Morty and Ferdie; The Big Clean-up (1975)

Synopsis: Morty and Ferdie have to get all of the leaves off the front yard, so Mickey can take them to the zoo.

The Big Clean-up (S 73249) | I.N.D.U.C.K.S.

“The Big Clean-up” is one of hundreds of stories that were originally written and/or drawn in America but had no omission to be released IN America. This was all part of the Walt Disney Studio Program. This was literally made because Europe and most likely Brazil complained to Western publishing (which, at this time, had their comic books under the Gold Key brand) that they straight up ran out of American stories, and since this was before they were actively making their own foreign stories, they pretty much demanded that they could get brand new stories. So, a good chunk of writers and artists were in charge of filling in the new demand, which I could only imagine must’ve been a total nightmare, especially knowing how Disney would pay their comic writers and artists (spoilers: it ain’t that high).

Because these were mainly made as a side project behind the main stories for Gold Key’s issues, alot of these are usually very short, they’re not as detailed or would have as many more unique poses as you would usually see, and alot of these step out of the usual Donald, Mickey and Scrooge stories, and instead, would now give the more smaller and side-characters the starlight (for better or worse, depending on the story).

This short story is about Mickey’s nephews; Morty and Ferdie. That’s about it. It’s a cute story, but you can tell by this point in time, they were forced to tone things down in order to make the comic books more “presentable” to kids (or more realistically, their very strict parents who’ll complain about literally anything). Also, with alot of these S-code stories, if not done by Tony Strobl, Jack Bradbury, Dick Kinney or Al Hubbard, you’re shit out of luck when it comes to knowing who knows what. Alot of funny animal American comics during this time never credited anyone, and with these being shuffled around to different countries, it makes it way extra harder.

Good job kids. Now, Mickey's gonna get his street rat ass beaten when you guys come back lol.

 Mickey Mouse; Mortimer’s Birthday (1978)

Synopsis: It’s Mortimer Mouse’s birthday, but it seems like Nobody remembered (or really cared), so He seeks revenge on the gang.

O Aniversário do Ranulfo (B 780052) | I.N.D.U.C.K.S.

“O Aniversário do Ranulfo” comes from the exciting Country known as Brazil, a place filled with weird and interesting stories that rarely gets the love they (mostly) deserve. And this one’s no different, as it stars the underrated Mortimer Mouse. While most really only remember him from “Mickey Mouse Works” (and later on “House of Mouse”), he was pretty solid in the comics starting in the 70s. The good thing was that he (least in this story) was as in-character as you can expect from him. 

The plot’s a take on that very tired, overused trope that’s regularly used in mediocre to bad kids shows, where it’s someone’s birthday, but everyone around him or her pretends they don’t care, making the person depressed for ¾ of the segment until SURPRISE! They remembered after all!  It’s stupid, it kinda makes the friends, who don’t want to spoil the surprise, end up looking like dickheads and after awhile, the birthday kid being sad starts to become over-dramatic. I feel like this comic unintentionally pokes fun at this, with Mortimer deciding to take his frustrations out at the gang instead of being sad. But, because nobody told him they might be hiding something, now EVERYONE had to suffer the consequences when you act like you have zero interest in someone you like. Now, I don't believe that was the idea when this was being written, but it makes the story alot more funnier, at least to me.

Since this was completed during the 70s, the artwork is similar to alot of the S-code stories, which were usually drawn by people like Jack Bradbury and Tony Strobl. The layouts were usually drawn more on-model, being modeled off of what the characters were supposed to look like for advertising during the time. I will say that, for this story, it’s not TOO restrained, making the layouts on-model but still have some loose and solid poses.

Now, to be fair, Mort, I REALLY don't know what you expected to happen. You know how many times you tried to take Mickey's girl away from him? Especially since said girl's RIGHT THERE?!

Yeah, you just KNEW I had to add him doing his signature laugh!