Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays Volume 2: Robin Hood Rides Again

Floyd Gottfredson’s color Sunday comic strips from January 1936 through December 1938 are collected in Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays Volume 2: Robin Hood Rides Again. This will be the final volume of his Sunday work, since after this period, he gave up the job to focus on the daily strip.

As in the first volume, there are exceptional extras putting this work in context. The introductions are helpful in understanding the connections to the film cartoon Mickey, which were numerous.

Stories here include “Mickey’s Rival” (about Mortimer Mouse competing for Minnie’s hand), the Robin Hood adventure of the title, “Sheriff of Nugget Gulch” (a mistaken-identity Western involving mining for gold), some winter snow follies with the nephews, “Service With a Smile” (in which Mickey runs a gas station with Goofy, who drives him crazy), an adaptation of the “Brave Little Tailor” cartoon, and a variety of single-shot comedy gags, many of which co-star Goofy.

Also included are later (dating between 1956 and 1976) fill-in strips Gottfredson did during Mickey’s “suburban dad” period (with some odd character designs) and other non-Mickey Disney work of his, adapting some of the movies. I’m a lot less interested in the color Mickey Mouse strips than the black-and-white ones, because they’re more comedic and feel aimed at a much younger audience. The daily strips have more surprises and heart in their adventure stories, while the Sundays resemble the Mickey-as-a-brand mouse, instead of an actual character. (The publisher provided a review copy.)