Mickey Mouse is an American newspaper comic strip by the Walt Disney Company featuring Mickey Mouse and is the first published example of Disney comics. The strip debuted on January 13, 1930, and ran until July 29, 1995.[1] It was syndicated by King Features Syndicate until 1990, when Disney switched to Creators Syndicate, which distributed the strip until 2014 (in reruns after 1995).
The early installments were written by Walt Disney, with art by Ub Iwerks and Win Smith. Beginning with the May 5, 1930 strip, the art chores were taken up by Floyd Gottfredson (often aided by various inkers), who also either wrote or supervised the story continuities (relying on various writers to flesh out his plots). Gottfredson continued with the strip until 1975.
By 1931, the Mickey Mouse strip was published in 60 newspapers in the US, as well as papers in twenty other countries.[2] Starting in 1940, strips were reprinted in the monthly comic book Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, and since then Gottfredson reprints have become a staple of Disney comics publishing around the world.
A Mickey Mouse comic strip was suggested by Joseph Connolly, the president of King Features Syndicate, in a July 24, 1929 letter to Disney animator Ub Iwerks: "I think your mouse animation is one of the funniest features I have ever seen in the movies. Please consider producing one in comic strip form for newspapers. If you can find time to do one, I shall be very interested in seeing some specimens." The Disney team was busy producing new cartoons, but by November, samples of the new strip were approved by the syndicate.[3] The comic strip launched on January 13, 1930,[1] written by Disney himself, with art by Ub Iwerks.
The strip begins with young Mickey as an optimistic, imaginative young mouse living on a farm, and dreaming of becoming a great aviator like his hero, Charles Lindbergh. In a sequence based on the 1928 short Plane Crazy, Mickey puts together a homemade plane, and takes a flight with his girlfriend Minnie. She falls out of the plane, and Mickey travels through a storm to land on a deserted island, inhabited by fierce natives who want to cook him alive.[4]
As these first strips were being released in January 1930, Iwerks left the Disney studio, signing a contract with Disney competitor Pat Powers to leave Disney and start an animation studio under his own name.[5] Win Smith, who had been inking the strips, took over the pencilling as well with the February 10th strip.[1] Smith left the studio in April after a fight with Disney, who wanted him to take over writing the strip. As a "temporary replacement", Disney asked a young inbetweener at the studio named Floyd Gottfredson to fill in. Gottfredson's first strip was published on May 5, and he took over the scripting two weeks later. He would continue as the creative force of the strip for more than 45 years.[6]
While the early months of the strip did have a loose plot, the pace and style were still the standard gag-a-day approach to comic strips. With adventure and daily continuity strips like The Gumps and Wash Tubbs becoming increasingly popular, King Features Syndicate asked Disney to make Mickey Mouse a more serious adventure strip.
This led to the first adventure storyline, "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley", which ran from April 1 to September 20, 1930. The story—begun by Smith, and continued by Gottfredson—involves a crooked lawyer, Sylvester Shyster, and his thuggish associate Peg-Leg Pete, who kidnap Minnie in order to find a map to her Uncle Mortimer's hidden gold mine in Death Valley. Mickey and Minnie race Shyster and Pete to the desert, to lay claim to the mine. The story runs through a number of Western melodrama tropes—a desperate horse chase, gunplay, a crusty old sheriff, the heroine getting locked up in a jail cell, the hero unfairly branded an outlaw. Over six months, Gottfredson made it clear that Mickey Mouse could deliver action and thrills.[7]
The next story, "Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers", included a sequence in which Mickey, convinced that Minnie has thrown him over for a rival, spends a week trying (and failing) to commit suicide. He tries shooting, gassing, drowning and hanging himself, before he decides that he's overreacting and gives up on the idea.[8]
1930s
In a 1931 publicity stunt, Mickey—just crowned boxing champion in the strip—had his photograph taken, and then encouraged readers to send a stamped, addressed envelope to him care of the newspaper to get a copy. Gottfredson painted a "photo" that was printed on cards and sent out to the readers. According to a Disney press release, they received more than 20,000 requests for the picture, demonstrating the strength of the strip's appeal.[9]
An early 1932 story, "The Great Orphanage Robbery", is seen as a milestone in Gottfredson's increasingly sophisticated storytelling. To raise money for an orphans' home, Mickey and friends stage a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin, but when the play is over, they discover that the money has been stolen. The thieves are Shyster and Pete, returning to the strip after a year and a half, but they manage to place the blame on Mickey's friend Horace Horsecollar, who's thrown in jail. Mickey chases after the villains, but his disappearance puts suspicion onto him as well.[10] In the second volume of the 2011 reprint collection, comics historian Thomas Andrae describes the resulting storyline:
Gottfredson's newfound mastery of the serial format is evident in nearly every strip of "Orphanage Robbery". First we are enticed into the story by following Mickey's attempt each day to increase the running total for the orphans' fund. Then the suspense increases through the use of an exciting chase -- conveniently supplied by [1932 Mickey short] The Klondike Kid -- as well as cross-cutting techniques developed from old movie serials, another influence Gottfredson now learned to mimic with ease. The strip cuts back and forth between the trial, conviction, and near-execution of Horace Horsecollar -- who is falsely accused of the theft -- and Mickey's progress in tracking down the villains.[11]
