Mickey Mouse (comic strip)
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.
Mickey Mouse
- Walt Disney (1930)
- Win Smith (1930)
- Floyd Gottfredson (1930–1932)
- Ted Osborne (1932–1937)
- Merrill De Maris (1933–1934, 1938–1942)
- Bill Walsh (1943–1964)
- Dick Shaw (1964–1969)
- Del Connell (1969–1988)
- Floyd Norman
- (Sundays: 1984–1986, 1986–1990)
- Daan Jippes (Sundays only, 1986–1989)
- Ub Iwerks (1930)
- Win Smith (1930)
- Floyd Gottfredson
- (dailies: May 5, 1930 – November 15, 1975)
- (Sundays: 1932–1938, 1950–1976)
- Manuel Gonzales (Sundays: 1939–1981)
- Bill Wright (Sundays only, 1942–1946, 1956, 1979–1983)
- Carson Van Osten (1974–1975)
- Roman Arambula (1975–1989)
- Daan Jippes (Sundays only, 1981–1982)
- Rick Hoover (Sundays only, 1989–1995)
Concluded daily and Sunday strips
Daily: January 13, 1930
Sunday: January 10, 1932[1]
July 29, 1995[1]
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.
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, a definitive collection of Gottfredson's work, was published by Fantagraphics Books from 2011 to 2018. There are fourteen volumes in the set—twelve books of the daily strips from 1930 to 1955, and two volumes of Gottfredson's Sunday pages from 1932 to 1938.
Development[edit]
Early days[edit]
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[edit]
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:
Creators[edit]
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 Royer provided 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]
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]
Recurring characters in the strip include:
From the beginning, the strips were parts of long continuing stories. These introduced characters such as the Phantom Blot, Eega Beeva, and the Bat Bandit, which Gottfredson created; Disney created Eli Squinch, Mickey's nephews, Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse, and Sylvester Shyster, which were also introduced in the comic.[28]
The Perils of Mickey[edit]
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[edit]
Big Little Books[edit]
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]