Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse Vol.3

If there is only one book you're gonna get this year, then make sure it's this one. Coming next week from Fantagraphics is the third volume in their collection of Floyd Gottfredson's classic Mickey Mouse comic newspaper strips. This new volume collects nine classic Mickey stories by Gottfredson, originally published between January 10, 1934 and January 4, 1936 with scripts by Ted Osborne (except for 'The Captive Catsaways, which was written by Merril de Maris) and inks by Ted Thwaites.

It also includes some of Gottfredson's full color paintings, a couple of behind-the-scenes looks and other extra features, including a Mickey short by Fredrico Pedrocchi from December 1937. Here's the full list of classics:

• The Captive Castaways (January 10, - April 17, 1934)
• Pluto's Rival (April 18 - April 28 1934)
• The Bat Bandit of Inferno Gulch (April 30 - July 28, 1934)
• Bobo the Elephant (July 30 - October 13, 1934)
• The Sacred Jewel (October 15 - December 29, 1934)
• Pluto the Racer (December 31, 1934 - March 2, 1935)
• Editor-in-Grief (March 4 - June 1, 1935)
• Race for Riches (June 3 - September 28, 1935)
• The Pirate submarine (September 30, 1935 - January 4, 1936)

Above: a beautifully rendered scene from 'The Captive Castaways' (click to enlarge). By the way, the release date for Volume 4 appears to have been set for October 24, so if you can hold your breath that long, you should definately get the collected set, which also appears by then, containing both volume three and four in a nice slipcase. Check out the pics below, but remember, these editions are not yet part of Fantagraphics official promotion for the series, so there's no link I can share with you at this time to provide more info. 

Logically, the next volume continues from 1936 on and will include classics such as 'The Seven Ghosts' (published between August 10 and November 28, 1936) and great stories such as 'Mickey Mouse joins the foreign Legion' and 'Island in the Sky' (published between November 30, 1936 and April 3, 1937) for which Gottfredson created this full color painting in 1979 (click to enlarge):