MICKEY RODENT

MICKEY RODENT
MAD #19, January 1955
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Bill Elder

Parodies the Disney anthropomorphics genre as a whole. We're all familiar with the Disney universe from early indocrination, so no need for me to really explain anything. Mickey currently exists more as a symbol than anything else, and unless copyright laws are extended yet again in the next two years, some of the earliest sound cartoons will become public domain.

Horace Horseneck was one of the minor Disney characters. The gloves most of the characters wore evolved from minstrel shows. The TV screen Mickey is carrying comes from the Howdy Doody parody in the previous issue.

Mark Trail was a well known environmentalist comic strip that still exists somewhere. This may have been the first use of the old joke of “If Pluto and Goofy are both dogs how come one acts like a real dog and one doesn't?”