Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse

Background

The strip debuted on January 13, 1930, and was initially written by Walt Disney and drawn first by Ub Iwerks, then by Win Smith. Gottfredson took over the strip when Disney and Smith found themselves too busy, and he continued with it until 1975. These volumes start with Gottfredson's work from April 1, 1930, while including the earlier non-Gottfredson strips in an appendix to the first volume. The series is uncensored, and as the strips were done in the 1930s, some of the strips may come across as offensive to modern readers, especially due to racial stereotypes that were common at the time. As presented in the books, however, the more dated material is accompanied by explanatory text, putting it in the context of its historical time.

Gottfredson's run on Mickey Mouse lasted until 1975. In the earlier years, which are the focus of this series, it was a humorous adventure strip—as was common at the time—but in the later years became gag-focused, as most strips did as comic strips continued to shrink in size throughout the latter half of the 20th century.

These books are the first time Gottfredson's work has been collected in North America, although they've previously been collected in the 1980s in Germany as The Complete Daily Strip Adventures of Mickey Mouse 1930–1955 and more recently in Italy as Gli anni d'oro di Topolino.

Format

The hardcover volumes are designed by Jacob Covey, and are in a 10.5" x 8.75" (26.67 x 22.225 cm) landscape format. They are mostly in black-and-white, with some color pages, and each collects two years worth of strips. The strips are printed three to a page, with dozens of pages of supplementary material.

Reception

The series was given much praise for its production quality, the quality of the reproduction of the strips, and the extensiveness of the extra material.