The first Sunday page appeared on January 10, 1932, and was aimed at a younger audience, as most Sunday comic strips were at the time.[6] In September 1932, Mrs. Fieldmouse saddled Mickey with baby-sitting her two pesky twins, Morty and Ferdie, who kept his house in an uproar for two months' worth of strips. They called him "Unca' Mickey", although they didn't seem to be actual relations, but when they returned in March 1935 for another Sunday continuity, they were indeed Mickey's nephews.[6]
Other memorable early-1930s storylines include 1932-33's "Blaggard Castle", in which Mickey and Horace are captured and hypnotized by the mad scientists Professor Ecks, Professor Doublex and Professor Triplex,[12] and 1933's "The Mail Pilot", where Mickey finds Shyster and Pete once again, ruling a secret zeppelin kingdom in the clouds.[13]
Mickey's best pal Goofy joined the strip in January 1933—still using the proto-Goofy moniker "Dippy Dawg"[14]—and by the end of the year, he went into business with Mickey as detectives in "The Crazy Crime Wave", investigating the mysterious city-wide thefts of hair and red flannel underwear.[15] The character appeared in several stories as Dippy, until January 1936, when he's called "Goofy" for the first time in the strip.[16]
Donald Duck first appeared in the Sunday pages in February 1935, where he got Mickey involved in "The Case of the Missing Coats" and then stuck around to fight with Morty and Ferdie.[17] In March 1935's "Editor-in-Grief", the brash duck was hired as a newsboy, selling Mickey's crusading newspaper, The Daily War-Drum.[18] He returned to the strip in fall 1936 for "The Seven Ghosts", helping Mickey and Goofy investigate a haunted mansion.[16] This would be his last appearance in the Mickey Mouse strip—starting in August 1936, Donald was the star of a year-long sequence in the Sunday Silly Symphony comic strip, and he got his own comic strip in 1938. Since Mickey and Donald could appear in rival newspapers, the characters weren't allowed to cross over to the other's strip.[19]
Another well-remembered 1930s story is Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot, published from May to September 1939.[20] In this story, Chief O'Hara hires Mickey to capture a new criminal who calls himself the Blot. According to O'Hara, he is the smartest thief they've ever met, but Detective Casey calls this new criminal a looney. The only thing he steals is cameras of a special type and he smashes them open on the spot. (The strange crime and the motive behind it resembles closely the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons".) The crime appears eccentric, but the villain is deadly serious—three times during the story, he captures Mickey and leaves him in deadly peril, and the pair engage in a car chase, a boat chase and a battle for control of a crashing airplane. In the end, the Blot is captured and unmasked. The character was dubbed "the Phantom Blot" in 1941, when the strips were reprinted in Dell Comics' Four Color (1st series) issue #16, Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot.[21] The name stuck, and the character has been the Phantom Blot ever since.[6]
In the Sunday pages from August to November 1938, Mickey performed in an adaptation of the current short cartoon Brave Little Tailor, bookended with segments showing him as an actor, being cast in the film by Walt Disney.[22] This was Gottfredson's last work on the Sunday strip. At that point, Manuel Gonzales took over as the lead artist on the Mickey Sundays, and stayed in the post until 1981 (except for his military service during World War II, from 1942 to 1945). Gonzales and writer Merrill De Maris continued writing the occasional multi-week story, with an especially long four-month continuity from March to July 1940, "The Photographic Exhibition." The final Sunday story, "The Professor's Experiment", ran from November 1943 to March 1944. (This also happened to be the last appearance of Mickey's nephew Ferdie in the strip; from 1944 on, Ferdie's twin Morty always appeared alone.) At its peak the Sunday strip, "... appeared in 120 newspapers around the world with a collective circulation of more than 20 million readers each week."[23]
1940s
Gottfredson stopped plotting the strip in June 1943, passing it on to Disney press agent Bill Walsh, who wrote the strip for the next twenty years. Walsh's first two stories were about fighting the Axis; the second one, Mickey Mouse on a Secret Mission, enraged Adolf Hitler so much that he demanded Benito Mussolini stop Italians from publishing the Topolino (Mickey Mouse) comic magazine.[6]
As Walsh was not interested in Mickey Mouse as a character,[24] and had a taste for science-fiction, mystery and horror, his stories quickly diverged from those of the previous decade. Walsh created various bizarre characters and made Mickey's antagonists darker and deadlier. In The 'Lectro Box (Oct 1943-Feb 1944), Mickey and nephew Morty create a powerful and unpredictable machine, which soon attracts the monstrous mad scientist Dr. Grut and his posse of mind-controlled Aberzombies. A few months later, Mickey, Minnie and Pluto visited The World of Tomorrow (July-Nov 1944), where Pegleg Pete ruled the world with his deadly robots, the Mekka Men. The next story, The House of Mystery (Nov 1944-Jan 1945), had the evil scientist Drusilla die in a fire as her mansion burns around her, and her caretaker rushes inside to be with her in the flames. At this point, the threat of death became a real presence in the strip.[6]
In mid-1945, the daily strip moved to a mostly gag-a-day format, with brief two-week continuities through the summer of 1947. In September 1947, the strip returned to long continuities and introduced a new character: Eega Beeva, "the Man of Tomorrow". [25] Eega was a strange creature from five hundred years in the future, a highly evolved human who understood future technology and possessed mysterious powers. He had a strange future accent that added a P to the beginning of most words: "I pdon't pthink so!" He was joined in February by his pet Pflip the Thnuckle-Booh, and became Mickey's sidekick for the next few years, returning to his home in the future in July 1950, at the end of "The Moook Treasure".[6]
