Happy 124th Birthday to Walt Disney! Without his imagination and drive, this review would not exist.
It makes good business and creative sense that Fantagraphics would launch their #1 issue (legacy #331) with a Casty tale in the headlining position with a Gottfredson Sunday and a frivolous Super Goof tale adding cherries to the sundae. Did Casty's story deliver a home run on Fantagraphics' first at-bat? Let's find out!
The Phantom Blot's Double Revenge or for my Italian readers, Topolino e il duplicatrone, is one of Casty's earliest works dating back to November 2005. 20 years later, it finally received an American printing. Casty scripted the story with Roberto Vian drawing. Veteran wordsmith Joe Torcivia handled the translation and dialogue with his usual superb flair.
The tale begins with Mickey and Goofy competing to see who can find the largest mushroom and fish. Those two certainly live on the edge! They both land prized examples but also find multiple duplications. They shrug the situation off as luck but the presence of rare woodpeckers suggests something chicanery is afoot.
The next day Mickey and Goofy are having a BBQ, and yes, Goofy is cooking. For the sake of the plot, there is no incident. Goofy's neighbor, wonderfully named Mooch McPooch, (seriously, what parent wanted to doom their child) wonders over and devours their food. He apparently reappears twice and Mickey exhibits some understandable frustration at his utter lack of manners. Mickey thinks he has twin brothers but the hungry, hungry hippo claims to be an only child.
Mickey, having lost his appetite, strolls downtown with Goofy and sees a series of duplicates roaming Mouseton, causing accidents and breaking up marriages! Sensing a possible case, Mickey heads to the police station to get his fixing by seeing Chief O'Hara and discovers there are THREE chiefs. It turns out the Phantom Blot has developed a cloning device and will only restore singularity if the city hands over a million dollars. There is a nice bit where the Blot demands the money be placed in a phone booth and O'Hara lampshades their possible existence in our cell phone era.
Chief O'Hara decides to lay a trap and let's face it, while clever, this plan won't work. 1. It is too early in the story. 2. He isn't Mickey. A bunch of Blots appear, as our heroes realize he must have duplicated himself, and Mickey, in a rather naive comment, trusts GOOFY to stay and guard the money. Holy cheese!
Of course, a random stranger (three guesses as to his real identity) walks up and asks what is amiss? Goofy spills the beans faster than Lightning McQueen about the situation. The stranger asks if he could use the phone booth to call his father to lock the doors. The Blot (shocker!) walks away with the dough and says to "give Mouseton's finest a million thanks." Mickey returns to hear the bad news and realizes who the stranger was.
The next day, the duo returns to the police station with Goofy still burned up about being tricked (he must be mad all the time!). The O'Hara duplicates have vanished but now there are three Detective Caseys (one was enough) and the Blot has extended his blackmail game. C'mon, O'Hara, this is Police 101! If you give a master criminal a million dollars, he will want another million to go with it!
Mickey and Goofy ponder the situation and the mouse realizes the funky situation with the mushrooms and fishes might be a connection while discovering said items have disappeared! The duo heads back to the lake and discover an old castle and, I kid you not, the Blotmobile.
I love Mickey Mouse comics!
Mickey and Goofy investigate (it is only trespassing if you are a villain) and come across the Blot. Vian's Blot has these marvelous eyes and he feels very animated. Great stuff.
The Blot stalls and offers to surrender saying he doesn't stand a chance in a 2-on-1 fight. He shows them his magnificent machine which is actually his home cooling system. I could see Goofy falling for that gag but Mickey? Anyhow, the distraction gives the Blot time to duplicate himself and gives the reader a fun and chaotic fight.
Mickey is cornered but saved when another Blot knocks the threatening Phantom. Turns out, it was Goofy in disguise obtaining revenge for the earlier prank.
O'Hara and Casey show up after the danger is over to receive the explanations for the police reports. The Blot's cloning machine was flawed with all duplications fizzing out after 24 hours, thus preventing him from duplicating money and requiring the ransom bit.
