Carl Barks Big Book of Barney Bear [Hardcover]

Carl Barks (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2011

Carl Barks tops the list of greatest comic book artists of many devoted fans around the world. He has often been called "The Good Duck Artist" by avid readers of all ages of his Disney Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics. Those Duck stories have been reprinted and loved again and again by millions. But, while the Duck oeuvre is easily obtainable, only a few elite fans have gotten rare glimpses of yet another fabulous, alternate universe that Barks created around the classic animation characters Barney Bear and Benny Burro. Hidden in rare, Golden Age comics only Scrooge McDuck could afford are wonderful, full-color fantasy and fun stories as only Barks can write and draw 'em! Collected for the first time in a deluxe, hardcover, full-color tome, are all of these masterpieces, meticulously restored. The Barks' Bear Book is edited and designed by Eisner-Award-winning comics historian Craig Yoe, with a fascinating introduction and special cover is by Barks-devotee Jeff Smith, the best-selling graphic novelist of the Bone comics series.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: IDW Publishing (September 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600109292
• ISBN-13: 978-1600109294
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #326,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bear with Barks, October 18, 2011

By 

Brent R. Swanson "coffee shop inspector" (Crooper, Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Carl Barks Big Book of Barney Bear (Hardcover)

Barney Bear was a problematic character in his starring cartoons. The best were made by Michael Lah and Preston Blair in the late '40s; these managed to exploit the genial appeal of Barney's overall design. Barney's earlier cartoons moved too slowly to accomplish much, and the later ones directed by Dick Lundy made the character the butt of several recycled Tex Avery gags that seemed more cruel than funny when directed at Barney.

Carl Barks was just getting good and warmed up with the Donald Duck one-shots and the 10-page leads in "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories" when the "Our Gang" backup stories were added to his workload. They represent a yeoman effort on Barks' part. His first couple "Our Gang" stories, which featured Benny Burro alone, are not included here. Too bad, because Benny started fairly strong as a single. Once paired with Barney, Benny's permanent "four-on-the-floor" stature (he was never humanized to the extent of Disney's Horace Horsecollar) left him looking subservient to Barney, who was already something of a bully. At best, these stories are well-crafted, with beginnings, middles, and endings. They're also interesting in their parallels to the stories Barks' was simultaneously producing for "Comics and Stories" as well as later backup stories he would create for the "Uncle Scrooge" title. Mooseface McElk, for instance, has a lot in common with Donald Duck's neighbor Jones.

Early buzz for this book hinted that it would be a color reprint of the 1979 black & white "Barks Bear Book." While the Barney Bear stories are intact, the "Andy Panda" and "Porky of the Mounties," as well as the "Benny Burro" and "Happy Hound" stories in the "Bear Book" are not reprinted here. From an aesthetic standpoint, this doesn't amount to a great loss. Barks admitted he had no knack for the Warner Bros. characters, and the Andy Panda tale is contrived and syrupy at best. The omission of the "Benny Burro" and "Happy Hound" stories is a shame, especially since the latter allowed Barks a little more room as a satirist.

As to the color: I compared a couple of the stories to the original "Our Gang" comics in my collection. IDW has actually printed the pages just a shade darker than the originals, so complaints of the pages looking "washed out" are without basis. Barks himself remarked once that he was more "displeased than pleased" with the coloring of his comics and didn't feel that the coloring improved till quite late in the game. Overall, compared to the rather light quality of the black & white photostats in the "Barks Bear Book" and the completely bush-league job that was done in the short-lived comic book reprints in the '90s, these particular stories look better than they have for a long time.

