Floyd Gottfredson - Mickey Mouse Daily - Death Valley - 23.06.1930

Today exactly 90 years ago (May 5th 1930) the very first Mickey Mouse daily strip, by Floyd Gottfredson, appeared in the US newspapers. Gottfredson would continue to do the strip for the next 45 1/2 years and whilst doing so, producing some of the best adventure storylines/artwork ever to grace the pages of the daily (and sunday) papers. To celebrate this anniversary, I wanted to share a beautiful piece of art from Gottfredson’s beginnings...

An early daily from the “Death Valley” storyline (which ran from April 1st until September 20th 1930), it was first published June 23rd 1930 as Floyd Gottfredson’s 31st ever Mickey Mouse daily (and his very first as the steady Mickey Mouse artist).

A little known fact is that when Gottfredson started on the Mickey strip (he did so to replace Win Smith who had just quit), he initially only wanted to do it temporarily, even insisting on this to Walt Disney. So for 5 weeks (May 5th until June 8th) he penciled AND inked (only May 5th until May 31st) the strip (which was written by Walt Disney himself until May 17th, after which Gottfredson also assumed the responsibility of writing). It seems that Walt found a replacement in the person of Jack King, who penciled the strip from June 9th until June 21st 1930. One can only presume that Walt was not happy with the result or that Gottfredson wanted back in, as from June 23rd he resumed pencilling the strip and would do so for the next 45 1/2 years. The inking in this period was done by Hardie Gramatky (June 9th until June 21st 1930 & August 18th until September 20th 1930) and Roy Nelson (June 2nd until June 7th & June 23rd until August 16th). (Art credits curtesy of the wonderful INDUCKS homepage, a real treasure trove of information!)

I’m not aware of another surviving daily from the Death Valley storyline and also not of an earlier daily by Floyd Gottfredson. The history behind its survival is a great one as well...in late 1930 it was given by Walt himself to the son of his dentist, who had expressed a profound interest in the Mouse. The son and later his family guarded the art for close to 90 years, before making me it’s new caretaker...Thanks a lot Karl!!! I will try to follow in your footsteps and treasure this masterpiece as it rightfully deserves...
Another major Thank-You goes to an unnamed friend, without whom this would not have been possible...you know who you are... :-))


I’m always looking for more Gottfredson / Mickey Mouse daily art from the 1930’s through the 1950’s, so if you have any you’d like to sell (or just to chat about - it’s always great to talk art), please don’t hesitate to contact me…