Charles Alfred Taliaferro, better known as Al Taliaferro, was born on August 29, 1905, in Montrose, Colorado. His family moved to Southern California in 1918, where he graduated from Glendale High School in 1924. The yearbooks from his high school years are filled with his early cartooning efforts. After graduation, he attended the Art Institute in Los Angeles and his cartooning education was supplemented by correspondence courses.
While working as a designer for a lighting-fixture firm in 1931, a fellow Glendale High School graduate let him know that there was an opening at the Disney Studios. He went for an interview and was hired on the spot. Shortly afterwards, he was assigned to inking the Sunday Mickey Mouse comic strips being done by Floyd Gottfredson.
As the Disney comic-strip department expanded, Taliaferro found himself penciling and inking the new Silly Symphonies Sunday comic strip that occasionally showcased the new Disney cartoon star, Donald Duck. […]
