The Sunday Funnies - House Of The Seven Haunts!

 By the time we reach the strips in this fourth Fantagraphics volume of Mickey Mouse's comic strip run by Floyd Gottredson, the strip has hit its zenith. The adventures are at once both exciting and funny and the cast is well developed. Goofy joins the cast, replacing his earlier incarnation of Dippy Dog. The strip was under mandate to reflect the animation and did that for the most part, at least in terms of casting. But whereas the Mickey of the cartoons was becoming increasingly a somewhat bland adult, the Mickey of the strip was still full of wild vigor and easily talked into many a bizarre misadventure.

But the volume begins with "Oscar the Ostrich" which once again sees our hero encumbered with a bizarre animal for a pet such as he was in the earlier escapades with Bobo the Elephant. Oscar though is a great deal more wantonly destructive, and it puts Mickey in a hard way facing both fines and potential jail before he is able to wriggle free of this latest mishap. 

"Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion" is a full-blown adventure with Mickey called upon to protect state military secrets. He chases a spy across the world, and when that chap joins the Foreign Legion to meet his partner in crime, Mickey must also join. He finds himself under the thumb of Pegleg Pete for some of this yarn, but as we all know Mickey prevails in the end. 

"House of the Seven Haunts" is one of my all-time favorite Mickey outings. This ghostly outing was inspired by flicks like The Bat Whispers and such, features Mickey and Goofy and Donald Duck also are a detective agency who hire out to investigate the haunted mansion of a local rich fellow who seems less bothered by the supernatural aspects of the "ghosts" and more upset at their dreadful manners. It doesn't take Mickey with the minor aid of his two allies to plumb the bottom of this mystery. 

"Island in the Sky" is a full-blown science fiction adventure. Mickey takes to the air once again to find out the secret of a strange flying car and finds much much more when he encounters a scientist who has mastered gravity. Pegleg Pete is back once again to try and wrangle this secret to sell to the highest bidder but neither the scientist named "Einmug", nor Mickey think this is a good idea. 

"In Search of Jungle Treasure" is exactly what it seems. Mickey and his friends head out once again to find treasure on a remote island led there by his old friend the gorilla "Spooks" who it turns out is a homing gorilla. There are some decidedly non-PC cannibals, a sign of a less enlightened era. For all that, this a wild and funny adventures. 

This Fantagraphics collection ends with "Monarch of Medioka", perhaps Mickey's greatest adventure based on The Prisoner of Zenda. Mickey is an exact match for the wasteful King Michael XIV who is spending his nation into ruin. He is convinced to go and party abroad while Mickey tries to do his level best to get the nation on a better financial footing. He is not helped by the antique traditions of the country which is more law than justice. 

And that wraps this month-long review of the earliest Mickey Mouse strips. I have more but we'll save for those for another day. Floyd Gottfredson created in his Mickey Mouse strips with the help of many other artists and writers an adventurous daily with panache and style. Inspired by but not limited by the cartoons which were becoming increasingly humdrum, the stip was able to do things that the shorter cartoons were not able to capture. 

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