The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library
The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library is a series of books collecting all of the comic book Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories written and drawn by Carl Barks, originally published between 1942 and Barks' retirement in June 1966. The series was launched in late 2011, and will comprise 6,000 pages over roughly 30 200- to 240-page volumes when it is finished.
The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library has been translated and published in Italy, Brazil and Russia.
Background
The rights to Barks' works were licensed from Disney by Gemstone Publishing from 2003 until the end of 2008, when they ceased publishing Disney titles. When Fantagraphics Books publisher Gary Groth heard this, he contacted Disney and secured the publishing rights to Floyd Gottfredson's work on the Mickey Mouse comic strip, resulting in the Floyd Gottfredson Library series that began publication in mid-2011. Groth also tried to obtain the publishing rights to Barks' duck stories. Disney at first announced they would publish the stories themselves, but eventually changed their minds and passed the work on to Fantagraphics. In 2014, Fantagraphics also began publishing a companion series, The Don Rosa Library, collecting the Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck stories written and drawn by Don Rosa.Format
Barks' duck stories have been reprinted extensively, especially in Europe. Before Fantagraphics there were two complete collections in English published by Another Rainbow. The first was the expensive, scholarly Carl Barks Library in 30 hardcover volumes collected in ten slipcase volumes with three books in each, which was in black-and-white. The second was Carl Barks Library in Color in softcover album format with modern colouring.Fantagraphics' 7.5 inches × 10.25 inches hardcover volumes are published in full color, as the stories originally were. When the series is complete, it will represent a chronological collection of Barks' stories. However, the volumes of the stories are being published out of order, starting with the volumes that the publishers believe will attract the most attention, starting with Lost in the Andes!, a volume containing stories from what is considered to be Barks' "peak" period, including the title story "Lost in the Andes", which many fans consider to be representative of Barks' best work, and was Barks' own favorite.
The design work was done by Fantagraphics' lead designer, Jacob Covey. The pages are recolored by Rich Tommaso, using the original comics as a coloring guide, unlike some of Fantagraphics' more scholarly reprints, as the books are aimed at a more general audience than many of Fantagraphics' other offerings, which are often aimed at the comics cognoscenti.
The books are about 240 pages each—about 200 pages of comics, with the remaining pages made up of supplementary material, such as cover reprints and essays.
Restoration
The books are completely uncensored, including the racial caricatures that appeared in the originals that had been retouched in later reprintings. Some stories were printed from recently rediscovered original artwork, for the first time since their original printings.Fantagraphics chose to have the artwork computer-recolored, using the original comics as color guides, rather than reprinting with the original off-register colors as they have in many of their other archival projects. Colorist Rich Tommaso has stuck closely to the original colors, although muting the originally garish ones somewhat in a concession to modern readers. Sometimes the colors were changed when it was known that Barks hadn't liked them, or when it was felt they could be corrected or improved.
Recognition
- 2013 - The volume Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man was nominated for the Eisner Award in the category, "Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Books".
- 2015 - The volume Donald Duck: Trail of the Unicorn was nominated for the Eisner Award in the category, "Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Books ".
Volumes and boxed sets
Box sets
| Vol. | Release order & date | Title figure | Title | Volumes | ISBN |
| N/A | 1: 2013-11-10 | Donald Duck | "Christmas Treasury Gift Box Set" | 5 & 11 | |
| N/A | 2: 2014-10-18 | Donald Duck | "Lost In The Andes" & "Trail Of The Unicorn" | 7 & 8 | |
| N/A | 3: 2015-11-23 | Uncle Scrooge | "Only A Poor Old Man" & "The Seven Cities Of Gold" | 12 & 14 | |
| N/A | 4: 2016-09-13 | Donald Duck | "Christmas On Bear Mountain" & "The Old Castle's Secret" | 5 & 6 | |
| N/A | 5: 2017-09-19 | Donald Duck | "The Pixilated Parrot" & "Terror of The Beagle Boys" | 9 & 10 | |
| N/A | 6: 2018-09-25 | Donald Duck | "A Christmas for Shacktown" & "Trick or Treat" | 11 & 13 | |
| N/A | 7: 2019-10-15 | Donald Duck | "The Ghost Sheriff of Last Gasp" & "Secret of Hondorica" | 15 & 17 | |
| N/A | 8: 2020-09-08 | Donald Duck | "The Lost Peg Leg Mine" & "The Black Pearls of Tabu Yama" | 18 & 19 |
Related
Free Comic Book Day 2012In 2011 it was announced that Fantagrapics would participate in the Free Comic Book Day promotion campaign in May, 2012. For this occasion they would release a comic book titled, , an issue featuring reprinted duck stories by Carl Barks.. The issue contained the three stories: The Round Money Bin, Donald Duck's Worst Nightmare and Somethin' Fishy Here, as well as eight one-page gag comics.
