Floyd Gottfredson

Wikipedia Biographical Summary:

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 award in 2003 and induction into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.

Gottfredson was born into a large Mormon family in Kaysville, Utah in 1905. 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. Because of his injury, Gottfredson had to draw using his whole arm. In 1926, he took the Federal Schools of Illustrating and Cartooning's correspondence course, and 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 had been working was torn down, resulting in another job search. On a whim, Gottfredson inquired with at Disney studios, which hired him the same day.

Walt Disney Productions 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 daily comic strip. It had originally been scripted by Walt Disney and drawn by Ub Iwerks who was succeeded by Win Smith. Iwerks quit Disney tried to hire Gottfredson at his studio when he left Disney, but Roy Disney wouldn't allow it. In May, Win Smith refused to write the strip, and Disney assigned Gottfredson to it, promising it would be only a temporary arrangement until someone else could be found to take over. 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. In January 1932 he began work on the newly inaugurated Mickey Mouse color Sunday strip which, in addition to the daily, he continued through mid-1938. Gottfredson headed the comics department at Disney 1930–1946,[2] and was replaced by Frank Reilly.

Originally, Gottfredson drew the strips alone, but in 1932 he pulled back to plotting the stories and doing the penciling. Scripts were written by Ted Osborne (1934–49), Merrill De Maris (1934–42), Bob Karp, Dick Shaw (1942–43), Bill Walsh (1943–64), Roy Williams (1964) and Del Connell (1968–82).[8][unreliable source?] [9] There were a variety of inkers; inkers for the Sunday strips included Al Taliaferro and Ted Thwaitds in the 1930s, and Manual Gonzales until 1981; Taliaferro also inked daily strips. Gottfredson returned to inking daily strips himself in 1943.

From the beginning, the strips were parts of long continuing stories. These introduced characters such as the Phantom Blot,Eega Beeva, and the Bat Bandit, which Gottfredson created; Disney created Eli Squinch, Mickey's nephews, Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse, and Sylvester Shyster, which were also introduced in the comic.[5Gottfredson plotted the continuities until Bill Walsh started writing the strip in 1943. 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. Starting in the 1950s, 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.

Animation critic Geoffrey Blum said "Gottfredson's Mormon upbringing and his unflaggingly positive outlook made him the perfect keeper for this icon. Never complaining, chocking back his hurts... this is the ethic he brought to Mickey. Gottfredson's mouse combines the virtues of a good citizen and a good soldier."

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.

SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Gottfredson

• Residence: Vermillion, , Utah - 1910
• Residence: Richfield, Sevier, Utah, United States - 1920