Keskustelujen arkisto

... or rather, Steamboat Willie's anniversary, and considered as the character's birthday.
The first Mickey Mouse actually was Plane Crazy, which "was screened with a piano accompaniment and a full house on May 15, 1928, as a sneak preview at a movie house on Holywood Boulevard" (The Hand Behind the Mouse, p 59).

The second cartoon produced was The Gallopin' Gaucho, but it's the third one, Steamboat Willie, which actually was completed with sound and music first, and debuted on November 18, 1928.

Funny how things go.
It's also interesting that the one date used for the Anniversary should be this one, when the character actually appeared on screen six months earlier; I know this is the day the cartoon that made Mickey Mouse world famous debuted, but still, it's not the exact date of his first movie.

Do you have anything planned? Have you started celebrated 80 years of Mickey Mouse?

I watched The Three Musketeers again last night; what a great little movie!
The Walt Disney Company ought to have produced a new MM short, which could have been played before every Disney-produced movie this year.

I will read some Mickey Mouse stories sthis evening, but I don't know which ones yet.

Web-wise, I wanted to do a little something on my site, which I have not updated in a long while, but I could not do it; I should have started sooner, but several serious, long-standing problems have made me forget about such events as this one, even though I have been aware of this date for years and years.

Since Mickey's actual birthday should have been celebrated in May, I guess missing today's official Anniversary can be forgiven to some extent. I am wavering: should I finish what I started? I was not even sure it would be of much interest, but it was the easiest thing I could come up with fast-- though not fast enough to actually do it.

My idea was to scan Gottfredson's November 18 strips from 1930 to 1955, and see what could be send on them; comment on the strip's graphic and narrative evolution.
Would you find this interesting? I can upload the few strips I have already scanned, and keep on scanning.

I don't think I would be going against the copyright too much, since it would not be entire stories at all, but a single strip among several dozens per continuity-- or maybe just one panel; I was not even too sure about that.
Since I do not take for granted that everyone has read everything (of those stories that have been reprinted), in order to avoid spoilers (in "The Seven Ghosts", for instance), I would keep only one panel or even just Mickey, or erase some dialogue.

Here are the famous very first Mickey Mouse panel (January 13, 1930), and the third panel from the strip of November 18, 1930:

http://ob7.free.fr/mice_and_ducks/events/nov18/1930,%2001,%2013%20-%20He's%20going%20to%20learn%20to%20fly%20like%20Lindy%20-%20x4%20-%20panel%201%20-%2015pc.gif http://ob7.free.fr/mice_and_ducks/events/nov18/1930,%2011,%2018%20-%20Mr%20Slicker%20and%20the%20Egg%20Robbers%20-%20x4%20-%20panel%203%20-%2015pc.gif

According to Gladstone's trustworthy credits (in the MM book with the David R Smith interview), the first continuity was pencilled by Ub Iwerks & Win Smith and inked by Win Smith; as I recall reading, Ub did the strip for a while (both pencilling & inking, I believe), then Smith took over.
The second big continuity (known as "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley" (April 1 - September 20, 1930) introduced adventure, major recurring villains, and mystery.

The November 18 panel is from the third long continuity (in the meantime, Mickey created a miniature golf course from scratch), "Mr Slicker and the Egg Robbers"; this one is a local detective mystery, and takes place mostly around the house of Minnie's parents.
By then, Floyd Gottfredson had been drawing Mickey for six months; the credits specify Earl Duvall started inking the strip from November 16 on (Gottfredson and Hardie Gramatky had taken turns inking till then).
I think it's Bruce Hamilton (he used to do most of those features in the comics) who noted that the very first panel is missing a speck in the bottom left: that's what the rooster is supposed to be staring at.

Gee, I have not read these in a long time!
I would need to go through the strips for a better comparison, but right off the bat, I would say the November Mickey looks less "geometric" than the first one: the drawing seems more natural (as opposed to "I draw a circle here, add a nice ellipse there, ...")-- the nose makes the difference.

I do recall that the backgrounds were simpler in the very early strips. As we all know, the very first continuity was adapted from the Plane Crazy and The Castaway cartoons, and the simple strips do look a bit like storyboard art (like Barks' first ten-pagers) or panels designed to be drawn as quickly as the cartoons were.

The "eyebrow line" (?) was there from the start, but it was so thin and close to the black "hairline" (what do you call it?) it is either hard to see or absent; or maybe sometimes it was omitted, but I rather think the reducing process made it impossible to see.

