Which Gottfredson stories are the best?

[Scroogerello]

I recently read an old Gottfredson story with Zeke Wolf and the Pigs, and the artwork was so wonderful, I figured I should pick up one or two of the Gottfredson library in future to find more of his stuff.

But, I never really got into these stories, since I found Mickey kind of a boring character as a kid (although, from what I hear, the writing in those comic strips (mostly Bill Walsh I think) was better than the usual Mickey stuff, too).
I remember as a kid I did read a few Gottfredson serials: the one where Ega Beva was introduced, one where Mickey had a criminal doppelganger, and another one where he and Pete worked a Lumberjacks.
Those were pretty good, as I remember, although the pacing was very different from what I was used to, due to having a gag for every three panels, which sometimes interrupted the story flow.

So anyway, I was wondering which Gottfredson stories/serials you guys would recommend? From what I’ve seen, I like his more stylized 1950s onward artwork the best, although the earlier stuff looks great, too.

[deb]

Mickey Mouse: His Greatest Adventures is a good sampler of the Gottfredson material.

[RobbK1]

Feb 2, 2022 16:30:05 GMT Scroogerello said:

I recently read an old Gottfredson story with Zeke Wolf and the Pigs, and the artwork was so wonderful, I figured I should pick up one or two of the Gottfredson library in future to find more of his stuff.

But, I never really got into these stories, since I found Mickey kind of a boring character as a kid (although, from what I hear, the writing in those comic strips (mostly Bill Walsh I think) was better than the usual Mickey stuff, too).
I remember as a kid I did read a few Gottfredson serials: the one where Ega Beva was introduced, one where Mickey had a criminal doppelganger, and another one where he and Pete worked a Lumberjacks.
Those were pretty good, as I remember, although the pacing was very different from what I was used to, due to having a gag for every three panels, which sometimes interrupted the story flow.

So anyway, I was wondering which Gottfredson stories/serials you guys would recommend? From what I’ve seen, I like his more stylized 1950s onward artwork the best, although the earlier stuff looks great, too.

You were too young to buy the "Mickey Maandblad" digest/pocket-sized, and regular comic book sized books, and get the Dreft giveaways, when they were new.  But, I thought you would have seen them and liked them as second hand books.  ALL the 1935-1955 serialised Gottfredson stories have great artwork and great to at the very least, good, and well-crafted stories, written by Bill Walsh, Merrill De Maris, and Ted Osborne.  Of course, they have been fairly rare in second hand (tweede hande) book shops over the past 20 years. In any case, I'm sure that you would like most of them, especially those between 1936 and 1946. 

A few of my favourites:

"The Pirate Submarine",

"Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion"

"The Seven Ghosts"

"Island in the Sky"

"Monarch of Medioka"

"Mickey Mouse, Mighty Whale Hunter"

"Mickey Mouse Meets Robinson Crusoe"

"Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot"

"The Miracle Master"

"An Education for Thursday"

"The Bar-None Ranch"

"Bellhop Detective"

"Land of Long Ago"

"Love Trouble"

"Mystery at Hidden River"

"The Gleam"

"Goofy and Agnes"

"The Black Crow Mystery"

"The Pirate Ghostship"

"The World of Tomorrow"

"The House of Mystery"

"The Atombrella and the Rhyming Man"

"An Education for Eega"

"Mousepotamia"

"Land Beneath The Sea"

"Mickey's Double"

"The Robin Hood Adventure"

"The Brave Little Tailor"

[mousemaestro]

• "Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion"
• "The Pirate Submarine"
• "Editor-In-Grief"
• "Love Trouble"
• "Outwits the Phantom Blot"
• "Island in the Sky"
• "The Seven Ghosts"
• "Monarch of "Medioka"
• "Mickey's Dangerous Double"
• "The Gleam"
• "Mystery at Hidden River"
• "The Atombrella and the Rhyming Man"
• "Race to Death Valley"
• "The House of Mystery"
• "Pluto the Racer"
• "Race to Riches"
• "Mickey Mouse, Supersalesman" 
• "Blaggard Castle"
• "The Mail Pilot"
• "The Bat Bandit of Inferno Gulch"
• "The Plumber's Helper"
• "The 'Lectro Box"
• "The War Orphans"
• "The World of Tomorrow"
• "The Syndicate of Crime"

Volumes Three, Four, and Five of the FG Library collect all the essential work of Gottfredson. Not that there aren't gems in the other volumes but the listed books are Mickey at his character's height. Osborne and De Maris generally have the most consistent stories and most of my favorites. Walsh is a roller coaster not only from story to story but within in his stories. But his peaks are amazing. Just hold your lunch on the plunges. 

[fredj]

My top 5:

Editor-in-Grief (1935; Library 3)
The Seven Ghosts (1936; Library 4)
Outwits the Phantom Blod (1939; Library 5)
Supersalesman (1941; Library 6)
The Man of Tomorrow (1947; Library 9)

[caballero]

Feb 3, 2022 11:06:49 GMT fredj said:

Editor-in-Grief (1935; Library 3)
The Seven Ghosts (1936; Library 4)

Those are my top two.

