Carl Barks released dozens of rare lithographs, serigraphs, and other works of art throughout his career, most featuring Scrooge McDuck and his family.
Through several of our operating companies, as well as personally, we have begun the process of building a substantial Carl Barks collection of art, comics, and merchandise. For those who don’t know, Barks is the genius who invented Scrooge McDuck and who served as the comic book creator for the Walt Disney comics for decades, both in the Uncle Scrooge comics and the Donald Duck comics.
Why Carl Barks art and comics? There are several reasons: 1. You all know I loved Scrooge McDuck growing up because he spent his days traveling the world, playing with his companies, and starting new adventures with friends and family. Through Ducktales and NES games, Scrooge was an important part of my life. Later, when I first began working for my parents when they started their company, I would bill them for the work I did using an invoice that featured an image of Scrooge McDuck playing with his money. As a sophomore in high school, I discovered some of Carl Bark’s work and fell in love immediately. I swore that someday I’d own a collection.
Given that I have a hard time buying anything that decreases in value, acquiring rare lithographs, serigraphs, and (someday) original paintings, means that I don’t have to worry about spending money and lowering my net worth. At the same time, I get the emotional and psychological benefits of spending money. It was the perfect fit for my personality, history, and balance sheet.
Through auction houses, professional buyers, and private market sales, we have been silently building our Carl Barks collection, along with the Monopoly collection and rare book collection. Most of these are stored in safe deposit boxes or our Kansas City offices. As we get our hands on new pieces, we will work to update the data on here. If you buy or sell Carl Barks artwork, get in touch with us because we may be interested in doing business.
“Scrooge McDuck and Money” Limited Edition Hand Painted Cel (#117 out of 500)
This is the image that I used to put on my invoices when I billed my parents for working at their company during childhood. That stream of earnings helped me buy my first stocks and, today, one of the rare originals sits in my office, paired with the matching Scrooge McDuck and Money figurine. In the picture to the right, I have it sitting on a display table next to the limited edition Uncle Scrooge McDuck by Carl Barks. I’ll write about each of those collectibles in their own entry, though, because they are certainly worthy of discussion.
You can read more about the Scrooge McDuck and Money cel and how we bought ours for next to nothing as a phone bidder for a Dallas animation auction.
“Breakfast of Tycoons” Limited Edition Serigraph (#243 out of 295)
As we mentioned in the post where we explained that we had acquired the piece, Breakfast of Tycoons is held through Mount Olympus Awards and features Scrooge McDuck dining on dollar-sign pancakes, drilling for orange juice like oil, and partaking of an ice cream sundae that happens to be made entirely of rare jewels.
