William Van Horn (born February 15, 1939) is a
Disney comics
Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring characters created by the Walt Disney Company, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge.
The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on, starting with ...
artist and writer, and has been since 1988. He draws mostly
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
and
Uncle Scrooge
''Uncle Scrooge'' (stylized as ''Uncle $crooge'') is a Disney comic book series starring Scrooge McDuck ("the richest duck in the world"), his nephew Donald Duck, and grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and revolving around their adventures in Du ...
stories, and he has also written and/or illustrated stories based on the
animated series
An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have either ...
''
DuckTales
''DuckTales'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel on September 18, 1987 and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four seas ...
''. Some of these stories featured
Launchpad McQuack
This article includes a list of characters from the Disney ''DuckTales'' animated franchise, including the original 1987 series and the 2017 reboot series, as well as one theatrical movie and a variety of additional spin-off media merchandise, ...
as the main character. William's son
Noel Van Horn
Noel Van Horn (born July 6, 1968) is a cartoonist born in the United States and living in Canada. He mainly produces Disney comics starring Mickey Mouse. He is the son of William Van Horn, a comics artist who is also well known for his work in Di ...
is also a Disney comics artist, focusing on
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
stories.
Work
Prior to his association with Disney, Van Horn drew and wrote the black-and-white comic book ''
Nervous Rex'' for
Blackthorne Publishing
Blackthorne Publishing, Inc. was a comic book publisher that flourished from 1986–1989. They were notable for the ''Blackthorne 3-D Series'', their reprint titles of classic comic strips like Dick Tracy, and their licensed products. Blackthorne ...
. Focusing on the misadventures of a small, non-violent tyrannosaurus, the series ran for ten issues, from 1985 to 1987. Afterward, also for Blackthorne, he drew and wrote a short-lived superhero parody comic called "Possibleman," which ran for two issues.
In the first years of his career as a Disney Comics artist William often worked with
John Lustig
John Lustig (born January 25, 1953) is an American comics writer and former journalist, principally known for his Disney comics scripts featuring Donald Duck and other members of Disney's Duck family. Lustig's scripts have been illustrated by Wi ...
on the stories. In 1994 he did the art for
Carl Barks
Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck ...
' final script, ''
Horsing around with History'', which was released in
Uncle Scrooge Adventures
''Uncle Scrooge Adventures'' is a 1987-1997 Disney comic book series published by Gladstone Publishing under license from the Walt Disney Company. It features the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his nephews Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. It was ...
#33.
Here is a list of characters William Van Horn created for the Duck universe:
* Baron Itzy Bitzy - a whistling flea that Scrooge has.
*
Rumpus McFowl
File:Glasgow 1877 by Don Rosa.jpg, 329px, ''Glasgow 1877'', Clan McDuck portrait by Don Rosa; left to right: Jake, Matilda, Downy, Fergus, Hortense, Scrooge (age 10), and Angus; wall portraits: Malcolm, Eider, Quackly, Roast, and Hugh (Clicking o ...
- Scrooge's half brother who at first was believed to be Scrooge's cousin.
* Woimly Filcher - an enemy of Donald Duck and his nephews.
He often draws a small fly or mosquito flying around his comics. It is his "registered trademark", and if one finds it in a story, it's probably drawn by him.
Reprints
In November 2020 it was announced that Van Horn's Disney comics would get comprehensively collected as a part of
Fantagraphics
Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint.
History
Founding
Fantagraphics was found ...
''
Disney Masters
''Disney Masters'' is a series of books collecting anthologies of critically acclaimed Walt Disney Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse international comic artists. Italian artist Romano Scarpa was the first featured creator in the series, in the volume ...
'' line beginning in 2021.
* ''Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge: Pie in the Sky: Disney Masters Vol. 18'', 2021, Fantagraphics,
References
External links
*
William Van Hornat the
Lambiek Comiclopedia
Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ), though since 2007, his son Boris Kousemaker is the current owner. From 1968 to 2015, it was located ...
A fansite
American comics artists
American comics writers
1939 births
Living people
Disney comics writers
Disney comics artists
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