The Carl Barks Collection
The Carl Barks Collection is a series of books from the Disney licensee Egmont containing all Disney comics and covers written and/or drawn by Carl Barks, collected in chronological order. It also includes significant textual materials (articles and analysis) written by editor Geoffrey Blum. It was published from 2005 to 2008 in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Germany. It was also published by Sanoma in Finland, although one year after the other countries. The complete set consists of 30 books collected in 10 slipcase boxes, constituting about 8,000 pages (including the articles) or some 500 comic book stories by Barks. The series was only available by subscription. In many aspects the series is similar to Carl Barks Library (CBL) but differs by being published in colour, organizing the stories by date of publication, using only unchanged artwork and containing material not used in CBL, much of it newly discovered and previously unpublished. Blum was a contributing editor to CBL, and his familiarity with the Barks canon and its historic background is the principal reason Egmont hired him. Blum has drawn not only on material that appeared previously in CBL but new research he has undertaken which has resulted in a number of significant discoveries and fresh perspectives on Barks and his creations.
A similar edition was published in Spain, by Planeta deAgostini. It differed from the other editions by not having Blum's articles (having, instead, articles signed by the Barks specialist Alfons Moliné), it was smaller and not in boxes, and it was sold through comic book shops. A book was published approximately every three months, but the collection was stopped after volume 4.
In Norway, a six-volume follow-up series called Carl Barks Ekstra was published 2009–2012. It contains examples of Barks's works outside his Disney comics production. The last four volumes were also published in Sweden, and the last book with paintings and drawings was published in Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Finland.
Editions
Denmark: Carl Barks' Samlede Værker, 1800 numbered copies
Finland: Carl Barksin kootut, 3200 numbered copies
Germany: Carl Barks Collection, 3333 numbered copies
Norway: Carl Barks Samlede Verk, 2500 numbered copies
Sweden: Carl Barks Samlade Verk, 2000 numbered copies
Spain: Biblioteca Carl Barks
Volumes
| Book | Period | Book | Period | Book | Period | Book | Period | Book | Period | Extra | Content | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 1942–1943 | VII | 1949–1950 | XIII | 1954–1955 | XIX | 1959 | XXV | 1963–1964 | E1 | Index | |||||
| II | 1944–1945 | VIII | 1950–1951 | XIV | 1955–1956 | XX | 1959–1960 | XXVI | 1964–1965 | E2 | Calgary Eye-Opener | |||||
| III | 1945–1946 | IX | 1951–1952 | XV | 1956–1957 | XXI | 1960 | XXVII | 1965–1966 | E3 | Who is who in Duckburg | |||||
| IV | 1947 | X | 1952–1953 | XVI | 1957 | XXII | 1960–1961 | XXVIII | 1966–1968 | E4 | The Warner stories | |||||
| V | 1947–1948 | XI | 1953 | XVII | 1957–1958 | XXIII | 1961–1962 | XXIX | 1968–1972 | E5 | Storyboards | |||||
| VI | 1948–1949 | XII | 1954 | XVIII | 1958–1959 | XXIV | 1962–1963 | XXX | 1972–2000 | E6 | Paintings |