“Truly the best archers wear green.”
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse FCBD
Gemstone Publishing (May, 2007)
originally published as a newspaper strip
ARTISTS: Floyd Gottfredson (also cover art) & Ted Thwaites “The Robin Hood Adventure” (4/26-10/4/36) WRITERS: Floyd Gottfredson & Ted Osborne “Mickey’s Rival” (1/5-26/36) WRITER: Ted Osborne
In the title story, Mickey’s playing around with plant growth and shrinking formulas causes a fly to grow large and himself to grow tiny. Hiding from the bully fly, Mickey enters a book on Robin Hood and finds himself in Sherwood Forest. While he soon makes friends with the Merry Men, Mickey isn’t the robbing type, which gets him in good with King Richard. However, Mickey wants to rescue a fair maiden, who looks a lot like Minnie, not realizing that by custom he must then marry her. His refusal upsets everyone so Mickey escapes the book and gets himself back to normal. He locks the formulas away…at least until he decides to explore another book someday.
What they got right: With some minor tweaking this is the Mickey Mouse we know and love. The art was well done, and while the story was a bit odd it was fun and that’s what matters. I think it’s something my pal the Comic Strip Critic could look at. This was a sample from Gemstone’s collection. He might be able to find it. A Free Comic Book Day selection is a bit harder.
What they got wrong: What happened to the fly? Yes, I can accept Mickey entering a storybook world because that happened a lot in the cartoons of the time. (Gumby wasn’t as special as you thought, was he?) But that is a plot thread left hanging.
The second story introduces Mortimer, a mouse that competed for Minnie’s attention in a cartoon. This is an original story, not an adaptation. Not that it matters because I hate the stinking jerk prankster and Minnie actually giving this guy the time of day is something I expect from Olive Oil, not Minnie. I hate the character too much to properly judge his appearance.
Recommendation: If the rest of the strips are as good as this I can recommend this collection to newspaper strip and Mickey Mouse fans. The main story at least was fun. And didn’t have Mortimer in it, so that’s always a plus.
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