Comics writer and artist Don Christensen dies

Posted:
Oct 27, 2006

Golden Age comics writer Don Christensen, the longtime head of Filmation Associates' layout department, died October 18.

Circumstances surrounding his death were not disclosed.

Born Donald Ragnvald Christensen in 1916, Christensen studied at the Minnesota School of Art in Minneapolis.

He was a sketch artist for Disney from 1937 to 1941, working on Pinocchio and Dumbo. He left Disney after the big strike in 1941.

He was a writer for the Looney Tunes Daffy's Southern Exposure, Gopher Goofy and The Impatient Patient (all 1942) and Confusions Of A Nutzy Spy, Tokio Jokio and Scrap Happy Daffy (all 1943).

He worked for Disney again in the mid-1950s, later leaving for New York City, where he lived for several years.

Christensen was art director for Filmation Associates from 1966 to 1974, working on such series as Batman, Superman, Superboy, Treasure Island, Oliver Twist, The Brady Kids and Star Trek. With Don Towsley, Christensen directed the 1969 Filmation series Archie and His New Friends.

From 1975 to 1982, he produced The Secret of Isis, The Young Sentinels, Flash Gordon, Tom & Jerry, Heckle & Jeckle and Mighty Mouse in the Great Space Chase.

After the close of Filmation, he worked for several other studios, retiring in 1994.

Christensen was a story man for the Depatie-Freleng Enterprises series Super President (1967), Here Comes the Grump (1969) and The Houndcats (1972). Also at DFE, he wrote the 1974 The Dogfather cartoon Heist And Seek.

He was a story director for Hanna-Barbera's The Kwicky Koala Show (1981). Besides Kwicky Koala, segments included The Bungle Brothers, Crazy Claws and Dirty Dawg.

At Walter Lantz, he wrote the Woody Woodpecker cartoon Coo Coo Nuts (1970). In 1979, he was a story director for Big Mouse the Bad Mouse, an episode of Mighty Man and Yukk -- a segment of Ruby-Spears Productions' The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Show.

At Marvel Productions, he was a story man on 1987's My Little Pony.

Other studios where he worked included DIC, Disney TV and Universal.

Christensen wrote comics for such publishers as Western from the 1940s to 1970s. At Western Publishing, he wrote for almost all Disney characters, as well as stories for characters from Warner Bros., Walter Lantz and Hanna-Barbera.

He did the scripts for the newspaper versions of Yogi Bear (1963) and The Flintstones (1963-64; artwork by Gene Hazelton). In the 1960s, he wrote scripts for Disney Studios' foreign-market comic-book stories.

Don Christensen also wrote the book Tips From Top Cartoonists, which was republished by Eclipse in 1989.