Carl Barks' passing

[Gerstein, David DK - ECN]

	Hey, guys,

	My great sadness at Carl Barks' passing is tempered by the hope that
his spirit may now be in some better place - irrespective of religion, a
place that can provide him with an escape from the pains and the trials of
his last few years down here with us.

	It's hard to describe quite what Barks means to me, but I think I
can sum it up best by saying that he was a man who *inspires*.
	I'm *inspired* by his great creation of fictional personalities, his
ironic humor, his historical research, his graphic designs... at once gently
exquisite and wildly vibrant. But for me, the most inspirational message of
all lies in the attitude that lay *behind* all that; the attitude and
mindset that brought it to us.
	Carl Barks had nothing less than total, unconditional *respect* for
his readers and for his means of artistic expression. When allowed his
freedom, he dumbed nothing down: his sacred cows did not include beliefs -
popular now as then - about kids requiring simplistic entertainment or older
readers preferring superficial self-parody. Look at how he got "into" his
characters: he ashaming talked and wrote about them like real beings. And
just as he avoided a set definition of fiction, he shunned a set definition
of comics. Rather than freezing himself in the then-standard slapstick forms
of 1943 just because they worked, he pushed himself into ever-deeper, more
challenging scripting; implicitly saying that good graphic storytelling
relies on constant change and improvement within the form.

	Barks himself put it this way: he said that he always tried to write
a story that he wouldn't mind buying himself. Respect for, and devotion to,
an art doesn't come clearer than that.
	The world needs more like him. Carl, you'll be missed.

	David Gerstein
	<dge at ecn.egmont.com>