On a Sunday page in October 1949, Goofy bought a talkative, self-centered mynah bird named Ellsworth. Also created by Walsh, Ellsworth was a major focus of the Sunday strip for ten years, sometimes crowding Mickey out of his own strip. He also appeared in the daily strip in 1956, once the dailies became gag-focused as well.[26]
1950s and beyond
The daily strip took a darker turn in the early 1950s. Alberto Becattini says, "Especially after Eega Beeva left, Mickey found himself unwillingly mixed up in dangerous adventures whose development and outcome he no longer seemed to be able to control."[6] Goofy, who had been fairly absent from the daily strip during Eega Beeva's tenure, returned to the strip in March 1951 with "Dry Gulch Goofy", a story in which he becomes a Hollywood actor.[6]
In mid-1955, King Features Syndicate asked Gottfredson and Walsh to stop writing continuities and become a gag-a-day strip; they were concerned that TV serials were making the audience lose interest in adventure comic strips.[6] Walsh continued to write the daily strip until 1964.[1]
Notable supporting characters from the gag-a-day strip include Morty's friend Alvin (1956–75), his girlfriend Millie (1962–87), Doctor Proctor (1966–89), and Goofy's girlfriend Glory-Bee (1969–79), who also appeared in Disney comic books in the early 70s.[6]
Creators
Gottfredson originally wrote and drew the Mickey Mouse strip by himself, but scaled back in 1932, only plotting the stories and doing the penciling, while the dialogue was mostly done by other hands.[27] The stories were always untitled; titles were usually assigned later, when the strips were reprinted in picture books or comic books.[28] Scripts were written by Webb Smith (1932–33), Ted Osborne (1933–38), Merrill De Maris (1933–42), Dick Shaw (1942–43), Bill Walsh (1943–64), Roy Williams (1962–69) and Del Connell (1968–88).[1] Even so, Gottfredson always worked closely with his writers, and would often suggest changes in the scripts whenever he thought it would improve a story.[29] There were a variety of inkers on the strip through the years; inkers for the Sunday strips included Al Taliaferro (1932–1938)[30] and Ted Thwaites (1932-1940),[31] and Manuel Gonzales until 1981; Taliaferro also inked daily strips.[28] Gottfredson returned to inking daily strips himself in February 1947; Frank Reilly took over as head of the Comic Strip Department, and Gottfredson had more time to devote to the strip.[6]
Gottfredson plotted the continuities until Bill Walsh started writing the strip in 1943.[32] Around that time, Dick Moores inked the strip for two years. Starting in the 1950s, Gottfredson and writer Bill Walsh were instructed to drop the storylines and do only daily gags.[33] Gottfredson continued illustrating the daily strip until his retirement on October 1, 1975.[28]
After Gottfredson retired, the strip was written by Del Connell (1968–1988), Floyd Norman (1984–1992) and Colette Bezio (1991–1995).[1] Roman Arambula was the principal artist on the daily strip from 1975 to early 1990 (and even lettered it).[34] Writer Mark Evanier described Arambula's work habits on the strip thus: "He would draw two weeks worth of the strip every other week and in the weeks he wasn't working on that, he drew comics for me."[35]
Upon the retirement of Manuel Gonzales in 1981, Daan Jippes took over the Sunday strip (May 3, 1981 – January 3, 1982).Mike Royerprovided most of the inking.[36] From 1983 to 1990, Arambula took on the art chores of the Sunday strip in addition to the daily.[34]
Arambula had occasional fill-in artists, "... which [he] would have told you was not because he ever missed a deadline".[35] These included Manuel Gonzales (1975-1981), Tony Strobl (1975–1981), Steve Steere (1981–1982), Bill Wright (1982–1984), Bill Langley (1984–1987), Jules Coenen (1986–1987) and Larry Mayer (1986–1987). In the later years of the strip, art duties were shared by Alex Howell (1990–1995), Rick Hoover (1991–1995) and Thomas Lewis (1994–1995).[1]
The Sunday page went into reprints in February 1992.[1] By 1994, the strip was running in only 30 newspapers, and Disney and King Features decided to discontinue it.[37] The daily strip ended on July 29, 1995.[1]
Inspirations
The first two weeks of Mickey Mouse strips in 1930 were loosely based on the 1928 short Plane Crazy, followed by a sequence in the jungle, inspired by the 1929 short Jungle Rhythm.[38] When Floyd Gottfredson took over, he also took inspiration from Disney's animation department, who provided him with storyboards and model sheets for upcoming Mickey Mouse shorts.[39]
"The Great Orphanage Robbery" (1932) was partly inspired by Mickey's Mellerdrammer (1933) and The Klondike Kid (1932), but with a more elaborate plot.
"Mickey Mouse and His Horse Tanglefoot" (1933) was an adaptation of The Steeple Chase (1933).
"Rumplewatt the Giant" (1934) was an adaptation of Giantland (1933).
"The Captive Castaways" (1934) was inspired by Shanghaied (1934).
"The Case of the Vanishing Coats" (1935) was inspired by The Invisible Man (1935), a never-finished cartoon.[40]
"Hoppy the Kangaroo" (1935) was based on Mickey's Kangaroo (1935).
"Mickey's Rival" (1936) uses the antagonist Mortimer Mouse from the Mickey's Rival short (1936).
"The Robin Hood Adventure" (1936) was partly inspired by Mickey's Garden (1935) and The Worm Turns (1937).
"The Seven Ghosts" (1936) was inspired by a work-in-progress version of Lonesome Ghosts (1937); at the time that the comic was developed, the ghosts were mortal villains in costume, rather than actual ghosts as in the finished film.[40]
"Mighty Whale Hunter" (1938) was inspired by The Whalers (1938).
"The Brave Little Tailor" (1938) is an explicit adaptation of the newly released short Brave Little Tailor (1938).
"Society Dog Show" (1939) is an explicit adaptation of the newly released short Society Dog Show (1939).
"Mickey Mouse Meets Robinson Crusoe" (1938–39) makes references to Mickey's Man Friday (1935).
"Li'l Davy" (1955) features a diminutive version of Davy Crockett, following the popular Davy Crockett miniseries from the Disneyland TV show (1954–55).
Mickey Mouse: A young, bold, optimistic mouse, who loves excitement and adventure.
