Bill Peet's Gag Cartoons

 

Bill Peet was a long-time Disney artist, not only working on all of the major animated releases from Snow White to 101 Dalmatians, but also contributing to the choices of these projects. He was a major force at Disney, and Walt Disney himself trusted Peet's opinions.

I had no idea that he tried his hand at gag cartooning as well. Here are a few from his wonderful Caldecott Award-winning autobiography BILL PEET AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

He sent his gag cartoons to the top markets of the day: Collier's, True, the Post and The New Yorker. They were all rejected. From The New Yorker he received this note:

"Your humor is too undisciplined, but we would like to see more of your drawings."

Bill writes in his autobiography:

"That small glimmer of hope wasn't nearly enough to spur me on. Doing cartoons week after week, even if I sold them all, would be frustrating work."

Bill would go on, after leaving Disney, to focus on children's books, creating thirty-six books. A lot of them were based on stories he had made up to tell his own kids.

Here's some of his gag cartoons that were never bought. Bill published them in his autobiography. I thought they were great. 

- Edited from a March 21, 2019 blog entry.