'Donald Duck' (2 February 1995) - © Disney.
Larry Knighton is an American cartoonist, illustrator and commercial artist. At King Features Syndicate, he worked with Gordon Bess on 'Redeye' (1988-1990), and was the final artist to draw the 'Donald Duck' newspaper comic (1990-1995).
Early life and career
Born in 1948 in Boise, Idaho, in the Rocky Mountains, Laurence Blaine Knighton served in the US Marine Corps from 1967 to 1970, and studied at the Art Center College of Design. He has worked extensively as a designer and illustrator for the advertising industry. In 1995, Knighton was one of the storyboard artists for an episode the Disney TV series 'Quack Pack'.
Redeye
As a pupil of Gordon Bess, Larry Knighton was assigned to write and draw the 'Redeye' comic strip for King Features Syndicate from 1988 to 1990. After the death of creator Bess in late 1989, the syndicate decided to hand the strip over to writer Bill Yates and artist Mel Casson. Casson continued it on his own from 1999 until the end of its run in 2008.
Donald Duck
By the time Knighton's tenure on 'Red Eye' came to an end, King Features Syndicate had taken over production of the 'Donald Duck' newspaper comic from the Walt Disney Studio. In April 1990, Larry Knighton was hired by the syndicate to take over the writing and art duties of the newspaper comic from Bob Foster and Pete Alvarado. Working on both the daily and the Sunday 'Donald Duck' strip, Knighton's episodes ran in the papers from 30 July 1990 until April 1995. After that, King Features turned to reprints. Knighton was the only artist who wrote his own gags; his predecessors on the strip, Al Taliaferro, Frank Grundeen, Frank Smith and Pete Alvarado, all worked with scriptwriters. However, contributing gag writers during Knighton's tenure were Don Ferguson and Johnny Sajem.
'Donald Duck' (1 February 1995) - © Disney.
Other illustration work
From 1995 to 2001, Knighton was the artist and designer of 'Red', the international corporate mascot of the Red Robin hamburger restaurants. He has also done illustrations for educational books, as well as text and art for children's fantasy books. Since 1995, he has worked regularly with children's author Stephen Cosgrove as assistant writer and illustrator on several projects. These have included the young adult book series 'Bit'n Files' and the educational 'Rhymerlings' children's book series. He has been the illustrator of Lisa Riebe's 'Pond Punkies' series since 2009, and the author of 'The Last Jawlo: Tales of the J'Habb' (2005) and the fantasy book series 'Tales of Tossledowns' (since 2010).
Cover illustrations for 'Tales of Tossledowns'.