Mickey, Minnie, Goofy

MEDIUM: Original Sunday Comic Strip, Drawing, and Proof
IMAGE SIZE: Pencil on 10.75" x 15" paper; Drawing image size: 9" x 13.5"; Printed proof sheet, 11" x 16"
COMIC: Mickey Mouse, 1978
SKU: CCV2610

ABOUT THE IMAGE: This is artist-writer Del Connell's polished original drawing in pencil for the Mickey Mouse Sunday comics page published in newspapers on May 7, 1978 along with a black-and-white proof sheet that was issued to newspapers carrying the feature. It is Goofy's "first night in thuh theater" and Mickey and Minnie are there for "opening night."

Editor's "OK" in red ink and publication date "May 7, 1978" in red pencil are written in and above the title panel. The editor also altered Mr. Connell's spelling of "theatre."

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Artist/writer Del Connell began working in the model department at The Walt Disney Studios in 1939. A studio writer and storyman from 1941 to 1954, he joined Western Publishing as a comic book writer and eventually became an editor-in-chief. From 1968 through the late 1980s he wrote the Mickey Mouse newspaper comics daily strip and Sunday page. In writing the strip, he drew a preliminary version of the feature for that day in pencil; it was then approved (and/or changed) by editors in the Disney Publications Department and turned over to Manuel Gonzales, who drew the inked, published version. Just prior to Connell's passing at age 93 in 2011 he was honored at the San Diego Comic-Con with the Bill Finger Excellence in Comic Book Writing Award.