Tony Strobl

Anthony Joseph Strobl (* 12. May 1915 in Cleveland , Ohio ; † 29. December 1991 in Ohio), known as Tony Strobl , was an American comic - and animators who particularly because of its benefits for Disney became famous.

biography

Tony Strobl was born on May 12, 1915 in Cleveland, Ohio to Czech parents. He became enthusiastic about drawing very early on and therefore attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1933 to 1937 . He was studying there at the same time as Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel , who had the idea for a completely new superhero. Although Strobl thought little of the idea and hardly believed it would be a success, he helped them develop their figure, which later became world-famous under the name Superman .

When Strobl had graduated, the cartoon Snow White celebrated its cinema premiere , which he was very enthusiastic about. He made the decision to do something in this direction and wrote an application to Disney Studios. Those responsible there were initially not very enthusiastic and rejected him on the grounds that he had to go to a real animation school first. He was not deterred, however, and traveled to Hollywood , where he presented some of his designs to Disney. This time he was accepted without further ado and no one asked about his graduation.

In December 1938 he began working on some sequences in the film Fantasia . His task was to depict a number of characters that had previously been created by other animators in various movements and to insert them into the finished film. Then he also helped with other productions, Pinocchio and Dumbo , until the army drafted him due to the Second World War.

After the war, Strobl decided to no longer work on the various films and instead wanted to switch to the comic trade, not least because the salary was much higher. For several years he produced a wide variety of illustrations until he joined Western Publishing in Beverly Hills in 1947 . The company had made a name for itself with a variety of comics, including those from Disney, Warner Brothers, and Walter Lantz . Due to this, Strobl soon mastered a large number of characters and also made comics with Bugs Bunny or Woody Woodpecker .

In the early 1950s, the awareness and popularity of Disney Comics rose sharply. Sun posted Walt Disney's Comics and Stories in 1952 with a circulation of around four million, more than any other comics before. At Western Publishing, it was decided to have the comics about Mickey Mouse , Donald Duck or Scrooge McDuck , which were previously rarely sold, appear regularly every two months. While Carl Barks had been hired to do the Dagobert stories, the rest of the drafting crew would take care of Donald; Jack Bradbury , Phil de Lara , Paul Murry and of course Tony Strobl. His work became particularly important after 1954, when Bradbury and Murry turned to Mickey Mouse comics.

In the mid-1960s, Strobl was contacted by the people at Disney with the idea of producing new comic magazines themselves, which, however, could only be bought outside the USA (Western Publishing had the license for the US market at the time). Strobl was initially not very enthusiastic about the idea, but then allowed himself to be widespread, among other things because of the fee of 30 dollars per page, compared to the 23 dollars from before. For a long time he was responsible for the foreign sector.

His last drawings were made between 1986 and 1987, when he limited himself to daily Donald Strips and Sunday trips that only ran for a short period of time. His final work for Disney was helping with the manuscripts of the DuckTales series, which was published shortly thereafter . Tony Strobl died on December 29, 1991 at his home in Ohio.

Work and style

During his first years at Western Publishing, Strobl still inked his stories himself, which, however, meant an incredible expenditure of time for him, as he was very slow with this work. He later said: "An eight-page story would take me two weeks if I worked seven days a week!" (Original sound: "an eight page story would take me two weeks to do, working seven days a week!"). As a result, he soon decided not to do it himself and let his two closest collaborators, Steve Steere and John Liggera, fool the story .

In the beginning Strobl did not write any stories himself, but only implemented manuscripts by different authors (the only one who wrote his own stories at the time was Carl Barks ), which can be seen very well in the different narrative styles of the individual works. Up until the 1960s, it was mainly Carl Fallberg , Bob Gregory and Vic Lockman who were responsible for the stories. With the latter, Strobl also invented the character Moby Duck . Strobl also drew some stories that Carl Barks had written after his retirement in 1966; to be emphasized here is "The Heir of Genghis Khan ". In later times, Strobl wrote his own stories.

Although his main work certainly consists of the stories about Donald Duck , the range of stories he has drawn is much more open. As mentioned above, he also created some stories with Woody Woodpecker and Bugs Bunny , whom he claims to be one of his favorite characters. But he also drew a wide variety of characters at Disney, for example Mickey Mouse and Little Eagle Eye . He is probably one of the most productive draftsmen of his time and it is hardly possible to get Disney comic books from the years 1955 to 1970 without coming across stories from him.

His style can be recognized by the concise simplicity. All of his figures, especially the whole duck family, are characterized by an almost stoic calm, which they display even in the most delicate situations. This simple style earned him a lot of fans but just as many opponents.

Publications with stories by Strobl (incomplete)

United States

Germany

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Strobl, Tony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Strobl, Anthony Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American cartoonist and copywriter
DATE OF BIRTH	May 12, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cleveland , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH	December 29, 1991
Place of death	Ohio