Post by Mesterius on Apr 29, 2020 22:03:02 GMT
Hmmm... Strobl's index is working on my end. Anyway, yeah, seems there is usually always someone else credited with inking his stuff.
Actually, though, the switch to the cheaper drawing paper you're describing happened in 1955 (as evidenced from several interviews with Barks, and from the gradual decline in his drawings from sometimes in 1955 onwards).
cbarks.dk claims that the first paper switch happened in 1957, but I think you can easily see Barks' art getting stiffer before that, too:
One of the most cost intensive entries in a publisher's budget is the vast mounds of sheets of fine paper used for the artists' artwork. It was therefore natural that Western tended to experiment with different sheet makes and qualities in order to bring down the costs.
The most striking example of these efforts took place in 1957, when a German product was introduced to all of Western's drawing artists. It came from the (then West) German manufacturer Schoellershammer situated in the city of Düren in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia) but it was not well received by Barks (the following two commentaries were made on different occasions):
1. Then they got to buying some West German paper that was coated with kind of a clay surface, and it was very difficult to draw on. They got it much cheaper, they´d buy it in trainload lots, I guess. There were so many complaints coming in from the artists on the first batch of that stuff, they got this German company to make a better grade.
2. The company got a whole bunch of it in from Germany that was coated with a kind of soft chalk, and whenever I would make my rough drawing, the pen would make little trenches. I've always drawn that duck too tall, and with good paper I would just erase it and redraw him. But since there was a trench already made there by my pencil from making that tall duck, I was always getting my pen line stuck in that trench, and drawing him that way anyway. So I thought Oh heck with this, I'll just draw that duck the way he comes out in the first rough. If nobody likes it, why they better get me some better paper. So they did - in a couple of years' time...
Barks was not alone in criticizing the German product as most of Western's drawing artists worked with hard pens, but presumably the artists working with soft brushes did not have the same problems, because a brush would not dig itself into the paper's surface. Anyway, the clay coating problem was soon remedied: The company that made this new paper discovered themselves that the paper was too soft on the surface and started turning out a good product. So all of a sudden my paper was nice and firm again, and I was able to draw like I wanted to.
It is possible that the German sheets came from a series called Schoeller Durex, and that the product was responsible for the elongated ducks present in the 1957-60 stories (...)
The most striking example of these efforts took place in 1957, when a German product was introduced to all of Western's drawing artists. It came from the (then West) German manufacturer Schoellershammer situated in the city of Düren in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia) but it was not well received by Barks (the following two commentaries were made on different occasions):
1. Then they got to buying some West German paper that was coated with kind of a clay surface, and it was very difficult to draw on. They got it much cheaper, they´d buy it in trainload lots, I guess. There were so many complaints coming in from the artists on the first batch of that stuff, they got this German company to make a better grade.
2. The company got a whole bunch of it in from Germany that was coated with a kind of soft chalk, and whenever I would make my rough drawing, the pen would make little trenches. I've always drawn that duck too tall, and with good paper I would just erase it and redraw him. But since there was a trench already made there by my pencil from making that tall duck, I was always getting my pen line stuck in that trench, and drawing him that way anyway. So I thought Oh heck with this, I'll just draw that duck the way he comes out in the first rough. If nobody likes it, why they better get me some better paper. So they did - in a couple of years' time...
Barks was not alone in criticizing the German product as most of Western's drawing artists worked with hard pens, but presumably the artists working with soft brushes did not have the same problems, because a brush would not dig itself into the paper's surface. Anyway, the clay coating problem was soon remedied: The company that made this new paper discovered themselves that the paper was too soft on the surface and started turning out a good product. So all of a sudden my paper was nice and firm again, and I was able to draw like I wanted to.
It is possible that the German sheets came from a series called Schoeller Durex, and that the product was responsible for the elongated ducks present in the 1957-60 stories (...)
Maybe there were actually three paper switches in total, with the second one occurring in early '59... but I've never heard about that before. Though, in a letter written to a fan in 1960, Barks mentioned "a recent temporary period" with better paper again:
Some writers have wondered about changes in the duck's appearance over the years. Perhaps you, too, have noticed that his beak is shorter and his legs vary in length at times. These changes happen mostly from switching the grade of paper I draw on. In the old days I was furnished the best grade of Strathmore, and my style was more detailed and the characters more expressive. Nowadays (except for a recent temporary period) the paper furnished us artists has been a clay-coated import from Germany. The pencil and pen digs into the surface. The result has been a tightening of the lines, less bounce to the characters. I've griped, but the economy of the cheaper paper wins out in the front office.