Buettner & Fallberg: Quick on the Draw

gasp65

« I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies. » – Le Corbusier

Carl Buettner (1905-1965) started out as an animator with Disney Studios and Harman-Ising Studio (founders of Warner Bros and MGM animation studios), then shifted to newspaper strips for a few years (Charlie McCarthy, 1938-40), then on to Western Publishing for the rest of his career, handling a bunch of Disney characters for Dell Comics (Joe Carioca, Bucky Bug, Dumbo The Flying Elephant, Bambi…) until the early 1950s, when he became editor of Western’s Little Golden Books line.

On the side, he kept his hand in with a nifty tutorial feature, “Quick on the Draw”, that ran in Western’s The Golden Magazine for Boys and Girls. Though he passed away early in 1965, Buettner’s QOTD ran well into the next year, since he was evidently working well ahead. The feature was then taken over by his fellow former Disney animator and scribbler Carl Fallberg (1915-1996). Fallberg spent most of his long career working on the scripting and story directing side, but he evidently kept his pencils sharp.

QuickDrawOwlA
From Golden Magazine Vol. 2 No. 10 (October, 1965)
QuickDrawElephantA
From Golden Magazine Vol. 2 No. 11 (November, 1965)
QuickDrawTrainA
From Golden Magazine Vol. 4 No. 4 (April, 1967). Fallberg was a lifelong “narrow gauge” railroad enthusiast. His delightful Fiddletown and Copperpolis cartoons, published in Railroad Magazine in the late ’40s to the early ’50s, were collected in 1985 and still in print (and affordable!) to this day.
QuickDrawArmadilloA
From Golden Magazine Vol. 4 No. 9 (September, 1967)
QuickDrawOstrichA
From Golden Magazine Vol. 4 No. 12 (December, 1967)

– RG

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