More on Bob Montana

Just a quick detour: Jaime Weinman has a quick review of the just-released collection of Bob Montana Archie newspaper strips. Check it out here:

Betty Cooper Insanity, Postwar Division

Four Color # 1084 - Speedy Gonzales

Here is Speedy Gonzales from Four Color #1084 (Mar-May 1960). Artwork (pencils and inks) by the great Pete Alvarado, except in the first story, "Do or Diet", where the inks are credited to Steve Steere (over Alvarado pencils). The script for that first story is attributed to Carl Fallberg, but no other credits are given. It's probably not a stretch to assume Fallberg scripted the entire issue, though.

"Do or Diet" follows the familiar cat-and-mouse setup of the animated cartoons, pitting Sylvester vs. Speedy. But the rest of the book abandons the formula for more standard Funny Animal fare. I especially like the last two stories, where Speedy has moved to a mouse-sized Mexican village, complete with its own mayor and police commandante. It's too bad there weren't any additional issues!

Floyd Gottfredson!

The best news I've heard come out of San Diego this year are plans for Fantagraphics to reprint the Mickey Mouse comic strip by Floyd Gottfredson (including the early, politically incorrect strips!) I can't think of a better outfit to pull this off, and it will add Mickey Mouse to their already impressive reprint roster that includes Peanuts, Pogo, Popeye, Dennis the Menace and Krazy Kat.

The story can be read here: Fantagraphics to Publish Mickey Mouse Comics

The scans below are some of the wonderful watercolor paintings Gottfredson created between 1978 and 1983 for Malcolm Willits, a lifelong fan of both Gottfredson and Carl Barks, and the first person to interview each artist for publication. These paintings were supposed to be used in a licensing deal Willits had with Disney, but I don't know if any commemorative plates or buttons were ever made from this work.

I scanned everything from a 1993 auction catalog from the Howard Lowery Gallery; it is an excellent publication and well worth searching out just for the full color images of each painting, and the article written by Willits regarding the history of the work. It also reprints that first interview with Gottfredson from Vanguard, published in 1968.