CARL BUETTNER
Alberto's Funny Animal Artist Gallery No. 2
CARL BUETTNER
Carl Gustaf Buettner, Jr. nasce a Minneapolis, Minnesota, il 26 maggio 1903, da una famiglia di poveri immigranti tedeschi. Il padre Carl Gustaf Sr. è ciabattino e macchinista in una fabbrica di scarpe ed abita con la moglie Minnie e i due figli (oltre a Carl c’è la sorella maggiore Louise) al 1515 di Lyndale Avenue North.
Al liceo, Carl vince diversi premi per l’abilità come stenografo. Nel 1919 vince un altro premio dopo un corso di calligrafia per corrispondenza della Federal Schools, Inc. di Minneapolis. Carl frequenta poi altri corsi per corrispondenza in arte, grafica e cartooning e nel 1925 viene assunto dalla Federal come insegnante part-time.
L’anno seguente entra nello staff della Fawcett Publications a Robbinsdale, un sobborgo di Minneapolis. Dal 1928 al 1935 realizza vignette per Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang e altre riviste umoristiche della Fawcett, firmandole prima con le iniziali “C.B.”, poi “Von B”. Un po’ per scherzo e un po’ per nascondere le sue umili origini, l’artista si fa talvolta chiamare Carl Von Buettner (il patronimico “Von” era tipico dei cognomi dei nobili nella Germania di un tempo).
Nel 1934 Buettner è nominato direttore artistico per una rivista del gruppo Fawcett nella sede di New York. Qui realizza illustrazioni e copertine anche per la concorrenza, ovvero per i pulp magazines di Harry Donenfeld. Firma le copertine “Carl Blaine”, fondendo il proprio nome con il middle name dell’amico illustratore Norman Blaine Saunders, e all’interno realizza al tratto, senza firmarle, illustrazioni con donnine spesso nude.
Nel 1937 Buettner lascia i pulps e si trasferisce in California, dove è animatore presso gli studi Disney (anche se dagli Archivi Disney non risulta alcun dato sul suo impiego). L’anno seguente passa allo studio di Hugh Harman e Rudolph Ising.
Presso quest’ultimo studio stringe amicizia con Chase CraigTerminata tale esperienza, Buettner torna all’animazione presso la Cartoon Films.
Nel 1942 assume la carica di direttore artistico presso l’ufficio di Los Angeles della Western Printing and Lithographing Company. Oltre al lavoro editoriale, scrive e disegna storie con i personaggi di Disney, Warner e MGM e schizza e/o disegna molte copertine. Per circa quattro anni disegna anche la tavola settimanale dedicata a Bugs Bunny.
Nel 1947 assume l’incarico di coordinatore delle collane di libri illustrati prodotti dalla Western con le etichette Simon and Schuster, Whitman e Golden Press. Sceneggia e/o illustra egli stesso vari volumetti con i personaggi di Disney, Lantz, Hanna-Barbera e Larry Harmon.
Nel 1964-65 scrive e disegna le tavole della rubrica Quick on the Draw, come pure altre pagine di giochi, su The Golden Magazine.
Scompare a Los Angeles il 21 gennaio 1965, a 62 anni.
Carl Gustaf Buettner, Jr. was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 26, 1903, to a family of poor German immigrants. His father, Carl Gustaf Sr., was a machinist in a shoe factory and lived with wife Minnie and their two children (Carl had an elder sister, Louise) at 1515 Lyndale Avenue North.
In high school Carl won several prizes thanks to his ability as a stenographer. In1919 he won another prize after a correspondence calligraphy course with Federal Schools, Inc. in Minneapolis. Carl later attender other courses in art, graphics and cartooning and in 1925 he was hired by Federal as a part-time instructor.
The following year he joined the staff of Fawcett Publications in Robbinsdale, a suburb of Minneapolis. From 1928 -35 he drew cartoons for Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang and other humor magazines published by Fawcett, signing them first “C.B.”, then “Von B”. As a playful affectation, pretending he had blue blood, the artist sometimes called himself Carl Von Buettner (“Von” being a sign of nobility in German surnames of yore).
