The first two Mickey stories in this volume are "The Captive Castaways" which sees Mickey rejoin the Air Mail Service once again, this time to make sure a little town in the far North called Rock Ledge gets some much-needed supplies during a blizzard. He finds the towns resources are being stolen by a familiar pirate -- Peg-Leg Pete. After some stunning derring-do Mickey saves the town and the day. When he returns to Mouseton, he's called upon to save Pluto from the dog catcher in "Pluto's Rival".
Then for the sake of continuity it's necessary to jump over to the Sunday color Mickey Mouse strips where Mickey and Minnie head out west again to help Minnie's Uncle Mortimer who is running a large ranch now. It's there that we first encounter this ranch and its denizens and in an odd move that continuity then is picked up in the daily strip.
"The Bat Bandit of Inferno Gulch" is one of the best Mickey Mouse comic stories and has Mickey and Minnie battling the hooded figure of the aforementioned Bat Bandit. The villain is striking terror into the local townsfolk and as we learn the threat is closer to Mickey and Minnie than they suspect for some time.
The cover of the Big Little Book adventure of this story was the inspiration for the second of the Air Pirates Funnies books by Bobby London and friends. It's a good imitation with a satirical edge, too good thought the mavens at Disney, so they sued over it.
This is also the first Mickey Mouse comic strip I ever read when I got hold of it in the Golden Special The Best of Walt Disney Comics series from the folks at Gold Key. I still have this handsome edition from 1974 in my collection.
After cleaning up the West, Mickey then finds himself having to deal with the hardships of pet ownership in "Bobo the Elephant". This pachyderm is hard to care for to say the least and causes no end of trouble until Mickey finds a happy solution.
"The Sacred Jewel" has Mickey helping out Captain Churchmouse who is in trouble when a great gem is stolen on his watch and he is under threat of death unless Mickey can find the villains and return the jewel. Mickey and Minnie take to air in a bizarre blimp to try and save the day and their friend as they explore the deserts of the Middle East.
"Pluto the Racer" showcases Mickey's famous pet and Mickey's naivete about gambling when he tries to enter Pluto in the dog races. As usual there is a great deal of trouble for Mickey and his friends unless Pluto can win the great race and the prize money.
"Editor-in-Grief" is a story that co-stars the old-style Donald Duck along with Horace Horsecollar and Dippy Dog. They along with Mickey take on newspaper publishing, in particular the kind of investigative journalism which can prove fatal when they try to uncover the corruption in the city. I love the name of the paper which is "The Daily War-Drum".
"Race for the Riches" has Mickey teaming up with Horace for a final time as a main character when the pair head out West once again to find treasure which will save Clarabelle Cow's house and home from the mortage holder, who this time is also the villain of the piece.
This collection closes out with "The Pirate Submarine" which has Mickey in the skies once again, this time aboard the experimental "Submarplane" built by his old ally Gloomy the Mechanic. With this machine which will go over and beneath the watery waves Mickey is able to battle the ruthless Dr. Vultur, a villain very much in the tradition of Jules Verne's Captain Nemo, but with a nasty streak.
The volume closes with the usual collection of vintage covers and bio sketches and a wild and weird Donald Duck story from Europe about going to Mars. Strange, very strange.
Rip Off
The first Gottfredson MM strips I ever read was the "Race for the Riches" arc in The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, a massive tome I would check out from the library several times over my youth. That book's influence on me (as well as their companion volume on comic book stories) can't be overstated.
ReplyDeleteI have long both of those Smithsonian in my collection, and they are outstanding. I didn't find them until I was an adult though, but earlier such books like the History of Comics and The Great Comic Book Heroes were regular check-outs for me from the the public library, an institution I hope we never lose.
Delete