of mice and ducks (again!)

David A Gerstein David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu
Sat May 15 20:15:51 CEST 1993


	Dear Folks,

	Here is a lengthy response to some of our Mickey discussions.
It was written a week ago and today I got it back accompanied by the
following.  Did any of you get it before now?

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To: disney-comics at Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE
Subject: Re: of mice and ducks
Date: Tue, 11 May 93 20:16:50 -0400
From: David A Gerstein <David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu>


	Dear Folks,

	I've been reading your responses to my discussion of Mickey.
What's important for me to stress is that in the BEST Gottfredson
Mickey stories, the characters DO have more complex personalities.

	Let's start with Goofy, roundly criticized as "stupid."  In
"Mickey Mouse, Mighty Whale Hunter" (reprinted in Abbeville's GOOFY
book, apparently complete and with about all of the original dialog,
although relettered), Mickey is in one of Gottfredson's favorite
situations.  Having immobilized Peg-Leg Pete's harpoon, escaped Pete
for the time being, and preparing to leave Pete's whaling ship (where
he was taken after being kidnapped) for his own _Lady Daffodil_,
Mickey suddenly realizes that there's no lifeboat to return in... he's
stuck!  (There's one of MICKEY's flaws right there;  in his
enthusiasm, he didn't check to see if his entire plan was feasible!)
Suddenly, who should show up but GOOFY, who may not exactly know the
best way of going about things but who had the guts to steal a
lifeboat from the _Daffodil_ himself, escape in it, and find his way
to the _Orca_ where Mickey was held captive.  So who says Goofy's dumb
NOW?  Well, a moment later he realizes that he didn't keep track of
HOW he found the Orca, and now he can't find his way BACK.  There's
Goofy at his best:  he is always undercut by his mistakes, but when
the situation requires it, he can figure out what to do.  No matter
that, as some animation historian put it, "he thinks longer and harder
than most."  He also has a deep sense of decency.  Look at the last
panel of "MM's Thanksgiving Dinner," a Gottfredson short story
reprinted a year ago in WDC&S 567.  Mickey, trying to kill a
Thankgiving turkey, has been overcome by emotion, and when he knuckles
under and has something else for dinner (giving the turkey some) Goofy
gives him a perfect wry, indescribable _look_ that has some depth to
it.  It's hard for me to exactly describe what makes the picture
different from a more typical one, but it's there.

	But now, of course, MICKEY.  Mickey has real emotions and
failings... plenty of them.  You just have to know where to look.  The
story "Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island" (1932) has never been
reprinted due to its cannibal caricatures (aside from one English
reprint in Italy... see my list that I posted recently), but contains
perhaps the most tearful moment of all Gottfredson's strips.  Wrecked
on an island after leaving Sylvester Shyster's ship via emergency
raft, Mickey discovers the wreck of Minnie's ship, the _Potluck_, and
assumes she has been killed.  He spends an entire STRIP trying to get
over it and control his sadness, and right in the middle of his lament
he's grabbed from behind and captured!  Who says Mickey's perfect?
Like Donald, his emotions have rendered him blind to his dangerous
situation.
	The 'deepest' Mickey story of all HAS been reprinted here,
"Monarch of Medioka."  It was Gladstone's most expensive album at
$13.95, and I know few fans who got it.  That is an awful loss, as it
is unquestionably Gottfredson's finest story, in my opinion more so
than "Sky Island" and "The Phantom Blot" (which seem to be the two
other general contenders).  I recommend that everyone, even Duck fans
who haven't gotten Gottfredson comics in the past, try to find a copy
of it, as it is undoubtedly one of the best comic strips ever done.
(Redrawn version does exist [1950] but the original art is so
unbelievably striking that it just doesn't get better than this.)
It also contains very deep interpretations of Mickey and Minnie.
Mickey, the essential double in appearance of King Michael XIV of
Medioka, is taken there to function as a substitute while the king, a
spendthrift, is given a paid vacation.  The king refused to balance
the budget which was long overdue, and the country, still halfway
feudal in these modern days, is falling apart.  So Mickey goes to work
on it, but faces a peasant rebellion in which the serfs are being
manipulated by demagogue Duke Varlott (who wants the throne himself).
Varlott strides right into Mickey's throne room to tell him his plan:
it's either the frying pan or the fire, because if he exposes Varlott,
Varlott will expose _him_.  And if he doesn't take action, Varlott
will kill the real King Michael, who he's holding captive.
	Sitting sadly and quietly in the throne room, Mickey tries to
find flaws in Varlott's plan and cannot.  Where's our perfect thinker?
He ISN'T one.  Minnie, meanwhile, hears secondhand a news article
about Michael's vacation (cut short, of course) in the US.  In a very
typical move for Minnie, she decides to round up Mickey and bring him
home to face the music, since she assumes Mickey's spending the money
the two of them won for finding a treasure in the previous continuity.
Having met Michael just before the latter's kidnapping, she realizes
Mickey is in Medioka, and goes with fire in her eye to the palace,
where Mickey sits, a bird in a gilded cage.  When Minnie enters,
Mickey jubilantly falls into her arms.  It is an emotional moment if
you're involved with the story... and in this one, it's easy to be,
even if you aren't usually a Mickey fan.  Together, Minnie and Mickey
paste together a difficult plan and manage to pull it off, but not
before many nervous moments.  Both Mickey and Minnie show bravery, but
the strength of the story is that neither is in complete control;
unlike the later dreary post-1945 stories, Mickey is far from dull and
Minnie is not a compound of sit-com female stereotypes.  (She DOES nag
Mickey and try to 'improve' him at the beginning and end of the story
- -- but that, like Scrooge trying to teach Donald the value of being
'smarter than the smarties,' is a running theme in the MM stories.)
"Monarch of Medioka," in its original form, is a wonderful experience
for any Disney fan, and is proof that Mickey is not perfect and can be
a fantastic character when shaped right.