I do have to say why couldn't the Blot just duplicate and spend quickly? And it is kind of terrifying to think of the possibilities of mayhem? What happened if one of the clones disappeared while flying a plane? Aw, I am overthinking a fun Silver Age plot.
Mickey, Goofy, and O'Hara head to the Blot's cell to gloat and realize that they captured a clone and not the genuine article. The situation does lead to this dastardly clever line by O'Hara, as written by Torcivia, "Patience, Lad! I can always rely on Mickey Mouse to outwit the Phantom Blot!" Beautiful!
I wouldn't place the story among Casty's best. It is a fun jaunt with some clever twists but the stakes are rather low. However, you can feel Casty figuring what works best with the characters. It is a solid story to reopen Mickey's endeavors into the single issue arena.
Two ears up!
Next issue: Mickey Mouse faces a foe/who has caused him much woe/with his clever phrases/and plots that amaze/no one else can/but the Rhyming Man!
So happy this blog is doing it's thing :)
ReplyDeleteMouse Maestro:
ReplyDeleteThis review is amazing, very kind to us at Fantagraphics… and both insightful and true in every way! That’s something you don’t find every day on the Internet, so be proud – of this and your other posts, a number of which I had the pleasure of perusing!
And a Blog devoted to MICKEY – and strictly the COMICS MICKEY (always, in my opinion, the BEST version of the Mouse) – and one that doesn’t exist simply to deride the work of professional comic creators past and present (…I can think of one “duck-focused blog” by a non-pro that does exactly that – and in a smug and annoying MST3K way! Sorry for the candidness, it’s just how I feel!), but treats the stories, characters, and creators with the respect they deserve! For all this, I thank you! With special thanks for the kind words about my contribution to Casty’s story!
To my way of thinking, Casty is THE best modern talent in Disney comics today! And he has revitalized Mickey to an incredible extent! I always give every story that I work on “my all” but, with Casty, I find myself pushing the pedal just a bit harder, if only to best complement his work with the best possible American English translation and dialogue!
For the record, such touches as “Mooch McPooch”, the “phone booth” gag (on “Murry Street”, no less), “The Blotmobile”, and "Patience, Lad! I can always rely on Mickey Mouse to outwit the Phantom Blot!" were all mine – and all in the interest of giving Casty the best I can! Glad you liked it!
Finally, as you know, I have the next two issues of Mickey Mouse with The Rhyming Man, and Casty’s time traveler UMA. And that represented my greatest challenge in translation and dialoguing – and I have had some doozies in the past.
Consider translating from Italian to English, pages and pages of VERY-SPECIFIC-TO-THE-PLOT dialogue (making it have the *same meaning* as the Italian) and the additional wrinkle of HAVING TO MAKE IT ALL RHYME in English!!!
You’ll decide if I was up to the challenge, but I think I was – and you can tell that by The Rhyming Man’s first line, that harkens back to Gottfredson and Walsh’s original story!
So, keep up the good work… and maybe considering reviewing every Fantagraphics issue of Mickey Mouse… the publicity can’t hurt! :-)
Thanks, Joe, for the kind words!
DeleteI occasionally try for a bit of humor, but I don't have the desire or see the need to drudge up old stories and hammer the creators. Most of them, from what I have gleamed, were juggling multiple assignments across of a spectrum of brands and characters. It is too easy (and lazy) to compare everything to Barks and Gottfredson. With that telescope, about 95% of Disney comics appear banal and that isn't accurate or fair. Disney comics are an underappreciate province of the company's empire and I want to focus on the positives. The best Mickey stories are from the comics.
I'm a 60s Batman fan, so anything that reminds me of that classic tickles my funny bone. I am a huge Blot fan but the character, like Batman, has an inherent ridiculousness about him. He still dresses up in a costume when everyone knows his face! Indulge the theatrical!
I'm looking forward to the next issue. I already have plans for a special review format. I am certain you will hit the meter in your script!
My plan is for more consistent posting and to review every Fantagraphics issue. I want this edition to last and will do my part by buying and reviewing.