Description

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The comic strips that made Donald Duck a star… and the huff-and-puff howls of Disney’s legendary lobo!

The 1930s were the heyday of Disney’s second-ever newspaper comics feature: the full-color weekly Silly Symphonies! Fantagraphics’ latest volume showcases Donald Duck’s extended run as star of the strip: from his pranks on Goofy to his battles with Mickey’s naughty nephews—and the unforgettable debut of Donald’s own riotous relatives, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, first created for this strip by artist Al Taliaferro! Also in this volume: the perilous pork pursuits of Zeke the Big Bad Wolf, who with the Three Little Pigs also made his comics debut in Silly Symphonies! Plus dog tales with Pluto… and two tales of Elmer Elephant, one plotted by comics maestros Carl Barks and Walt Kelly!

About the Author

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Al Taliaferro (1905-1969), born in Montrose, Colorado, “knew [he] was going to be a cartoonist” from childhood. Hired at the Walt Disney Company in January 1931, Taliaferro inked the Mickey Mouse daily comic strip before graduating to full art duty on the Silly Symphony Sunday feature. There Taliaferro would unite with Donald Duck, the star with whom he would forever be associated—and for whom Taliaferro personally created the inimitable Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Ted Osborne (1900-1968), born in Oklahoma, moved to California for work as an in-house writer with Los Angeles radio station KHJ. When, in late 1931, the station collaborated with Disney on a Mickey Mouse radio special, Osborne made the jump to Disney employ, where he became a celebrated comic strip writer, writing the Silly Symphonies strip for artist Al Taliaferro and scripting Mickey Mouse for plotter/artist Floyd Gottfredson. In later years, Osborne left Disney and managed a photographic studio.

Merrill De Maris (1898-1948) was born in New Jersey and started work with Disney in 1933. De Maris divided his time between scripting the Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse comic strips and working as an animation story man. In the late 1930s, De Maris began a five-year run as the main Mickey scripter for plotter/penciler Floyd Gottfredson, creating such classics as “The Bar-None Ranch” (1938) and “Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot” (1939). In later years, De Maris left Disney to become a professional gardener.