Donald Duck, by Taliaferro

Charles Alfred Taliaferro was the first and most important artist of the famous 'Donald Duck' daily strip. Drawing the strip from 1937 to 1969, Taliaferro and principal writer Bob Karp, shaped the comics character of Donald. They added characters from the animated shorts to the feature, such as Daisy Duck, the nephews, and Gus Goose.

The Barnyard Symphony, by Al Taliaferro

Taliaferro studied at the Institute of Art in California, and initially worked in the advertising field. He joined the Walt Disney studios as an animator in 1931, but soon transferred to the comics department. Among his first jobs was inking Floyd Gottfredson's 'Mickey Mouse' comic.

Bucky Bug by Al Taliaferro
Bucky Bug - War with the Flies (1932-33)

From 1932 to 1939, he drew the weekly 'Silly Symphonies' Sunday page, in which he adapted several famous Disney shorts to comics. Taliaferro initially inked Earl Duvall's pencils, but from mid-1932 he was also the penciller. In this series he also made the first 'Bucky Bug' comics, written in rhyme by Duvall and later Ted Osborne, co-creating the garbage town of Junkville and it's inhabitants.

Taliaferro and Osborne were also responsible for the first comic appearances of Max Hare (1934), Elmer Elephant (1935), the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs (1936) and especially Donald Duck (1934). Taliaferro began working on daily 'Donald Duck' strips in February 1938, initially with writer Homer Brightman but from later that year with Bob Karp. Because of the duck's increasing popularity, the 'Silly Symphonies' page was replaced by a 'Donald Duck' Sunday page after two years.

Donald Duck, drawn by Al Taliaferro (21-2-1938)
Donald Duck (21-2-1938)

Taliaferro's Donald comic strips became the most distributed Disney strip, and were immensly popular in the U.S.A. Taliaferro also contributed to a few Disney comic-book stories for Dell/Western publishing, such as 'Counter-Spy', two 'Bucky Bug' stories and some 'Donald Duck' two-pagers. Al Taliaferro continued to draw the 'Donald Duck' daily until two years before his death.

Donald Duck, by Al Taliaferro 1958

Series and books by Al Taliaferro in stock in the Lambiek Webshop:


