Sometime early in 1973, I heard through the grapevine that Carl Barks, the artist and writer of so many wonderful Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories, was doing custom paintings of Disney Duck characters for various fans and collectors. The going rate was about $200 – a little steep for me, since I was in my last year of college at the time – but I reasoned that an original Barks painting was not to be missed at any price. So I wrote to Barks and inquired about the possibility of having him do a paintingfor me.
He wrote back in short order, his letter warm and friendly but regretful. He'd had to stop taking orders for paintings, he said, because he simply had too many requests already. He mentioned that he worked slowly and meticulously, and given the time it took him to do a painting and the price he was charging, his hourly rate figured to something less than minimum wage; still, he loved doing it and suggested I check back with him in a year or two.
Well, I never got a Barks painting. The waiting list only got longer as time went on and the price of his paintings soon skyrocketed far beyond the means of anyone outside the doctor/lawyer class.
[…]
