The Other Guy

[Torsten Wesley Adair]

On 17 Apr 1993, James Williams wrote:
> Mickey Mouse's popularity is fading fast.  Ninety percent of this lists
> discussions focus on ducks.  Egmont publishes a lot more ducks than mice.

Hoo boy.  And I thought the Duck Family Tree discussion was overwhelming!  
Talk about a powder keg!

> And Gladstone isn't even publishing a Mickey Mouse comic book.  Two
> questions:

Well there was Mickey & Donald, which Gladstone is changing to Donald &
Mickey (check out the Van Horn cover, priceless!) 

> Why are Donald and Scrooge more popular than Mickey? >  
> What could be done to make Mickey more popular?

1941.  Mickey Mouse's popularity was being eclipsed by DD and Goofy. 
Disney decided to make a short called the Sorceror's Apprentice.  He had
MM redesigned, and made more likeable.  Of course, this short went way
over budget, and became a feature, but that's another story.

If you have read any of the old Mickey Mouse adventure comic strips (some
were recently published in WDC&S), you have discovered the MM that people
liked back in the 1920s and 1930s.  When Walt lobotomized MM, much of this
adventurism was lost.

It wasn't until Carl Barks created Uncle Scrooge that this form of
adventurism returned to Disney.

A few years ago, a small comic book company published the public domain
(copyright expired) Mickey Mouse strips.  The title was the Uncensored
Mouse, and two issues were published.  WD of course sued, and an agreement
was reached.

Since MM is now a corporate logo, and since he has been a goody-goody for
the past fifty years, WD can't really alter MM much.  If MM was recast,
there would be a worldwide condemnation of WD.  About the only thing WD
could do would be to show the old shorts in movie theaters, and maybe
rewrite the MM comic book cast.  Some of the old MM stories are not too
bad, and with some fine tuning of stories and cast, could sell
respectfully.  MM as a detective?  What does he do for a living anyway? 
Live off of licensing royalties?

Torsten Adair	torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu	Omaha, NE