Has anyone else here been reading the Fantagraphics reprints of Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse comic strips?
I absolutely love this series and have just finished reading the latest two books ‘Outwits the Phantom Blot’ and ‘Lost in Lands of Long Ago’, so I thought I’d share a few odd thoughts about them and hope some others here want to join in the discussion.
Reading the strips in chronological order (along with many I’d never read before) has offered me lots of surprises. One of the best of them is the continuity between the strips. I used to think that each story was its own separate entity, but since the first volume of the reprints, I was surprised how one story flows into the next and I’m pleased that this trend is lasting into the latest volumes (which take us up to 1942). In the animated cartoons each short is its own separate thing – Mickey’s adventures can take place in any time in history and no matter how often Mickey battles with Pete it could often be the for the first time (fans often explain this as the characters being actors playing roles). Not so in the strip! Mickey has a contemporary home to return to and characters remember each other and what they did. Mickey and Pete remember their previous run-ins, Mickey can build a reputation for himself and win favour with characters like Chief O’ Hara and if Clarabelle gets kidnapped in one story, Goofy can throw a ‘welcome back’ party for her in the next! I find the the continuity so entertaining, it’s actually disappointing when there is the odd lapse, such as some occasional character inconsistencies or a sudden leap in logic (like Walt Disney giving Mickey a call because he actually is an actor in cartoons!).
Another big surprise for me was the Phantom Blot. I remember when I was about 8 or 9 digging out a reprint of this story in some ‘Disney Mirror’ newspaper comics destined to be recycled. The Blot was a Disney character I already kind of knew (though I don’t remember from where), but it was my first opportunity to read a story in which he was featured. I was excited to finally find out more about this character and read such a cool story. However, I never got hold of the comic containing the ending. Reading the complete story, over 20 years later, I was astonished to find that the Blot was unmasked (and in his very first story)! All this time I thought the Phantom Blot was forever a figure cloaked in mystery!
There’s a lot more I could say about these volumes, but I think I’ll wait and see if anyone elsewants to chat about them too! I will say though, that it’s brilliant all these comics are being so lovingly ordered and presented in one collection. It means that the Floyd Gottfredson strips can be found and researched so much more easily and I really hope it will introduce more people to the more adventure-orientated Mickey and hopefully inspire more Disney artists. I’m waiting for someone at Disney to realise that they have all the characters in place for an absolutely incredible adventure-based video game franchise.