In 1934 Buettner was appointed art director for a Fawcett magazine in New York. There he also did illustrations and covers for the competition, i.e. Harry Donelfeld’s pulp magazines. He signed their covers “Carl Blaine”, matching his first name with the middle name of his friend, illustrator Norman Blaine Saunders, and inside the magazines he did line drawings of often naked girls. Buettner left the pulps in 1937, moving to California, where he became an inbetweener at the Disney animation studio (although the Disney Archives have no records of his employment). The following year he moved to the Hugh Harman-Rudolph Ising Studio.
It was there that he made friends with Chase Craig. Together, during 1938 they drew the strip Hollywood Hams, written by Peter O’Crotty, but it remained unpublished. For McNaught Syndicate they would subsequently produce the Mortimer and Charlie newspaper strip, inspired by Edgar Bergen’s popular puppets. When the strip was canceled in 1940, Buettner went back to animation with Cartoon Films.
In 1942 he became an art director at Western Printing and Lithographing Company’s Los Angeles office. Besides editing, he wrote and drew stories with Disney, Warner and MGM characters and also penciled or drew several covers. For about four years he also drew the Bugs Bunny Sunday page.
In 1947 he began supervising different book series produced by Western under the Simon and Schuster, Whitman and Golden Press labels. He wrote several books starring Disney, Lantz, Hanna-Barbera and Larry Harmon characters himself.
In 1964-65 he wrote and drew the Quick on the Draw page, as well as other puzzle features, for The Golden Magazine.
He passed away in Los Angeles on January 21, 1965. He was 62.
FILMOGRAFIA / FILMOGRAPHY
Studio: DISNEY 1937-1938
Intercalatore / Inbetweener
Studio: HARMAN-ISING 1938-1939
Animatore / Animator
Merbabies (short, 09 Dec. 1938) [Series: Silly Symphony].
Studio: CARTOON FILMS/COLUMBIA 1940-1941
Animatore / Animator
The Carpenters (short, 14 Mar. 1941) [Series: Color Rhapsody].
Historical Reel: Broken Treaties (short, 01 Aug. 1941) [Series: This Changing World].
How War Came (short, 07 Nov. 1941) [Series: This Changing World].
FUMETTOGRAFIA / COMICOGRAPHY
A) COMIC BOOKS
Editore/Publisher: DELL (alias K.K. PUBLICATIONS, WESTERN PRINTING)
Brer Fox – Four Color #129 [solo chine / inks only] (1946).
Brer Rabbit – Four Color #129 [solo chine / inks only] (1946).
Bucky Bug – WDC&S #40-42, 50-58, 61-66, 71, 72 (1944-46).
Bugs Bunny – Four Color #33, 51, 123 (1943/44/46); Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies #33, 48 (1944/45).
Copertine – Cheerios Premiums #W1-W4, X1-X4, Y1-Y4, Z1-Z4 (1947); Four Color Series 1 #19; Series 2 #19, 29, 33, 48, 51, 62, 79, 108, 112, 129, 142, 147, 156, 159, 164, 191, 198, 227, 234, 243, 252 (1943-49), 291, 296, 300, 304, 308, 318, 328, 339 [solo matite / pencils only] (1950-51); WDC&S #20, 21, 22, 26, 28, 32 (?), 33 (?), 119-124 (1942-43/50-51), 126, 127 [solo matite / pencils only] (1951); Wheaties Premiums #A1-A8, B1-B8, C1-C8, D1-D8 (1950-51).
Donald Duck - FC #108 (1946) [Disegno delle ultime due vignette / Last two panels. Buettner or Dan Noonan?].
Dumbo – WDC&S #61 (1945).
Joe Carioca – WDC&S #27 (1942).
The Li’l Bad Wolf – WDC&S #52-67 (1945-46).
Peter and the Wolf – WDC&S #71 (1946).
Pinocchio – WDC&S #63, 64 (1945-46).
Pinocchio Learns About Kites – Kite Giveaway (1954).
Porky Pig – Four Color #16, 48, 78, 112 (1942/44-46); Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies #40 (1945).
Retrocopertina / Back cover – Four Color #19 (1943).
The Seven Dwarfs and Dumbo – WDC&S #49, 55 (1944/45).
