Tehachapi illustrator and writer receives Comic-Con Award: Prestigious award for lifetime achievement
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Ruth Connell in their hallway with some of the family’s Mickey Mouse memorabilia.
Del Connell in his room at the assisted living facility with a Mickey award and a drawing of an earlier cartoon character.
Every person wants to leave a legacy, to make their mark in life, and Del Connell has done just that. Through a series of marks on pieces of paper, his work lives long beyond him, even now, as his own memory becomes fogged.
Off a back road in Tehachapi, at a charming assisted living home, Connell sits on the front porch overlooking the bright green lawn, enjoying the sunshine and watching the cars go by.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he has lived here for the last ten months.
At 93, he has maintained his boyish looks with those blue-green eyes that light up when his wife Ruth sits next to him. Other times, he closes them for long periods while he talks about his past, as though he can see it all, a series of sketches in his mind’s eye.
Connell is not cognizant that he has won the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing for his contribution to comics. But he remembers Walt Disney hiring him at 19, and speaks softly of the memory. His wife, Ruth, interjects for him––“Walt wanted all the hot, young talent.”
Ruth helps him along, patiently filling in the gaps as he tells his story.
After working at Disney for a few years in the illustrating department, he was drafted for World War II. He returned in 1945 after selling Disney his idea for “The Cold Blooded Penguin,” a story Connell wrote while he was away that became part of “The Three Caballeros.”
Recognizing his talent, Disney offered him another job, this time in the writing department.
Disney hit hard times and in 1949, Connell accepted an offer to be editor in chief for Western Publishing, editing comics. But he maintained his relationship with Disney, and wrote the “Mickey Mouse” comic strip daily for 20 years. Ruth remembers his dedication, how he wrote stories and drew illustrations every day until he retired in 1988.
When Connell wrote the comic strip, he would do it panel by panel, sketching the characters in pencil with the balloons, filling in the words as he created the story. “All the artist had to do was copy it in ink––Del thought the ink was too boring,” Ruth said.
In Connell’s hallway, memorabilia from his comic days hangs on the walls. Framed drawings of Mickey Mouse smile through the glass. He says Mickey Mouse and Goofy are his favorite characters of the many icons that he brought to life for all those years.
Through Connell’s talented hands, these comic characters became more exuberant than anything produced in this digital age.
Connell and his wife talk about the characters like proud parents.
“I wrote for all the characters and I made up a lot of characters for Walt in those days,” Connell recalled.
He has a long list of characters — staples in the comic world — that he created or wrote for including Little Lulu, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, and Space Family Robinson. Connell set a trend when he gave life to Super Goof, Goofy’s super hero alter-ego. He also wrote and illustrated many Donald Duck comic books, and created families for these characters, like April, May, and June –– the nieces of Daisy Duck.
Although passionate about his characters and stories, Connell had little problem with retirement, Ruth recalls, remembering the changes of the 80’s.
Mickey Mouse had taboos––there could be no violence, no death, no war, no sickness, or any of the other topics that commanded the attention of audiences and began to take center stage in the entertainment industry.
It would be hard to satisfy the public with Mickey’s restrictions, Ruth noted, adding, “I think after Del stopped doing Mickey, they stopped running the daily strip.”
In this digital age, with the flood of on-demand media, it’s easy to forget the value of these characters. But Mickey Mouse is as much a part of the American identity as Chevy and McDonalds. As Connell breathed life into these characters, giving them a voice, he defined the youthful spirit of America. The award Connell has been given is a tribute to a time when people invited these innocent characters into their homes each morning, as families passed the funnies section around the breakfast table.
Connell was not up to attending Comic-Con to accept his award in person, but his son, Brady, accepted the award on his behalf.
Ruth says they plan to have a small ceremony for him in the lawn of the assisted living facility, where Brady will present the award to his father––the great comic and contributor to American culture, who will always be alive to children and adults alike as they share fond memories of that beloved cartoon mouse.
