Information
Full name: Merrill De Maris
Birth: February 26, 1898 in New Jersey
Death: December 31, 1948 in Escondido, California
Worked at the Disney studio between:
November 28, 1932 – 1942
Job on Snow White:
Scriptwriter
Worked on all sequences
Writer of the 1937 comic strip adaptation
Back to Main Titles
Merrill De Maris worked on the script of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but he remains most known for his contribution to Walt Disney comic strips. It is possible that he caught the eye of the studio because he could apparently also draw: in the January issue of the magazine The American Girl, the story “The Nerve Trainers” by E.K. Ensdaile is illustrated by Merrill de Maris.
He worked on Mickey Mouse stories, Silly Symphonies adaptations such as The Ugly Duckling. These stories were usually drawn by Floyd Gottfredson. Walt Disney occasionally needed him on the cartoons too so he and Ted Osborne traded places between writing for cartoons or comic strip. Eventually, Floyd Gottfredson thought that de Maris was better and Osborne was let go.
When features came along, he was charged with adapting them in comic strips. His adaptations of Snow White, Pinocchio, and Bambi were illustrated by Hank Porter and inked by Bob Grant.
In 1942, Dick Shaw replaced Merril de Maris at King Features when world war II shortages reduced newspapers’ size and frequency. Merril suffered from health problem and became a gardener.
