Hank Porter and Pirate Gold?

When I was doing some research for the recent Jack Hannah Four Color post, I stumbled across some information that connected to my slightly earlier post on studio artist Hank Porter. The information related to the Carl Barks/Jack Hannah collaboration on Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold, and speculated that Porter was the comic’s cover artist. When Gladstone Publishing reprinted the story in an album format in 1989, they used the original cover illustration from 1942. In their creator credits for that album, they noted that the artist was unknown.

I decided to contact Toons at War blogger and Hank Porter scholar David Lesjak to see if he could provide any enlightenment on the subject. David in turn contacted his good friend and fellow Disney collector Dennis Books, who recalled a conversation he once had with Carl Barks on the subject.

Dennis related: "I believe Hank did the cover. Carl Barks and Jack Hannah split the comic story, one doing the inside shots the other the outside shots. I assume the comic book cover artist is the same one who did the Big Little Book cover for the same story. Carl Barks told me that Hank did the cover [of the comic], or he thought Hank had done the cover."