The best Mouse story + What makes a good Mouse story

character identification, ducks, mice, etc.

Postby WB » Mon May 01, 2006 11:13 am

Mickey Mouse stories have a bad history of being tainted in the earlier days both in the states and overseas of bad writing and bad art, but its almost universally agreed upon that Gottfredson and ealy Scarpa are the best Mickey scribes around with nary a clunker in the bunch. So rather than all the duck talk I thought I'd ask:

What in your opinion makes for a GOOD Mouse story? What are the BEST of the BEST. And what do you think is the best Mouse story that you have ever read (that almost or does reach Barksian heights)? What do you think is bar-none the absolute WORST and is detrimental to crafting a Mouse story that leaves you both wowed and floored at the same time?
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Postby Egg » Mon May 01, 2006 11:22 am

WB wrote:What in your opinion makes for a GOOD Mouse story? What are the BEST of the BEST. And what do you think is the best Mouse story that you have ever read (that almost or does reach Barksian heights)?

'Riddle of the Red Hat', by... Carl Barks.' And I like some Dutch stories, and some by writer David Gerstein. I believe Gerstein was one of the editors who revived the old Gottfredson Mickey. Is that correct?

WB wrote:What do you think is bar-none the absolute WORST and is detrimental to crafting a Mouse story that leaves you both wowed and floored at the same time?

I dislike the stories where Mickey Mouse is everybody's friend, especially of the police. For example when Chief O'Hara comes to Mickey's house to get advice of great honest smart Mickey. Mickey as everybody's friend is ironically being hated by a lot of readers.
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Postby WB » Mon May 01, 2006 11:27 am

honestly, I think that when compared to everything else he's done in the sheer scope of things, Riddle of the Red Hat is one Bark's weaker stories, but in comparison to some of the other Mickey stories at the time by lesser artists and writers its far better than what was produced.

I dislike the stories where Mickey Mouse is everybody's friend, especially of the police. For example when Chief O'Hara comes to Mickey's house to get advice of great honest smart Mickey. Mickey as everybody's friend is ironically being hated by a lot of readers.

Agreed. Any story with Mickey as a giggling pollyanna or a bland know-it-all who can do no wrong annoys the holy heck out of me. Unfortunately there are a lot of early era Mickey stories on both sides of the ocean with that. -_-
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Postby Rockerduck » Wed May 03, 2006 6:30 pm

Uggg... that stupid obsession with Carl Barks... just because HE drew the Mickey-strip 'The riddle of the red hat', made it the best Mickey story? What a poor explanation. It really gets old. There are other creators than Barks, Egg, did you know that?
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Postby Egg » Wed May 03, 2006 6:44 pm

Rockerduck wrote:Uggg... that stupid obsession with Carl Barks... just because HE drew the Mickey-strip 'The riddle of the red hat', made it the best Mickey story? What a poor explanation. It really gets old. There are other creators than Barks, Egg, did you know that?

Rockerduck can't read. Just take a little look at what Egg really wrote.

10-05-2006, Egg wrote:'Riddle of the Red Hat', by... Carl Barks.' And I like some Dutch stories, and some by writer David Gerstein. I believe Gerstein was one of the editors who revived the old Gottfredson Mickey. Is that correct?

I obviously mention David Gerstein, Floyd Gottfredson, and some Dutch stories.
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Postby Rockerduck » Wed May 03, 2006 8:12 pm

But you still say the best is Barks' Mickey-story. And your only reason for that choice is because it IS Carl Barks.
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Postby Egg » Wed May 03, 2006 8:21 pm

Rockerduck wrote:But you still say the best is Barks' Mickey-story. And your only reason for that choice is because it IS Carl Barks.

Blah blah blah...
Do you want Egg's password? Then you can write my messages by yourself, without me interfering you reading my mind like a blind man.
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Postby Robb_K » Thu May 04, 2006 1:39 am

I love Carl Barks' works and even considered him a friend. His great comic book stories and artwork inspired me to learn about countries all over The World. And they inspired me to BOTH my careers. And yet, even though I almost worship his work, I can't say that Barks' "The Mystery Of the Red Hat" was one of the best Mickey Mouse stories,-either drawn or written. I think that most of the Mouse stories drawn by Gottfredson (especially those written by Bill Walsh) were fantastic. I also like several of those drawn by Bill Wright. I like many of those drawn by Scarpa, and several written by Fallberg, drawn by paul Murray (although I don't like Murrays art much). I would say "The House of Seven Haunts", "House of Mystery", "Mickey Mouse Meets The Phantom Blot" (or whatever title has been made up for it) are my favourites.
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Postby Rockerduck » Thu May 04, 2006 4:40 pm

