With Carl Barks, it's not too much of a stretch to say that he was the first comic book artist to make me distinguish and self-select comics based on who drew them, even though I had not a clue who did it. For the vast majority of Carl Barks' professional life, he was essentially anonymous. He was only known as "the good Duck artist." Until dogged fans finally dragged the information out of Dell/Western in the seventies, Carl Barks had drawn various ducks and other characters since the early forties without so much as a story credit. By his retirement he had written and drawn over 500 stories. Thankfully, in the last decades of his long life (he lived until the ripe old age of 99 and passed away in the year 2000), he was recognized for his brilliance, and his oil paintings reimagining old duck covers and concepts provided a good post-retirement income stream (one painting selling for over $140,000 among two collectors). He created most of the Duckburg universe, including Uncle Scrooge, Magica De Spell, the Beagle Boys, Gladstone Gander, Gyro Gearloose, the money bin, the Junior Woodchucks, and the number one dime.
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