in which all sorts of accidents happen following Sneezy's 'outburst'.
Barks also contributed another gag for Snow White, this time using 4 sketches depicting a looper measuring out a board of wood for the dwarfs. This gag, however, was not accepted either.
Nightwatchman Donald (1937) As a nightwatchman in a department store Donald Duck chases an uncooperative monkey. Barks wrote and storyboarded most of the cartoon which was never finished.	The Fire Chief (1940) Fire chief Donald Duck sets fire to his own station house and tries to put out the flames using gasoline by mistake. Barks contributed this scene which was later omitted.
. . .. Bambi (1942) While Barks was working in the story department at the Disney studios he got the opportunity to contribute gags for the upcoming Bambi feature animated film. He hatched the memorable scene in which the faun encounters an icy lake for the first time in its life. Barks even made numerous sketches of which a few are seen here. He also worked as an in-betweener on a scene in which two squirrels try to crack a nut, but that scene was later scrapped.

BOOKS
Donald Duck and the Christmas Carol (1958) The book was a free adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novel 'A Christmas Carol'. Barks, who worked from texts written by Annie North Bedford, merely made detailed pencil sketches for this story which were rendered into watercolours by Norman McGary. Barks furnished 14 single-page and 5 double-page illustrations including the title page and the imprint page. Originally the book was supposed to carry the title 'Uncle Scrooge and the Christmas Carol', for which Barks worked on a cover. However, in the end the editors preferred to give Donald the starring role and ordered the cover from another artist.
The Lemonade King (1959) Barks was working from texts written by Annie North Bedford, and he drew detailed pencil sketches for the story which were later rendered into watercolours by Norman McGary. Barks furnished 17 single-page and 5 double-page illustrations. Observe how faithfully Barks' sketch was at first transferred into a watercolour before the publisher decided on a slightly different layout in order to make the scene less crowded. The nephews - who were not in the story after all - had to go.