'Twas the week before Christmas, and arrived at my house...
(With great glee,)
A package of comics, one featured a mouse...
(Really, three.)
[ I don't have enough time and imagination right now to parody any in-between verses, sorry! ]
And what to my wondering eyes do appear?
A Spaceman and two-plus-one Mouseketeer... uh, "teers'.
We have our great friend Elaine to thank for this post... because she was kind enough to send me these two comics!
One, THE THREE MOUSEKETEERS # 6 (DC Comics, Cover Date: January/February, 1957), was a gaping hole in my collection!
The other, SPACEMAN DISCOVERS CHRISTMAS, was a very pleasant and enjoyable surprise!
And, I couldn't think of a better way to get back into reviewing, or otherwise spotlighting, older comics - as discussed in the Comments Section of THIS POST - than to begin with these!
Since Christmas is coming rather rapidly, we will discuss these two wonderful comics in separate posts... kinda like Christmas and Boxing Day... or Black Friday and Cyber Monday... take your pick.
The Three Mouseketeers would seem to be the brainchild (...or brain-children, or brain-mouse-lings) of comic book genius Sheldon Mayer - the creator behind everybody's favorite "(baby)talking babies", Sugar and Spike.
Is that Spike? And, if so, are the Mouseketeers "taking candy (actually ice cream) from a baby"?
Let's dolly in a little closer and meet them, shall we?
In reverse order from this illustration, The Three Mouseketeers are "Fatsy", "Patsy", and "Minus"... as if you couldn't figure out who-is-who, just by looking at them!
Together, they've formed a club, called (as if you couldn't guess, even at this early time in their introduction), "The Three Mouseketeers" - with Fatsy as its self-appointed leader, and complete with a tin can as their "Secret Club House"!
In appearance and characterization, Fatsy and Patsy would appear to be mouse-ified versions of Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton (made forever famous by comic actors Jackie Gleason and Art Carney in "The Honeymooners"!)
Not that turning Gleason and Carney into mice, was exactly unique to The Three Mouseketeers...
Perhaps it was also no coincidence that DC also published a HONEYMOONERS comic book at the time!
Patsy would also have a "future antecedent" (Yes, I know that's a complete contradiction... but we ARE talking about PATSY so, in its - and HIS - uniquely odd way, it just might be applicable!) in PINKY, of the famous would-be world-dominating mouse duo PINKY AND THE BRAIN!
As for Minus... He's just SCRAPPY-DOO, long before there WAS a Scrappy-Doo!
Further, methinks The Three Mouseketeers was created in a time when Disney lawyers were a less aggressive species, considering that Fatsy, Patsy, and Minus were allowed to coexist with this...
Yes, we all know that the title was intended as a parody of "The Three MUSKETEERS" but, then again, so was this well-known Tom and Jerry spin-off...
...Which, three issues later, became THIS...
...And would remain so for the life of the feature!
Yet, oddly, and perhaps blissfully below notice, The Three Mouseketeers even returned in 1970 for a reprint-run of seven issues and one special - following up on their original 26 issue run!
"Big-Feets Holiday", the Christmas story we will highlight from THE THREE MOUSEKETEERS # 6, shows to best example why The Three Mouseketeers are different from Jerry and Tuffy, Pixie and Dixie, and Herman and all his look-alike cousin mice.
Those characters all live in "The Human World", and they know it. They know nearly everything about it, and how to best negotiate it - especially when there are no cats around.
Conversely, The Three Mouseketeers live in a world of their own (and other animals) and while they are aware of "The World of The Big-Feets", it remains a curiosity to them - and not their natural habitat. ...Kinda like, if Sugar and Spike were MICE instead of babies!
Finally, before we (at last) get into our Christmas story, I'd like to thank Achille Talon and Scarecrow33 for recommending this series to me in a previous comment thread.
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THE THREE MOUSEKETEERS # 6 was a transitional issue in that, over the course of its pages, it transitions from story and art by original creator Sheldon Mayer to being written by Sy Reit (who's been credited with creating Casper the Friendly Ghost) and drawn by Rube Grossman.
The changeover actually occurs with the issue's second story, according to Grand Comics Database. Reit and Grossman would pretty much carry the series for the rest of its run!
"Big-Feets Holiday" (6 pages) is by Reit and Grossman... Here it is for your Christmas (and all around everyday) enjoyment.
Patsy finds a candy cane. The other mice mentioned above would certainly know what it is... but not these guys!
Fatsy pulls rank, as he often does! "Get ready to catch him if he keels over, Patsy!"
Gotta love how SMALL these mice are, relative to a snowflake! (...Let alone when baseless accusations of "Treason", were funny, rather then regular and tragic! Sorry, folks! Couldn't help it!)
"A TREE inside a HOUSE?" ...And why don't people ever replace the moldings with mouse-holes in them? Don't they even notice a DRAFT at their (big) feets?
"Hey! I know what I'll do -- I'll MAKE BELIEVE I'm MINUS!" ("Narf!" optional!)
But, the "Big-Feets" come through, with the Spirit of Christmas!
Hmmm... Speaking as a member-in-good-standing of "The Society of Big-Feets", I'm not so sure I'd be quite this charitable if I came downstairs in the middle of the night (even Christmas Eve/Morning) and found mice in my house!
...Then again, that may be why nobody ever wrote a Christmas story about me!
