Editing Floyd Gottfredson (section)

==Biography==
===Early life and career===
Gottfredson was born into a large family in [[Kaysville, Utah]], in 1905, and raised in the [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].<ref name="Andrae"/> As a child, Floyd severely injured his arm in a hunting accident. Housebound during a long recovery, he became interested in cartooning and took several cartooning [[correspondence course]]s. Because of his injury, Gottfredson had to draw using his whole arm. In 1926, he took the Federal Schools of Illustrating and Cartooning's correspondence course, and by the late 1920s, he was drawing cartoons for trade magazines and the ''[[Salt Lake City]] Telegram'' newspaper.<ref name="Andrae">{{cite book|last1=Gottfredson|first1=Floyd|last2=Andrae|first2=Thomas|editor1-last=Gerstein|editor1-first=David|editor2-last=Groth|editor2-first=Gary|title=Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse|date=2011|publisher=Fantagraphics Books|location=Seattle, WA|isbn=978-1-60699-441-2|chapter=Foreword: Of Mouse and Man}}</ref>

After achieving second place in a 1928 cartoon contest, the 23-year-old Gottfredson moved to [[Southern California]] with his wife and family, just before Christmas. At the time, there were seven major newspapers in the area, but he was unable to find work with any. One job he had held in [[Utah]], however, was as a movie [[projectionist]] and he found employment in that field in California. A year later, the movie theater where he had been working was torn down, resulting in another job search. On a whim, Gottfredson inquired at [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney studios]], which hired him the same day.<ref name="Andrae"/>

===Mickey Mouse===
[[The Walt Disney Company|Walt Disney Productions]] hired Gottfredson as an apprentice [[animator]] and [[Inbetweening|in-betweener]] on December 19, 1929. In April 1930, he started working on the four-month-old ''Mickey Mouse'' daily comic strip.<ref name="Hunter"/> It had originally been scripted by [[Walt Disney]] and drawn by [[Ub Iwerks]] who was succeeded by [[Win Smith (cartoonist)|Win Smith]]. Iwerks later left Disney and tried to hire Gottfredson, but [[Roy O. Disney|Roy Disney]] refused to allow Gottfredson out of his contract.<ref name="Nemo" /> In May, Win Smith refused to write the strip,<ref name="Korkis">{{cite book|last1=Korkis|first1=Jim|last2=Fischier|first2=Tony|editor1-last=Ghez|editor1-first=Didier|title=Walt's People|date=2009|publisher=Xlibris|isbn=978-1-4415-5183-2|chapter=Floyd Gottfredson (1905–1986)|volume=8}}</ref> and Disney assigned Gottfredson to it, promising it would be only a temporary arrangement until someone else could be found to take over. Gottfredson continued to produce the ''Mickey Mouse'' strips for the next 45 years.<ref name="Andrae"/>

Gottfredson's first daily strip was published in newspapers on his 25th birthday, May 5, 1930.<ref name="Andrae"/> In January 1932, he began work on the newly inaugurated ''Mickey Mouse'' color Sunday strip which, in addition to the daily, he continued through mid-1938.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lee|first1=Newton|last2=Madej|first2=Krystina|title=Disney stories: Getting to digital|date=2012|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4939-0182-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9GVJJqNjGAC&q=Gottfredson+inker+mickey&pg=PA80|access-date=23 February 2017}}</ref> Gottfredson headed the comics department at Disney from 1930 to 1946,<ref name="Peri">{{cite book|last1=Peri|first1=Don|title=Working with Walt Interviews with Disney Artists.|date=2008|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|location=Jackson|isbn=978-1-60473-918-3}}</ref> and was replaced by [[Frank Reilly (Disney)|Frank Reilly]].<ref name="Nemo" />

Originally, Gottfredson wrote and drew the ''Mickey Mouse'' strip alone, but in 1932, he pulled back to plotting the stories and doing the [[penciling]], while the dialogue was mostly done by other hands.<ref name="Andrae"/> Scripts were written by [[Webb Smith]] (1932–33), [[Ted Osborne]] (1933–38), [[Merrill De Maris]] (1933–42), [[Dick Shaw]] (1942–43), [[Bill Walsh (producer)|Bill Walsh]] (1943–64), [[Roy Williams (artist)|Roy Williams]] (1962-69) and [[Del Connell]] (1968–88).<ref name="Holtz">{{cite book |last1=Holtz |first1=Allan |title=American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide |date=2012 |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=978-0-472-11756-7 |pages=260–264}}</ref> Even so, Gottfredson always worked closely with his writers, and would often suggest changes in the scripts whenever he thought it would improve a story.<ref>Peri, Don: Working with Walt: Interviews with Disney Artists (University Press of Mississippi, 2008), pp. 109–118. {{ISBN|978-1-60473-023-4}}.</ref> There were a variety of [[inker]]s on the strip through the years; inkers for the Sunday strips included [[Al Taliaferro]] and Ted Thwaites in the 1930s, and [[Manuel Gonzales]] until 1981; Taliaferro also inked daily strips.<ref name="Nemo" /> Gottfredson returned to inking daily strips himself in 1947.<ref name="Holtz" />

From the beginning, the strips were parts of long continuing stories. These introduced characters such as the [[Phantom Blot]], [[Eega Beeva]], and [[the Bat Bandit]], which Gottfredson created; Disney created [[Eli Squinch]], Mickey's nephews, [[Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse]], and [[Sylvester Shyster]], who were also introduced in the comic.<ref name="Nemo" /> Gottfredson plotted the continuities until Bill Walsh started writing the strip in 1943.<ref name="Peri" /> The stories were always untitled. Titles were usually assigned later, when the strips or pages were reprinted in picture-books or comic books, which the artists had no influence on.<ref name="Nemo" /> Starting in the 1950s, Gottfredson and writer Bill Walsh were instructed to drop the storylines and do only daily gags.<ref name="Andrae in color">{{cite book|last1=Andrae|first1=Thomas|last2=Gottfredson|first2=Floyd|title=Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in color.|date=1988|publisher=Pantheon Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-394-57519-3|edition=1st|chapter=Of Mouse and the Man}}</ref><!--source says "mid 50s" and that Gottfredson was only inking at this point. In the Andrae interview Gottfredson thinks it could have been 1959--> Gottfredson continued illustrating the daily strip until he retired on October 1, 1975.<ref name="Nemo">{{cite journal|last1=Andrae|first1=Thomas|title=Floyd Gottfredson's 45 years with Mickey: The Mouse's Other Master|journal=Nemo: The Classics Comics Library|date=April 1984|issue=6|url=http://jeffoverturf.blogspot.de/2010/05/floyd-gottfredson-mickey-mouses-comic.html|access-date=23 February 2017}}</ref>

Animation critic [[Geoffrey Blum]] said "Gottfredson's [[Mormon]] upbringing and his unflaggingly positive outlook made him the perfect keeper for this icon. Never complaining, chocking back his hurts... this is the ethic he brought to Mickey. Gottfredson's mouse combines the virtues of a good citizen and a good soldier."<ref name="Hunter">{{cite book|last1=Hunter|first1=J. Michael|editor1-last=Hunter|editor1-first=J. Michael|title=The Mormon Influence at Disney|date=2013|publisher=Praeger an imprint of AABC-CLIO|volume=1: Cinema, Television, Theater, Music, and Fashion|series=Mormons and Popular Culture|location=Santa Barbara, California|isbn=978-0-313-39167-5|pages=45–70}}</ref>{{rp|47}}<!--the original essay appears in the Mickey Mouse in color book-->