A Better Mouse!
December 21, 2006
My first introduction to Mickey Mouse in comic book format was horribly disappointing. The local comic shop put me down for a subscription to a small format Mickey Mouse Adventures book for kids. I got the first few, thinking that I might be in for a treat… but those were almost immediately thrown in the trash. Even the Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories were so badly drawn – so poorly written – so lacking in anything I knew to be true about the characters, that those too were trashed (and I never throw out comic books). Anyway, I read a few other Mickey Mouse stories in some of the Walt Disney’s Comics reprints from Gemstone Publishing – but wasn’t very impressed. Until I learned about Floyd Gottfredson.
Yesterday at a local comic shop, I found some old Walt Disney stuff in a box that was mostly filled with new Archie junk. I came home with Mickey Mouse No. 229 from August 1987. It has a great image of cowboy Mickey and cowgirl Minnie on the cover. The feature story is called “the Bat Bandit of Inferno Gulch” (a reprint from 1934, originally plotted and penciled by Floyd Gottfredson, written by Ted Osborne).
A few weeks ago, I got a copy of Gemstone Publishing’s Walt Disney’s Comics # 675 (December). The cover had a gold stamp saying:
“Floyd Gottfredson, inductee into the Will Eisner comic Industry Awards Hall Of Fame 2006 in this Issue”
I always read the publisher’s comments first – but this week I flipped to the Mickey Mouse story, curious as to how any M.M. story could ever be so deserving of an award. I got to the first page – the first panel! So crisp – clear – powerful! Mickey was like James Bond – only sexier! There was something too daring – dark – sinister and dangerous. So much so that I automatically assumed that story had been created very recently. Yet it looked old. Not knowing anything about Gottfredson, I assumed the artist had drawn them in the style of yore to add a campy retro value to the work.
I read that story (slowly… savoring it), loving it from the very first panel (instantly hearing Mickey talk in my head – the slang! the lingo! the swearing!), but I didn’t piece together the connection (being that Gottfredson was one of the original developers on the Mickey Mouse team) until I had both stories in front of me. This wasn’t just a good comic, it was a great story! And it had kidnapping, fighting, guns, communists, spies, torture!?, baddies, toughies, and secret agents.
As you can see, this Mickey is a very different mouse. He’s tough, daring, smart, courageous, and looks good with a gun. He’s also just about impossible to deter or frighten. He’s got serious Moxie. Hmmmm… “Moxie Mouse“
Do yourself a favor this holiday season. Buy some Mickey Mouse comics and immerse yourself in his awesome, adventure-filled world.
January 27, 2008 at 8:45 pm
i think the first comic with mickey plushing his gun at the guy with the telegram and yelled hooray was funny, where can you bye these comics, and where can you find them at California?
October 16, 2009 at 5:04 pm
couldnt agree more