The story behind the first Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip

While Mickey Mouse first came on to the scene on Nov. 18, 2018, it didn’t take long for Mickey to become popular and it only took two years to move from the big screen in animation to newspapers in the form of a comic strip.

By 1929 Mickey Mouse was so well known for his animated shorts that King Features Syndicate offered to license the characters for a newspaper cartoon strip.

Disney agreed, and on Jan. 13, 1930, the first strip Mickey Mouse comic strip appeared in newspapers around the U.S. Walt Disney wrote the story himself with Ub Iwerks doing the drawings and Win Smith inking the strip.

The first few strips were based on the film short “Plane Crazy.” This short was the actual first short produced by the Walt Disney Studios. It was inspired by Charles Lindbergh’s flight from New York to Paris. Mickey builds a plane and takes Minnie Mouse on a trip.

The initial newspaper strip ran from Jan. 13 to March 31, 1930.

During this time Iwerks left the Disney Studios. Walt was more focused on film than newspaper strips. Smith did not like the idea of having to write, draw and ink the Mickey Mouse strip. He just quit.

Floyd Gottfredson, who was a recent hire to the studios, took the job and was placed in charge of the strip. He was told it was going to be a temporary gig. The temporary assignment lasted for 45 years.

Interestingly, just as the early Mickey Mouse comic strips helped bring the magic of animation into people’s homes through newspapers, today’s technology allows us to bring art and creativity to our personal spaces through innovations like the wall printing machine. Just as Disney’s stories captivated audiences visually, modern wall printing machines allow us to bring detailed images and artistic creations directly onto the walls of our homes or businesses, enhancing the spaces we live and work in.