Mickey, Pluto

MEDIUM: Original Sunday Comic Strip, Drawing, and Proof
IMAGE SIZE: red and black pencil on 10.5" x 15" paper; Drawing image size: 9" x 13.5"; Printed proof sheet 10.5" x 15.25" 
COMIC: Mickey Mouse, 1974
SKU: CCV2611

ABOUT THE IMAGE: This is Disney artist-writer Del Connell's polished original drawing in pencil for the Mickey Mouse Sunday page published in newspapers on January 20, 1974 plus the matching black-and-white proof sheet that was issued to newspapers carrying the feature. On a blustery day "when birds are blown backwards" Mickey visits the meat market to buy Pluto a bone, but his beloved pooch ends up in the dog catcher's wagon.

The publication date "Jan 20 is handwritten in red pencil in the title panel.

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.