"Mickey Mouse vs. Kat Nipp"

First, a little programming note: as you'll see if you compare them to the ones in the book, these images are not those images. They're somewhat lower quality. That's because I didn't really want to subject the book to the indignity of being held open and scanned so often, so I just grabbed these off the internet. Also, that way was a lot quicker. Anyway, you ought to own the book anyway, so what are you complaining about?

The thing you notice about this story is that there's no moral component to it. Which is to say: there's no reason to root for Mickey in the story other than the fact that the strip is called "Mickey Mouse." There are no higher principles underlying their conflict.



I mean, the guy's just hanging around in his house--sure, he has a provocative sign (neither antagonist is exactly mature in this story), but Mickey readily rises to the provocation, starting-shit-wise.



The conflict involves the two of them trying to do things to one another's tails. In the intro to the story, David writes that this "reflect[s] prewar notions of masculinity via a crude kind of fashion consciousness." While the first part of that is definitely right, I would tend towards a rather more Freudian interpretation of the tail business (which also has the advantage of making the story way funnier).



I mean, really now--this is one of those cases where subtext is pretty much indistinguishable from regular text.

Indeed, notions of masculinity, and the anxieties surrounding them, are really what the story is about--there may be no "higher principles," but there are definitely principles of a sort. Hence, this infamous exchange:



Since this is a family blog (goddamn motherfucking right it is!), we will not speculate on what "cream puff inhaler" would mean in concrete terms. But the central issue comes through loud and clear here: Mickey kicking the guy in order to assert, as strongly as possible, his own heterosexuality, which of course is a key component of a certain limited conception of masculinity.

For the record, here's what that looks like in bowdlerized form in Boom's Mickey Mouse Classics hardcover:



The message still comes through loud and clear, I think.

The question is: is Kat Nipp gay? Mickey certainly seems to think he is; notice that it isn't the guy he's kicking whom he's calling a cream puff inhaler. And the fact is, he does have a guy like this hanging around. And he cohabits with a sailor who does things to his tail.



Seems like a pretty strong argument to me. And if you take this to be the case, then the conflict takes on new dimensions: it's possible to read Kat Nipp's exaggerated macho posturing as an overcompensating response to the "gay=effeminate" stereotype; Mickey, by contrast, is eager to assert the primacy of the status quo in this regard.



But, you know, let's not get overly highfalutin here--these characters are basically acting like children (which, indeed, we could see as a commentary on the basic immaturity of this whole argument): "Mom! Billy put his hand on MY side of the seat! Make him stop!"



As you can see, Mickey here is trying to assert that there is indeed a different between the two--that he's the smart, more highly developed one, and that therefore he is in fact superior in some way.



...but the strip is having none of it. Still, in the end, it does sorta try to have it both ways: Mickey does win on account of being smarter.



In the end, though, it's hard to exactly root for him: Kat Nipp was actually shown to be somewhat more mature here; trying to make do with the indignities visited upon his tail, whereas for Mickey, nothing less than total capitulation will do. He's ultimately kind of a dick.



...also, he steals Kat Nipp's house. The hell? How's this remotely legal? Or just? On another note, if anyone wants to explain the presence of a catfish in a hot-air balloon, go for it.



And the story ends by validating this same very crude, brute-force version of masculinity. Hmph. Still, if it's not clear, I find the story really fascinating, and it's really great to watch the strip gradually find its voice.

And now, a few brief bonus thoughts on some of the interstitial strips that come before "Kat Nipp." First, Mickey murders a goat:



Actually, I don't really have anything profound to say about this. I just wanted to get that out there: Mickey murders a goat. Though I suppose, really, "murder" is a bit of a strong way to put it. Manslaughter, let's say. Goatslaughter. Anyway, that's the end of that goat.

But it's just a goat, right? It's not like the strip killed off an actual character, right? Well, no and yes.



An interesting thing about these early strips is that there's not that much differentiation between anthropomorphic and non-anthropmorphic animals; hence, this Scottish terrier can just straight-up start talking like it warn't no thang. There's generally a more clearly-drawn line in later stories (duck or mouse), even if you can think of exceptions (like Donald's cat Tabby in Fethry stories, who nonetheless, if I recall correctly, only thinks; he doesn't actually say anything).



Hey look, Mickey's picking up junk how public spirited of him oh no wait he's just dumping it in the bushes; never mind. If there's one thing that's impressive, it's the extent to which we have been indoctrinated against littering--and in what a short time period. There's a Mad Men episode where the Draper family is on a picnic and when they're done they just casually leave their crap lying there. The show is set in the early sixties, and there was some debate about whether this was realistic, with the general consensus being that, yeah, probably so. If this strip is any indication, people were certainly plenty cavalier about littering thirty years prior. But seriously, foax, I know "indoctrination" has pejorative connotations, but in this case it's unambiguously a Good Thing. If you're one of those people who leave bottles and things lying around in the woods for the rest of us to pick up, then I must regretfully inform you that you may well be a douchebag. Cut that crap out.