Mickey Mouse Daily March 26, 1931 - Floyd Gottfredson / Al Taliaferro

It´s been a rather long time since my last update on CAF. As I have limited wall space and mostly want art from my collection to be displayed and seen every day I don`t purchase as much as in the "old days". So I do try to find and purchase the gems that really talks to my heart..!
This 1931 daily Mickey Mouse Comic Strip is one of only a few existing from before 1932.
The Comic Strip appeared in the story : “Mickey Mouse, Boxing Champ” which ran in the newspapers from February 26, 1931 to April 29, 1931.
The writer and penciller was the great Floyd Gottfredson and the inker was the terrific Al Taliaferro.
In March 1931 nobody could possibly have known that these two youngsters should become some of the most prominent “Walt Disney Studio” artists producing comic strips for American newspapers and abroad.
Personally I have always preferred the “Dream-Team” Gottfredson / Taliaferro constellation. In their hands this is the “Mickey” attitude that I have always liked the most.
The “double eye-brow” Mickey only seems to have appeared on the earliest comic strips from 1930 - 1931.
Al Taliaferro was hired at “The Walt Disney Studio” on January 5`th, 1931 and his first Mickey Mouse inking was made on this specific story : “Mickey Mouse, Boxing Champ”.
Taliaferro had only been working on the story for 3 weeks when he inked this Comic Strip dated as early as March 26,1931.

No elder example involving the unique collaboration between Floyd Gottfredson and Al Taliaferro is known to exist.

Taliaferro also inked the next 8 full Mickey Mouse Daily stories by Gottfredson ( 1931-1932 ) and a lot of the Mickey Mouse / Silly Symphonies Sundays in the 1930`ies before he eventually got his own Comic Strip in 1938 and became known as the first “Donald Duck” artist - the character with whom he would be forever associated.
As Disney Legend Floyd Gottfredson once recalled about his colleague, “Al was dying for his own comic strip. He was a pretty ambitious guy, hard working, and a fast worker, too. Donald Duck had been introduced in the animated pictures, and Al thought he would be a great character for him to develop for the comics.”

From an interview with Floyd Gottfredson, by David R. Smith, conducted on 5th November 1975 :

..>Al ( Taliaferro ) came to the Studio in `31, as I said, to ink my stuff on the strip. He had worked as a lighting fixture designer, and that was the only professional job he had had up until then. He had taken the Federal Scholls cartooning course and finished that. He was a friend of Wilfred Jackson, and Jackson was aware of what he`d been doing and what he wanted to do, so Jackson brought him into the Studio. We were looking for someone to ink my material, so that`s why he was brought in. He did publicity drawings and inked my strips until we started the ”Silly Symphony” section in 1933. This was the time I started the Mickey Sunday page. King Features had been after Walt for I guess nearly a year to do a Sunday page. Walt had thus been after me to do it, and I couldn`t find the time. Finally the pressure got so great, and because I now had Al ( Taliaferro ) inking my material and Ted Osborne doing the writing, I was able to get into the Sunday page..<

The provenence of the strip explained by James Cadwell :
..>Our family acquired this and other pieces from my father's cousin, Cecil Surry. Cecil Surry worked as an animator for Disney (1928 to 1931) when the Mickey Mouse character was being created. He continued to work as an animation artist for other leading animation studios until the 1950s. About 20 years ago, I contacted the Walt Disney Company to learn more about this piece. We were able to speak with an archivist named Dave Smith and ultimately mailed him copies of the strip. He said it was the correct comic for 3/26/1931, that strip was published and they did not have that strip in their archives. He stated in the 1930s, a few strips were either given away or even throw away..<

Note : Cecil Surry ( 1907-1956 ) was married with Constance Berry somewhere between 1932 – 1934.
Constance Berry was also working at the Walt Disney Studio from at least January, 1930.
So just maybe Constance had a “helping hand” on the surviving of this historical comic strip..?
Many thanks to Jim Cadwell for selling me this comic strip - and to be the next caretaker of it.
Extra Bonus info :

- In 1963 Floyd Gottfredson and Al Taliaferro was honored by Walt Disney with “The Mousecar” statuette.
( The Mousecar is an in-house award given by The Walt Disney Company for a variety of reasons, including service to the company as well as to the community as a whole )
( see the photo ).
- Floyd Gottfredson`s had European ancestors who came from Denmark and emigrated to the US in the 1840`ies.
As a danish collector of comic art this gives the comic strip an extra dimension to me.