Floyd Gottfredson
Encyclopedia
Arthur Floyd Gottfredson (May 5, 1905—July 22, 1986) was an American
cartoonist
best known for his defining work on the Mickey Mouse
comic strip
. He has probably had the same impact on the Mickey Mouse comics as Carl Barks
had on the Donald Duck comics. Two decades after his death, his memory was honored with the Disney Legends
citation in 2003 and induction into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
family in Kaysville, Utah
. The three brothers and four sisters traced their roots to their great-grandfather who had immigrated to the United States from Denmark
in the 1840s. As a child, Floyd severely injured his arm in a hunting
accident. Housebound during a long recovery, he became interested in cartooning and took several cartooning correspondence courses. By the late 1920s, he was drawing cartoons for trade magazines and the Salt Lake City Telegram newspaper
.
After achieving second place in a 1928 cartoon contest, the 23-year-old Gottfredson moved to Southern California
with his wife and family, just before Christmas
. At the time, there were seven major newspapers in the area, but he was unable to find work with any. One job he'd held in Utah
, however, was as a movie projectionist
and he found employment in that field in California. A year later, the movie theater
where he'd been working was torn down, resulting in another job search and the profession of a lifetime.
hired Gottfredson as an apprentice animator
and in-betweener on December 19, 1929. In April 1930 he started working on the four-month-old Mickey Mouse comic strip. It had originally been scripted by Walt Disney
and drawn by Ub Iwerks
who was succeeded by Win Smith. In May, Disney had Gottfredson assigned to the daily strip, promising it would be only a temporary arrangement until someone else could be found to take over. As it turned out, Gottfredson continued to produce the Mickey Mouse strips for the next 45 years.
Gottfredson's first daily strip was published in newspapers on his 25th birthday, May 5, 1930. On January 17, 1932 he began work on the newly inaugurated Mickey Mouse color Sunday strip which, in addition to the daily, he continued through mid-1938.
Originally, Gottfredson drew the strips alone, but in 1934 he pulled back to plotting the stories and doing the penciling. Scripts were written by Ted Osborne
(1934–49), Merrill De Maris
(1934–42), Dick Shaw (1942–43), Bill Walsh
(1943–64), Roy Williams
(1964) and Del Connell (1968–82). There were a variety of inker
s, including Al Taliaferro
in the 1930s, until Gottfredson returned to inking the strips himself in 1943.
From the beginning, the strips were parts of long continuing stories. These introduced characters such as Eli Squinch; Mickey's nephews, Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse; Detective Casey, Chief O'Hara and the Phantom Blot
. The stories were always untitled. Titles were usually assigned later, when the strips or pages were reprinted in picture-books or comic books, which the artists had no influence on. For the sake of a better overview, these reprint titles are commonly used today. Starting in 1955, Gottfredson and writer Bill Walsh were instructed to drop the storylines and do only daily gags.
Gottfredson continued illustrating the daily strip until he retired on October 1, 1975. His last one was published on November 15 and his last Sunday strip on September 19, 1976.
's Big Little Book series based most of its Mickey volumes on the strip; Dell Publishing's Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
featured the strips through 1948.
Modern-day American reprints began with "The Bat Bandit" (1935), which reappeared in a 1974 one-shot comic book. Abbeville Press' large size Best Comics anthologies in the late-1970s included two all-Gottfredson volumes (tho one was a "Goofy" volume), though the stories were sometimes relettered and condensed. And in 1980, they did a small-size Best Comics series that included three all-Gottfredson volumes (tho one again was a "Goofy" volume). In 1986, Another Rainbow/Gladstone Publishing
began a tradition of serializing Gottfredson stories in regular Disney monthly comic books, which has continued on and off to the present day.
In 2007 Gemstone Publishing
announced The Floyd Gottfredson Library
, a comprehensive Gottfredson edition that didn't end up being published at the time. In 2011 Fantagraphics Books
began publication of the series instead. The volumes of this Library to date are:
included a small record
containing an audio interview with Gottfredson and Disney Donald Duck
-comic book artist Carl Barks
. During the 1970s Gotfredson attended the OrlandoCon and also the 1983 San Diego Comic Book convention.
Gottfredson's work had been printed in newspapers, magazines and comic books worldwide for over 50 years, but as a Disney employee, he was never allowed to sign it. Gottfredson's identity was finally revealed in the mid-1960s by fan Malcolm Willits. Subsequently, reprints of his Mickey Mouse strips in the 1970s gave him credit.
Floyd Gottfredson died at his home in Southern California at the age of 81. In 2006 Gottfredson was inducted into the Will Eisner
Comic Industry Awards' Hall of Fame. He also was awarded an Inkpot Award in 1983.
