olor

C S undays
volume one

“CALL OF THE WILD”

Series Editors: David Gerstein and Gary Groth

 Table o f Co n ten ts

Setting the Stage “Lair of Wolf Barker” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

January 29 – June 18, 1933. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd
Mickey’s Sunday Best: A New Arena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Gottfredson; Inks by Al Taliaferro (1/29-2/19, 4/16-4/30) and Ted Thwaites
Foreword by J. B. Kaufman (2/26-4/9)

A Brief Essay About Floyd Gottfredson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Gag Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Appreciation by Kevin Huizenga June 25, 1933 – March 4, 1934. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd
Gottfredson; Inks by Ted Thwaites (6/25-8/27, 9/10-10/8, 10/22, 10/29, 11/12-11/26,
The Sundays: 12/10-2/4, 2/18-3/4) and Al Taliaferro (9/3, 10/15, 11/5, 12/3, 2/11)
Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse Stories
With Introductory Notes The Longest Short Story Ever Told! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Sunday Storytelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 “Rumplewatt the Giant” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

March 11 – April 29, 1934. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd
Gag Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Gottfredson; Inks by Ted Thwaites
January 10 – July 24, 1932. Story and pencils by Earl Duvall (1/10) and Floyd
Gottfredson (1/17-7/24); Inks by Earl Duvall (1/10) and Al Taliaferro (1/17-7/24) “Tanglefoot Pulls His Weight” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
May 6 – June 3, 1934. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
The Peter Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Inks by Ted Thwaites (5/6) and Al Taliaferro (5/13-6/3)

“Dan the Dogcatcher” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Gag Strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

July 31 – September 4, 1932. Story and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson; June 10, 1934. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Inks by Ted Thwaites Inks by Al Taliaferro

Gag Strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Call of the Wild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

September 11, 1932. Story and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Inks by Ted Thwaites “Dr. Oofgay’s Secret Serum” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
June 17 – September 9, 1934. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd
“Mickey’s Nephews” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Gottfredson; Inks by Al Taliaferro
September 18 – November 6, 1932. Story and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Inks by Ted Thwaites “Introducing Mickey Mouse Movies” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
June 24, 1934 top strip. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd Gottfredson;
Gag Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Inks by Al Taliaferro
November 13, 1932 – January 22, 1933. Story by Floyd Gottfredson and Webb
Smith; Pencils by Floyd Gottfredson; Inks by Ted Thwaites (11/13-1/8, 1/22) and Gag Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Al Taliaferro (1/15) September 16 – December 2, 1934. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd
Gottfredson; Inks by Al Taliaferro (9/16-11/4) and Ted Thwaites (11/11-12/2)
Mickey’s Delayed Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
Death Knocks, Fate Pesters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
 Table o f Co n ten ts

“Foray to Mt. Fishflake” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 The Cast: Morty and Ferdie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
December 9, 1934 – January 20, 1935. Story by Ted Osborne; by David Gerstein
Pencils by Floyd Gottfredson; Inks by Ted Thwaites
Behind the Scenes: Minnie’s Yoo-Hoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Gag Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .190 by David Gerstein
January 27 – February 10, 1935. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd
Gottfredson; Inks by Ted Thwaites Gallery feature—Gottfredson’s World: Mickey’s Nephews . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Beneath the Overcoat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 The Comics Department at Work: The Mouseton Pops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
by David Gerstein, with art by Floyd Gottfredson, Al Taliaferro,
“The Case of the Vanishing Coats” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 and Tom Wood
February 17 – March 24, 1935. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd
Gottfredson; Inks by Ted Thwaites Gallery feature—Gottfredson’s World: Early Epics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Gag Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 The Gottfredson Gang: In “Their Own” Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
March 31 – July 21, 1935. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd Gottfredson; by David Gerstein, with text by Irene Cavanaugh
Inks by Ted Thwaites
Gallery feature—Gottfredson’s World: Going Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Hoppy the Ambassador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Behind the Scenes: Interior Decorators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267
“Hoppy the Kangaroo” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 by David Gerstein, with storyboards by Homer Brightman
July 28 – November 24, 1935. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Floyd
Gottfredson; Inks by Ted Thwaites “Wrapping Up” the Case of the Vanishing Coats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
by William Van Horn
Gag Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
December 1 – December 29, 1935. Story by Ted Osborne; Pencils by Gallery feature—Gottfredson’s World: Curiosities of 1935 . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Floyd Gottfredson; Inks by Ted Thwaites
Gallery feature—Gottfredson’s World: Hoppy the Kangaroo . . . . . . . . 270
The Gottfredson Archives:
Essays and Special Features The Heirs of Gottfredson: Topolino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
by Sergio Lama and David Gerstein
The Monthly “Sundays” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
by David Gerstein and Jim Korkis Gag Strips in Verse (A Mickey Supplement) . . . . . . . . . . 273
Italian Il Popolo di Roma (May-July 1931); story and art by Guglielmo
“Mickey Mouse Chapter” (A Mickey Supplement) . . . . 247 Guastaveglia. The Delineator (December 1932); story and art by Floyd
International DeMolay Cordon Vol. 1 No. 9-11, Vol. 2 No. 1 and 2 Gottfredson et al. Italian Topolino 1 and 7 (December 31, 1932 and
(December 1932 – May 1933). Story by Fred Spencer (first four strips) and February 11, 1933); story and art by Giove Toppi and Angelo Burattini.
Floyd Gottfredson (fifth strip); Art by Fred Spencer
“Any time you can tell your story...” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Gallery feature—Gottfredson’s World: Dan the Dogcatcher . . . . . . . . 252 by Floyd Gottfredson
DAN THE DOGCATCHER
and
Mickey’s NephewS
and
gag strips
July 31, 1932
–
January 22, 1933
 THE PETER PRINCIPLE

