UnBarks It: Big-Top Bedlam

Analysing the work of Duck-man Carl Barks, part 4

I love reading and re-reading the Duck-stories that were written and drawn by Carl Barks, the Disney artist responsible for the creation of Duckburg with all its inhabitants.

I’ve found another gem of a story for analysis: Big-Top Bedlam, in which Donald loses Daisy’s heirloom brooch and goes looking for it in the circus…

The story was created in 1950 and published in Holland in 1980 in the album ‘Donald Duck als circusclown’ (cover by Daan Jippes)

I chose this sequence to “UnBarks”:

Daisy’s brooch, smelling of fish, is stolen by a stray cat

I’ve redrawn it instinctively, using my own style and “feel” for visual storytelling:

Now let’s compare:

I can see where my style is influenced by Barks: the flying hat for instance - only I’m over-using it, where Barks saves it for emphasis.

Observant readers have of course noticed something else: Barks’ panels are not square! He laid them out to create a specific dynamic:

I was always taught you should draw action from left to right. But you don’t have to! Barks creates four opposing arrows here, making the sequence exciting and fresh!

This is just a small foreboding of what he does in the rest of the story. Once Donald enters the circus and the show starts, the feeling of excitement, speed and action is directly visible in the panel layout and the direction of the action:

And more:

Intriguingly,I was never aware of all of this as a reader. I was just swept up in the story. But once you start analysing panel by panel, it becomes obvious how aware Barks was of the effect of his panel layout.

Okay, one more - at the end of the story Donald loses the brooch AGAIN, mirroring the sequence at the beginning:

Note how the action arrows are three-dimensional here: the action is coming right at the reader in panel three!

I’m not the first to UnBarks this story: in 1955 it was printed in the Franco-Belgian Mickey Magazine, in big pages that totally destroyed Barks’ thoughtfully laid out style:

What am I taking away from this? I resolve to pay more attention to the direction of the action in my comics and to not be afraid to switch it up - left to right is not a rule. And sometimes it’s exciting to draw the action coming right at the reader! Also, I will deliberate more about when to have a hat fly off.

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If you enjoyed this UnBarksing, you may want to check out others here, here and here.