January 13th In History: First Mickey Mouse Comic Published

Mickey Mouse comic (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - January 13, 1930, today 91 years ago, the Mickey Mouse comic strip was first published. This earliest comic was written by Disney together with creators Mickey Ub Iwerks and Win Smith.

The story they first picked up was an adaptation of a short trailer from Mickey Mouse, such as Plane Crazy. The story, Mickey wants to imitate Charles Lindbergh as a lone pilot.

But after a few weeks of the comic's release, Iwerks resigned, then five months later Disney left Win Smith alone to work on Mickey Mouse comics. Due to excessive workload, Win Smith was so overwhelmed that he finally left the project.

This prompted Disney to find a replacement for them. Then he decided to choose a new animator, Floyd Gottfredson.

Gottfredson was eager to work in animation and was reluctant to take up comics assignments. Disney assured him that the position was only temporary until a replacement could be found.

To quote the Comics Alliance, Wednesday, January 13, 2021, while Gottfredson was working on everything for the Mickey Mouse comic strip from 1930 to his retirement in 1975, Gottfredson made comic strips and characters into something amazing.

Most modern fans might think of Mickey Mouse as just a corporate mascot or a bland protagonist. But Gottfredson's Mickey is an iconic character.

As time went on, Mickey's comic strips got in and out of various genres with ease. Mickey will one day save Uncle Minnie's farm, the next day fly paper planes, roam the haunted castle, solve mysteries, defeat ghosts and fight crazy scientists.

Character development

Gottfredson then created the comic with a script writer named Bill Walsh. Gottfredson then had more opportunities to develop Mickey and Minnie characters and their supporting cast members such as Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar, then Goofy, and villains like Peg-Leg Pete.

Gottfredson also introduced new characters, mostly forgotten at the moment but immensely popular at the time such as Butch's best friend Tanglefoot and future humanoid Eega Beeva. Gottfredson is also, of course, responsible for the most famous Mickey comic story of all time, "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot".

During other famous stories such as "Island in the Sky," "Blaggard Castle," "Mickey Mouse and the 'Lectro Box," and "The Seven Ghosts," Gottfredson and his collaborators turned Mickey Mouse into a peerless adventurer.

Unfortunately in 1955, Disney decided to turn the Mickey Mouse comic strip into a joke-a-day format, a comic strip format that gave rise to a comic cartoon style in such a way that each strip provided a joke or some other kind of artistic statement. Gottfredson and Walsh continued to be involved in the creation.

In the 1990s, award-winning animator Floyd Norman wrote the strip and attempted to return the Mickey Mouse comic strip to an adventure series. But it wasn't long before Disney's contract with King Features ended and the comic strip was canceled. The comic strip Mickey retired at the age of 65 in 1995. The final strip was produced by Colette Bezio and Thomas Lewis.

We should take a moment to note that Mickey Mouse stripes from the 30s and 40s, like Tintin's, fall into the category of favorites with an old-fashioned approach to certain topics. That said, the comic strip is well worth a look, especially in its exquisite collection.