Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 9: "Rise Of The Rhyming Man" Hardcover – July 12, 2016

The introduction to volume 9 starts with a defense of Gottfredson’s use of short tales which occupy about half of the book. It compares them to the 10 page Donald Duck stories from Carl Barks and I’ll agree that I found the 10 pagers to be the sweet spot between Barks 20+ page adventures and his single page gags. However, the writer wouldn’t be defending these Gottfredson stories if he didn’t feel they needed defense and the truth is I found this to be one of Gottfredson’s weaker periods. The stories include Mickey and Goofy accidently winning a boat in an auction, Mickey trying to cure his own hiccups, Goofy inheriting a half million, Goofy building a rocket ship, Mickey discovering a talking dog. There are just a ton of these mini-stories and although I don’t feel this is the best work from Gottfredson and Walsh these are still better than average comics.The second half of the book features the introduction of Eega Beeva, a being from 500 years in the future. One of the book essays refers to this as the high point of the Walsh/Gottfredson collaboration. I could not disagree more. To me, Eega Beeva is like The Great Gazoo from the Flintstones and Moon Maid from Dick Tracy; characters introduced into a venerable series who feel completely out of place. If you’re like me and don’t love Eega Beeva that’s a shame because he dominates the strip for the next three years essentially replacing Goofy.The summary compares Eega Beeva to The Jeep from Popeye but Segar used The Jeep far more sparingly, Eega Beeva basically takes over the strip with his nigh omniscient powers. In fact, Eega Beeva kinda feels more like a Jeep rip-off with his abilities to tell the future and locate treasures. If this wasn’t enough we get Pflip the Thnuckle-Booh, Eega Beeva’s pet, who bears a striking physical resemblance to The Jeep. Walsh never addresses how or why Eega Beeva travelled back from the future or even where Pflip came from since he just appears in the comics with no explanation other than he’s Eega Beeva’s pet.In the titular story, ‘Rise of the Rhyming Man’, Walsh has to deal with the problem of Eega Beeva being capable of solving the problem instantly. To solve this he creates all kinds of barriers to Eega Beeva using his powers including an inconvenient toothaches preventing him from eating his previous Kumquats, a bonk on the head that temporarily takes away his powers, a cage for his all-powerful nose and lastly drugged fruit. So how long can Walsh creatively create inconveniences for Eega Beeva before it becomes deathly dull. The introduction and summary writers seemed really thrilled by Eega Beeva but I found him to be a jumped the shark moment.Although I’ve done more complaining in this volume than any prior I still love the series. Fantagraphics always goes above and beyond on extras and I wish competing companies would step up the effort (I’m looking at you IDW). There is a ton of analysis and summaries that delve behind the scenes and really add to the whole experience. What a great time for fans of classic Disney comics.

Great art work, great characters, a whole lot of fun and excitement !!

was completely satisfied

My grandsons like these cartoon books.

Muy contento con la edición y la colección de las tiras de Floyd G. a un precio razonable.