One cover – four versions

Have you seen cover Carl Barks drew for Uncle Scrooge 66? You know, the one with the horse.

Did you know that if you have the original US 66, any Scandinavian edition from the 60's or even the "Carl Barks Collection" you have an altered and partially redrawn version? We only recently published the un-retouched version in a collection covering "Kalle Anka & C:o" from 1968. And that's the one and only publication I'm aware of.

But first, let's take a look at what the cover looked like in Sweden back in '68.

And then what it looked like in the Carl Barks Collection.

And finally: The original black and white version of the cover.

Not only are none of the printed versions un-retouched but they are all different. It might be hard to spot the differences without seeing these images next to each other in large size, so I zoomed in on a few details to show you the some of the differences.
First we have the vacuum cleaner.

Then the mirror.

And finally one of the hooves.

Now, here's what I *think* happened.
1. Carl submitted his original cover to Western.

2. Someone deleted most of the thick shadows and altered a few things before the first publication.

3. When the cover was about to be printed in Scandinavia they didn't have the proof used for US 66 so they had to use the printed cover, stat it and fix things that turned out to be too dark in the process. Knowing that, you can tell that white out has been used to clean up the darkest parts. 

4. Again, when the Carl Barks Collection was prepared they didn't have access to the US 66 cover proof. Instead the printed cover was scanned and fixed digitally. This time closer to the original printing than in the 60's. A good restoration job given what was available.

Hopefully future printings will use the original Barks version of the drawing.