Minnie Mouse: Mickey's girlfriend, a warm-hearted and stubborn mouse. Introduced in the first week of the strip, January 1930.[41]
Clarabelle Cow: Mickey and Minnie's talkative and stubborn friend. Introduced in "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley", April 1930.[7]
Horace Horsecollar: Mickey and Minnie's cheerful know-it-all friend. Introduced in "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley", April 1930.[7]
Pluto: Mickey's faithful dog. Introduced in "Pluto the Pup", July 1931.[42]
Goofy: Mickey's loyal, dimwitted best friend. Introduced as "Dippy Dog" in January 1933.[14]
Peg-Leg Pete: Mickey Mouse's nemesis, a tough gangster who often works with Sylvester Shyster. Introduced in "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley", April 1930.[7]
Sylvester Shyster: A sneaky lawyer behind a number of villainous schemes. Introduced in "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley", April 1930.[7]
The Phantom Blot: A nefarious hooded villain who first appeared in "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot" in May 1939.[43] The mysterious Blot never returned in Gottfredson's strip, but the character has resurfaced many times over the years, starting with a 1955 story in the Italian Topolino,[44] a 1964 three-part serial in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories,[45] and then his own comic, published by Gold Key Comics for 7 issues from 1964 to 1966.[46]
Butch: A roughneck who started as a gangster in "Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers" in November 1930,[47] but stuck around and became Mickey's pal for a year, exiting the strip after "Circus Roustabout" in June 1931.[48] The character was revived in the 1990s as a member of Mickey's supporting cast in European Disney comics.[49]
Professors Ecks, Doublex and Triplex: Three terrifying mad scientists who first menaced Mickey Mouse in "Blaggard Castle", November 1932 to February 1933.[12] The professors returned as "reformed" characters in Italian comics in the 1970s,[50] and came back to the Mickey Mouse strip as villains in the June 1990 story "The Time Transmuter".[51]
Tanglefoot: Mickey's broken-down but loyal horse. Introduced in "Mickey Mouse and His Horse Tanglefoot", June 1933.[52] The horse character returned in two more stories -- "The Crazy Crime Wave" and "Tanglefoot Pulls His Weight"—and was so popular that Western Publishing released six Big Little Books in 1934 related to Tanglefoot.[53]
Mickey Mouse had adventure storylines from its inception until October 1955, when the syndicate instructed the creators to move to a simpler, gag-a-day format. In 1990, the daily strip returned to the adventure format.[1]
Floyd Gottfredson (story) Merrill de Maris (script)
Volume 3: High Noon at Inferno Gulch
The Captive Castaways
1934
January 10-April 17
Floyd Gottfredson (story) Merrill de Maris (script)
Floyd Gottfredson
Ted Thwaites
Pluto's Rival
April 18–28
Floyd Gottfredson (story) Ted Osborne (script)
The Bat Bandit of Inferno Gulch
April 30-July 28
Bobo the Elephant
July 30-October 13
The Sacred Jewel
October 15-December 29
Pluto the Racer
1934-1935
December 31 – March 2
Editor-in-Grief
1935
March 4-June 1
Race for Riches
June 3-September 28
The Pirate Submarine
1935-1936
September 30 – January 4
Volume 4: House of the Seven Haunts!
Oscar the Ostrich
1936
January 6-March 21
Floyd Gottfredson (story) Ted Osborne (script)
Floyd Gottfredson
Ted Thwaites
Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion
March 23-August 8
The Seven Ghosts
August 10-November 28
Island in the Sky
1936-1937
November 30 – April 3
In Search of Jungle Treasure
1937
April 5-August 7
Monarch of Medioka
1937-1938
August 9 – February 5
Al Taliaferro Ted Thwaites
Volume 5: Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot
Mighty Whale Hunter
1938
February 7-July 6
Floyd Gottfredson (story) Merrill de Maris (script)
Floyd Gottfredson
Ted Thwaites Bill Wright
The Plumber's Helper
July 7-December 10
Mickey Mouse Meets Robinson Crusoe
1938-1939
December 12 – April 13
Unhappy Campers
1939
April 14-May 20
Floyd Gottfredson Ross Wetzel
Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot
May 22-September 9
Floyd Gottfredson
The Miracle Master
1939-1940
September 11 – January 13
An Education for Thursday
1940
January 15-April 20
Volume 6: Lost in Lands of Long Ago
The Bar-None Ranch
1940
April 22-August 17
Floyd Gottfredson (story) Manuel Gonzales (story) Merrill de Maris (script)
Floyd Gottfredson Manuel Gonzales
Ted Thwaites Bill Wright
Bellhop Detective
August 19-December 21
Floyd Gottfredson (story) Merrill de Maris (script)
Floyd Gottfredson
Land of Long Ago
1940-1941
December 23– April 12
Bill Wright
Love Trouble
1941
April 14-July 5
Mickey Mouse, Supersalesman
