Gary Cundall sent me this, inspired — I assume — by the photo I ran here yesterday…
Did Carl Barks and Jack Kirby know each other? If they did, were you ever around them when they were hanging out? Do you know what they thought of each other?
I just happened to be around at what I believe was the only time they met. It was at some Comic-Con International — don't ask me which one — and while Barks was not an announced guest, he and his wife showed up for a day and sat at a table where Bruce Hamilton was selling the kinds of things, including Carl's work, that Bruce used to sell. Carl was not mobbed because I don't think most people who would have killed to meet him knew he was in the hall so I was sitting there, talking with the Barkses.
Jack and Roz strolled by and I don't think I was the person who did the introductions. I think Bruce did that. Carl and Jack met and if I'd had a cell phone at the time, there would be a photo here of that moment. I would describe the interaction as cordial and mutually respectful. They were two men who wrote and drew comic books but very different comics for different publishers. They were about as far apart as two people could be and still be technically in the same profession and it wouldn't have surprised me if neither had ever read the other's work.
But they were both aware of the great reverence in which so many people held each other and that was pretty much all they had in common. So small talk was exchanged and each wished a long life and prosperity to the other and then Jack and Roz headed on to the table where Jack was stationed. That was that.
A lot of folks assume that everyone in comics knows everyone else in comics even though it's an industry where many people work alone in their own homes or studios and mail, FedEx or e-mail their work to the office. Even if they go to conventions, they don't meet everyone. At the very first meeting of C.A.P.S. in 1975, I introduced a writer and artist to each other. They'd worked "together" for 20+ years through an editor and had never actually met.
In the early days of conventions, it was customary to put all the professionals on one panel — there usually weren't that many around — and often, they were folks who'd never met or even worked for the same company. I moderated one where Gil Kane and Julius Schwartz — who had worked together a lot — got to talking about DC Comics and how it was run and such. An artist seated next to me whispered in my direction, "I have no idea what these guys are talking about." He'd drawn a lot of comics but he'd never worked for DC, didn't know anything about the people Gil and Julie were discussing. And then when I started asking him about his work for other houses, Gil and Julie were whispering to each other, total disinterested in anything he was saying.
Kirby and Barks knew of each other and each knew the other had loads of fans. That was about it between them.
