Mickey Mouse (briefly Mickey Mouse and Friends) is a Disney comic book series that has a long-running history, first appearing in 1943 as part of the Four Color one-shot series. It received its own numbering system with issue #28 (December 1952), and after many iterations with various publishers, ended with #330 (June 2017) from IDW Publishing.
The book emphasizes stories with Mickey and his supporting cast: Goofy, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Pluto and Mickey's nephews Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse. Mickey's perpetual rival is the criminal Peg-Leg Pete (sometimes "Black Pete", "Sneaky Pete" or "Big Bad Pete"). Other adversaries have included Emil Eagle, Eli Squinch, Sylvester Shyster, the team of Dangerous Dan McBoo and Idjit the Midget, and the Phantom Blot. Two major artistic influences on the appearance of Mickey in comics are Floyd Gottfredson, who drew the Mickey Mouse comic strip from 1930 to 1975, and comic book artist Paul Murry, who drew Mickey stories from 1950 to 1984.
Early development
In the mid 1930s original Mickey comic book stories were being produced in Italy and the United Kingdom for local consumption. In the UK, Dean & Son Ltd published the first Mickey Mouse Annual for Christmas 1930, which was made up of one-page Mickey & Minnie gag cartoons by Wilfred Haughton.
Publishing Mickey comic book stories in the United States was pioneered by the third Mickey Mouse Magazine series (1935–1940). Initially published by Hal Horne, it had artwork by John Stanley and text pieces by Irving Brecher. By mid-1936, Horne turned over the magazine to Kay Kamen, who oversaw merchandising for Disney.
Kamen the following year recruited Western Publishing to handle production and publication. Western added reprinted Disney comic strips to the book's lineup beginning with the July 1937 issue; these included Gottfredson's Mickey daily strips re-formatted and colored for serialized magazine publication. In the words of historian Michael Barrier: "Reprinted newspaper comics were never more than a minor part of its lineup until the very last issue, dated September 1940, when they suddenly took up half the pages". But Barrier has also judged the strip reprints "stood out by virtue of their crisp professionalism". The successor title, Walt Disney's Comics and Stories (WDC&S), described by Barrier as a true comic book, began publication with the Oct. 1940 issue and had the Gottfredson serials as a prominent feature.
Starting in 1943, Mickey's adventures appeared in a series of Dell Comics' Four Color one-shots with the name "Mickey Mouse" prominently displayed on the cover. In 1953, these one-shots evolved into a regular series titled Mickey Mouse, starting with issue #28 and lasting through 1990.
Although other magazines called Mickey Mouse were available in many countries, they often were less like the American title and more resembled WDC&S, acting as the flagship Disney title for its circulation area and thus containing stories of all the major Disney characters as a function of its anthology format.
Classic era
The American Mickey Mouse title experienced changes in artists, publishers, length, cost, and printing quality over the years. A unique experiment deviating from the norm occurred in 1966: Inspired by the James Bond spy mania of the period for three issues (#107–109) the comic was titled Mickey Mouse, Super Secret Agent with stories of Mickey and Goofy becoming international spies and interacting with human characters in realistic settings. While Mickey and Goofy were drawn in the usual "cartoony" style by Paul Murry, the other characters and backgrounds were done by Dan Spiegle in a realistic manner. Comic book historian Michael Barrier dubbed it an aesthetic failure in a contemporary review. They dropped the concept after three issues.
By 1970, contents of the Mickey Mouse title mostly consisted of the reprinting of earlier stories, sometimes from Walt Disney's Comics and Stories or other Disney publications. The average paid circulation between September 1969 and September 1970, when the comic was published six times a year, and cost 15 cents, was 223,396, whereas in 1960 the figure stood at 568,803.
Modern era
Gladstone
Gladstone Publishing assumed publication of Mickey Mouse in 1986, still publishing reprints, but which were recolored, taking advantage of more modern inking and printing techniques. Stories from foreign Walt Disney comic books were also translated and included. Issues contained a description of the source of each story, and gave credit to the writers and artists by name — which had not previously been done. Letters to the editor often provided additional story background.