July 7-October 4
Mystery at Hidden River
1941-1942
October 6 – January 17
The Gleam
1942
January 19-May 2
Ted Thwaites Bill Wright
Volume 7: March of the Zombies
Goofy and Agnes
1942
May 4-August 15
Floyd Gottfredson (story) Merrill de Maris (script)
Floyd Gottfredson
Bill Wright
The Black Crow Mystery
August 17-November 21
Working to Win
December 14–23
Floyd Gottfredson (story) Dick Shaw (script)
Mickey Mouse's Wild Holiday
1943
May 31-June 26
Dick Moores
The Nazi Submarine
June 28-July 17
Bill Walsh
Mickey Mouse on a Secret Mission
July 19-October 23
The 'Lectro Box
1943-1944
October 25 – February 5
Pluto the Spy Catcher
1944
February 7–19
The War Orphans
March 13-April 15
Volume 8: The Tomorrow Wars
The Pirate Ghostship
1944
April 17-July 15
Bill Walsh
Floyd Gottfredson
Dick Moores
The World of Tomorrow
July 31-November 11
The House of Mystery
1944-1945
November 13 – January 27
Floyd Gottfredson Paul Murry Dick Moores
Billy the Mouse
1945
March 5-June 16
Floyd Gottfredson
Mickey's Great-Grandfather
1946
February 25-March 2
Manuel Gonzales
Bill Wright
Home Made Home
March 4–9
Paul Murry
The New Girlfriend
March 11–23
Manuel Gonzales Paul Murry
Mickey's Mini-Plane
March 25-April 13
Bill Wright Manuel Gonzales Paul Murry Floyd Gottfredson
Mystery Next Door
April 15-May 4
Floyd Gottfredson Manuel Gonzales
Gangland
May 6–18
Floyd Gottfredson
Sunken Treasure
May 20-June 1
Trailer Trouble
June 3–15
Aunt Marissa
June 17–29
The Candidate
July 1–13
The Little Genius
July 15–27
Volume 9: Rise of the Rhyming Man
Goofy's Boat Race
1946
July 29-August 10
Bill Walsh
Floyd Gottfredson
Bill Wright
The Goofy Crooner
August 12–24
Eviction
August 26-September 7
Goofy's Rocket
September 9–21
Mickey's Menagerie
September 23-October 5
The Cure for Hiccups
October 7–19
Thanksgiving Dinner
October 21-November 2
The Search for Geeko
November 4–16
The Talking Dog
November 18–30
Arctic Adventure
December 2–14
Morty's Escapade
December 16–28
The Fiendish Cat
1946-1947
December 30– January 11
Truant Officer Mickey
1946
January 13–25
Goofy's Inheritance
1947
January 27-February 8
Mickey the Icky
February 10–22
Pluto's Amnesia
February 24-March 8
Floyd Gottfredson
Pegleg Pete Reforms
March 10–22
Home Movies
March 24-April 5
Shutterbug Mickey
April 7–19
The Boxer
April 21-May 3
Mickey's Strange Flower
May 5–17
The Midget Racer
May 19–31
Mickey's Pet Shop
June 2–14
Mickey's Helicopter
June 16–28
Pluto's Trial
June 30-July 12
The Spook Specialist
July 14–26
Mickey Writes the Songs
July 28-August 9
Horace's Nerves
August 11–23
The Skyscraper Adventure
August 25-September 6
The Foundling
September 6–20
The Man of Tomorrow
September 22-December 27
Mickey Makes a Killing
1947-1948
December 29 – February 7
Pflip the Thnuckle-Booh
1948
February 9–28
The Santa Claus Bandit
March 1-April 3
The Kumquat Question
April 5--28
The Atombrella and the Rhyming Man
May 30-October 9
Volume 10: Planet of Faceless Foes
An Education for Eega
1948
October 11-December 25
Bill Walsh
Floyd Gottfredson
Floyd Gottfredson
Pflip's Strange Power
1948-1949
December 27, 1948 – March 5, 1949
Planet of the Aints
1949
March 7-August 6
Itching Gulch
August 8-October 22
The Syndicate of Crime
1949-1950
October 24, 1949 – January 28, 1950
The Moook Treasure
1950
January 30-July 8
Mousepotamia
July 10-September 30
Land Beneath the Sea
October 2-December 30
Floyd Gottfredson Bill Wright
Tzig-Tzag Fever
1951
January 1-March 24, 1951
Floyd Gottfredson
Volume 11: Mickey vs Mickey
Dry Gulch Goofy
1951
March 26-June 23
Bill Walsh
Floyd Gottfredson
Floyd Gottfredson
The Ghost of Black Brian
June 25-October 20
Uncle Wombat's Tock-Tock Time Machine
1951-1952
October 22, 1951 – January 22, 1952
The Midas Ring
1952
January 23-April 19
Isle of Moola-La
April 21-October 2
Hoosat from Another Planet
1952-1953
October 3 – February 28
Mickey's Dangerous Double
1953
March 2-June 20
Volume 12: The Mysterious Dr. X
The Magic Shoe
1953
June 22-October 28
Bill Walsh
Floyd Gottfredson Bill Wright
Floyd Gottfredson Bill Wright Dick Moores
Mickey Takes Umbrage
1953-1954
October 29 – January 30
Floyd Gottfredson
Floyd Gottfredson
A Fatal Occupation
1954
February 1-May 15
The Kid Gang
May 17-September 18
Uncle Gudger
September 20-December 31
Dr. X
1955
January 1-May 20
Pluto's Punctured Romance
May 21-June 25
Floyd Gottfredson Manuel Gonzales
Li'l Davy
June 27-October 4
Floyd Gottfredson
Daily strips (1990–1995)
In 1990, writer Floyd Norman convinced King Features Syndicate to allow him to bring back the comic strip's adventure story format.[37] Norman and Colette Bezio shared the scripting, with Rick Hoover, Alex Howell and Thomas Lewis providing art. With the lone exception of "Reform and Void", the 1990-1995 stories have not been reprinted in the US, and only rarely in other countries.
