Wednesday 11 November 2009

Star Angel by Barks and Williams


Here's an odd and interesting thing.
An unfinished childrens book by Carl Barks and Garé Williams.

The credits reads:
Words by Carl Barks
Illustrated by Garé Williams Carrol
Williams was, as you probably know, the maiden name of Garé Barks. That dates this dummy to somewhere between 1952 (when they met) and 1954 (when they got married).




This dummy was auctioned off many years ago. It had somehow ended up in the hands of Grandey and Morby and they sold it along with many other rather personal Barks items on eBay. Unfortunately the images were pretty small. [I think the poem was quoted in the item description. I saved it but I can't find it now. Anyone who is more organized than me who saved it?]

The two paintings and the sheet below were recently sold by Jerry Weist on eBay as part of his "Barks Estate" auctions. I guess they were both by Garé. Maybe done after roughs by Carl?



"Do you ever look up in the heavens at night
and wonder what's making those millions of lights?
It's the little star angels, up there in the dark -
a million star angels, each blowing a spark.
And each little spark that we see from afar
becomes in the darkness a beautiful star."

"Do you ever look up in the heavens by day
and wonder who's taken the star lights away?
It's the little star angels up there in the sky
who've covered their sparks 'till the sun has gone by.
They've covered their sparks and slipped into their beds
and pulled a blue blanket up over their heads."

[If you are the owner of the original book dummy, feel free to drop me a line. I'd love to read it and see it larger then the small images above.]

No comments: