Earl Duvall

Earl Duvall (/duːˈvɔːl/; April 2, 1898 – January 7, 1969) was an American artist and animator best known for his work on Walt Disney comic strips in the early 1930s and for a handful of animated short films he directed at Warner Bros. Cartoons.

Duvall started as a layout artist and later as a member of the story department at Walt Disney Productions. During this time, he also worked as a cartoonist on Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies newspaper strips. Duvall was periodically an inker for Floyd Gottfredson on the newspaper version of the Mickey Mouse daily edition comic strip in 1930-1932. He also drew and wrote the Silly Symphonies comic strip Bucky Bug for Walt Disney.

According to Jack Kinney, a director who worked at Disney for many decades, Duvall was a "charming story man" who dressed well and was "the spitting image of the Prince of Wales", but often "lived beyond his means". Duvall left Disney's in rather unusual circumstances - pressed by Disney for several weeks to show his storyboards, Duvall simply gathered his belongings one day and left the company, "leaving Walt holding the bag".

He was invited to Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1933 along with fellow Disney animator Tom Palmer to head up the studio in the wake of Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising's departure. He was responsible for the creation of Buddy. In the event, Duvall was delayed working on other projects at Disney, and by the time he got to Warner Bros. Palmer, who directed the first Buddy cartoon, had already been fired and replaced by Friz Freleng.

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