Of mouse and men (MM 90th birthday thread!)

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Next Sunday, 18th November 2018, marks the 90th anniversary of the release of Steamboat Willie, officially considered as Mickey Mouse's date of birth.** 


This is meant to be a celebratory thread. The idea is that everyone willing to contribute writes a post to describe his own personal relation with Mickey Mouse. Tell us what Mickey meant for you when you were younger and/or what the little fellow means to you today. Tell how he has added something positive to your life, if he has. Nothing long, even a few lines are appreciated.
You can refer to any version of the mouse: the one from old or new cartoons, the one from merchandise or videogames, and of course any of the multiple incarnations that Mickey had on comics, since his first daily strip up to the fresh new stories released on Topolino this week (celebratory cover by Silvia Ziche in following post). 
I will try to write a post when I have time, probably during the weekend. But you are welcome to start!


Let's fix some rules to avoid off-topics:

1. You can mention your favorite MM cartoons and comic stories, of course. But please, do not turn this into a mere list of MM stories that you like. We already have appropriate threads for that. The topic here is: the role of Mickey in your life.
2. Same for authors: feel free to tell us what's your favorite Mickey Mouse, the one by Casty or the one by Bill Walsh, the one by Fred Moore or the one by Paul Rudish. But as long as the information is relevant to the topic, i.e. how Mickey affected your existence. Do not turn this thread into a discussion of who did what and why this author is better than that other author.
3. I feel stupid in having to write this down explicitly, but I am sure this it the most important rule: if you do not like Mickey Mouse, please retain from using this thread to let us now. This is a birthday thread. You do not go to the birthday party of someone to tell him that you hate him, right? In particular, here a few useful sub-rules: 
   1. We do not need to know that "Barks was better".
   2. We do not need to know that you like the ducks better.
   3. Please, do not mention Don Rosa - and the ironic references to Mickey in his duck comics - in this topic (unless it is for noticing how beautiful his covers featuring Mickey Mouse were). 
      
      
   
   
   
   

(** The first produced Mickey's cartoon was actually Plane Crazy, in March 1928, namely nine months before: that can be seen as the date of conception, if you wish.)
 

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

As promised in the post above, here is today's cover from Topolino magazine by Silvia Ziche. 

[Deleted]

Nice cover! One detail is that Mickey’s name is written in several languages in the background.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Mickey Mouse has been one of the most present and influent figure in my life since I have memory, and will probably be till the end of it. I can clearly distinguish three layers in this connection that I have to him: 1) the iconographic aspect; 2) the comique aspect from cartoons; 3) last but not least, the narrative side through comics.
In this first post I will talk of Point 1.

1) THE ICON. Now, I grew up into a man with a strong iconoclastic attitude. Not just in the strict sense of destructive and critical attitude against religious or political symbols, but generally towards most aspects of life. I am no troll or insensible person, way the opposite, yet mockering symbols is kind of my instinct. But you do not need an anthropologist to know that what is trown out the door comes back through the window: it seems to me that everyone needs some personal icons (and rituals) to survive this terrible thing called life. No matter how concrete or abstract/conceptualized those icons happen to be. Well, in my case one thing is sure: Mickey Mouse serves in my life as a very strong icon. Compared to other icons of mine, he is the one who has been costantly there, even in period of lifes when I had lost interest in Mickey as a narrative character (i.e. lost interest in his comics, cartoons or videogames). I have been an atheist since my early teenage, and even in my Catholic childhood I clearly was some kind of pantheist, so worshipping has never been really my thing. But I can now really perceive that I always had a weird form of worship for Mickey Mouse (and in a minor form for Donald Duck). I do not think that this can be explained only by the fact that MM is constantly around us, especially through merchandise. Even because that should trigger my iconoclastic tendence, not the opposite. There must be something in the geometry of his figure that touches so deeply my inconscient, as well as the one of so many other fellow human beings. MM is an iconographic deity, where 'graphic' is maybe the key of the phenomenon. But now I am pushing myself into territories outiside of my expertise, so I'll stop here. All this just to say that having Mickey's smile always around, on a mug, on a poster or as the background of the desktop of my laptop helps me going on. And that is relevant. 

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Follow up of the previous post.

