devilkais on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/devilkais/art/About-Floyd-Gottfredson-332728109devilkais

Deviation Actions

devilkais's avatar

About Floyd Gottfredson

By
Published:
9.6K Views

Description

" After all, he had told me that part of my job was to be a possible backup on the strip. At the end of a month, I wondered if he was really seriously looking for anyone. After two months, I began to worry that he might actually find someone because I was enjoying doing it and wanted to continue with it. Nothing more was ever said about it and I continued to draw the Mickey daily strip for about 45 years until my retirement on Oct. 1, 1975. "


" I’ve said this many times before but I think the best Mickeys ever done were by Fred Moore. I tried to imitate Fred but I don’t think anyone could ever copy his style."

" If, as you said, I kept the “real” Mickey alive, I was just doing the best I could as an extension of Walt and his dream. There was only one Walt Disney. There will never be another."


After around 15 successful animated shorts starring the character, the King Features Syndicate offered to license Mickey Mouse and his friends as characters for a comic strip. Accepting the offer, Walt wrote the scripts for the comics that Iwerks illustrated - up until Iwerks left the studio.

For some time after Iwerks' departure, Walt continued to write the scripts while Win Smith - the man who previously inked Iwerks' drawings - was given Iwerks' previous position. But Walt was more interested in animation than comics, and before long Smith was left with the responsibility of the entire daily comic strip series - the scripting, the pencil work, and the inking. Overwhelmed by the prospect of doing the whole thing by himself, Win Smith resigned, leaving the comic without a scriptwriter or an artist. And so, Walt was forced to search for another employee to take over Mickey's comic adventures.

Enter Floyd Gottfredson. (And let me tell you internet , you heavily disappoint me ! Instead of bitching or praising hacks I would not mention here, couldn't you dedicate a tribute fanart to this genius ! And I will say the same about some Termite Terrace directors, for SHAME !)

A new employee at Walt's studio, he was enthusiastic about the prospect of cartooning. When Walt asked him to take over the comic strip, Gottfredson was disappointed knowing that he wouldn't be able to continue in the field of animation. After Walt assured him that the position was only temporary, Gottfredson reluctantly agreed to be the next writer, artist and inker for the Mickey Mouse comic strip.
AND LEGEND WAS MADE !

Gottfredson's "temporary assignment" is one he stuck with for the next 45 years of his life - from 1930 to 1975, he worked on the printed adventures of one of the world's most famous cartoon characters BUT whereas the movie mouse degenerated as a logo, Floyd's mouse was THE genuine deal (I will tell you why I love Mickey in more detail ... he deserves his own tribute just as the other characters in this gallery had .I may prefer Donald, but Mickey Mouse and Goofy are still some of the greatest fictional characters ever made !) .
His work is what caused the comic as a whole to differentiate itself from Mickey's (few) animated cartoons, giving it a more adventurous and plot-driven theme than pure comedy and PERFECTING Mickey Mouse .
Floyd created many recurring characters such as Mickey's nephews Morty and Ferdy, Detective Casey, Chief O'Hara, and Eega Beeva. But the cherry on the cake, His master creation, is none other than the Phantom Blot who, for my money, in THE greatest bad guy in the Disney library alongside Peg-Leg Pete.

Besides Gottfredson artists for the strip over the years included Roman Arambula, Rick Hoover, Manuel Gonzales, Carson Van Osten, Jim Engel, Bill Wright, Ted Thwailes and Daan Jippes; writers included Ted Osborne, Merrill De Maris, Bill Walsh, Dick Shaw, Roy Williams, Del Connell, and Floyd Norman.

The next artist to leave his mark on the character was Paul Murry in Dell Comics and then the great Romano Scarpa in Italy for the magazine Topolino began to revitalize Mickey and revive many of Floyd's characters.
Modern era several editors and creators have consciously undertaken to depict a more vigorous Mickey in the mold of the classic Gottfredson adventures. This renaissance has been spearheaded by Byron Erickson, David Gerstein, Noel Van Horn, Michael T. Gilbert and César Ferioli...

Allahi yarhmik, Arthur Floyd Gottfredson (May 5, 1905 – July 22, 1986), you are and always will be one of the greats !


P.S : I would like to celebrate my first Mickey related fanart by also saying that I absolutey what deviantartist Twisted Wind has been doing . If you don't know here is an avant-gout of the great stuff she did [link] ... it still begs the question: WHY DON'T THEY FUCKING USE MICKEY MOUSE ANYMORE ?
Image size
1486x2067px 1.03 MB
© 2012 - 2024 devilkais
Comments41
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
diesel10joseph567's avatar

Nice tribute to the creator of Eega Beeva!!