Search For Treasures

Friday, September 17, 2010

Sleepwalking Ducks: Society's Greatest Threat

Today we dive back into the world of Disney, particularly into the life of the perennially unlucky superstar, Donald Duck. This time he's sleepwalking, all the while his nephews have to deal with the aftermath.

The artist this time is Riley Thompson (10/5/1912 - 01/26/1960). Born in Alhambra, California, he started as an animator at the Leon Schlesinger studio, working on Porky Pig and Merrie Melodies shorts. In 1936, he went to the Walt Disney Studios to work as an animator on various shorts and on Fantasia.

In 1940, he was promoted to director and for the next 10 years, he directed various Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy cartoons. His filmography includes one of my favorite Mickey cartoons, Symphony Hour.

During the fifties, he did a lot of comic book work, mostly for Disney and Walter Lantz titles. For a short time, he was an animator for the Walter Lantz studio. That was his final job for animation, as he died in 1960 for reasons that I don't know.

Thompson has a very interesting drawing style. It's much cartoonier than his colleagues, and more or reflects the squash and stretch effect of animation. I will have more of his work up soon. Enjoy.

From WDC&S Issue No. 123
Writing: Unknown /Art: Riley Thompson











Until Next Time
Happy Trails

2 comments:

Steven Hartley said...

You're right, Riley Thompson does have some interesting drawing style to his comic drawings.

I like how he draws Donald Duck and its like the animated versions and Riley Thompson appears to have animated most of the Mickey Mouse scenes in The Soceror's Apprentice in Fantasia according to the draft.

Yeah, your comics are fun to watch - and in my site I've noticed that I have been Blabbing on too much of Arts and I've hardly mentioned much Culture in mine and I managed to post something culture yesterday...

Steven Hartley said...

Any more posts for the future??