Floyd Gottfredson

Floyd Gottfredson is the artist of the classic 'Mickey Mouse' newspaper strip. He is the artist that shaped Mickey's comics character, and gave him his first big adventures. As a youngster, Floyd Gottfredson was interested in comics like 'Krazy Kat', 'Barney Google' and 'Jerry on the Job'. Born in Kaysville, Utah, Gottfredson took a correspondence course in art from the London School. He started out illustrating flyers and drawing for local newspapers like the Salt Lake City Telegram and the Utah Farmer.

In the late 1920s, he moved to Los Angeles to start a more professional career in the cartooning field. He was hired by Disney as an apprentice animator. Gottfredson worked on the 'Silly Symphonies' for a while, but was soon asked to take over the four-month-old 'Mickey Mouse' newspaper strip from Ub Iwerks and Win Smith. Originally scripted by Disney himself, the 'Mickey Mouse' strip was soon turned over to Gottfredson for both art and story in May 1930. He continued to draw and write the 'Mickey Mouse' strip until his retirement in 1975.

Gottfredson introduced several new characters to the strip, such as the mysterious 'Phantom Blot' and the futuristic 'Eega Beeva'. From 1932 to 1938, he also drew the 'Mickey Mouse' Sunday page, but this was eventually handed over the Manuel Gonzales. Gottfredson's art, which evolved from cartoony to more realistic, has been an inspiration to many later 'Mickey' artists, such as the Italian Romano Scarpa.

In addition, to 'Mickey Mouse', Gottfredson did artwork on two Christmas Specials, featuring 'Bambi' and 'Cinderella' in 1963-64. He was head of the Disney comic strip department from 1930 to 1946. Floyd Gottfredson died in 1986 at his Southern California home.