[Spectrus]

I've only got the first three books in the first German set (and a few stray stories elsewhere). My opinion is that while the beginning is spotty, it's pretty much flawless from "The Great Orphanage Robbery" (first in FGL 2) onwards... "The Pirate Submarine" (FGL 3) is probably the most impressive of those first three books but really, the consistency is great.

Also, Gottfredson's artwork pretty much defines the "Italian style" of drawing Mickey. The characters are as rounded and dynamic as they are in Scarpa's later work.

[Mesterius]

Feb 2, 2022 16:30:05 GMT Scroogerello said:

I recently read an old Gottfredson story with Zeke Wolf and the Pigs, and the artwork was so wonderful, I figured I should pick up one or two of the Gottfredson library in future to find more of his stuff.

But, I never really got into these stories, since I found Mickey kind of a boring character as a kid (although, from what I hear, the writing in those comic strips (mostly Bill Walsh I think) was better than the usual Mickey stuff, too).

The Mickey Mouse strip was generally much better BEFORE Bill Walsh took over the writing, if you ask me. For the first 12 years of the strip (1930-42), Gottfredson himself was in charge of the plots, and worked with writers like Merrill de Maris and Ted Osborne to turn them into scripts. Bill Walsh took over the writing and plotting shortly afterwards; and the stories became much more surreal in tone, greatly changing the personality of Mickey too. In Gottfredson's own storylines, Mickey is an enthusiastic, idealistic but far-from-perfect youth. In Walsh's stories, he becomes more of a weary, middle-aged adult.

Feb 2, 2022 16:30:05 GMT Scroogerello said:

I remember as a kid I did read a few Gottfredson serials: the one where Ega Beva was introduced, one where Mickey had a criminal doppelganger, and another one where he and Pete worked a Lumberjacks.
Those were pretty good, as I remember, although the pacing was very different from what I was used to, due to having a gag for every three panels, which sometimes interrupted the story flow.

Those ARE all good stories. But again, my favorite is definitely the lumberjack one, which is from the era when Gottfredson himself did the plotting. I don't think it's riddled by a joke every third panel as much as the later two either... that began to stick out more when Walsh did the writing. There are definitely moments in pre-Walsh, too, where you can feel like there are a bit too many jokes; but overall, the 1930-42 storylines balanced adventure cliffhangers and punchlines much better.

Feb 2, 2022 16:30:05 GMT Scroogerello said:

So anyway, I was wondering which Gottfredson stories/serials you guys would recommend? From what I’ve seen, I like his more stylized 1950s onward artwork the best, although the earlier stuff looks great, too.

Ah, I see. If that's the case, your taste is very different from mine. So who knows, maybe you'll also prefer Walsh's writing. Myself, I think Gottfredson was at his peak art-wise from about the mid-30s to the early 40s. If we're talking stylized elegance, I don't think anything tops his art around 1941, when he was basing Mickey's look on the latest model sheets by Fred Moore. By the early 50s, on the other hand, the "stylization" has gotten to a point where Mickey's facial expressions often look a bit grotesque (and Mickey in the animated shorts of that era doesn't look any better).

[thadwell]

Of the Fantagraphics set, the best material is Vol. 3 through 6. Depending on how much you like those, I’d also get Vol. 1, 2, and 9. The rest of the volumes mostly feature, I’m afraid to say, stories that are just not very good.

[mousemaestro]

Feb 3, 2022 20:03:05 GMT Mesterius said:

Feb 2, 2022 16:30:05 GMT Scroogerello said:

I recently read an old Gottfredson story with Zeke Wolf and the Pigs, and the artwork was so wonderful, I figured I should pick up one or two of the Gottfredson library in future to find more of his stuff.

But, I never really got into these stories, since I found Mickey kind of a boring character as a kid (although, from what I hear, the writing in those comic strips (mostly Bill Walsh I think) was better than the usual Mickey stuff, too).

The Mickey Mouse strip was generally much better BEFORE Bill Walsh took over the writing, if you ask me. For the first 12 years of the strip (1930-42), Gottfredson himself was in charge of the plots, and worked with writers like Merrill de Maris and Ted Osborne to turn them into scripts. Bill Walsh took over the writing and plotting shortly afterwards; and the stories became much more surreal in tone, greatly changing the personality of Mickey too. In Gottfredson's own storylines, Mickey is an enthusiastic, idealistic but far-from-perfect youth. In Walsh's stories, he becomes more of a weary, middle-aged adult.

Feb 2, 2022 16:30:05 GMT Scroogerello said:

I remember as a kid I did read a few Gottfredson serials: the one where Ega Beva was introduced, one where Mickey had a criminal doppelganger, and another one where he and Pete worked a Lumberjacks.
Those were pretty good, as I remember, although the pacing was very different from what I was used to, due to having a gag for every three panels, which sometimes interrupted the story flow.

Those ARE all good stories. But again, my favorite is definitely the lumberjack one, which is from the era when Gottfredson himself did the plotting. I don't think it's riddled by a joke every third panel as much as the later two either... that began to stick out more when Walsh did the writing. There are definitely moments in pre-Walsh, too, where you can feel like there are a bit too many jokes; but overall, the 1930-42 storylines balanced adventure cliffhangers and punchlines much better.

