Book Description

Ten stories by Carl Barks in this book, mostly unavailable since their original printings in comic books, are collected here together for the first time. The stories include 3 early Benny Burro stories, 2 early Droopy stories (actually titled Happy Hound), and an Andy Panda story from 1943, a 24 page Porky Pig story from 1944, and 3 more Droopy stories from 1952 and 1953. Also included are 2 Barney Bear and Benny Burro stories from 1945. All of the stories are sourced from high quality masters except for three for which there are no known surviving masters: Andy Panda, Porky Pig, and one of the 1953 Droopy stories. As collected in this book, newly colored and sourced from original masters, the stories look much better in this book than in previous printings. In this edition, the Porky Pig story has been newly restored with new black line plates and completely recolored. It looks much better than the original printing or any subsequent reprints. The Andy Panda and 1953 Droopy story also have been restored with new black line plates and their color has been cleaned up and partially recolored; this also represents a significant improvement over an earlier edition of this book. The 2 Happy Hound stories were altered from the way Barks drew them before their original publication and appear in restored versions which are intended to showcase them as Barks originally intended for them to be seen. The same is true for the 2 Barney Bear and Benny Burro stories; indeed, that is the reason for their inclusion here, despite being reprinted in another book recently. All 26 Barney Bear and Benny Burro stories, the bulk of Barks' non-Disney work, are in print in the USA in another book, The Carl Barks Big Book of Barney Bear; unfortunately original masters were not used for their reproduction.*******Every story that Carl Barks wrote or drew featuring Disney characters during his career as a comic book creator has been reprinted, often many times, in comic books and albums, and books. The Disney work is the most important of Barks' work, but Barks also wrote and/or drew 36 other comic book stories featuring non-Disney characters between 1943 and 1953; these have been less-well served in reprinting and are much less well-known. They are generally comparable in quality to the average of the Donald Duck work he was doing at the same time. A few of them are quite creative and delightful, and stand well with the best short story work he was doing at the time. Most of them have been out-of-print since their publication decades ago in comic books. This book is intended to remedy that situation.*******When combined with Craig Yoe and IDW's The Carl Barks Big Book of Barney Bear, The Unavailable Carl Barks (in color) brings back into print all of the non-Disney comic book stories written and/or drawn by Carl Barks. Owners of the earlier edition of The Unavailable Carl Barks (in color) may also be interested in Restoring Carl Barks, a short book which collects only the same newly restored versions of the Porky Pig, Andy Panda, and 1953 Droopy story that appear in this revised edition.