2) THE CARTOON STAR. I was a lonely kid, spending most of my afternoon watching cartoons on tv from 4pm to 6pm. And when that tv stuff was not enough, I put on one of my very few VHS's, all of which I knew by heart. The most watched were a collection of Donald's cartoons from the early 40's, a VHS featuring Goofy in Soccermania and a few other Goofy's classic shorts and, a collection of Mickey's old cartoons, and a VHS containing the tv show released for the 60th anniversary of Mickey Mouse - the one were Roger Rabbit is looking for a disappeared Mickey while we see pieces of old shorts. These VHS were in my house since before I had memory, and I watched them thousands of times in an early stage of life. They are part of my inconscious, and they have shaped my love for Mickey. 
Now, what is so attractive in Mickey as a comic figure in animation? The classical explanation that 'Mickey was a comic star that made mostly sense in the late 20's, while Goofy and Donald were more refined, modern and powerful comical figures', although true, does not completely satisfies me. Even because I find funny also the later Mickey from the late 30's and 40's. I suspect that I enjoy the surprised expression that he always has on his face while the gag is taking place. In other words, he retains a certain sense of wonder while something bad is happening to him. And at the end of the gag, he smiles into the camera, breaking the fourth wall to share with us his great sense of irony. The latter seems to me something not much underlined (but that the new shorts by Rudish captures pretty well): Mickey always bares an ironic look on the universe. Sense of wonder and sense of irony make MM incarnation in cartoons so dear to me.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

(Looks like there were a few errors and typos in my previous posts from yesterday. Sorry, sometimes I forget to immediately double check the spelling and all...)


So, today (18 Nov) is MM birthday. None posting even just a brief message? Well, that's fine. I know that most of the users are all very busy with the important work of analysing every single sound and word and reference in the latest Ducktales episode. Priorities first, of course. 


Maybe later I will talk a bit about what Mickey's comics meant to me, so to conclude my long blabla.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

In all fairness, I appreciate this thread's good faith but I'm not really interested in that sort of reflective-emotional-talk-about-fiction in general that boasts of things having Meaning and Significance with Capital Letters. Not knocking on what anybody else likes, but Mickey "means" one of the main characters of a fun comics/cartoons universe I enjoy. That's about it. 

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

I am sorry, normally I would not reply to such a post, but in this case a rectification is necessary. This thread goes exacty in the opposite direction of what you accuse it (hence me) of doing: it is a thread about *personal* meaning and significance of MM, in our little, hence by definition with lower letter. Notions with Capital Letters normally refer to absolute (and potentially dangerous) ideas pretended to be of objective value, like Justice, Truth, Nation and so on. It seems to me quite inappropriate to accuse me of putting my emotions (or those of anyone else) on a pedestal, something that I do not do and that certainly cannot be read in the intentions of the topic.

Yeah, for me too Mickey is just a fictional character that I like. But there is a world of personal experience and emotion inside that 'just', and I thought that it could be funny to share a bit of that on this occasion.
Sorry for trying, let's go back to talk of how many brothers and uncles uncle Srooge has.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

You misunderstand my use of the capital letters; I meant the same thing you explain. Notice the makeshift-phrase "reflective-emotional-talk-about-fiction". Notice also that I am fine with thie thread's purpose and other people sharing on it — but I simply had nothing much to contribute.

[Ramapith]

Nov 18, 2018 19:02:33 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

Yeah, for me too Mickey is just a fictional character that I like. But there is a world of personal experience and emotion inside that 'just', and I thought that it could be funny to share a bit of that on this occasion.
Sorry for trying, let's go back to talk of how many brothers and uncles uncle Srooge has.

I'm glad you tried—I like the idea for the thread and I'm looking forward to replying. I'm just in deadline hell right now... but I'll do my best to contribute, though it may be some days before I can...

[Spectrus]

I didn't have any clear preferences when I was small. If I enjoyed the story, I enjoyed it no matter whether it featured Ducks or Mice. Nowadays I gravitate more towards the Mouse side of things. In the hands of good writers, Mickey can be the hero in deep, complex stories. A great story by Silvano Mezzavilla and Giorgio Cavazzano was released in Germany recently for the first time, and in that story I found Mickey to be the most likable character I ever encountered in any comic. He displays a great amount of humanity and understanding there. Stories like these are what justifies a thread like this, I think.

[Dr Ivo G Bombastus]

When I was a kid I would stay up late to watch Zorro, and after that, the Mickey Mouse Club. I had recorded a tv airing of Fun and Fancy Free on tape, and had another tape with the Disney Halloween tv special, which I watched every year. Between these and what aired in reruns of Wonderful World of Color, I'd seen nearly all of the major Mickey cartoons from the 20th century; Fantasia, Brave Little Tailor, Lonesome Ghosts, The Clock Cleaners, Thru the Mirror, Mickey and the Beanstalk, Mickey and the Seal, and a bunch of others.

