November 18, 2008

Mickey @ 80.

Mickey Mouse "Mickey Mouse turns 80 years old today, and there's not a gray hair on him." Claire Suddath offers a brief history and points to Time's 1937 cover story on Walt Disney.

The Kansas City Star has a timeline.

Online browsing tip. A gallery in the Guardian: "[J]oin us going around the world in 80 Mickeys. Your host: Disney scholar Neal Gabler who traces Mickey's evolution from from Chaplin-eque imp to gallant swashbuckler to anodyne Everymouse."

Online viewing tip. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bernd Graff's got Mickey's official debut, Steamboat Willie.

Update: Catherine Grant's rounded up many, many more resources.



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Posted by dwhudson at November 18, 2008 4:18 AM

Comments

If Mickey Mouse were in the public domain, like he should be by now, some artist somewhere would have given him an update with the appropriate gray hairs. How ironic that a company that benefited so much from the public domain refuses to replenish the public domain with it's artistic creations lobbying outrageous extensions on copyright law everytime Mickey comes up as a public resource. I say for Mickey's 80th birthday, how 'bout Disney Free Steamboat Willie!!!

Posted by: Adam Hartzell at November 18, 2008 3:42 PM

Will anyone do a retrospective on the "Uncensored Mouse" cultural insensitive Mickey, or just the modern transcultural icon? Where is Eternity Comics when you need them?

Posted by: noir at November 18, 2008 10:37 PM