I enjoyed doing the gag covers better than the story ones because they were usually simpler. A cover based on an incident in the plot took a great deal of staging to tell a little story that was still part of the book. And it had to make sense on its own.

Cartoonist Will Eisner called him "the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books. Later he would say it was natural for him to satirize the secret yearnings and desires the pompous style and the disappointments of his characters. Barks also reported that this was another thing he was familiar with.

He worked anonymously until late in his career; fans dubbed him The Duck Man and The Good Duck Artist. In 1987 Barks was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame. Carl Barks (March 27 1901 – August 25 2000) was an American cartoonist best known for his comics about Donald Duck and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck.