'Donald Duck' (2 February 1995) - © Disney.
Larry Knighton is an American cartoonist, illustrator and commercial artist. He was the final artist to draw the 'Donald Duck' newspaper comic strip for King Features Syndicate (1990-1995), and also worked with Gordon Bess on 'Redeye' (1988-1990).
Early life and career
Born in 1948 in Boise, Idaho, Laurence Knighton served in the US Marine Corps from 1967 to 1970, and studied at the Art Center College of Design. He has worked extensively as a designer and illustrator for the advertising industry.
Redeye
Larry Knighton was a pupil of Gordon Bess, who assigned him to write and draw the 'Redeye' comic strip for King Features Syndicate from 1988 to 1990. When Bess died in late 1989, the syndicate decided to hand the strip to writer Bill Yates and artist Mel Casson. Casson continued it on his own from 1999 until the end of its run in 2008.
Donald Duck
Knighton subsequently got the opportunity to take over the writing and art duties of the newspaper comic starring Walt Disney's 'Donald Duck' from Bob Foster and Pete Alvarado. Knighton worked on both the daily and the Sunday strip from 30 July 1990 until April 1995, after which King Features turned to reprints. Knighton was the only artist who wrote his own gags; his predecessors Al Taliaferro, Frank Grundeen, Frank Smith and Pete Alvarado all worked with scriptwriters. Contributing gag writers during Knighton's tenure were however Don Ferguson and Johnny Sajem.
'Donald Duck' (1 February 1995) - © Disney.
Animation career
Knighton worked briefly as a storyboard artist on Disney's 'DuckTales' (1987-1990), the animated TV series loosely based on Carl Barks' original 'Donald Duck' and 'Uncle Scrooge' stories.
Other illustration work
From 1995 to 2001 Knighton was the artist and designer of 'Red', the international corporate mascot of the Red Robin hamburger restaurants. He has also done illustrations for educational books, as well as text and art for children's fantasy books. Since 1995 he has worked regularly with children's author Stephen Cosgrove as assistant writer and illustrator on several projects. These include the young adult book series 'Bit'n Files' and the educational 'Rhymerlings' children's book series. He is the illustrator of Lisa Riebe's 'Pond Punkies' series since 2009, and the author of 'The Last Jawlo: Tales of the J'Habb' (2005) and the fantasy book series 'Tales of Tossledowns' (since 2010).
Cover illustrations for 'Tales of Tossledowns'.