	That is where Murry, and everyone else after Gottfredson, went
wrong.  Mickey is NOT perfect.  He IS more competent than Donald.  If
Donald fans ONLY want characters with personalities just like
Donald's, though, life would be dull.  Unfortunately, with the
post-Gottfredson Mickey (EXCEPT for Romano Scarpa's, but those have
hardly seen print over here) life IS dull.  I'm not disagreeing with
that for an instant.  But the REAL Mickey is a fine character.

	I am now working for Egmont (was Gutenberghus) in Denmark, on
original stories.  For the time being, since beginners are meant to do
short stories in general, I'll be doing Duck material (starting with
an Uncle Scrooge which I sold two months ago), but when I do Mickeys,
they will be bona-fide Mickeys with a character who Barks fans can
appreciate.  I am going to try to come to a compromise between
Gottfredson and Barks for my story style when that happens, as well.
I want to get Mickey into more emotionally interesting situations, and
I'll do my best to.
	I'm also going to try to specify that my stories, when I do
them, be drawn by artists who normally do the Ducks, and that Mickey
be drawn in the 1940s style.  According to Bob Foster, the Danes may
be doing just that type of story in the not-too-distant future as a
regular format.

	If Barks fans tried to get more of a handle on Gottfredson,
they would really like him.  I'd say that fewer Gottfredson stories
deal with very deep angles than Barks' do, but _they're out there._

	I'll give a few titles (some not available in English, but who
knows what will happen?):  "Mr Slicker and the Egg Robbers", in which
a despondent Mickey tries to commit suicide but subconsciously is set
against it... this in 1930, no less!;  "Blaggard Castle", in which
Mickey is a very impulsive character and in which Horace Horsecollar
is seen with more depth than usual;  "The Captive Castaways," "MM in
the Foreign Legion" (Abbeville's may be slightly censored, but is
pretty complete), in which Mickey struggles with his conscience and
determines Pete's fate when the tables are turned several times, "The
Miracle Master," a pessimistic story in the Barks tradition as Mickey
finds that his impulse to enthusiastic helpfulness leads him to
desolation and loose ends in a brilliantly curdled tale"... and the
list goes on.

	Well, I have to be off.  I have a paper to write, and it's not
about Gottfredson.  But I again encourage every Duck fan to try one of
the Gottfredsons I've discussed, and see what you think.  They're
strip stories, so they take a while to get going past the gags toward
the beginning in most cases, but they're good... honest, Barks fans,
they're good!

	Sincerely,

	David Gerstein.

	"Psychology, my dear, and propaganda... today's modern
weapons!"
		-- Minnie Mouse via FG, "MM Super Salesman" (1941)
		[I DO NOT recommend Dell's 1948 reprint of this, which
cuts about 2/3 of the strips out of the story.  It makes little sense.
Sadly, I haven't seen the original.]


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