rkmilholland

A cartoonist.

Mousetrapped, Part I, Page 5

rkmilhollandJanuary 5, 20243Mousetrapped
Mousetrapped Part I, Page 5

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Oops. I forgot today’s blog post.

So, yeah, Pete the Pup (not to be confused with the dog from the Little Rascals) was a silent era cartoon character from Bray Productions, created by Walter Lantz – later of Woody Woodpecker fame. Most of Pete’s shorts involved Pete and a live action man, with Pete causing mischief.

As for why Pete’s in this comic? Mickey needs friends, and most of his Disney pals are off limits for the next two years at leasat. Plus, I don’t wanna feel beholden to the established continuity and relationahips. That’s one thing I always hated when comic book companies rebooted their lines. If DC reboots again, you know Batman’s relationships are going to be the same, his personality is going to be the same, his history is going to be the exact same. To me, this is a chance to try something different. I don’t want to change Mickey’s personality too much (aside from dropping the animal abuse with the parrot). But I don’t want to retell all of Mickey’s comic stories from Floyd Gottfredson. They’re amazing comic but they’ve already been done.

Also, a fun connection – after Disney lost control of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and he and Iwerks went off to create Mickey, Walter Lantz found himself working on Oswald’s cartoons.

Speaking of Pete and other Lantz projects, a bit back there was a kickstarter for a re-release of a lot of his lesser known cartoons, cleaning them up and all that.

A friend involved in the project said it’s chugging along well and described it as 2/3rds done. If you want to learn more, you can go here. I’m looking forward to it being available to those of us who didn’t get to back it.

Okay, that’s all for today. I might post some art updates over the weekend, but the next strip is Monday. I’m trying to figure out if I want to keep going five days a week or not. -R.

Mousetrapped, Part I, Page 4

rkmilhollandJanuary 4, 20242Mousetrapped
Mousetrapped Part I, Page 4

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One thing about early Mickey Mouse that not enough people appreciate (outside of die-hard Disney or old animation fans) is how much of his cartoons were the hard work of one man…

Ub Iwerks.

Iwerks and Walt Disney met as teenagers doing art in Kansas City and started a partnership early on. When Disney decided to get into animation, Iwerks followed him. Iwerks worked with Disney on almost all of his early projects – the Laugh-O-Grams, Alice Comedies, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. When Disney lost control of Oswald (that’s a hell of a story, but I don’t think I’m competent enough to tell it), Iwerks stuck by Disney’s side.

The animation you see in the original “Steamboat Willie” cartoon? That’s mostly Iwerks.

Iwerks continued to do the heavy living for the next two years until he and Disney had a falling out. Iwerks would go on to start his own studio and create Flip the Frog (two years til you’re public domain, Flip… I’m waiting). His studio never became as big as Disney or other companies. He’d do work for a few other studios before returning to Disney in 1940.

It’s really a shame that Iwerks doesn’t get remembered for his contributions to animation, not on the scale he deserves, anyway. Maybe I’m out of pocket here, but as much as the Walt Disney Company loves to tout how it all started with a mouse, they should honestly remember and promote Iwerks just as much.

Sorry for rambling.

Thunderbean Animation did a full bluray set of Flip the Frog’s cartoons, which you can buy here if you like.

See you tomorrow. -R.

Mousetrapped, Part I, Page 2

rkmilhollandJanuary 2, 20244Mousetrapped
Mousetrapped Part I, Page 2

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The bikini top she wore in Steamboat Willie is still weird to me. Why not give her a shirt?

I should add, I drew a while back and was still getting a feel for the characters. So, I apologize for a weirdly lanky pair of mice.

In the last day, I’ve had a few people ask what I’m planning for this comic. Honestly? I just want to do a fun adventure comic. I am not interested in a hardcore, gritty, dark version of the characters – although I stand by my belief there was a dark tone to most early cartoons. Will there be dark moments? Yes. But I don’t want to do what most people are doing and paint Mickey as a villain or have him go to “extreme” choices for the sake of, “Look, he’s public domain now, I can have Mickey Mouse say and do shocking things.”

Disney Comics were a huge part of my childhood reading. I still enjoy them greatly. So getting to work with, well, only a couple of the charaters is nice. And I want to just tell fun stories. Will there be some darker tones? At times. Some horror? Everything I do tends to at least dip into horror, but I’d want it to be stuff appropriate from the 1920s.

Plus, my kid watches me draw these and she really enjoys it, so I’m not going to draw anything that would upset her. But she’s also a Halloween kid who absolutely loves spooky stuff, so take that how you will. -R.

Mousetrapped, Part I, Page 1

rkmilhollandJanuary 1, 202430Mousetrapped
Mousetrapped Part 1, Page 1

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As of today, the Mickey Mouse cartoon, “Steamboat Willie” is public domain. While all the trademarks and more recent copyrights remain in tact, I decided to do a comic that follows what happened after the steamboat docked. I’ve loved Disney comics since I was a kid, but as most of them are made in Italy and later translated, I’ve long given up on the dream of writing or drawing them officially.

So here’s hoping Disney doesn’t sue me anyway. -R.