The mysterious “unknown” twins, Mr. Writer Unknown and Mr. Artist Unknown collaborated on the Donald Duck lead story, “Donald Saves Christmas,” illustrated for the cover by Rick Known Hoover. Tony Strobl debuts in Disney’s WDC&S with his Bucky Bug Christmas tale from years earlier. A definite highlight of this issue, however, is another Mickey Mouser by Dick Moores, though this time not a serial. Complete in this issue is “Mickey Mouse at the Rodeo,” which editor Bob Foster describes as “a cereal premium from 1947, reprinted for the first time in comic book form. Illustrated by Moores, it features Mickey, Goofy and Pete involved in dirty doings at a rodeo in Rattlesnake Nest, Arizona” (we here in Prescott know it well). It’s an entertaining adventure in the Dell comics style of the ’40’s. There are two things that might “bug” some purists, but the reprint is well worth picking up anyway. In panel one, page three Mickey first runs into Pete and exclaims, “B-Big Bad Pete!” The traditional Pete, who actually debuted before Mickey in the animated cartoons (believe it or not), was called Peg-Leg Pete, because, he had an old pirate-style, wooden “peg” leg. Somewhere in the 1940’s Disney decided it wasn’t appropriate to the sensibilities of the handicapped, so they renamed him Black Pete, a blackguard villain, “one whose conduct or character is disgraceful … the criminal element of a community.” Years later, however, the ever “politically correct” elements in Disney’s hierarchy decided “Black” Pete’s might also be misunderstood, so he became Bad Pete. Mickey’s dialog balloon was edited in this reprint changing Peg-Leg Pete’s name to Big Bad Pete, “big” added to make the three-word name change fit on three lines. But there was another problem. What about his Peg Leg? Some Disney Comics artist had to redraw Pete’s right foot and lower leg in issue #556, replacing the pegged leg with a normal one. (Floyd Gottfredson, the 50-year Mickey Mouse master who did the syndicated newspaper strip, was annoyed by the decision in the 1940’s to change the character to fit animation’s lead. Convinced he needed to come up with an explanation for the fans, he drew one daily strip in a Mickey Mouse continuity where Pete explains his new artificial limb. The subject was never mentioned again.) Here’s a hoot, though: the artist who was assigned the job of redrawing paste-ups for all of Pete’s appearances in issue #556 forgot twice to make the change! See page 5, panel 9 and page 8, panel 2. Serves Disney right for their arrogance in changing history. Do they think Robert Lewis Stevenson children’s books should be changed to conform to current thinking? Why doesn’t Disney, for example, edit out the black crows in Song of the South? I guess the bottom line is that this 1947 Mickey premium as originally drawn by Dick Moores still has never been truly seen in a comic book reprint.
$5.00