The Donald Duck stories that Barks produced during this same span of years showed remarkable growth in both storytelling and character development. The Barney Bear stories also evolved, though not as dramatically and certainly not as far. They are good for smiles and chuckles, but collectively, they are not much more than a footnote to the superior work Barks did for the Disney titles.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Facsimilie, October 3, 2011

By 

M. Sonntag "TAG" (SYDNEY, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Carl Barks Big Book of Barney Bear (Hardcover)

One of the things I've noticed of late, people expect reprints to be fully restored. In some cases you can and it looks great. But the reality is, printing in the 40s was done very cheaply which means plates didn't always align and the paper was cheap causing bleeding of inks into the paper creating thicker lines. Now, unless a publisher has access to the original art or proof sheets(most of which were thrown away after use especially by Western Publishing)it is difficult to do anything but reproduce the published pages as they are. The Disney stuff is well preserved, and original art saved, I guess because it was Disney and far more popular hence the great reprints of recent times.

I like this book, it is a trip into the past, you are reading the stories as they were published, this isn't the Disney Barks we all know but it is a fun journey and is still very Barks. If you want modern restored comics this isn't for you, but if you can place the comics back into context of their time then you'll love this. Remember, Barks was doing Disney comics at the same time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, but still a disappointment, January 10, 2012

By 

J. K. Weston "J.K. Weston" (Baltimore, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Carl Barks Big Book of Barney Bear (Hardcover)

"The Carl Barks Big Book of Barney Bear", edited and designed by Craig Yoe, is a pretty nice book, but my strongest reaction to it is the disappointment that it is not the book it should have been and probably will prevent the book it should have been from ever being published, unless, perhaps, hopefully, Yoe already has a second volume planned and is working on getting rights. But you should buy this book anyway if you like the work of Carl Barks.

What it is: A reprint of all 26 Barney Bear and Benny Burro stories published in Our Gang Comics #11-36, drawn and mostly written by Carl Barks; this is the majority of Barks' non-Disney comic book work. It is 8 1/2 by 11 sized in full color scanned from original comic books and it looks pretty good, certainly much better than the Jack Kirby reprint books from DC such as Boy Commandos, which I have also reviewed for Amazon. Printed slightly larger than the original comic books, it looks quite good, and makes a good argument that the DC scanned comics should be printed original size, not reduced by 15-20% as they are in the Archives and Kirby reprints. I do have all the original comics reprinted in this book (and the ones that were omitted but should have been included), and I compared some of the originals to the reprints. The reprint books are close to the originals in color but are also darker, which is not a major problem, though it does obscure Barks fine lines a little in places.

Oddly, the book lacks a table of contents, though it has an index, several essays, other examples of Barks' work, photos, reprints of posters for Barney Bear cartoons, and at least one blank page where a table of contents could have been put.

What it lacks: First off, it lacks the Benny Burro solo stories in Our Gang Comics #8, 9, and 10. Second, it lacks the Droopy stories (actually titled Happy Hound) in Our Gang Comics #9 and 10. Third, it lacks the three Droopy stories Barks wrote and Harvey Eisenburg drew for Tom and Jerry's Winter Carnival and Tom and Jerry's Summer Fun in the early 1950s. And all of this is MGM material just like the Barney and Benny stories and could and should have been licensed at the same time. So the book should have at least had all of the MGM material.

Fourth it lacks the Andy Panda story from New Funnies #76. And finally it lacks the Porky Pig story from Four Color Comics #48. A book containing these additional stories would have had to have been a little fatter and cost a little more. But surely, anyone willing to pay $35 for the Barney and Benny stories would have been even happier to pay $50 for the complete non-Disney stories of Carl Barks. And probably a significantly larger audience would have been there for such a volume, because it would contain ALL of Barks' non-Disney comic book work together in one fairly luxurious but still compact volume.

That volume will likely not be published in this generation because of this volume. And that is my complaint with this book. Now it is possible that since Andy Panda is a Walter Lantz property and Porky Pig is a Warner Brothers property, it would have been difficult or impossible to get rights to have all that in the same book, but then, at least all the MGM properties should have been published together.

But perhaps Yoe is working on a second volume of the material missing from this one. At only about 96 pages, it would be a slim volume. But I hope so. Still, this book, is well produced otherwise, a bargain, and well worth buying. But it is still a disappointment.