Should anyone want to contribute some scans, go ahead! Even if it's not from November 18, if it makes things easier.

http://bobcat74.free.fr/obemoticons/disney/mouse/mck00001.giflivier

Quote:Do you have anything planned? Have you started celebrated 80 years of Mickey Mouse?
I translated some Mickey comics into Polish and published it on my website. I know this is illegal, but it's only one chance to show Poles good comics, which Egmont cannot publish on the paper in my Country. I choosed YM 001, Dick Kinney's "Goofy's Mechanical Wizard", Romano Scarpa's "A Quiet Day at the Beach" and first strip with Goofy.

Quote from user: "Olivier"I can upload the few strips I have already scanned, and keep on scanning.
I would be very happy if you could show us some continuities from "Plumber's Helper" and some late strips from fifties :)

Did TV News Broadcast from your Countries told about Mickey's 80th Anniversary? Polish "Teleexpress" and "Panorama" did - http://youtube.com/watch?v=G1s_mnoMHcs

Not to make any fuzz of it, but Mickey's ol' time antagonist, [i]Pegleg Pete[7i] is also 80 years old today...
Congratulations!

Quote from user: MSDick Kinney's "Goofy's Mechanical Wizard"
Dick Moores.

Quote from user: MSDid TV News Broadcast from your Countries told about Mickey's 80th Anniversary? Polish "Teleexpress" and "Panorama" did - http://youtube.com/watch?v=G1s_mnoMHcs
Yep, they actually mentioned it on at least one of the national news broadcasts here in Denmark. (Nyhederne on TV2, in case you wonder.)

Quote from user: HedbergNot to make any fuzz of it, but Mickey's ol' time antagonist, Pegleg Pete is also 80 years old today...
Pete debuted in 1925 (in Alice Solves the Puzzle, I think). In fact, D 99156 "History Re-Petes Itself" (http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+99156) was produced to mark Pete's 75th birthday. So Pete is close to 84 years old...

Quote from user: Lars JensenNothing planned, and, without wishing to offend anyone, I couldn't care less. 75 years is a big deal. 100 years is a big deal. But 80 years?! We might as well start marking every fifth birthday for Disney characters, then. Hooray! Next year is the 45th anniversary of Fethry Duck. :)
Well, no need for a big party; it's just an opportunity for reading or watching something specific.

Quote from user: Lars JensenQuote from user: OlivierAccording to Gladstone's trustworthy credits (in the MM book with the David R Smith interview), the first continuity was pencilled by Ub Iwerks & Win Smith and inked by Win Smith; as I recall reading, Ub did the strip for a while (both pencilling & inking, I believe), then Smith took over.
Actually, according to the credits in that book (Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in Color), Win Smith was sole inker of that first continuity ("Lost on a Desert Island"). I don't remember reading anything about Iwerks having inked any strips.
Somehow I thought Ub might have inked something the very very first strips himself; it seemed natural.

- Hedberg -

"The Plumber's Helper" is actually the last story I scanned a strip from yesterday; I will post the scans in chronological order, however. I like this story a lot, by the way.

I didn't watch the news through to the end this evening, but I haven't heard anything on the radio or on TV today. The French-German channel Arte did show a little something a week or so ago, which focused on Ub Iwerks.

Quote from user: Lars JensenPete debuted in 1925 (in Alice Solves the Puzzle, I think).
That's right?that was definitely his first appearance.

Thank you for the correction, Ramapith...

It is Pete, isn't it...!
:D

November 18, 1931:

http://ob7.free.fr/mice_and_ducks/events/nov18/1931,%2011,%2018%20-%20Fireman%20Mickey%20-%20x4%20-%20panel%201%20-%2015pc.gif

This is a very short continuity inbetween longer stories.
Pencils by Floyd Gottfredson, inks by Al Taliaferro.
You can easily guess what happens to that arrow.
I like Mickey's expression a lot in this panel; there's some kind of mischievousness to it. A funny thing is that he apparently truly intends to shoot his arrows at Horace and Clarabelle-- and playing Cupid, he would have to aim them at their hearts!

http://bobcat74.free.fr/obemoticons/disney/mouse/prof_ecks00001m.gif November 18, 1932: "Blaggard Castle"! http://bobcat74.free.fr/obemoticons/disney/mouse/prof_doublex00001.gif

http://ob7.free.fr/mice_and_ducks/events/nov18/1932,%2011,%2018%20-%20Blaggard%20Castle%20-%20x4%20-%20panel%205%20-%2015pc.gif

Pencilled by Floyd Gottfredson, inked by Ted Thwaites; Gottfredson inked the strip more often in the late '40's to early '50's.

I like the fact that Professor Triplex does not appear for some time; he does turn out to be more fearsome and worse than his colleagues. http://bobcat74.free.fr/obemoticons/disney/mouse/prof_triplex00001.gif