f
loyd Gottfredson was not one to rest on his laurels. After mastering Gottfredson’s “out” seems to have been the fact that in The Mad
several kinds of Sunday gag strip storytelling, how else could he Dog cartoon, Pete’s physique differed slightly from past incarnations.
improve his new feature? Perhaps by introducing continuity—though Dog gave Pete a fatter figure and more slovenly demeanor than in earlier
not yet the semi-serious, high adventure continuity that characterized Mickey shorts—and earlier Gottfredson strips. At the time, Gottfredson
the Mickey daily strip. drew Pete as a top-heavy, barrel-chested strongman, not a fat slob; and
Gottfredson’s first Sunday serials were firmly comedies, often Gottfredson decided to continue that way for the moment. The Mad Dog
loosely inspired by concurrent cartoons. But this didn’t make them slob design could instead become a somewhat Petelike, but ultimately
lightweight in Gottfredson’s mind. He evidently took care to make different peg-legged cat. Exit Pete; enter “Dan the Dogcatcher,” fat feline
sure that they integrated sensibly with the continuity of their daily lawman, who starred in both the eponymous 1932 Sunday story and the
counterparts. short 1933 daily serial, “Pluto and the Dogcatcher” (see Volume 2 of our
What did this mean in practice? It meant that when The Mad Dog daily strip series).
(1932), a new Mickey cartoon short, featured a comedy storyline that Of course, time wounds all heels. Several cartoons later, it became
begged for Sunday adaptation, Gottfredson hopped right to it. Action- clear that Disney’s Animation Department would be keeping the animated
packed battles between Mickey and a misunderstanding dogcatcher—as Pete in his new fatter form. What to do now? Gottfredson’s cast numbered
shown in the cartoon—were obvious fodder for a long-form, multi-week a Pete who no longer looked like the cartoon Pete—and a Dan who did.
scenario. But there was a problem: in the cartoon, this dogcatcher—the The answer was to blubber up the comics Pete, which Gottfredson
voice of law and order—was “played” by Pegleg Pete. And in Gottfredson’s did in 1934, and surreptitiously remove Dan from the cast for awhile. In
ongoing daily strip serials, Pegleg Pete was consistently a crook: “the most much later 1940s strips, the catfaced dogcatcher eventually reappeared,
perennial heavy of all time,” as Gottfredson described him.1 Could Mickey fat figure and all. But in a nod to perfectionism, Dan now had gray fur or a
Mouse comics fans make sense of seeing Pete as a lawbreaker during the shaven chin, just to make sure readers still knew he wasn’t Pete.
week, and a law-and-order city official on Sunday? Perhaps not. So how to Continuity makes perfect. [DG]
avoid confusion?

1 Floyd Gottfredson, Walt Disney Best Comics—Mickey Mouse (New York: Abbeville Press, Inc., 1978), p. 12.
Da n the Dogcatcher 51.
52. Da n the Dogcatcher
Da n the Dogcatcher 53.
54. Da n the Dogcatcher
Da n the Dogcatcher 55.
56. Da n the Dogcatcher
It’s a Stick-Up 57.
58. Mickey ’s Nephews
Mickey ’s Nephews 59.
60. Mickey ’s Nephews
Mickey ’s Nephews 61.
62. Mickey ’s Nephews
Mickey ’s Nephews 63.
64. Mickey ’s Nephews
Mickey ’s Nephews 65.
66. The Lone A rr a nger