I liked the Phantom Blot-story by Floyd Gottfredson and Merill DeMaris very much. Almost even better I think, was Romano Scarpa's "sequel" to it. I also enjoyed 'King of Medioka', which was published as a serialized story in the Dutch weekly in 2004. Overall, I enjoy Ferioli's work, although he has done a lot of pocket-stories I don't like. Mickey in the pockets-series is just plain awful.
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Postby Doctor Witchie Britchie » Thu May 04, 2006 7:45 pm

I don't think apples and oranges should be compared--in other words, I don't think we should talk about a Mouse story reaching "Barksian heights." Barks set the standards for the Ducks but Gottfredson set the standards for the Mice--it should really be "Gottfredsonian heights." Both Barks and Gottfredson were great in their respective fields--Barks as a comic-book writer, Gottfredson as a comic-strip writer. Pretty much any Gottfredson story from The Bat Bandit up to The Jewel Robbery (aka The Gleam) is a classic in my book; the ones that preceded Bat Bandit are a lot of fun but rather rough-hewn and episodic, while the ones following Jewel Robbery are also a bit too episodic and choppy for me to consider them full-fledged "stories."

I think that it's much harder to do good Mouse stories than it is to do good Duck stories, since all the classic Gottfredson Mickey yarns are so long. Mickey stories have to be injected with lots of personality, humor, action, and excitement to work, and most comic book Mickey stories don't have the space to work in all these elements as Gottfredson did. Henceforth, most Mickey stories have to emphasize plot and action (most of Paul Murry's ones) at the expense of humor and characterization. Or they emphasize humor (many of the more recent Egmont stories) and the expense of action and excitment.

This is why Scarpa, for my money, is the best Mouse artist after Gottfredson. Since Scarpa's stories were often nearly a hundred pages long, he was able to capture Gottfredson's magical blend of action, character humor, and plot perfectly. David Gerstein has to a large extent mastered the art of "condensing" Gottfredsonian elements into comic-book length stories, but his tales still aren't up to Scarpa's, I think.
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Postby Rockerduck » Thu May 04, 2006 10:12 pm

Now I come to think of it, I always liked the way Massimo DeVita drew his Mickey-stories. Does anybody here knows the 'Star Wars'-spoof he made, that was over a 100 pages long? In The Netherlands, it was published in 1992 in the second pocket book of the third pocket book series. Unfortunately, the code doesn't give a corresponding page in Inducks.
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Postby WB » Sat May 06, 2006 11:03 pm

Rockerduck wrote:Now I come to think of it, I always liked the way Massimo DeVita drew his Mickey-stories. Does anybody here knows the 'Star Wars'-spoof he made, that was over a 100 pages long? In The Netherlands, it was published in 1992 in the second pocket book of the third pocket book series. Unfortunately, the code doesn't give a corresponding page in Inducks.

that sounds VERY familiar...but I think the story i remember was something that was printed in the old Disney Adventures magazine and was drawn by Segio Aseriti (I probably just mangled his name -_-) but i do not remember...
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Postby ramapith » Mon May 08, 2006 5:54 pm

Doctor Witchie Britchie wrote:David Gerstein has to a large extent mastered the art of "condensing" Gottfredsonian elements into comic-book length stories, but his tales still aren't up to Scarpa's, I think.

As much as I like working with Mickey, I agree! (It'd help if I had more pages to kick around, but then, it's also whatcha do with whatcha GOT!)
When I was an editor at Egmont, I felt that Sarah Kinney and Lars Jensen—two writers in my unit at the time—were also particularly good with Mickey (though I'm biased... I've seen some from Lars that haven't been published yet). Don Markstein, Stefan Petrucha, and Andreas Pihl have also made some winning efforts at capturing the Gottfredson style.
Now that I've moved from Gemstone to Egmont, Sarah and Andreas have taken my place as editors, so hopefully the trends that I liked will continue.
For me, nothing is as "Mickey" as the late-1930s, early-1940s mix of impulsive enthusiasm and nagging self-doubt... optimistic and determined half because it comes naturally, but half as an involuntary defense against the uncomfortable feeling that you might be in over your head.
Heck, as a college kid I WAS Mickey.
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Postby ramapith » Mon May 08, 2006 6:01 pm

ramapith wrote:Now that I've moved from Gemstone to Egmont

Um, I meant "Now that I've moved from Egmont to Gemstone..."
I think I got up on the wrong side of my head this morning.
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Postby Doctor Witchie Britchie » Mon May 08, 2006 9:57 pm

Good to see you here, David. We're getting more "international" each day.
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