Mickey, Minnie, Glory Bee, Goofy

MEDIUM: Original Sunday Comic Strip, Drawing, and Proof
IMAGE SIZE: Pencil on 10.125" x 15" paper; Image size 9" x 13.5"; proof; 10.5" x 15.25" Comic Proof
COMIC: Mickey Mouse, 1970
SKU: CCV2612

ABOUT THE IMAGE: This is artist-writer Del Connell's polished original drawing in pencil for the Sunday comics page plus a copy of the black-and-white proof of the final version issued by King Features Syndicate to subscribing newspapers for publication on July 12, 1970. Goofy's storytelling puts Mickey, Minnie and Glory Bee to sleep, but in the end he finds the perfect audience. "July 12" is written in red pencil in the title panel. The Disney editor tightened the story with his red pencil, eliminating a panel and narrowing another.

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.