The Story of the Mickey dailies

[Geir Hasnes]

The Gottfredson Mickey Mouse Daily Strips 1930-55 were collected by Byron Erickson. 

He told me the story some years ago. He had the very limited set printed from original film in most cases and then bound. 

Horst Schroeder, the German-Swedish collector and scholar and editor of comic books in Stockholm, bought one bound and one unbound set from Byron. From the unbound set he printed with permission from the Walt Disney Productions or whatever the name, a number of unbound sets of one year each which I do not think exceeded 50 copies of each year. These were in slipcase. 

Schroeder told me someone in Germany had done the bound (softcover) sets of this edition from Erickson's sets, but they had not been able to finish the complete collection of 26 years. I think they did 10 or 12 sets and Schroeder then did the rest. Horst Schroeder had obtained permission for a higher number of sets, but he didn't make that because he did the set per subscription and people in general had to pay him on beforehand. He had planned reprinting the years that had been done in Germany.

Schroeder never managed to get many subscribers and I actually think he lost lots of money on this. On one occasion, his printer went bankrupt just as Schroeder had prepaid him loads of money.

Schroeder also took over the Barks Portfolio from Peter Orban in Germany after the 14. portfolio. He never managed to finish the portfolio, having made 91 of the proposed 106 portfolios.

He even planned doing a complete Mickey Mouse sunday series, but it never got off ground although I think he collected some money for it.

And you are correct, Harry. The printer misprinted one page, making three strips missing in all sets. Schroeder promised me many times he should mail me a photo copy but he never got off to it. Overworked, I think.

Incidentally, I photocopied my set for Byron as he wanted it for the Duck artists as they aimed to get Mickey back in shorts and pick more ideas and characters from the 30s and 40s. He laughed and said he hadn't thought of it at the time he did the set that he should have left one set unbound.

Geir Hasnes