Floyd Gottfredson - Mickey Mouse - Billy the Mouse - 21.-24.03.1945

Almost all Gottfredson Mickey Mouse Daily artwork from the 1940’s is thought to be lost (with the exception of a handful surviving dailies from 1942/43 adventure stories and about 20+ gag dailies), so it was a big surprise when these pages surfaced about 10 years ago. Apparently the large bulk of the original artwork (and not stats for that matter) for “Billy the Mouse” (YM 067) was cut up, reformatted and published in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #63-66 from 1945-46. Apparently a Disney employee (John Basmadjian - whose collection is legendary) saved a bunch of these pages (personally I know of at least 7 surviving pages from WDC&S #63-64), and his estate later sold them.

This is one of the better surviving pages (at least imho) with beautiful shots of Mickey & Yoyo (the Indian) and was published as page 46 in Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories 63 in December 1945. The artwork encompasses the last panel of the March 21st, the full March 22nd/23rd and 3/4 of the March 24th dailies (all 1945, of course)…


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…