Mighty Mouse provides our "Mirth Separation" today, with a pair of "Drawbridge (cover) Drawings"!
MIGHTY MOUSE MARCH OF COMICS # 205 (1960)...
...And ADVENTURES OF MIGHTY MOUSE # 155 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: July-September, 1962) - the last Dell issue before the beginning of Gold Key!
During the Dell Comics period, there were more heroic-action or "public-service-type" covers (like those above), as opposed to Mighty Mouse's days at St. John Comics - when he had a clear sense of determination, as well as outright fun, in sticking it to the cats!
But, for now, while the cats are away, the mouse will hold open drawbridges...
...from different directions, mind you!
In rush hour - note the number of cars...
...And at off-peak hours... again note the number of cars...
...And continue "saving the day" - because that's what Mighty Mouse does! For St. John AND for Dell! ...And a few other publishers after that!
...But, it never hurts to have a little fun with the cats, does it?
5 comments:
Looking at all these covers in a row, this mouse's shifting size is just baffling. He goes from giant-sized compared to those cars, to basically human-sized with the trains, to real-mouse-sized when playing rodeo with the cat. Was sizeshifting one of Mighty Mouse's powers, Mary Jane & Sniffles-style, or what?
There are several answers to your question, Achille. We’ll take them in reverse order of probability, beginning with the least likely, but most outrageous…
The MARCH OF COMICS cover is not really Mighty Mouse at all, but the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon version of him! That’s why he has a generally “rounded look” to him that all the other covers don’t have. LIKE THIS! Being “big-balloon-sized” would also account for the his proportions on the MOC cover.
He may *actually have* an ability to change size, like the DC Comics character The Atom. Woody Woodpecker displayed such an ability (albeit involuntary, or stress-related) in the cartoons “Wet Blanket Policy” and my personal favorite “Drooler’s Delight”! And don’t many toons “get small” when they are extremely embarrassed? …Not that Mighty Mouse has anything to be embarrassed about!
Different artists? The MARCH OF COMICS cover may be by Fred Fredericks, who was the “loosest of the loose” and the Dell cover may be by Dan Gormley, who had a “loose style” as well. Both worked out of Western Publishing’s New York office, and seemed likely candidates for these respective covers. Gormley did do the interior Mighty Mouse stories for the Dell issue. …And, in this case, “loose styles” DON’T sink ships… they clear paths for them!
But the answer I support most comes from within the body of the MIGHTY MOUSE comics themselves.
In the comics continuity of St. John’s various MIGHTY MOUSE comics, there was an entire town/city in mouse-sized proportions, as well a separate one in cat-sized proportions. The latter being of a more “normal-size” proportion that would exist in other “funny-animal” continuities, kind of reflective of “funny-comics reality”.
The Mouse community was first called “Terrytown”, presumably named for Mighty Mouse’s creator Paul Terry (…and maybe also a play on “Tarrytown, NY”, a village in the vicinity of Terrytoons’ New Rochelle, NY studios), and later called “Mouseville”. The Cat community was either called “Cat-Town”, or was a separate section of “Terrytown” - from which the cats would regularly go on mouse-raids.
The “Mouseville” concept carried over into the Dell and Gold Key comics. So, perhaps being in, or out of, “Mouseville” at the time we see him, accounts for Mighty Mouse’s seeming change in size.
Oh, and speaking of Mighty Mouse being out of, “Mouseville”, I must give my highest recommendation to the 5-issue 2017 MIGHTY MOUSE series published by Dynamite Entertainment! It’s written by Sholly Fisch, of SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP fame, so you KNOW it’s great! And, in keeping with the other “train covers” seen in the post, here’s my GCD index entry for issue # 4!
And, finally, let me say a few words about the MIGHTY MOUSE comics from St. John. They were concurrent with much of the Dell Four Color and regular Dell Line – and showed that same sort of quality. They had their own continuity independent of the theatrical cartoons, and were both adventurous and sometimes wildly funny! …And they were produced by actual Terrytoons animators, Connie Rasinski, Art Bartsch, and Jim Tyer.
Being a more recent-years discovery of mine, the St. John comics are primarily responsible for the fair number of Mighty Mouse posts seen here of late. …Beware, though… St. John reprinted their material even more frequently than Gold Key – and in a much shorter span of time. But they ARE so worth it.
…Unrelated PS: The book research project rolls on and on… Great fun, though, and I’ve learned a number of new things.
Sorry, but that Mighty Mouse balloon link doesn't seem to work. Serves me right for trusting a link that's not my own, or from GCD!
Both bridges are way over length. I measured both, and I measured the spans. The one on the MOC cover is nearly half again the length of the span it supposedly bridges, and the one on the Dell cover is over twice as long as the span. Maybe Mighty Mouse is stretching the bridges while he is holding them up?
The MOC cover looks like toys to me, or maybe mouse-sized vehicles from Mouseville? That would account for Mighty Mouse's apparent increase in size.
It's a scenario to which anyone from Seattle can relate. The Ballard Bridge links the district of Ballard with the Interbay district between Queen Anne Hill and Magnolia Hill. It's a drawbridge that goes up and down all day or night whenever a vessel sails beneath. This process can hold up traffic for long stretches of time. A common commuter's complaint is: "Oh, no! The bridge is up!" It might brighten some commuter's day if it were actually Mighty Mouse holding up the bridge.
Scarecrow:
You write: “Both bridges are way over length. I measured both, and I measured the spans. The one on the MOC cover is nearly half again the length of the span it supposedly bridges, and the one on the Dell cover is over twice as long as the span. Maybe Mighty Mouse is stretching the bridges while he is holding them up?”
Or, maybe Mighty Mouse is SO STRONG that he’s inadvertently pulled one side of the land closer to the other! Either way, though, it looks like, if he were to simply DROP the bridge as-drawn, he would certainly crush some cars in doing so!
My vote is “mouse-sized vehicles from Mouseville”! Otherwise I wouldn’t have gone through that lengthy explanation above! :-)
I’d say that, at least in costal areas, the “drawbridge thing” is something of a universal inconvenience. We have one here on the Belt Parkway on the highly-traveled stretch where Brooklyn meets Queens. 30 years ago (!) when I lived in Brooklyn, I was stopped by it many times! From Brooklyn to Seattle is a LONG way to go to have a common experience!
Yes, Mighty Mouse holding up the bridge would brighten MY day, now that I’m no longer in a great hurry to get anywhere! Especially if he handed-out autographs afterward! But, back then, my reaction would be not unlike the many angry, startled, or dumbfounded “real world” citizens of Sholly Fisch’s excellent MIGHTY MOUSE series! …Which I’m sure you’ve all read between my last comment and this one! Right?
…If not, what are you all waiting for?! Is the bridge up, or sumpthin’?!
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