Malcolm Willits Collection of Mickey Mouse Paintings

[mousemaestro]

I recently purchased an assortment of Gladstone Mickey Mouse comics and also picked up the Malcolm Willits Collection of Mickey Mouse Paintings.

I highly recommend it for any Gottfredson fan. The volume features every Gottfredson painting in one convenient location paired with two delightful interviews and Willits' backstory. He was a rapier with the written word. His Eleanor Roosevelt gag had me in snitches. I was marveled to discover that Gottfredson before his discovery by the larger world felt more comfortable with his recent gag-a-day work than his classic era and that he preferred the later streamlined Mickey design to the crude 30s look.


Fortunately, there were fans like Willits and others that helped him to realize that he touched millions with his work and to ensure that he understood he left a legacy. 

[Mesterius]

Jun 11, 2021 16:16:41 GMT mousemaestro said:

I recently purchased an assortment of Gladstone Mickey Mouse comics and also picked up the Malcolm Willits Collection of Mickey Mouse Paintings.

I highly recommend it for any Gottfredson fan. The volume features every Gottfredson painting in one convenient location paired with two delightful interviews and Willits' backstory. He was a rapier with the written word. His Eleanor Roosevelt gag had me in snitches. I was marveled to discover that Gottfredson before his discovery by the larger world felt more comfortable with his recent gag-a-day work than his classic era and that he preferred the later streamlined Mickey design to the crude 30s look.


Fortunately, there were fans like Willits and others that helped him to realize that he touched millions with his work and to ensure that he understood he left a legacy. 

Calling Mickey's design from the 30s (at least the mid-30s onward) "crude" is bizarre. It was anything but.

But yeah, Gottfredson really did think his best work art-wise was the Mickey of the later decades, with a much duller design and sometimes rather grotesque facial expressions.

[mousemaestro]

Jun 13, 2021 0:34:47 GMT Mesterius said:

Jun 11, 2021 16:16:41 GMT mousemaestro said:

I recently purchased an assortment of Gladstone Mickey Mouse comics and also picked up the Malcolm Willits Collection of Mickey Mouse Paintings.

I highly recommend it for any Gottfredson fan. The volume features every Gottfredson painting in one convenient location paired with two delightful interviews and Willits' backstory. He was a rapier with the written word. His Eleanor Roosevelt gag had me in snitches. I was marveled to discover that Gottfredson before his discovery by the larger world felt more comfortable with his recent gag-a-day work than his classic era and that he preferred the later streamlined Mickey design to the crude 30s look.


Fortunately, there were fans like Willits and others that helped him to realize that he touched millions with his work and to ensure that he understood he left a legacy. 

Calling Mickey's design from the 30s (at least the mid-30s onward) "crude" is bizarre. It was anything but.

But yeah, Gottfredson really did think his best work art-wise was the Mickey of the later decades, with a much duller design and sometimes rather grotesque facial expressions.

Yeah, it was mostly circles but it was well-designed and iconic. 

Of course some context helps, that interview was from when Gottfredson was being rediscovered by fans. He even admitted that he hadn't seen his old work in years. But his sentiment did strike me when I first read the interview. I like his later Mickey but nothing will ever beat pie-eyed Mickey, imo.