The Seven Dwarfs and the Wicked Witch – WDC&S #47 (1944) [con / with Roger Armstrong].
The Seven Dwarfs and Thumper – WDC&S #45 (1944) [con / with Roger Armstrong].
Skrewy the Squirrel – Our Gang Comics #12, 14 (1944).
Tavole con testo e illustrazioni / Text illustration pages – Our Gang #20 (1945).
The Three Caballeros – WDC&S #50 (1944).
Thumper – WDC&S Christmas Giveaway (1943).
Thumper Meets the Seven Dwarfs – Four Color #19 (1943).
Tillie Tiger – WDC&S #51 (1944).
Wuff the Prairie Dog – Our Gang Comics #17, 18, 21, 22 (1945-46).
B) FUMETTI PER QUOTIDIANI / NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS
Editore/Publisher: EDGAR BERGEN INTERESTS/McNAUGHT SYNDICATE
Mortimer and Charlie – Strisce quotidiane, Oct. 2, 1939-May 25, 1940 [con l’assistenza di Chase Craig / with Chase Craig assisting]; Tavole settimanali, Oct. 15, 1939; Nov. 5, 1939-May 12, 1940.
Editore/Publisher: LEON SCHLESINGER PRODUCTIONS/WARNER BROS. CARTOONS/NEA SERVICE
Bugs Bunny – Tavole settimanali / Sunday page, 04/1944-08/1947.
LIBRI ILLUSTRATI / CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Editore/Publisher: GOLDEN PRESS (alias WESTERN PRINTING)
A Little Golden Book – Bozo the Clown #446 (1961) [sceneggiatore / writer]; Donald Duck Lost and Found #D86 (1960) [sceneggiatore / writer]; Donald Duck Private Eye #D94 (1961) [sceneggiatore / writer]; Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks #454 (1961) [sceneggiatore e illustratore con / writer and illustrator, with Sylvia & Burnett Mattinson]; Woody Woodpecker: Drawing Fun for Beginners #372 (1959) [sceneggiatore / writer].
A Big Golden Book – 101 Dalmatians #540 (1961) [sceneggiatore / writer – ristampato in parte come / partly reprinted as A Little Golden Book #105-65, GOLDEN BOOKS, 1985].
Giant Golden Punch-Out Book – Pinocchio (1961) [solo matite – colori di / pencils only – painted by Norm McGary].
Editore/Publisher: WHITMAN (alias WESTERN PRINTING)
The Better Little Book – Bugs Bunny All Pictures Comics #1435 (1944) [illustrazioni riprese da comic book / illustrations from comic-book story]; Bugs Bunny and His Pals #1496 (1945) [illustrazioni riprese da comic book / illustrations from comic-book story]; Bugs Bunny and the Pirate Loot #1403 (1947) [illustrazioni riprese da comic book / illustrations from comic-book story]; Porky Pig and His Gang #1404 (1946) [illustrazioni riprese da / illustrations from Four Color #48 (1944)]; Thumper and the Seven Dwarfs #1409 (1944) [copertina e illustrazioni riprese da / cover and illustrations from Four Color #19 (1943)].
ILLUSTRAZIONI PER RIVISTE / MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATIONS
Editore/Publisher: FAWCETT PUBLICATIONS
Captain Billy’s Smokehouse Poetry Classics 4th Edition (1931) – Copertina / Cover.
Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang (1928) – Vignette / Cartoons [11/1928 et al]
Hooey (1933-1934) – Copertine e vignette / Cover art and cartoons [12/1933, 02/1934 et al]
Editore/Publisher: GOLDEN PRESS (alias WESTERN PRINTING)
The Golden Magazine – Quick on the Draw [10/1965, 12/1965, 02/1966, 04/1966, 05/1966, 06/1966, 11/1966, 10/1968 et al]; Corkies [12/1965]; Hidden Departure [02/1966]; Hidden Garden [04/1966]; Hidden Reservoir [05/1966]; Hidden Shopping List [11/1966].
Editore/Publisher: HARRY DONENFELD (alias INTER-CONTINENTAL, MOVIE DIGEST)
Saucy Stories (1935-1936) – Copertine e vignette / Cover art and cartoons [12/1935, 01/1936-04/1936 et al].
