Carl Barks

Carl Barks was an artist and comic book artist from the USA. He is best known for Donald Duck comics. Although he did not invent the character, he wrote many stories with him for the Disney company and came up with other characters.

He was born in 1901 in Merrill, Oregon. He grew up on a farm and showed early on that he liked to draw. In the years after 1920 he drew cartoons for various newspapers and magazines.

In 1935 Barks was hired by the Disney company. For about 30 years he was then the most important artist of the Disney comics. He came up with the stories himself and then drew them.

The most famous character Barks came up with is Scrooge McDuck. This is Donald's uncle and the richest duck in the world. Scrooge is very stingy and lives in a money bin where he keeps his vast fortune. Other characters created by Barks are, for example, the Beagle Boys, a gang of criminals who want to steal Scrooge's money. The inventor Gyro Gearloose, the lucky Gustav Goose and Mac Moneysac, Scrooge's rival and the second richest duck in the world, invented by Carl Barks.

Barks was known for exciting stories and his attention to detail. His way of drawing was clear and simple. He received many awards and honours for his work. He died in the year 2000. He was 99 years old then.