The two volumes of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse reprint the Sunday pages that Gottfredson worked on. Following the Brave Little Tailor adaptation in 1938, Manuel Gonzales took over as artist for the Sunday pages until 1981. Due to his military duties, he was replaced by Bill Wright from 1942 to 1946. There were seven more Sunday storylines under Gonzales and Wright's tenure:
"The Society Dog Show" (January 15–22, 1939), written by Merrill De Maris, pencil by Manuel Gonzales, inks by Ted Thwaites[55]
"The Photographic Expedition" (March 17-July 14, 1940), written by Merrill De Maris, pencil by Manuel Gonzales, inks by Ted Thwaites[56]
"Purty Clever" (Jan 19-Feb 16, 1941), written by Merrill De Maris, pencil and inks by Manuel Gonzales[57]
"Goofy Gets Smart" (May 18-June 22, 1941), written by Merrill De Maris, pencil and inks by Manuel Gonzales[58]
"Lucky Mickey" (aka No Charge!) (Sept 7-21, 1941), written by Merrill De Maris, pencil and inks by Manuel Gonzales[59]
no title (Sept 19-Nov 14, 1943), written by Hubie Karp, pencil and inks by Bill Wright[60]
"The Professor's Experiment" (Nov 21, 1943-March 12, 1944), written by Hubie Karp, pencil and inks by Bill Wright[61]
Following "The Professor's Experiment", the Sunday strip shifted completely to the gag-a-week format.[39]
Over the years, some loosely connected sequences of strips were also published:
"On the Carpet / Poor Sport / Return Engagement / Everything In Its Place / It's a Slow Number / Fast Action / Injun Trouble / Too Good To Be True" (Sept 8, 1940-Oct 27, 1940), written by Merrill De Maris, pencil by Manuel Gonzales, inks by Ted Thwaites[62]
"Lesson Learned / Quiz Kid" (Apr 27, 1941-May 4, 1941), written by Hubie Karp, pencil and inks by Bill Wright[63]
no title (Mar 28-Apr 4, 1943), written by Hubie Karp, pencil and inks by Bill Wright[64]
In 1949, Gonzales and writer Bill Walsh introduced Ellsworth to the Sunday strips.[65] From 1949 to 1959, the characters appeared in 85 Sunday strips,[66] and in 1956 he was also featured in 12 daily strips by Gottfredson.[67]
The Perils of Mickey
In 1993–1994, the Disney Company began a branding campaign called "The Perils of Mickey", evoking the spirit of Gottfredson's early-30s Mickey comics.[68] The campaign involved "remakes" of three classic Gottfredson stories in the daily newspaper strip: "Blaggard Castle" (Jan-Feb 1994), "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot" (March–April) and "The Mail Pilot" (June–July). All three were drawn by Rick Hoover.[39]
Merchandise for the campaign often used the "pie-eyed" Mickey design, and included keychains and storybooks published by Golden Press.[68]
"Perils of Mickey" comics also appeared in the Disney Adventures magazine, including "Return to Blaggard Castle", an adventure featuring Mickey, Minnie, Horace and the Phantom Blot, published in Vol. 3 Nos. 10-11 (1993).[68]
Reprints and collections
Big Little Books
In the 1930s and 40s, Western Publishing published a very popular series of small hardcover books for children known as Big Little Books. These chunky, compact books featured a captioned illustration on one page, with a page of text on the facing page. The stories featured a wide assortment of popular characters, including a number of Disney stars, and Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse strips provided the perfect material for an illustrated adventure story.
The following Big Little Books were published based on Mickey Mouse storylines:[69]
Mickey Mouse (1933), based on Mickey Mouse and the Gypsies aka Mickey Mouse and the Ransom Plot
Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island (1933), based on Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island
Mickey Mouse the Mail Pilot (1933), based on The Mail Pilot
Mickey Mouse in the Blaggard Castle (1934), based on Blaggard Castle
Mickey Mouse the Detective (1934), based on The Crazy Crime Wave
Mickey Mouse and Bobo the Elephant (1935), based on Bobo the Elephant
Mickey Mouse and the Bat Bandit (1935), based on The Bat Bandit of Inferno Gulch
Mickey Mouse and Pluto the Racer (1936), based on Pluto the Racer
Mickey Mouse and the Sacred Jewel (1936), based on The Sacred Jewel
Mickey Mouse Runs His Own Newspaper (1937), based on Editor-in-Grief
Mickey Mouse in the Race for Riches (1938), based on Race for Riches
Mickey Mouse and the Pirate Submarine (1939), based on The Pirate Submarine
Mickey Mouse and the Seven Ghosts (1940), based on The Seven Ghosts
Mickey Mouse in the Foreign Legion (1940), based on Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion
Mickey Mouse in the Treasure Hunt (1941), based on In Search of Jungle Treasure
Mickey Mouse on Sky Island (1941), based on Sky Island
Mickey Mouse and the Magic Lamp (1942), based on The Miracle Master
Mickey Mouse and the Dude Ranch Bandit (1943), based on The Bar-None Ranch
Mickey Mouse on the Cave-man Island (1944), based on Land of Long Ago
Mickey Mouse, Bellboy Detective (1945), based on Bellhop Detective
Mickey Mouse and the 'Lectro Box (1946), based on The 'Lectro Box
Mickey Mouse and the Lazy Daisy Mystery (1947), based on Billy the Mouse
Mickey Mouse and the Desert Palace (1948), based on??
Mickey Mouse in the World of Tomorrow (1948), based on The World of Tomorrow
Mickey Mouse and the Stolen Jewels (1949), based on??