I also watched Disney Afternoon shows like Ducktales and Goof Troop, so when House of Mouse aired it was natural to watch it too, since it was pretty much in the same mold as the actual Disney Afternoon series. I think I watched every episode of House of Mouse and the Mouse Works shorts. I also had the Three Musketeers movie on tape. Those cartoons are really underappreciated I believe; like for a good long while Mickey was a regular television series protagonist, instead of being in a weird limbo where he shows up in media from time to time but there's no sense that he's part of a story or lives in a world with other characters, which is how things were after House of Mouse ended. The 2013 cartoon shorts aren't bad, but to me they lack that consistency and personality that was in the Mouse Works universe.

Anyway, it was in high school during the dry spell between House of Mouse and the 2013 series, and that was when I discovered Mouse and Duck comics. I actually had already started reading Uncle $crooge comics (Don Rosa stories mostly), but it was a while before I got into Mickey Mouse titles. House of Mouse had introduced me to characters like The Blot, Chief O'Hara, and Mortimer Mouse, so I wanted to see where they came from basically. That lead me to Gottfredson. First I read Outwits the Phantom Blot, and the art and the ambiance really impressed me. I'd grown up watching Batman The Animated Series, and Outwits evoked a lot of that kind of atmospheric storytelling. Then I read Love Trouble, and that was a real shock to the system; I'd really never imagined that Mickey's relationships with his supporting cast could be that mature and complex. Suspenseful and dark detective stories were well and good whether you're young or old, but Love Trouble really felt like a story geared towards adult readers. The other comic I read around that time was Island in the Sky. And, well, man, Island in the Sky. Mickey's philosophy vs Dr. Einmug's philosophy, the potential good and potential evil of nuclear power, the thin line between patriotism and totalitarianism. It's like Ishiro Honda's Gojira more than ten years before Gojira.

I think it was that story that converted me: from somewhat casual Disney comics fan to hardcore fan, and from preferring the Duck to to preferring the Mouse.

[Huwey]

I am not really sure if I was a Mickey Mouse fan. To be honest, when I started to read Disney comics, I used to skip mouse stories and preferred the ones with ducks. I think though, that that is more of a quality sign of mouse comic, since as I matured and got older, I have also grown to love the stories with Mickey as much, if not even more than the duck stories. And not to speak against duck stories, I love them, but I think, especially in Italy, stories with Mickey are often a lot better, longer, more epic (although those two aren't always a sign of greatness and they must not be provided in order for a story to be great) and more meaningful. And now this is getting a bit personal and emotional, so if you are not into that, I would skip this post.
I had a huge fight with my father a few years ago. And by huge I mean huge. He was almost going to kick me out at some point. And I must confess, it was kind of my fault too. Important for this thread is, that even in those times, where I really did not know what to do, I still read Disney comics (especially the mouse ones), and they always either made me laugh or gave me something to think. It let me escape reality, even if it was only for an hour. I never shared that story with anyone. I was afraid my friends were going to make fun of me (which they do not nowadays although I still read a lot of Disney stuff, but you know how it is as a teenager) and I still feel like I cannot talk about everything with my father. But this is my story with the mouse.
I don't remember what story exactly turned me on the mouse side. I think it just was a general shift from skipping the Mickey stories to reading them as kind of a "necessary evil" to looking forward to good comics with Mickey Mouse, as I matured from an easily impressived child to an over-analyzing teenager.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Nov 21, 2018 16:21:19 GMT Spectrus said:

I didn't have any clear preferences when I was small. If I enjoyed the story, I enjoyed it no matter whether it featured Ducks or Mice. Nowadays I gravitate more towards the Mouse side of things. In the hands of good writers, Mickey can be the hero in deep, complex stories. A great story by Silvano Mezzavilla and Giorgio Cavazzano was released in Germany recently for the first time, and in that story I found Mickey to be the most likable character I ever encountered in any comic. He displays a great amount of humanity and understanding there. Stories like these are what justifies a thread like this, I think.

I have noticed that when  working on Mezzavilla's scripts Cavazzano tended focus even more than usual on emotional close ups of Mickey! 

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Nov 26, 2018 7:24:04 GMT Huwey said:

I had a huge fight with my father a few years ago. And by huge I mean huge. He was almost going to kick me out at some point. And I must confess, it was kind of my fault too. Important for this thread is, that even in those times, where I really did not know what to do, I still read Disney comics (especially the mouse ones), and they always either made me laugh or gave me something to think. It let me escape reality, even if it was only for an hour. I never shared that story with anyone. I was afraid my friends were going to make fun of me (which they do not nowadays although I still read a lot of Disney stuff, but you know how it is as a teenager) and I still feel like I cannot talk about everything with my father. But this is my story with the mouse.

Thanks for sharing this. I do not understand if you are still a teenager or not, anyhow relationships with fathers are often very complicated messes. Typically things get better with time. (In my case, it took me many years of life and therapy before I could realise and admit that "it was kind of my fault too", as you just did.)