Feb 2, 2022 16:30:05 GMT Scroogerello said:

So anyway, I was wondering which Gottfredson stories/serials you guys would recommend? From what I’ve seen, I like his more stylized 1950s onward artwork the best, although the earlier stuff looks great, too.

Ah, I see. If that's the case, your taste is very different from mine. So who knows, maybe you'll also prefer Walsh's writing. Myself, I think Gottfredson was at his peak art-wise from about the mid-30s to the early 40s. If we're talking stylized elegance, I don't think anything tops his art around 1941, when he was basing Mickey's look on the latest model sheets by Fred Moore. By the early 50s, on the other hand, the "stylization" has gotten to a point where Mickey's facial expressions often look a bit grotesque (and Mickey in the animated shorts of that era doesn't look any better).

Agreed. Walsh turned out some real gems ("Dangerous Double" "The Rhyming Man" "The World of Tomorrow") but he clearly operated via the concept that characterization doesn't drive the plot; the plot itself does. And his plotting feels scatterbrained and stream of consciousness. I love the Rhyming Man but the sudden appearance of the titular character halfway through the arc feels more like he randomly thought up the character than he had the whole story planned out. 

And his portrayal of Mickey as a suburbanite just trying to avoid zany situations lacks punch compared to the adventurous and idealistic Mickey of the pre-Walsh era. Walsh was more creative in his plots but he needed to be grounded when it came to characterization. Still, his best stories aren't to be missed.

Feb 4, 2022 18:26:24 GMT thadwell said:

Of the Fantagraphics set, the best material is Vol. 3 through 6. Depending on how much you like those, I’d also get Vol. 1, 2, and 9. The rest of the volumes mostly feature, I’m afraid to say, stories that are just not very good.

Volume 11 is worth the purchase for "Mickey's Dangerous Double" alone. 

[deb]

I’d also recommend the color Sunday volumes. They’re not necessarily the best adventure stories, but the Sunday pages gave Gottfredson and his writers the space to really build up a gag or situation. Plus there’s a good deal of early Donald Duck in there.

[Scroogerello]

Thanks everyone!! I think I’ll start at volume 4, which seems to have the most overlap with the lists you guys make (Seven Ghosts, Monarch of Medioka, Mickey joins the Foreign Legion, Island in the Sky).
I don’t like Gottfredson’s earliest artwork (à la Mickey and the Boxing Champion, Mr Slicker and the Egg robbers, etc), but judging from the inducks, volume 4 of the fanta library is well past that phase—in fact, the jump in artwork Gottfredson makes in just a few years is insane! And the ink lines look so much smoother.

By the way, reading the titles listed in this topic, I realize I’ve also read “Mickey Outwits the Phantom Blot” as a kid. That was a good one, too—although of course you could see the big reveal coming as soon as you started reading the story.! And I remember Chief OHara being a lot more of a bumbling fool than in modern stories.

And “the boxing Champion” is another Gottfredson strip I’ve already read, in an old “Vakantieboek”. But, as I said, the artwork there was still very primitive (not to mention the storyline). I’m not surprised no one here has mentioned it as a favorite, haha.

[deb]

Aww. Gottfredson’s early artwork is some of my personal favorites of his work.

[tashlinfan44]

I think starting with Volume 4 is a great idea. Each story in there is more fantastic than the last. The other few that surround that volume are great, too, but may have a clunker or two within them. Long live Gottfredson.

[Mesterius]

Feb 5, 2022 14:07:12 GMT Scroogerello said:

Thanks everyone!! I think I’ll start at volume 4, which seems to have the most overlap with the lists you guys make (Seven Ghosts, Monarch of Medioka, Mickey joins the Foreign Legion, Island in the Sky).
I don’t like Gottfredson’s earliest artwork (à la Mickey and the Boxing Champion, Mr Slicker and the Egg robbers, etc), but judging from the inducks, volume 4 of the fanta library is well past that phase—in fact, the jump in artwork Gottfredson makes in just a few years is insane! And the ink lines look so much smoother.

I'd say Gottfredson's artwork is top-notch already by Volume 3. If I were you, I'd start with that volume. It has some REALLY fantastic stories that are not to be missed.

Feb 5, 2022 14:07:12 GMT Scroogerello said:

And the ink lines look so much smoother.

That quality in particular can be attributed to Gottfredson's inkers in the 30s - artists like Ted Thwaites and Al Taliaferro. They're credited in the Fanta books.

Feb 5, 2022 14:07:12 GMT Scroogerello said:

By the way, reading the titles listed in this topic, I realize I’ve also read “Mickey Outwits the Phantom Blot” as a kid. That was a good one, too—although of course you could see the big reveal coming as soon as you started reading the story.!

You could? I couldn't.

Feb 5, 2022 14:07:12 GMT Scroogerello said:

And I remember Chief OHara being a lot more of a bumbling fool than in modern stories.

I wouldn't say O'Hara comes across as a bumbling fool in the Blot story. He's certainly much more competent than Detective Casey (who actually WAS portrayed as fairly competent until O'Hara got introduced).