Q: I was just wondering who were the artists who first drew Donald Duck and Goofy? Obviously, Walt was the first to draw Mickey. Sometimes I feel he’s credited as coming up with Donald and Goofy because they’re “Disney characters,” but was he really the one who came up with them and the first to draw them for their first cartoons The Wise Little Hen and Goofy and Wilbur?
Dean, Nampa, Idaho
A: The names of the first artists to draw the characters are unknown, but we can tell you the first animators to actually animate them in their debut cartoons: It was Tom Palmer doing Goofy in Mickey’s Revue, and Art Babbitt and Dick Huemer doing Donald in The Wise Little Hen.
Dave Smith