Fellow Disney Legend Floyd Norman
notes the drawing desk Gottfredson used today "occupies a corner in a special room at Disney's Publishing department in Burbank."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
best known for his defining work on the Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
. He has probably had the same impact on the Mickey Mouse comics as Carl Barks
Carl Barks
Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...
had on the Donald Duck comics. Two decades after his death, his memory was honored with the Disney Legends
Disney Legends
Established in 1987, the Disney Legends program recognizes people who have made an extraordinary and integral contribution to The Walt Disney Company. The honor is awarded annually during a special ceremony....
citation in 2003 and induction into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Early life and career
Gottfredson was born into a large MormonMormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
family in Kaysville, Utah
Kaysville, Utah
Kaysville is a city in Davis County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Ogden–Clearfield, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 20,351 at the 2000 census, and 25,820 as of the 2008 estimates.-History:...
. The three brothers and four sisters traced their roots to their great-grandfather who had immigrated to the United States from Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
in the 1840s. As a child, Floyd severely injured his arm in a hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
accident. Housebound during a long recovery, he became interested in cartooning and took several cartooning correspondence courses. By the late 1920s, he was drawing cartoons for trade magazines and the Salt Lake City Telegram newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
.
After achieving second place in a 1928 cartoon contest, the 23-year-old Gottfredson moved to Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
with his wife and family, just before Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
. At the time, there were seven major newspapers in the area, but he was unable to find work with any. One job he'd held in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, however, was as a movie projectionist
Projectionist
A Projectionist is a person who operates a movie projector. In the strict sense of the term this means any movie projector and therefore could include someone who operates the projector in a home video show or school. In common usage the term is generally understood to describe a paid employee of...
and he found employment in that field in California. A year later, the movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
where he'd been working was torn down, resulting in another job search and the profession of a lifetime.
Mickey Mouse
Walt Disney ProductionsThe Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
hired Gottfredson as an apprentice animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
and in-betweener on December 19, 1929. In April 1930 he started working on the four-month-old Mickey Mouse comic strip. It had originally been scripted by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
and drawn by Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
who was succeeded by Win Smith. In May, Disney had Gottfredson assigned to the daily strip, promising it would be only a temporary arrangement until someone else could be found to take over. As it turned out, Gottfredson continued to produce the Mickey Mouse strips for the next 45 years.
Gottfredson's first daily strip was published in newspapers on his 25th birthday, May 5, 1930. On January 17, 1932 he began work on the newly inaugurated Mickey Mouse color Sunday strip which, in addition to the daily, he continued through mid-1938.
Originally, Gottfredson drew the strips alone, but in 1934 he pulled back to plotting the stories and doing the penciling. Scripts were written by Ted Osborne
Ted Osborne
Ted Osborne was an American writer of comics, radio shows and animated films, remembered for his contributions to the creation and refinement, during the 1930s, of Walt Disney cartoon characters....
(1934–49), Merrill De Maris
Merrill De Maris
Merrill De Maris is a writer who worked on Disney Comic Strips for King Features Syndicate.De Maris helped Floyd Gottfredson with many of his early Mickey Mouse comic strips – De Maris wrote the 1939 multi-month Phantom Blot for one...
(1934–42), Dick Shaw (1942–43), Bill Walsh
Bill Walsh (producer)
Bill Walsh was a film producer and screenwriter who primarily worked on live-action films for Walt Disney Productions...
(1943–64), Roy Williams
Roy Williams (artist)
Roy Williams was an artist and entertainer for The Walt Disney Studios, perhaps best known as "Big Roy," the adult mouseketeer for four seasons on the Mickey Mouse Club television series....
(1964) and Del Connell (1968–82). There were a variety of inker
Inker
The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...
s, including Al Taliaferro
Al Taliaferro
Charles Alfred Taliaferro , known simply as Al Taliaferro, was a Disney comics artist who used to produce Disney comic strips for King Features Syndicate...
in the 1930s, until Gottfredson returned to inking the strips himself in 1943.
From the beginning, the strips were parts of long continuing stories. These introduced characters such as Eli Squinch; Mickey's nephews, Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse; Detective Casey, Chief O'Hara and the Phantom Blot
Phantom Blot
The Phantom Blot is a fictional character featured in various media by The Walt Disney Company. He is an enemy of Mickey Mouse. He first appeared in the Mickey Mouse comic strip adventure Mickey Mouse Outwits The Phantom Blot by Floyd Gottfredson, which was published in the form of daily strips...
