Table o f Co n ten ts

Setting the Stage

Of Mouse and Man: Adapting Mickey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Mickey Mouse and His Horse Tanglefoot . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Foreword by Thomas Andrae June 12 October 7,1933. Plot and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Script by Ted Osborne; Inks by Ted Thwaites

The Adventures: Mickey Mouse the Detective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Floyd Gottfredsons Mickey Mouse Stories The Crazy Crime Wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
With Introductory Notes October 9, 1933 January 9, 1934. Plot and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Script by Merrill de Maris; Inks by Ted Thwaites
Looking Forward, Looking Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

The Great Orphanage Robbery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

January 11 May 14, 1932. Story and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Inks by Al Taliaferro

King of the Cannibal Island Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

May 16 November 12, 1932. Story and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Inks by Al Taliaferro and Ted Thwaites

Growth of a Hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Blaggard Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

November 14, 1932 February 10, 1933. Plot and pencils by
Floyd Gottfredson; Script by Webb Smith; Inks by Ted Thwaites

Pluto and the Dogcatcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

February 11 25, 1933. Plot and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Script by Ted Osborne; Inks by Ted Thwaites

Gloom and Greatness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

The Mail Pilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

February 27 June 10, 1933. Plot and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Script by Ted Osborne; Inks by Ted Thwaites

Betting the Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

 Table o f Co n ten ts

The Gottfredson Archives:

Essays and Special Features Mickey Mouse in Blaggard Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Painting by Floyd Gottfredson
Gallery featureThe Comics Department at Work:
Mickey Mouse in Color (...And Black and White) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Gallery featureGottfredsons World: The Mail Pilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Gallery featureGottfredsons World: Sharing the Spotlight: Ted Osborne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

The Great Orphanage Robbery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 by Alberto Becattini and David Gerstein

The Cast: Horace, Clarabelle... and Dippy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Mickey Mouse the Mail Pilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
by David Gerstein Painting by Floyd Gottfredson

Mousterpieces: Floyd Gottfredsons Mickey Mouse Paintings . . . . . . . . 244 Gallery featureGottfredsons World:
Appreciation by Malcolm Willits Mickey Mouse and His Horse Tanglefoot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Mickey Mouse in the Frozen North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Mickey Mouse and His Horse Tanglefoot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Painting by Floyd Gottfredson Painting by Floyd Gottfredson

Gallery featureGottfredsons World: Sharing the Spotlight: Merrill de Maris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Mickey Mouse Sails For Treasure Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 by Alberto Becattini and David Gerstein

The Cast: Pete and Shyster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Gallery featureGottfredsons World: The Crazy Crime Wave . . . . . . . . 265
by David Gerstein
Mickey Mouse the Detective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Mickey Mouse Sails for Treasure Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Painting by Floyd Gottfredson
Painting by Floyd Gottfredson
The Cast: Tanglefoot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Mickey Mouse and Clarabelle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein
Painting by Floyd Gottfredson
Gallery featureGottfredsons World: The Perils of Mickey . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Gallery featureGottfredsons World: Blaggard Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Return to Blaggard Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Disney Adventures, Vol 3, No 10 and 11 (August and September, 1993).
The Gottfredson Gang: In Their Own Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Story by David Cody Weiss; Art by Stephen DeStefano; Lettering by
by David Gerstein, with texts by Eleanor Barnes Stephen DeStefano and Bill Spicer

The Cast: Ecks, Doublex, and Triplex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 During the Continuities... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
by David Gerstein by Floyd Gottfredson

Sharing the Spotlight: Webb Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

by Alberto Becattini and David Gerstein
JANUARY 11, 1932

MAY 14, 1932
 LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK

T
he one-time popularity of Uncle Toms Cabinparticularly as a
story for all agesseems foreign from todays vantage point.
Yet when one steps just a couple of decades into the past, there
is Uncle Tom: as common a family classic, in the public mindset, as The
Wizard of Oz. And like Oz, Uncle Tom was capable of being interpreted and
re-interpreted in numerous ways.
When Abraham Lincoln called Tom author Harriet Beecher Stowe
the little woman who started [the Civil] War, he was only half-right:
slavery was not the only reason for the conflict. Still, the original Uncle
Toms Cabin (1852)as a bestselling abolitionist novelsurely fueled the
fires of battle. Its African-American slave heroes were smart, rounded
individuals; the original Uncle Tom fought back against thuggish white
characters by refusing to betray his runaway compatriots, or to lower
himself to his owners level of violence.
Yet Stowes characters are seldom remembered this way today. Less
than a year after the books publication, pro-South stage play versions
of Uncle Tom were transforming the story radically.1 Slave girl Topsy, once
the tragic image of an uneducated child, became a simple comic foil. Evil
slave owner Simon Legree became one bad apple in an otherwise accept-
able institution. Finally, Toms refusal to fight was transformed from
moral superiority into timid cowardice, creating the clich of the uncle
tom: a minority member who behaves submissively toward oppressors.
While Stowe disliked some of these depictions, 19th century copyright law
left her powerless to stop them.2
Luckily for Stowe, the abolition-minded boosters of her original
novel mounted Uncle Tom plays of their own. These pro-North Tom
shows still navely included some elements that offend today, such as
white actors performing in blackface. But pro-North Tom shows tried
to be pro-equality, too. Simon Legree once again represented slavery as
a whole; Tom, while a victim of villainy, defiantly refused to give in to it.
The pro-North Uncle Tom was often the subject of early animation
and comics. Battles with Simon Legree became a nearly constant activity
for cartoon stars: from Felix the Cat in Uncle Toms Crabbin (1927) to Red
Hot Riding Hood in Uncle Toms Cabana (1947). Mickey got his opportu-
nity with Floyd Gottfredsons Great Orphanage Robbery (1932); then
again with a screen version, Mickeys Mellerdrammer (1933), one year later.
Mickeys versions of the Tom story reflect the state of progressivism
in the early 1930s. Practicing for his role as Uncle Tom, Mickey commend-
ably talks back to his master (January 29); Horace Horsecollar, playing
Legree, is bombarded with vegetables or chased by his own hound.3 By the
same token, however, Mickeys retelling still includes severely dated ele-
mentslike blackface gags and overexaggerated Southern dialect. The
sheer ubiquity of some clichs in 1932 led even well-intentioned writers
to overlook their negative impact. [DG]

1 John Frick, Uncle Toms Cabin on the Antebellum Stage, Uncle Toms Cabin & American Culture, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/interpret/
exhibits/frick/frick.html (accessed April 9, 2011).
2 Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 213.
3 The punishment differs from film to strip; see Mickeys Mellerdrammer (1933) on Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White
Vol. 2 (Disney DVD, 2004).
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