Having appeared in newspaper comic strips but never as the star, Donald Duck probably wanted to have his own comic strip, and artist Al Taliaferro wanted to be the one to make it happen. In 1931, Al joined Disney as an assistant to Floyd Gottfredson, working on the Mickey Mouse comic strips, and he went on to draw and ink the “Silly Symphony” Sunday comic strip series, in which Donald was first seen in comics, returning to that strip periodically. Although Mickey was the only Disney character to have his own comic strip at that time, Al approached Roy O. Disney about making Donald a star with his own strip. Although Roy was not sure that Donald would translate successfully in comics, Al persisted that Donald would fit the bill, and on this day in 1938 the first daily Donald Duck comic strip was published in newspapers, proving to be a fine success and putting a feather in the cap of Al Taliaferro.