. The stories were always untitled. Titles were usually assigned later, when the strips or pages were reprinted in picture-books or comic books, which the artists had no influence on. For the sake of a better overview, these reprint titles are commonly used today. Starting in 1955, Gottfredson and writer Bill Walsh were instructed to drop the storylines and do only daily gags.
Gottfredson continued illustrating the daily strip until he retired on October 1, 1975. His last one was published on November 15 and his last Sunday strip on September 19, 1976.
Reprints and compilations
Gottfredson's Mickey strips were often collected in the 1930s and 1940s. Western PublishingWestern Publishing
Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company was a Racine, Wisconsin firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Western Publishing also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products as Golden Books Family Entertainment...
's Big Little Book series based most of its Mickey volumes on the strip; Dell Publishing's Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, sometimes abbreviated WDC or WDC&S, is an anthology comic book series that has an assortment of Disney characters, including Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, Chip 'n Dale, Lil Bad Wolf, Scamp, Bucky Bug, Grandma Duck, Brer Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and...
featured the strips through 1948.
Modern-day American reprints began with "The Bat Bandit" (1935), which reappeared in a 1974 one-shot comic book. Abbeville Press' large size Best Comics anthologies in the late-1970s included two all-Gottfredson volumes (tho one was a "Goofy" volume), though the stories were sometimes relettered and condensed. And in 1980, they did a small-size Best Comics series that included three all-Gottfredson volumes (tho one again was a "Goofy" volume). In 1986, Another Rainbow/Gladstone Publishing
Gladstone Publishing
Gladstone Publishing was an American company that published Disney comics from 1986 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1998. The company had its origins as a subsidiary of "Another Rainbow", a company formed by Bruce Hamilton and Russ Cochran to publish the Carl Barks Library and produce limited edition...
began a tradition of serializing Gottfredson stories in regular Disney monthly comic books, which has continued on and off to the present day.
In 2007 Gemstone Publishing
Gemstone Publishing
Gemstone Publishing is a U.S. company that publishes comic books and collectors' guides. The company was formed by Diamond Comic Distributors President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen A. Geppi. Gemstone published licensed Disney comic books from June 2003 until November 2008. The company has...
announced The Floyd Gottfredson Library
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse is a series of books collecting the first 25 years of the 45-year span of work by Floyd Gottfredson on the daily Mickey Mouse comic strip...
, a comprehensive Gottfredson edition that didn't end up being published at the time. In 2011 Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...
began publication of the series instead. The volumes of this Library to date are:
- Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: "Race to Death Valley" (1930-31 dailies; 2011) ISBN 978-1606994412
- Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: "Trapped on Treasure Island" (1932-33 dailies; 2011) ISBN 978-1606994955
Legacy
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, before his health deteriorated, Gottfredson gave interviews to many comics-oriented magazines as well as mainstream publications. The deluxe edition of the book Mickey Mouse in ColorMickey Mouse in Color
Mickey Mouse in Color was published in 1988 by Another Rainbow - featuring the works of Floyd Gottfredson and Carl Barks.There were 3 Editions:* A Deluxe Limited Regular Edition of 3000 - signed by both Floyd Gottfredson and Carl Barks....
included a small record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
containing an audio interview with Gottfredson and Disney Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
-comic book artist Carl Barks
Carl Barks
Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...
. During the 1970s Gotfredson attended the OrlandoCon and also the 1983 San Diego Comic Book convention.
Gottfredson's work had been printed in newspapers, magazines and comic books worldwide for over 50 years, but as a Disney employee, he was never allowed to sign it. Gottfredson's identity was finally revealed in the mid-1960s by fan Malcolm Willits. Subsequently, reprints of his Mickey Mouse strips in the 1970s gave him credit.
Floyd Gottfredson died at his home in Southern California at the age of 81. In 2006 Gottfredson was inducted into the Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
Comic Industry Awards' Hall of Fame. He also was awarded an Inkpot Award in 1983.
Fellow Disney Legend Floyd Norman
Floyd Norman
Floyd E. Norman is an American animator who worked on the Walt Disney animated features Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book, along with various animated short projects at Disney in the late '50s and early '60s.- Biography :Norman had his start as an assistant to comic...
notes the drawing desk Gottfredson used today "occupies a corner in a special room at Disney's Publishing department in Burbank."
External links
- animation historian Jim Korkis' 1979 interview with Floyd Gottfredson
- Disney Legends profile
- The Classic Mickey Mouse Daily Strips by Floyd Gottfredson
- The Gottfredson letters. Tony Fischier's correspondence with Gottfredson
- Model sheet of "Mickey Mouse Expressions and regular cast of characters" by Floyd Gottfredson
