Via Jaime Weinman, I caught the news announced at Comic-Con (I tend to avoid any and all news associated with the place involuntarily) that Fantagraphics is planning to print the entire run of Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse daily continuities. That’s a beautiful thought, but they may be ultimately promising more than they can deliver. (We’re still waiting on those Pogo books.)
There’s a lot of dilemmas in reprinting a library set devoted to Gottfredson, which is why there hasn’t been a steady supply of them reprinted in America since Bruce Hamilton had the Disney license in the 1980s (before he went insane). It wasn’t for a lack of trying, as Gary Groth may be implying with his backhanded dig at Gemstone. Firstly, as addressed by Groth, a complete collection would include some genuinely racist material. There’s no dodging or spinning the issue. Most of the black characters are presented as dumber and uglier than dogshit in Gottfredson’s world, and, for a change, I completely sympathize with Disney’s nervousness about printing the more notorious stories.
Secondly, the sources for the strips will need to be seriously cleaned up for modern printing. Bad printing has ruined many a great Disney story in the past. I sincerely hope they take the necessary time to do justice to Gottfredson’s work.
Thirdly, and yes, objectively, most of the continuities after 1950 are very forgettable, which may be why Groth misremembered that 1955 was the last time a continuing storyline was used in the dailies. That doesn’t mean they will sell bad. On the contrary, they could sell wonderful, as save one 1952 continuity, none of the 1950s stories have been reprinted in the United States. The mileage on these stories will vary depending on the individual’s tolerance of hackneyed writing and drawing.
Fourth, final, and foremost, we’re talking about the Disney Corporation here. There will be guaranteed bottlenecks in the production. Some high-up won’t like how Mickey addresses Minnie in one story, or doesn’t like the brutality of Pete in another, or doesn’t like the cleavage showing on a femme fatale, and ask for changes, even though the number of minors actually buying the books will be in the single digits. Stuff won’t move, more delays will occur, and we might actually see Pogo Volume 1 before Mickey Volume 1.
It would really be wonderful to have all of these things in a nice bound volume (ala Barks, Kurtzman, Martin, etc.), but I wouldn’t hold your breath on anything positive having to do with the Wonderful World of Disney getting accomplished. I would like more than anything to be proven wrong, as Floyd Gottfredson was one of the most gifted of all 20th century storytellers, and a complete collection of his work is badly needed.