Not that turning Gleason and Carney into mice, was exactly unique to The Three Mouseketeers...
Further, methinks The Three Mouseketeers was created in a time when Disney lawyers were a less aggressive species, considering that Fatsy, Patsy, and Minus were allowed to coexist with this...
Yes, we all know that the title was intended as a parody of "The Three MUSKETEERS" but, then again, so was this well-known Tom and Jerry spin-off...
...Which, three issues later, became THIS...
...And would remain so for the life of the feature!
Yet, oddly, and perhaps blissfully below notice, The Three Mouseketeers even returned in 1970 for a reprint-run of seven issues and one special - following up on their original 26 issue run!
"Never-Say-Die-Kinda-Guys", aren't they?
"Big-Feets Holiday", the Christmas story we will highlight from THE THREE MOUSEKETEERS # 6, shows to best example why The Three Mouseketeers are different from Jerry and Tuffy, Pixie and Dixie, and Herman and all his look-alike cousin mice.
Those characters all live in "The Human World", and they know it. They know nearly everything about it, and how to best negotiate it - especially when there are no cats around.
Conversely, The Three Mouseketeers live in a world of their own (and other animals) and while they are aware of "The World of The Big-Feets", it remains a curiosity to them - and not their natural habitat. ...Kinda like, if Sugar and Spike were MICE instead of babies!
(Click on all illustrations to enlarge!)
Finally, before we (at last) get into our Christmas story, I'd like to thank Achille Talon and Scarecrow33 for recommending this series to me in a previous comment thread.
------------------------------------
THE THREE MOUSEKETEERS # 6 was a transitional issue in that, over the course of its pages, it transitions from story and art by original creator Sheldon Mayer to being written by Sy Reit (who's been credited with creating Casper the Friendly Ghost) and drawn by Rube Grossman.
The changeover actually occurs with the issue's second story, according to Grand Comics Database. Reit and Grossman would pretty much carry the series for the rest of its run!
"Big-Feets Holiday" (6 pages) is by Reit and Grossman... Here it is for your Christmas (and all around everyday) enjoyment.
Patsy finds a candy cane. The other mice mentioned above would certainly know what it is... but not these guys!
Fatsy pulls rank, as he often does! "Get ready to catch him if he keels over, Patsy!"
Gotta love how SMALL these mice are, relative to a snowflake! (...Let alone when baseless accusations of "Treason", were funny, rather then regular and tragic! Sorry, folks! Couldn't help it!)
"A TREE inside a HOUSE?" ...And why don't people ever replace the moldings with mouse-holes in them? Don't they even notice a DRAFT at their (big) feets?
"Hey! I know what I'll do -- I'll MAKE BELIEVE I'm MINUS!" ("Narf!" optional!)
But, the "Big-Feets" come through, with the Spirit of Christmas!
Hmmm... Speaking as a member-in-good-standing of "The Society of Big-Feets", I'm not so sure I'd be quite this charitable if I came downstairs in the middle of the night (even Christmas Eve/Morning) and found mice in my house!
...Then again, that may be why nobody ever wrote a Christmas story about me!
So, my wish to you,
Be you naughty or nice,
Enjoy the holiday of your choice,
With or without MICE!
From Joe, Esther... and Averi!
8 comments:
I appreciate your explanation of how the Mouseketeers are different from all those other comics mice: they are not at home in the human world and find human ways mysterious. That is what makes them good candidates for this particular comics story plotline, where some non-human is introduced to What Christmas Is All About. We'll get another, more extensive, example with Spaceman! And I'll mention a couple other examples of this plotline in the comments on your Spaceman blogpost. The space devoted in this story to the "true meaning of Christmas" is very brief, but I'm good with "everyone is unexpectedly kind to each other." It beats "getting lots of stuff"! As my mathematician brother once said in his youth during the commercial break of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (the original animated TV special), "You know, Christmas proves that life is a non-zero-sum game. If everybody's a little kinder, then everybody's a little happier." (-:
Elaine:
I wish we, as a civilization, could find a way to put your brother’s theory to the test!
…Well, at least this humble Blog continues to do its part!
Thank you again, for such great source material… and such great reading!
The comparison with Pinky and the Brain is all the more amusing to me — in a slightly skewed way — for the fact that in the French dub, Pinky is in fact called… Minus!
That’s WONDERFUL, Achille!
Dare I suggest that The Brain might be called “PLUS”? …Giving us “Plus and Minus”! How perfect would THAT be?!
Nah — because in French, "minus" doesn't mean the "minus" sign in maths, it either means "drawback" or, when applied to someone, something like "Shorty" or "Midget".
The Brain's name was Cortex, which I love.
Oh, that’s great too!
Cute story. Thanks for sharing these endearing, forgotten characters with us. As a side note, what story is that Scrappy-Doo panel from?
Such characters are never “forgotten” around here, Sergio!
In fact, that’s one of the primary reasons we DO these things!
The Scrappy-Doo image is from SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP # 50, perhaps the greatest single comic book of 2019 to someone of my sensibilities!
If you’ve read my other reviews of this wonderful (and, unfortunately, now-canceled) title, writer Sholly Fisch outdoes even the best of his prior efforts in a magnificent tale that celebrates 50 Years of Scooby-Doo and 80 Years of Batman (…and all the different ways they’ve been portrayed)!
Get it! …Read it! …You’ll LOVE it!
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