There was also a set of six "Wee Little Books" published in 1934—smaller books released in a special box set that told the story of Mickey Mouse and His Horse Tanglefoot. The six titles are Mickey Mouse at the Carnival, Mickey Mouse's Misfortune, Mickey Mouse and Tanglefoot, Mickey Mouse's Uphill Fight, Mickey Mouse Will Not Quit and Mickey Mouse Wins the Race.[70]
Comic books
Gottfredson's Mickey strips were often collected in the 1930s and 1940s. The monthly Mickey Mouse Magazine began reprinting Mickey Mouse strips in issue #16 (January 1937), which continued after the magazine evolved into Dell Publishing's Walt Disney's Comics and Stories in 1940. The title continued reprinting Mickey Mouse through 1948.[6]
Modern-day American reprints began with "The Bar None Ranch" (1940) which appeared in Walt Disney Comics Digest #40 (1973).[71] The following year "The Bat Bandit" (1934) appeared in a deluxe edition The Best of Walt Disney Comics.[72]Abbeville Press' large size Best Comics anthologies in the late-1970s included two all-Gottfredson volumes (one headlined "Goofy"), though the stories were relettered and sometimes condensed. In 1980, Abbeville issued a small-size Best Comics series that included three all-Gottfredson volumes (again, one headlined "Goofy"), all of which reprinted stories from the earlier large-size editions.
Another Rainbow Publishing
In 1986, Another Rainbow/Gladstone Publishing (and later Gemstone Publishing) began a tradition of serializing Gottfredson stories in regular Disney monthly comic books, which continued on and off until 2008, when they ceased publication. Gladstone also collected a number of Gottfredson's serials in the larger-size "comic albums" it issued during the 1980s;,[73] in 1990, Disney Comics issued "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot" (1939) in the same format.[74]
In 2006, Gemstone Publishing published a colored and reformatted version of the story "Mickey Mouse Music" for the Walt Disney Treasures collection Disney Comics: 75 Years of Innovation.
Gemstone then went on to publish numerous Gottfredson stories in issues of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, including "Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion," "Pflip's Strange Power," and "The Gleam."
Gemstone also announced The Floyd Gottfredson Library, a comprehensive edition of Gottfredson's serialized stories (Mickey 1930–1955, plus later non-Mickey material) with a planned release during 2009. But the series was postponed, then canceled once Gemstone no longer had the Disney license.
Fantagraphics
In 2011, Fantagraphics resumed production of the series Gemstone had started, with the same editorial team but with the individual books branded "Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse." The Floyd Gottfredson Library series title appeared on the indicia pages inside the books.
Fantagraphics' Gottfredson Library came into print in 2011 and its publishing run lasted until 2018; in total 14 volumes were released, collecting the Gottfredson Mickey Mouse daily strips originally published from 1930 to 1955 as well as the various works Gottfredson did for the Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales Sunday strips.[75]
On November 21, 2018, Fantagraphics followed the Gottfredson Library with a one-shot anthology book to celebrate Mickey Mouse's 90th anniversary, titled Mickey Mouse: The Greatest Adventures, ISBN: 978-1-68396-122-2. This book featured black-and-white daily strips newly arranged and printed in full color, in a 300-page "best-of" selection that included "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley" and "The Gleam" among others.[76][77]
Romano Scarpa was one of the most famous Italian creators of Disney comics.
Pete is a cartoon character created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks of The Walt Disney Company. Pete is traditionally depicted as the villainous arch-nemesis of Mickey Mouse, and was made notorious for his repeated attempts to kidnap Minnie Mouse. Pete is the oldest continuing Disney character, having debuted in the cartoon Alice Solves the Puzzle in 1925. He originally bore the appearance of an anthropomorphic bear, but with the advent of Mickey in 1928, he was defined as a cat.
Arthur Floyd Gottfredson was an American cartoonist best known for his defining work on the Mickey Mouse comic strip, which he worked on from 1930 until his retirement in 1975. His contribution to Mickey Mouse comics is comparable to Carl Barks's on the Donald Duck comics. 17 years after his death, his memory was honored with the Disney Legends award in 2003 and induction into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
Charles Alfred "Al" Taliaferro, was an American Disney comics artist who produced Disney comic strips for King Features Syndicate. Taliaferro is best known for his work on the Donald Duck comic strip. Many of his strips were written by Bob Karp.
Theodore H. Osborne was an American writer of comics, radio shows and animated films, remembered for his contributions to the creation and refinement, during the 1930s, of Walt Disney cartoon characters.
Clarabelle Cow is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As an anthropomorphic cow, Clarabelle is one of Minnie Mouse's best friends. She was once depicted as the girlfriend of Horace Horsecollar, although now she is often paired with Goofy.
The Mickey Mouse universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting for stories involving Disney cartoon characters, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Pluto and Goofy as the primary members, and many other characters related to them, being most of them anthropomorphic animals. The universe originated from the Mickey Mouse animated short films produced by Disney starting in 1928, although its first consistent version was created by Floyd Gottfredson in the Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip. Real-world versions also exist in Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, called Mickey's Toontown.
Horace Horsecollar is a cartoon character created in 1929 at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Horace is a tall anthropomorphic black horse and is one of Mickey Mouse's best friends. Characterized as a boastful show-off, Horace served as Mickey’s sidekick in Disney's early black-and-white shorts.
Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring characters created by the Walt Disney Company, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck.
Mickey Mouse Adventures is a Disney comic book first published by Disney Comics from 1990 to 1991. It featured Mickey Mouse as the main character along with other characters from the Mickey Mouse universe. Somewhat similar in style to the animated series DuckTales, it was based on the continuity of earlier print material starring Mickey, mainly Floyd Gottfredson's stories in the Mickey Mouse comic strip.
Merrill De Maris was an American writer who worked on Disney comic strips for King Features Syndicate.
Carl Robert Fallberg was a writer/cartoonist for animated feature films and TV cartoons for Disney Studios, Hanna-Barbera, and Warner Brothers. He also wrote comic books for Dell Comics, Western Publishing, and Gold Key Comics.
Paul Murry was an American cartoonist and comics artist. He is best known for his Disney comics, which appeared in Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics from 1946 to 1984, particularly the Mickey Mouse and Goofy three-part adventure stories in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.
Manuel Gonzales was a Spanish-American Disney comics artist. He worked on the Mickey Mouse comic strip from 1940 to 1981.