Foreign versions
Italian version
The Italian version is titled Carl Barks Rizzoli Lizard and was published by :it:Rizzoli Lizard|Rizzoli Lizard in 2012-2013 before being canceled after the second volume.| Vol. | Release order & date | Title figure | Title | Period | Page count | ISBN | Inducks link |
| 7 | 1: 2012-11 | Donald Duck | “Il mistero degli Incas” | 1948–1949 | 240 | ||
| 12 | 2: 2013-6 | Uncle Scrooge | “La disfida dei dollari” | 1952–1954 | 240 |
Brazilian version
The Brazilian version is titled Coleção Carl Barks Definitiva and was initially published by Editora Abril in 2016–2018, when the publication was canceled. In November 2019, Panini Brasil Ltda resumed the collection.| Vol. | Released | Title figure | Title | Period | Page count | ISBN | Inducks link |
| 5 | 2016-11 | Donald Duck | “Natal nas Montanhas” | 1947 | 220 | ||
| 6 | 2016-10 | Donald Duck | “O Segredo do Castelo” | 1948 | 244 | ||
| 7 | 2016-08 | Donald Duck | “Perdidos Nos Andes!” | 1948–1949 | 244 | ||
| 8 | 2016-12 | Donald Duck | “Em Busca Do Unicórnio” | 1949–1950 | 244 | ||
| 9 | 2017-04 | Donald Duck | “O Papagaio Contador” | 1950 | 220 | ||
| 10 | 2017-07 | Donald Duck | “O Vil Metal e os Vilões” | 1951 | 236 | ||
| 11 | 2020-01 | Donald Duck | "O Trenzinho da Alegria" | 1951-1952 | 200 | ||
| 12 | 2020-02 | Uncle Scrooge | "Nadando em Dinheiro" | 1952-1954 | 200 | ||
| 13 | 2017-09 | Donald Duck | “A Noite Das Bruxas” | 1952–1953 | 228 | ||
| 14 | 2020-06 | Uncle Scrooge | "As Cidades do Ouro" | 1954-1955 | 200 | ||
| 15 | 2017-02-24 | Donald Duck | “A Cidade Fantasma” | 1953–1955 | 252 | ||
| 16 | 2019-11 | Uncle Scrooge | "A Coroa Perdida de Gengis Khan" | 1956-1957 | 200 | ||
| 17 | 2018-01 | Donald Duck | "O Segredo de Hondorica" | 1955-1956 | 200 | ||
| 18 | 2018-03 | Donald Duck | "A Mina Perdida do Perneta"'' | 1956-1957 | 200 |
Russian version
The Russian version is titled Библиотека Карла Баркса and is published by АСТ since 2017.| Vol. | Release order & date | Title figure | Title | Period | Page count | ISBN | Inducks link |
| 12 | 1: 2017-04-03 | Uncle Scrooge | “Всего лишь бедный старичок” | 1952–1954 | 248 | ||
| 5 | 2: 2017-11-01 | Donald Duck | “Рождество на Медвежьей горе” | 1947 | 216 | ||
| 14 | 3: 2017-12-07 | Uncle Scrooge | “Семь золотых городов” | 1954–1955 | 240 | ||
| 6 | 4: 2018-03-26 | Donald Duck | “Тайна старого замка” | 1948 | 232 | ||
| 7 | 5: 2018-08-15 | Donald Duck | "Затерянные в Андах" | 1948-1949 | 240 | ||
| 8 | 6: 2018-12-04 | Donald Duck | "След единорога" | 1949-1950 | 224 |