By the time we get to these Mickey Mouse comic strips from 1932 to 1934 in the second volume of Fantagraphics' series titled Trapped on Treasure Island the series has momentum and is well on its way to becoming a sleek comedy-adventure comic. The strip under the care of Floyd Gottfredson is still very different from the hectic cartoons which promote Mickey's fame and the stories in the strip often take their inspiration from the cartoons to maintain that synthesis which is good in a quality product. But the future of the series can be seen and some of the older aspects of the strip will begin to be shaken off by the end of this book.
"The Great Orphanage Robbery" opens the book and gives us a Mickey story which is equal parts humor and adventure. It's a pretty revealing title as we see Mickey arrange to gather funds for the local orphanage only to see those monies stolen and himself accused of that theft. Mickey's personality is still fluid enough that his community seems all to ready to accuse him of such a crime. His accused collaborator in the crime is Horace Horsecollar who is on trial for the crime and even threatened with lynching as we also follow Mickey as he races to the frozen North to recover the stolen loot. There's an actual tension as the strip cuts back and forth between its two narratives.
"Micky Mouse Sails for Treasure Island" has our hero and his take up a classic treasure hunt complete with maps, ships, mutinous crews, cannibals, crazed gorillas and long-lost sailors. Robert Louis Stevenson would possibly be pleased that his works had been so fondly remembered and mined for comic strip adventure.
"Blaggard Castle" is my favorite story on this tome and it's an intentional homage to the then quite popular comedy-horror movies of the era such as Dr..X. Mickey and Horace go to what seems a haunted castle but is in fact the booby-trapped lair of three mad scientists named Ecks, Dubblex, and Triplex.
They are presented as evil apes and their gruff and sunken-eyed look was inspired by Boris Karloff in his role as the dangerous muttering butler in The Old Dark House. There is a great deal of wild action in this one and this Fantagraphics volume even offers up a color sequel to the story from decades later in the supplement section of the book.
"Pluto and the Dogcatcher" is a quick little sequence that features Mickey's mutt and is a breather of sorts between the heavy adventures.
Those adventures kick off again with "The Mail Pilot" which sees Mickey becoming a member of the Air Mail Service. Those brave souls who risked life and limb to see that the mail got through are given a nod before Mickey learns his new craft and then almost immediately becomes embroiled in a plot by some familiar villains to hijack the mails using an extremely high-tech zeppelin. There's lots of derring-do in this sci-fic adventure story. One thing which amused me is that while Mickey saves the day by capturing the villains, he never actually gets around to delivering any mail.
The Big Little Book cover fo this adventure when it was collected inspired the remarkable cover for Air Pirates Funnies #1 which got its creators Bobby London and others into so much legal trouble with Disney.
"Mickey Mouse and his horse Tanglefoot" gets Mickey involved in horse racing and shows some of the weaker aspects of both his and Minnie's personalities as they spend their money rather carelessly and only a win at the track will let them stay whole. Since it's a comic strip we can imagine what happens, but the real-world equivalent of this dilemma often ended up with tragedy indeed.
"The Crime Wave" features Mickey becoming a detective formally for the first time as he partners with Dippy Dog. Dippy will seem really familiar since he will soon become known as Goofy. These two novice sleuths are not really good at their trade, especially the careless Dippy but nonetheless they end up taking on a counter-fitting ring which also just so happens to be stealing all the hair and long underwear in town.
We get lots of grand supplements, nifty essays and lots of classic images of vintage covers. This is a very entertaining package from the folks from Fantagraphics.
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