Why? Because we review you!
Hey,
So my first review of 2012. It's a bit of cheat, it's a two-volume set and I finished the first one late last year, but still...
Today we're looking at the two volume set of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson. It's put out by Fantagraphics who have been on a long tear reproducing comic strip series (probably best known for their Complete Peanuts collections and their new volume on Pogo which I'm also interested in picking up).
So this time, as you might guess, they're focusing on the Mickey Mouse comic strip and its principle artist/writer Floyd Gottfredson. Floyd took over from Disney who wanted to focus on the animation and other aspects of the business and this means that Mickey's character in the comic strip began to subtly diverge from his on-screen persona. In particular, Mickey became more of an action/adventure hero in the comic strips and the cartoon comic stuff was downplayed a bit. No, it didn't turn into Frank Miller's Micky Mouse (a comic which I would have to purchase despite my self-loathing for doing so) -- but more of a kid-friendly Indiana Jones type. In fact, people were probably more familiar with Mickey through his comic strips than the cartoons at the height of the stirp's popularity.
The book comes packed with essays and ancillary drawings and ephemera used to promote the comic strip. It's all very interesting and the comics themselves are pretty good. With some of the explanatory notes, you can see how Floyd settled into his role as artist/writer and how the strip sorted out what it wanted to be. The book is also a product of the 30's and there are some unfortunate stereotypes in the book. I will say that none of them are too awful and they're really pretty infrequent (Mickey lives in a world of talking animals) and the editors go out of their way to say "yup, there's a racist bit coming up".
There are also, zeppelin air pirates so...that doesn't make up for racism, but I still love me some zeppelin air pirates.
Overall, it's a really nice collection and it's a fun, informative read.
later
Tom
So my first review of 2012. It's a bit of cheat, it's a two-volume set and I finished the first one late last year, but still...
Today we're looking at the two volume set of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson. It's put out by Fantagraphics who have been on a long tear reproducing comic strip series (probably best known for their Complete Peanuts collections and their new volume on Pogo which I'm also interested in picking up).
So this time, as you might guess, they're focusing on the Mickey Mouse comic strip and its principle artist/writer Floyd Gottfredson. Floyd took over from Disney who wanted to focus on the animation and other aspects of the business and this means that Mickey's character in the comic strip began to subtly diverge from his on-screen persona. In particular, Mickey became more of an action/adventure hero in the comic strips and the cartoon comic stuff was downplayed a bit. No, it didn't turn into Frank Miller's Micky Mouse (a comic which I would have to purchase despite my self-loathing for doing so) -- but more of a kid-friendly Indiana Jones type. In fact, people were probably more familiar with Mickey through his comic strips than the cartoons at the height of the stirp's popularity.
The book comes packed with essays and ancillary drawings and ephemera used to promote the comic strip. It's all very interesting and the comics themselves are pretty good. With some of the explanatory notes, you can see how Floyd settled into his role as artist/writer and how the strip sorted out what it wanted to be. The book is also a product of the 30's and there are some unfortunate stereotypes in the book. I will say that none of them are too awful and they're really pretty infrequent (Mickey lives in a world of talking animals) and the editors go out of their way to say "yup, there's a racist bit coming up".
There are also, zeppelin air pirates so...that doesn't make up for racism, but I still love me some zeppelin air pirates.
Overall, it's a really nice collection and it's a fun, informative read.
later
Tom