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I don't have the house of seven haunts but I have the Monarch of Medioka in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #s 593-599.

One curious thing about MM Volume 3... the Ted Thwaites article from Vol 2 is reprinted! Any particular reason for that?

I got my copy of Volume 3 last Thursday; in terms of strip content, this is the best volume yet; Bat Bandit (to my mind) begins the strip's Golden Age that lasted until Gottfredson relinquished plotting chores. Pirate Submarine, Editor-in-Grief, and Race For Riches also have to rank as some of the strip's best continuities.
Race For Riches will always be my personal favorite, being the first Mickey comic I ever read (in its Gladstone One edition). As a fan of the story, and of Squinch, I was interested to learn that Squinch was Walt's creation (although I found myself wishing that the book had reprinted the actual correspondence between Disney and Gottfredson that "gave birth" to the old miser).

Thanks for that info, Rampaith. I appreciated your writeup of Squinch, particularly the way you highlighted his fundamental differences from Shyster. The two characters are too often cited as "similar," when, apart from being skinny and sneaky, they have little else in common. As you noted, they differ widely particularly in relationship to Pete. It's instructive to compare Squinch's interaction with Pete in In Search of Jungle Treasure (Pete threatening to plug Squinch at one point and overbearingly informing him of his intention to "get" Spooks and Mickey at another point) to Shyster's interaction with Pete in the later Mystery at Hidden River; the lawyer manages to overrule Pete's more violent ideas with comparative ease.

I'm also a fan of another Pete ally featured in this volume (although he didn't recieve any plaudits in the commentary): Hickup in the Captive Castaways story. His mild-mannered villainy (I picture an animated Hickup as sounding rather like Edward Everett Horton) and his amusing toadying to Pete make him a great foil for the peg-legged one, and I wish he had been reused either by Gottfredson or later writers. I would far rather have seen him as a Pete henchman than the various generic bewhiskered dogfaces used so often by Paul Murry.

I've been reading in Volume 2 again, and it's only now that these stories give me a sense of real quality. Much better than Volume 1. But the real Gottfredson feel (like Island in the Sky, Monarch of Medioka) isn't really there until Volume 3. Not that 2 or 1 are bad, they're just not as good.
Now in "MM Sails For Treasure Island", I can say that Minnie is badass! :D (I wish they kept it that way.) And that there's much more violence than I'm used to in Disney comics.

Plus, this bit is unintentionally funny, but also unsettling.
After Horace was suspected for over 2 1/2 months, Pete and Shyster are busted for the Great Orphanage Robbery.
Caption, May 14, 1932: "Pete and Shyster have finally been put where they belong" Cue Pete and Shyster in jail.
Horace Horsecollar, May 19, 1932, a mere 5 days later: "Look at this paper! Pete and Shyster have broken out of jail!"
...yeah. It's a bit like back in "Boxing Champion", when after a few months in jail, Butch just throws himself at the wall and he's free. It's like they're made of cardboard! Criminals can escape at will! Butch only seemed to be jail because he never tried to break out, which is sort of reverse practical. Only the criminals that don't want out (the nicest ones), stay. And that's by far not the only thing wrong with the Mouseton justice system, but I don't feel like monologuing about that.

Congratulations to David, Garry and Fantagraphics! The Collection is really a great work!!

Quote from user: Dutch Duckfan Down UnderI've been reading in Volume 2 again, and it's only now that these stories give me a sense of real quality. Much better than Volume 1. But the real Gottfredson feel (like Island in the Sky, Monarch of Medioka) isn't really there until Volume 3. Not that 2 or 1 are bad, they're just not as good.
Now in "MM Sails For Treasure Island", I can say that Minnie is badass! :D (I wish they kept it that way.) And that there's much more violence than I'm used to in Disney comics.

Plus, this bit is unintentionally funny, but also unsettling.
After Horace was suspected for over 2 1/2 months, Pete and Shyster are busted for the Great Orphanage Robbery.
Caption, May 14, 1932: "Pete and Shyster have finally been put where they belong" Cue Pete and Shyster in jail.
Horace Horsecollar, May 19, 1932, a mere 5 days later: "Look at this paper! Pete and Shyster have broken out of jail!"
...yeah. It's a bit like back in "Boxing Champion", when after a few months in jail, Butch just throws himself at the wall and he's free. It's like they're made of cardboard! Criminals can escape at will! Butch only seemed to be jail because he never tried to break out, which is sort of reverse practical. Only the criminals that don't want out (the nicest ones), stay. And that's by far not the only thing wrong with the Mouseton justice system, but I don't feel like monologuing about that.
Good observation; the Duckburg penal system is just as bad--consider the way the Beagle Boys treat jail like a revolving door. Interestingly, in the later continuities, Gottfredson usually has Pete escape or slip out of the picture in some way rather than being jailed; perhaps he didn't want to overuse the "prison break" theme. After "Captive Castaways," where Pete gets sentenced to "100 years to life," I can only think of one other story during Gottfredson's tenure as the strip's plotter in which he's actually arrested at the end ("Mystery at Hidden River.")

Edit: Dumb me, I forgot "Bar-None Ranch," another Floyd-plotted post-Castaways story that has Pete on his way to the calaboose at the end. However, I think that one and "Hidden River" do represent Pete's only incarcerations from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s.