Book Review: Mickey And The Gang: Classic Stories In Verse

[KayJayBee]

The magic of Disney, these drawings display
The silliest of symphonies; Walt's escapades!
Make haste! This book's contents are hardly a bore
You'll pick it up once and put it away ne'ermore!

Full title: Walt Disney's Mickey And The Gang: Classic Stories In Verse, Vintage Magazine Art 1934 - 1944 (what a mouthful!)
Price Range: $15~$25 ($29.99 list price)
Size: HUGE (approx. 11” x 13”)
Released: November 2005
Publisher: Gemstone Publishing (360 pages)
ISBN (Paperback): 1888472065; ISBN (Hardcover): 1888472073

Walt Disney's many brilliant cartoons have entertained countless generations of Mouseketeers who have sought out to partake in everything Disney. But many Mouse fans are unaware of the ten year long collaboration between Disney and Good Housekeeping magazine. I have been fortunate enough to have discovered this treasure-trove of rich illustrations, masterful poetry, and historical information.

Lovingly compiled by Gemstone Publishing, Mickey And The Gang is an oversized (even over-oversized, if I may) collection of the many one-page poetic adaptations of Disney's cartoons. Each adaptation consisted of richly illustrated artwork accompanied by five paragraphs of whimsical and clever poetry that aimed to capture the spirit of the original short. All pages are present and presented in order by year.

The layout of each dedicated short is as follows:
-The short's title; Month and year published
-The Movie Story (a summary and critique of the actual short)
-The Magazine Rack (the behind-the-scenes of drawing/writing the GH adaptation)
-Pre-production art, comics, toys, newspaper printings, etc. that accompanies the short/adaptation

GH magazine also adapted two classic Disney films for certain two month periods: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1939). These adaptations were also told in prose and accompanied by pre-production art and sketches.

The book's author manages to make the text as enjoyable and insightful as the pictures. In fact, the author usually goes out of his way to explain the logistics of a short (why it succeeded/failed, the difficulties in adapting it, etc.). In most cases, the GH pages ranged from mildly different to outright rewrites of the original story.

This book goes above and beyond by not only reprinting each one-page adaptation, but by including a multitude of other rare treats for the viewer. Some of the many surprises include: concept art, sketches, full reproduction comics, interviews, scripts, pictures of collectible items, and more.

Closing thoughts: My review barely even begins to scratch the surface of this magnificent book. It's almost criminal that I can't upload pictures of its entirety and describe every little secret that it contains. This is one book you'll be looking at for years to come.

...What are you still reading this for? Go out and buy this fantastic piece of Disney history!

Where to buy (Softcover): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de | Amazon.co.jp

The only downside to the softcover is that it tends to flop around due to its large stature, but it reads nicely nonetheless.

Where to buy (Hardcover): Unfortunately, the hardcover is OOP/sold out. I would've gotten it, but it's hard to justify spending $150 for the same material.

Gemstone Publishing Wrote:The hard cover is limited to 1,000 numbered copies and contains ten foldouts of the top ten most valuable Good Housekeeping pages as a special feature. These are not available in the softbound edition.

For more pictures, check out my Flickr account.

[KayJayBee]

I apologize for bumping my topic, but this gorgeous book is beginning to disappear from the market. For months (perhaps even years) this book has been nearly untouched on Amazon, staying at a comfortable $20-ish price range and always available. But because of Boom! Studios' recent acquisition of Disney comics, the comic compilations published under Gemstone Publishing are becoming heavily sought-after due to their quality and content.

For example, I own one of their two wonderful Walt Disney Treasures comic compilations, Disney Comics: 75 Years of Innovation, which recently went out of print. I also had the opportunity to purchase its companion, Uncle Scrooge: A Little Something Special at $13 not too long ago; unfortunately, I chose to hold off on purchasing it, not knowing it would go out of print and skyrocket to $100+.

It's sad to say, but this book may even be indefinitely out of stock on Amazon (save for Amazon Canada). Sure, you may still purchase this book through third party vendors and even on BarnesandNoble.com, but who knows how long that will last?

I encourage any Disney fans, animation fans, comic fans, anybody, to read my review and grab this marvelous remnant of classic Disney art and prose before it fades into obscurity. You won't regret it.