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Barks and his wife Garé, who assisted him with the drawing, live in a house trailer in Temecula, Calif., in the high desert 60 miles north of San Diego. Barks once painted oils of the ducks to order (for as much as $6,400) but abandoned that pursuit when the Disney Studios started muttering about copyrights. Now Barks paints Western scenes with nary a duck in view and muses that "I'd like to become the Charles Russell of my generation. But I guess I'm a little too old to start that." It may come as some consolation, however, that years hence, some other American fabulist will yearn to be the Carl Barks of his generation and will know that that spot has been taken, for good. Lord love a duck. —By Jay Cocks