David Gerstein is an American comics author and editor as well as an animation historian. Gerstein has five books and countless comic book credits to his name. He has written many Disney comics stories, usually featuring Mickey Mouse and/or Donald Duck and provided American English script doctoring for Mickey and Donald stories that were originally written in a different language. Past employments include Egmont Creative A/S, a Danish comics studio, and Gemstone Publishing. His current work is with various affiliates of Egmont, and Fantagraphics Books.
Mickey Mouse is a Disney comic book series that has a long-running history, first appearing in 1943 as part of the Four Color one-shot series. It received its own numbering system with issue #28, and after many iterations with various publishers, ended with #330 from IDW Publishing.
The Uncensored Mouse is a 1989 comic book series published by Malibu Graphics' Eternity Comics line. The series reprinted Mickey Mouse comic strip stories from 1930, including the first two sequences, "Lost on a Desert Island" and "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley". Only two issues were published. While these early sequences had been reprinted in Italy in the 1970s, The Uncensored Mouse was the first English-language reprint since the strip's newspaper run.
The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library is a series of books collecting all of the comic book Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories written and drawn by Carl Barks, originally published between 1942 and Barks' retirement in June 1966. The series was launched in late 2011, and will comprise 6,000 plus pages over roughly 30 200- to 240-page volumes when it is finished.
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse is a 2011–2018 series of books collecting the span of work by Floyd Gottfredson on the daily Mickey Mouse comic strip in twelve volumes, as well as Gottfredson's Sunday strips of the same title over two separate volumes. The strips are reproduced from Disney proof sheets and artwork from private collections.
Donald Duck and Other Adventures, also known as Paperino giornale, is a 1937–40 weekly Italian Disney comics magazine published by Mondadori. The comic was launched by Federico Pedrocchi, Mondadori's art director, as a companion to the existing weekly Topolino magazine. Paperino published 149 issues from 30 December 1937 to 26 October 1940, at which point it was merged with Topolino.
References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. pp.260–264. ISBN9780472117567.
↑ "The Only Unpaid Movie Star," Harry Carr. American Magazine, March 1931. Reprinted in A Mickey Mouse Reader ed. by Gary Apgar, University Press of Mississippi, 2014.
↑ Kaufman, J.B.; Gerstein, David (2018). Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History. Cologne: Taschen. pp.85–86. ISBN978-3836552844.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 1: Race to Death Valley. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. pp.231–253. ISBN9781606994412.
↑ Kaufman, J.B.; Gerstein, David (2018). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History. Cologne: Taschen. p.53. ISBN978-3-8365-5284-4.
1 2 3 4 5 Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 1: Race to Death Valley. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. pp.19–70. ISBN9781606994412.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 1: Race to Death Valley. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. pp.71–100. ISBN9781606994412. The "suicide strips" are dated October 17–24, 1930.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 1: Race to Death Valley. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. pp.121–150. ISBN9781606994412.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 2: Trapped on Treasure Island. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. pp.15–52. ISBN9781606994955.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 2: Trapped on Treasure Island. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. p.9. ISBN9781606994955.
↑ WEST VIEW BY BURT PRELUTSKY: Superhack, Los Angeles Times 20 Dec 1970: w6.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd (2016). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 9: Rise of the Rhyming Man. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. ISBN978-1606999318.
↑ Becattini, Alberto (2019). "Black-and-White-Faced Multimedia Characters". American Funny Animal Comics in the 20th Century: Volume One. Seattle, WA: Theme Park Press. ISBN978-1683901860.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd; Andrae, Thomas (2011). "Foreword: Of Mouse and Man". In Gerstein, David; Groth, Gary (eds.). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. ISBN9781606994412.
↑ Peri, Don: Working with Walt: Interviews with Disney Artists (University Press of Mississippi, 2008), pp. 109-118. ISBN978-1604730234.
↑ Gerstein, David (2011). "Sharing the Spotlight: Al Taliaferro". Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 1: Race to Death Valley. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. p.275. ISBN9781606994412.
↑ Becattini, Alberto; Gerstein, David (2011). "Sharing the Spotlight: Ted Thwaites". Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 2: Trapped on Treasure Island. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. p.243. ISBN9781606994955.
↑ Peri, Don (2008). Working with Walt Interviews with Disney Artists. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN9781604739183.
↑ Andrae, Thomas; Gottfredson, Floyd (1988). "Of Mouse and the Man". Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in color (1sted.). New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN9780394575193.
↑ Grob, Gijs (2018). "The Barnyard Years (1928-1930)". Mickey's Movies: The Theatrical Films of Mickey Mouse. Theme Park Press. ISBN978-1683901235.
1 2 3 Becattini, Alberto (2019). "Black-and-White-Faced Multimedia Characters". American Funny Animal Comics in the 20th Century: Volume One. Seattle, WA: Theme Park Press. ISBN978-1683901860.
1 2 Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History. Cologne, Germany: Taschen. 2018. ISBN978-3836552844.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 1: Race to Death Valley. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. p.232. ISBN9781606994412.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 1: Race to Death Valley. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. pp.163–166. ISBN9781606994412.
↑ Gottfredson, Floyd (2011). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol 2: Trapped on Treasure Island. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. pp.171–206. ISBN9781606994955.
↑ Kaufman, J.B. (November 1988). "The Tanglefoot Chronicles: A Case Study". Animation World Magazine. Vol.3, no.8. Retrieved 21 July 2019. The six books are: Mickey Mouse At the Carnival, Mickey Mouse's Misfortune, Mickey Mouse and Tanglefoot, Mickey Mouse's Uphill Fight, Mickey Mouse Will Not Quit, and Mickey Mouse Wins the Race.
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