Disney-comics digest #589.

[9475609@arran.sms.edinburgh.ac.uk]

      HANS:  "I never heard of [the 1929 ad I mentioned] before and 
don't understand why it featured Pete, as he did not appear for the 
first many weeks?"
      HARRY:  "[Same ad] was reprinted in the (Gladstone) book "Mickey 
Mouse in Color" (highly recommended)."
 
     Actually it WASN'T in "Mickey Mouse in Color" -- quite an 
oversight!  The ad shows a huge billboard on a barn wall, reading:

      "Announcing Mickey Mouse in Comic Strip Form by Walt Disney, His 
Creator."
      There are three large star shapes.  Mickey stands in the first, 
Minnie in the second, and Pete (head and shoulders only) in the third.
      "MICKEY MOUSE" [a brief blurb, I've forgotten it]
      "MINNIE MOUSE:  Mickey's Fickle, Frivolous Flapper" (!)
      "TERRIBLE TOM [Pete]:  The Vile Villain"

      Reproduced along with this ad everywhere that I've seen it, is 
another ad that shows MM holding a billposter's mop and leaning against 
another barn wall.  I think that originally this may have been the right 
end of the original ad, but it was printed separately in all reprints 
I've seen (probably because the original ad was too wide to reproduce at 
large size intact).  MM says something to the effect of:  "I don't like 
to brag, folks, but I'm the biggest little guy to hit the screen in a 
long time and now you can find me on the same page of this paper!  Look 
me up -- I'm going to be here every day!"
      Mickey's showoffish nature here strongly suggests that Walt Disney 
wrote the ad.  In the early MM strips written by Disney, MM constantly 
brags about himself, and that stops almost completely when FG takes over 
the writing.  The ad appears to be drawn by the original team of Ub 
Iwerks and Win Smith.

      Oh, yes -- I saw the ad in a French article about MM's 60th 
birthday;  in the German series MICKYS KLASSIKER;  in the German 
Extraheft 26/1991 which also featured "In Search of Jungle Treasure", 
and in material from a few private collections.

>Btw., Comic Buyer's Guide had an article on supposedly the
>first MM drawing ever, which Steve Geppi donated to a museum.

      That's the Museum of Cartoon Art.  I think I've seen the drawing 
-- MM has a turned-down snout and big whiskers, and dresses like Beatrix 
Potter's Peter Rabbit.  He does have gloves and shoes though.  The ad is 
solidly in the Oswald-era style.  Although not the model that was used 
in "Plane Crazy," something about it suggests very strongly that it may 
indeed be the first.

>The museum also has the original script to the "Plane Crazy" 
>short, which is considered to be the first MM story.

      Geppi recently bought this hitherto-unknown item in an auction -- 
and he made a deal with Bruce Hamilton so that it will be reprinted in 
WDC&S 598!!!  That's three months away, folks!  I hope WDC&S 598 also 
reprints that purported first drawing.

      I like "MM in Death Valley" too, but in English it is one of the 
SLOWEST MM stories ever made.  The dialogue was drastically trimmed for 
its European printings.  Some balloons have well over 75 words.  What's 
saddest of all is that the part written by Walt Disney is very superior 
to that written by FG.  I think that Gottfredson got to be good with the 
next story, "Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers" (a real classic IMHO).
      The Abbeville Press "Death Valley" is actually very heavily 
trimmed, BTW.
      Okay, I'm a softy.  I DO like "Death Valley," and WOULD like to 
see an authorized, uncut English reprint of the tale (right now all I 
have is a pile of newspaper xerox copies).  But I prefer many other FG 
stories to this one.

      David Gerstein
      <9475609 at arran.sms.ed.ac.uk>
      "I'm sure glad I hate yuh!  'Cause if I didn't hate yuh, I'd have 
to like yuh!  And I don't WANNA like yuh -- I hate yuh too much!"