THE SUNDAY FUNNIES
Floyd Gottfredson Goes to Disneyland
by Paul F. Anderson
Floyd Gottfredson had a long and storied career with Walt Disney, primarily in some facet with the Comic Strip Department. His early Mickey Mouse dailies are legendary, which after a short period in the early 1930s Gottfredson set an entirely different tone for the character of Mickey as compared to the short cartoons (in all honesty, almost an entirely different Mouse!). Within the Mouse’s comic strip universe, he was noted for the creation of numerous characters–foils and friends–such as the Phantom Blot, Morty and Ferdie, Eega Beeva, Slyvester Shyster, and many more.
Of note for today’s “Sunday Funnies” feature is a Gottfredson cartoon done for Walt’s happiest place on earth. When the Park opened, it featured it’s own monthly newspaper, The Disneyland News. To foster a sense of community (after all, in Walt’s mind, Main Street was indeed just that, a small-town in Middle America), Walt wanted the trappings of everyday life (dining, newspaper, transportation, shops, regular folks that you would expect to meet, and so much more). Walt’s little paper was just one small element of this concept of total emersion and loss of all outside reality; meant to replicate a turn-of-the-century small town paper. As such, it featured articles, advertisements, gossip, dining advice, and … cartoons! Today, with the acceptance of “material archeology” we can see how absolutely brilliant this small nuance is, to the overall concept of Main Street and ultimately Disneyland; but more on this later.
Contained within the 1950s issues were many one-shot cartoons with a rather distinctive, perhaps familiar, style … all signed by Walt Disney (as was the policy of the Walt Disney Comic Strip Department). A sizable handful appear to be Gottfredson’s, featuring his witty style and humor. This particular cartoon had a second life in 1962, with the advent of a special edition of The Disneyland News for the newly formed Magic Kingdom Club; yet in this case, Gottfredson was allowed to sign his name.
Also of note, as my apt and able fellow Fellow pointed out (that be my homey, Todd), is that the signage shows Adventureland in one of the pre-opening configurations, that is on the “wrong” side of the Park.
Enjoy!
To see other Sunday Funnies features at the Institute: Sunday Funnies
Actually the Adventureland sign looks to be pointing towards you, as you’re facing Tomorrowland, which would seem to be about right…
Been a Gottfredson fan since I was a kid but I have never seen this one before!!! Thanks for sharing it. Would be interesting to see the rest of the cartoons that ran in the Disneyland News. 🙂
BTW: You don’t happen to know if this one: http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=127638&GSub=20950
was published in one of the 1968 issues?
Trying to find out where it saw print, and what the missing left part looks like.
Jeanine,
In the planning stages (in early 1954) the original location for Adventureland was next to Tomorrowland, behind Space Mountain side of Main Street.
Joakim:
Ditto (Barks fan first at around age 9 … quickly followed by Gottfredson). The Disneyland News had stopped publishing by 1968, so that piece is too late. We do not have a complete run of the DL News at the Institute (working on it … getting close), but I have never seen anything along these lines (sort of more that late 1960s art) in any of the issues. And yes, I am slowly picking out some of the cartoons that appear to be Gottfredson and will run them here at the Institute. (I also checked the Disneyland Vacationlands and Disney News, neither of which in 1968 have this art). Thanks, Paul