Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse

Cover to Volume 1, Race to Death Valley
Publication information
Publisher Fantagraphics Books
Schedule biannual[1]
Publication date June 2011
Creative team
Creator(s) Floyd Gottfredson
Editor(s) David Gerstein
Gary Groth

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse (also The Floyd Gottfredson Library) is a series of books collecting the first 25 years of the 45-year span of work by Floyd Gottfredson on the daily Mickey Mouse comic strip.[2] The strips are reproduced from Disney proof sheets and artwork from private collections.

Background

The strip debuted on January 13, 1930, and was initially written by Walt Disney and drawn first by Ub Iwerks, then by Win Smith. Gottfredson took over the strip when Disney and Smith found themselves too busy, and he continued with it until 1975. These volumes start with Gottfredson's work from April 1, 1930,[3] while including the earlier non-Gottfredson strips in an appendix to the first volume. The series is uncensored, and as the strips were done in the 1930s, some of the strips may come across as offensive to modern readers, especially due to racial stereotypes that were common at the time.[4][5] As presented in the books, however, the more dated material is accompanied by explanatory text, putting it in the context of its historical time.

Gottfredson's run on Mickey Mouse lasted until 1975. In the earlier years, which are the focus of this series, it was a humorous adventure strip—as was common at the time—but in the later years became gag-focused,[6] as most strips did as comic strips continued to shrink in size throughout the latter half of the 20th century.

These books are the first time Gottfredson's work has been collected in North America, although they've previously been collected in the 1980s in Germany as The Complete Daily Strip Adventures of Mickey Mouse 1930–1955[7] and more recently in Italy as Gli anni d'oro di Topolino.[8][9]

Format

The hardcover volumes are designed by Jacob Covey, and are in a 10.5" x 8.75" (26.67 x 22.225 cm) landscape format. They are mostly in black-and-white, with some color pages, and each collects two years worth of strips. The strips are printed three to a page, with dozens of pages of supplementary material.

Volumes

Volume Release order Title Dates Release date Cover Art Pages ISBN Notes
1 1 Race to Death Valley Daily strips January 13, 1930 – January 9, 1932 June 15, 2011 Mickey Mouse 288 978-1-606-99441-2
  • Volume begins with "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley," the first story Gottfredson worked on (starting April 1, 1930)
  • Includes "Lost on a Desert Island" by Walt Disney and Win Smith (Jan 13 – Mar 31 1930 strips) in appendix
2 2 Trapped on Treasure Island Daily strips January 11, 1932 – January 9, 1934 October 31, 2011 Horace Horsecollar 280 978-1-606-99495-5
  • Includes "Return to Blaggard Castle" (modern sequel to one of the book's Gottfredson stories) in appendix
3 3 High Noon at Inferno Gulch Daily strips January 10, 1934 – January 4, 1936 July 2, 2012 Mickey Mouse 280 978-1-606-99531-0
  • Includes "The Secret of Mars" by Federico Pedrocchi (1937 prequel to one of the book's Gottfredson stories) in appendix
4 4 House of The Seven Haunts! Daily strips January 6, 1936 – February 5, 1938 November 15, 2012 Goofy 280 978-1-606-99575-4
  • Includes "Mystery of Freefer Hall" by Don Markstein and César Ferioli (modern sequel to one of the book's Gottfredson stories) in appendix
Color 1 5 Call of the Wild Sunday strips 1932–1935 July 19, 2013 Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck 280 978-1-606-99643-0
  • Includes 1931–1933 Mickey strips by Fred Spencer and Guglielmo Guastaveglia (Gottfredson-inspired spin-offs for foreign and non-newspaper publication) in appendix
Color 2 6 Robin Hood Rides Again Sunday strips 1936–1938 plus select later dates; Gottfredson Silly Symphonies and Treasury of Classic Tales strips 1937, 1956–1961 November 16, 2013 Mickey Mouse with Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse 280 978-1-606-99686-7
  • Includes 1940–1951 Mickey strips by Manuel Gonzales (Gottfredson's successor on the Mickey Sunday page) in appendix
5 7 Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot Daily strips February 7, 1938 – April 20, 1940 June 22, 2014 Mickey Mouse 280 978-1-60699-736-9
  • Includes 1955 revision of "Phantom Blot" storyline, redone by Paul Murry (to conform to 1950s comics censorship), in appendix
6 8 Lost in Lands of Long Ago Daily strips April 22, 1940 – May 2, 1942 November 16, 2014 Pete 272 978-1-606-99782-6
  • Includes "Riddle of the Red Hat" by Carl Barks (Barks' one Mickey comic book story, reusing some Gottfredson characters and poses) in appendix
7 9 March of the Zombies Daily strips May 4, 1942 – April 15, 1944 May 1, 2015 Mickey Mouse 272 978-1-606-99829-8
  • Includes "The Professor's Experiment" by Bill Wright (World War II Mickey Sunday serial supervised by Gottfredson) in appendix
8 10 The Tomorrow Wars Daily strips April 17, 1944 – July 27, 1946 December 7, 2015 Minnie Mouse 272 978-1-606-99868-7
9 11 Rise of the Rhyming Man Daily strips June 28, 2016 (subject to change) Mickey Mouse 288 978-1-606-99931-8
10 12 Planet Of Faceless Foes Daily strips October 8, 2016 (subject to change) Eega Beeva 296 978-1-606-99963-9

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
PopMatters[10]
Las Vegas Weekly[11]

The series was given much praise for its production quality, the quality of the reproduction of the strips, and the extensiveness of the extra material.

References

  1. Mautner, Chris (2011-01-02). "Exclusive: Fantagraphics to publish the complete Carl Barks". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  2. Arrant, Chris (2011-03-03). "Fantagraphics Presents: Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  3. Solomon, Charles (2011-04-26). "Mickey Mouse, back when he still channeled Chaplin and Astaire". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  4. Clabaugh, Rich (2011-06-26). "Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. One: "Race to Death Valley"". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  5. Smith, Steve (2011-07-13). "Review: Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley". Time Out. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  6. Mautner, Chris (2011-06-10). "Robot Reviews | Mickey Mouse Vol. 1". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  7. The Complete Daily Strip Adventures of Mickey Mouse 1930–1955 at the INDUCKS
  8. Gli anni d'oro di Topolino at the INDUCKS
  9. "New Floyd Gottfredson Library in Italy". www.wolfstad.com. 2010-04-24. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
  10. Barret, Michael (2011-05-04). "Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: "Race to Death Valley"". PopMatters. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  11. Mozzocco, J. Caleb (2011-06-29). "Mickey Mouse, but not as you know him". Las Vegas Weekly. Retrieved 2011-11-11.

See also

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