Carl Barks

 Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000)

He is best known for his comics about Donald Duck and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck. 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. Barks worked for the Disney Studio and Western Publishing where he created Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck (1947), Gladstone Gander (1948), the Beagle Boys (1951), The Junior Woodchucks (1951), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Cornelius Coot (1952), Flintheart Glomgold (1956), John D. Rockerduck (1961) and Magica De Spell (1961). Carl Barks retired in 1966, but was persuaded by editor Chase Craig to continue to script stories for Western. The last new comic book story drawn by Carl Barks was a Daisy Duck tale ("The Dainty Daredevil") published in Walt Disney Comics Digest issue 5 (Nov. 1968). When bibliographer Michael Barrier asked Barks why he drew it, Barks' vague recollection was no one was available and he was asked to do it as a favor by Craig. In July 1999, he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a form of cancer arising from the white blood cells in the bone marrow, for which he received oral chemotherapy. However, as the disease progressed, causing him great discomfort, the ailing Barks decided to stop receiving treatment in June 2000. On August 25, 2000, shortly after midnight, Carl Barks died quietly in his sleep. He is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Grants Pass, Oregon.