Sixty Years Quacking
or ("Hi, I'm Donald Duck!")
8 7/8” x 6 5/8” Miniature Litho (1994)
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Sixty Years Quacking was produced in five U.S. editions, two of which bear the original title Carl Barks gave the oil painting in 1975, “Hi, I’m Donald Duck!”(The Germans named it Sechzig Jahre Entenleben on their Deutsche Edition of “199 Lithographien.”) This evolution represents the first sixty years of Donald Duck, 1934-1994, with Don’s original role casting him as a minor supporting role player in the Silly Symphony cartoon short, “The Wise Little Hen.” Beginning in 1942, the duck was carried to new heights through the mastery of Barks’ literary comic book stories and -- later -- through his depictions of Donald and the rest of the clan in oil paintings such as this one.
“Hi, I’m Donald Duck!” is quite special for a number of reasons. If one were to overlook a faint shakiness from the hand of the Old Duck Man, this image could be blown up to a vertical, twenty-four sheet billboard and the whole world would salute as they passed by, chanting in unison, “This is the definitive Donald Duck! May he live to be six thousand years old!” When it was duplicated into a fine art bone china porcelain by the masters at Connoisseur of Malvern, an English ceramics studio, the sculptor had to return to his modeling several times just to get the stance and “bone structure” of the duck right: a deceptively difficult task. Any artist who has tried to draw the duck runs into the same problems. Donald Duck may be anthropomorphic -- talking and acting like a human being -- but, nonetheless, he’s a duck… walks like one, originally talked like one (in animation), is built like one and stands like a duck! Just study the figure closely: notice how the head and neck connect -- not like a man -- and how the legs come out of his feathered torso -- not like a man! Carl Barks’ 1950’s model sheet of how to draw the duck is the best ever done and still is copied today. That’s what the painting and lithograph, “Hi, I’m Donald Duck!” are all about! It’s why Barks and Another Rainbow chose the miniature to be one of two Sixtieth Anniversary images for release in 1994. (At this time, large-size lithographs were alternately produced with the less expensive, quarter-size minis. The oversized large litho, painted especially for the sixtieth Birthday celebrations, “A 1934 Belchfire Runabout!”, took an opposite approach: though it highlighted Donald and his “313” convertible, it also acknowledged all the Disney “good guy” characters who appeared with him in the films and in Barks’ comic book stories, from Mickey Mouse to Gyro Gearloose and to various bit players.)
“Hi, I’m Donald Duck!” is in The Fine Art of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck, reproduced as Color Plate #88, Carl Barks’ tenth painting of 1975, chronological #101. It was one of only two minis done slightly smaller than 10”x 8” -- painted to make them more affordable to collectors commissioning his work. (Barks carefully calculated time spent doing an oil painting by measuring his work by the square inch. This oil was originally sold -- amazingly, in retrospect -- by the Old Duck Man in 1975 for a mere $150. Today, it’s worth at least $25,000 - $30,000!)
Chronology: The painting was published on the title page of the Gladstone comic book, Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #625 (June 1998); plus five Barks pencil concepts for the bone china figurine were reproduced on the Table of Contents page, the figurine itself appearing on the back cover. (An amusing side note about the porcelain photo: when the film was shot in studio, extra frames were left over on the roll at the end of the photo session, so the publisher -- as an inside joke -- removed a rare gold Mickey Mouse ring from his finger and slipped it over Donald’s extended right hand … the idea being to send it to a friend who collects rings; but this intent was forgotten and the editor found the picture years later, deciding to run it as an interesting variant angle of the well-known figurine image, not imagining that the only reader who noticed the ring and wrote in about it was the very same collector the publisher had originally intended to send the photograph to!) Any customer of Another Rainbow’s who decides to buy a lithograph (or figurine) of “Hi, I’m Donald Duck!” will be sent a complementary copy of the comic book if it is asked for. Others may order this issue of WDC&S #625 while limited supplies last (See the Gladstone web pages.)
“Hi, I’m Donald Duck!” was printed by the Black Box of Chicago, image size 8 7/8”x 6 5/8” on 12 1/4”x9 1/2” Opalesque Keramique, a paper constructed of 100% cotton fiber for strength and longevity, guaranteed not to fade under normal and stable storage conditions for hundreds of years. … The special Figurine Edition closed at 44 impressions, each framed in luxurious cherrywood, paired with and numbered to match the aforementioned world class English bone china figurine (#1 of 100 was released at a retail price of $12,300; #’s 2-10 @ $7,300 each; and #’s 11 and up @ $5,300 each). … The Birthday Cake Special Edition Lithographs listed below all had full-color decals of a frosted cake with burning candles affixed to the prints’ lower margins.
- Regular Edition Price for #11 and up $395 (sold)
- Regular Edition Price for #2-10, add 15% (available)
- Regular Edition Price for #1, add 55% (available)
- Gold Plate Edition #11-100, add 20% (sold)
- Gold Plate Edition #2-10, add 55% (available)
- Gold Plate Edition #1, add 125% (sold)
- Publishers and Printer’s proofs, add 80% (available)
- Artist Proofs, add 120% (sold)
- Progressive Proofs, Special Editions and Foreign Editions, inquire. (available)