Fantagraphics' Mickey Mouse up for Pre-Order Now!

Announced by Gary Groth from Fantagraphics Books at last year's SDCC (San Diego Comic-Con), the North American comic publisher twittered Tuesday that the first volume of ' one of the most eagerly awaited projects in comics', their new, exclusive series of Floyd Gottfredson reprints is finally up for pre-order! Make sure to order your copy now!

Fantagraphics Books.

Known for their exclusive selection of multi-nominated (and awarded) compilations of classic comics such as Hal Foster's 'Prince Valiant' and Charles Schultz' 'Peanuts', Fantagraphics has added a vast library of Gottfredson's classic Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strips to their portfolio.

Fantagraphics was founded in 1976 by Gary Groth (left)and Michael Catron, also known for their TCJ magazine ('The Comics Journal') with Kim Thompson (right), who had lived in the Netherlands for several years and translated the work of Dutch artist Joost Swarte. He also edited 'Amazing Heroes' magazine, which Fantagraphics published from 1981 to 1992 .

From 1985 to 1987 'Amazing Heroes' presented The Jack Kirby awards for achievement in comic books. Voted on by comic book professionals and coordinated by Fantagraphics, Alan Moore received awards for'Swamp Thing' and 'Watchmen' while Frank Miller was awarded for his legendary limited series 'Batman: The Dark knight Returns.' (chosen by Time magazine as one of the 10 best best English language graphic novels ever written). In 1987 the Kirby Awards, as managed by Dave Olbrich, continued as the 'Will Eisner Comic Industry Award' (Eisner Award), while Fantagraphics re-imagined their award, since known as the Harvey Award (after cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman).

Floyd Gottfredson.

Starting out as an animator for the Disney studio at the end of 1929, Gottfredson soon continued Mickey's first gags in the newspaper comic strips, set up by Ub Iwerks,promoting their earliest animated Mickey shorts.

After Iwerks left the studio, initially Win Smith landed the job, but Gottfredson soon took over as a 'temporary assignment': Gottfredson would write and draw the comic strips for 45 years, turning him from a mere ghost into the ultimate Mickey comic artist and in the end, a legend of his own.

Gottfredson was first identified as Mickey's 'auctor itellectualis'  by Malcolm Willits, who also revealed Carl Barks as Disney's main artist on Dell comic's Donald Duck. Gottfredson retired in 1975 and died at the age of 81 in 1986.

Fantagraphics' Mickey Mouse collection.

Fantagraphics stated their Gottfredson library will be remastered straight from Disney proof sheets and prized private collections, and will also contain exclusive supplementary features, edited by David Gerstein and Gary Groth.
Check out a first look through their promotional PDF (preliminary version, cover was changed).

Originally based on Mickey's animated shorts, Gottfredson turned the comic stories into lenghty newspaper strips. The first volume will contain Gottfredson's debut story, the classic 'Mickey Mouse in Death Valley' (149 pages) which he created with Jack King and Hardie Gramatky (with Win Smith).
The second volume (cover left) is to be released in October and will contain the 155 page 'Mickey Mouse sails for Treasure Island' (1932) . A Collector's box set containing the first two volumes will be released the same month.


The first volume will be released July 5, so we'll have to wait it out for a little bit. Meanwhile, check out some classic shorts beneath. Now that's animation!