John Spicer (first fan to visit Barks?)

[Hans Pedersen]

To DCML:

Last month, I had the pleasure of meeting John
Spicer after buying a set of original Barks
drawings from him on eBay. John was one of the
first fans (along with Malcolm Willits) to
visit Barks; he tried to get his name/address from
the publishers several times, but finally got
it when he pretended to be a high school
teacher using his art in a class project. John
and a few friends went to visit Barks in Hemet,
California with some friends, and Barks gave
each of them some outtakes from his Uncle Scrooge
stories from the mid-50s. At the border of one
of them, Barks wrote "Best wishes to my fan, John".

I remember reading about John's visit earlier,
possibly in Michael Barrier's book(?) and was
surprised to learn that John was completely
unaware that other people knew about his meeting.
When I showed him a reproduction of one of the
strips on the web, he was at awe over how anyone
could have gotten it (it later turned out that
his wife let another fan copy it many years ago).

Anyway, I am writing because John would be very
interested in any references to his visit, either
online or in the literature.

I think it is pretty awesome that he held on to
his presents from Barks for more than 40 years
and would like for him to fully understand the
historical importance of his meeting. So, if anyone
can help with references, both John and I would be
very thankful.

Kind regards,
Hans K. Pedersen

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