Chapter 64 Disney (ch 63 was athure preimim offer no real info there )
2023-05-02 Author: Yue Shang Xintou
As a recurring adversary for Superman, Colin had put a fair bit of thought into creating Toyman.
Although, due to the nature of newspaper serialization, he couldn't introduce Toyman's origin story within the plot.
However, comics of this era generally lacked well-developed origins.
Even for Superman, the main character of the comic, his Krypton origin story was incomplete, hastily glossed over in just two or three panels.
Readers didn't seem to mind. On the contrary, they were more interested in Superman fighting evil villains to save the world in Metropolis and the love story between him and Lois.
In a way, readers during The Great Depression were the best audience for comics.
They hadn't been exposed to the conventions of countless later comics and had no preconceived notions.
Everything about *Superman* was full of novelty and appeal to them.
Take Toyman's design in the comic, for instance. A character like this, if placed in a later era, would at best be considered a third-rate villain. Scientist-type villain designs like his were a dime a dozen.
However, to the comic readers of this era, the character of Toyman seemed exceptionally interesting.
With the appearance of the new villain, sales of *The Messenger* once again broke the previous weekend's record.
In fact, this record was constantly being broken. To cope with the ever-increasing circulation of *The Messenger*, Colin had already purchased the printing presses of more than one bankrupt newspaper office. Nevertheless, *The Messenger* was still in short supply, and readers had written in to complain more than once.
"Why is it that I still can't buy *The Messenger* on my block..."
"The greatest comic in the world! I hope *The Messenger* will be serialized forever..."
"...Being able to make toys move, that's literally my childhood dream!"
"When I saw Toyman's Toy Army appear in Metropolis in the comic, even though I know Superman is omnipotent, I couldn't help but break into a cold sweat for him."
"Mickey! I saw a glimpse of Mickey in Toyman's army. I was stunned the moment I spotted it, because I have an identical Mickey Mouse action figure at home!"
That's right, in the latest issue of the *Superman* comic, Colin had also included a little 'Easter Egg'. Among Toyman's Toy Army, an action figure bearing a striking resemblance to Mickey Mouse appeared, and its pose, holding a ship's helm, was undoubtedly a replica of Mickey's classic image from *Steamboat Willie*.
The inspiration for this cameo was just a casual sketch he made after reading a report about Disney in the newspaper.
...
Los Angeles, Walt Disney Studios.
"Hey, Walt Disney, maybe you should take a look at this."
Roy Disney walked into the studio workshop, holding a newspaper.
Inside the workshop, Walt Disney was experimenting with the latest film technology invented by Technicolor. He placed a black and white Mickey stop-motion animation cel in the center of the machine and began to color it, bit by bit, using the Three-Color Printing technique.
Although Roy Disney had claimed in a previous interview that Disney would produce the world's first color animation, that wasn't actually the case.
In reality, the world's first color animated film appeared as early as 1916. It was an American animation called *The Debut of Thomas Cat*, distributed by Paramount and drawn by Bray Productions, using the Brewster Color Process for the entire production.
However, due to technical limitations and cost considerations, for a long time after Paramount released *The Debut of Thomas Cat*, no one else experimented with color animation.
It wasn't until 1930 that Universal Pictures, in its film *The Jazz Singer*, interspersed a color animation segment created by Walter Lantz. At that time, the animation in the film used the Two-Color Process. It wasn't until 1932, two years after *The Jazz Singer* was released, that animation technology progressed from the previous Two-Color Process to the Three-Color Printing technique, which was when Walt Disney finally considered applying it to animation production.
In the dimly lit workshop, hearing his brother Roy's voice, Walt Disney immediately stopped what he was doing and turned his head to reply.
"What is it now? Your latest interview in the newspaper, or the completion date for *Silly Symphonies*? If it's the latter, it might still be a few days, no, about a week..."
"A week? Didn't you just tell me that episode 28, *Just Dogs*, was almost finished?"
Hearing Walt Disney's reply, Roy Disney couldn't help but frown.
"It is almost finished, but the little that's left will take another week to complete."
"Why can't you just stick to the schedule, Walt Disney?"
Faced with his brother's explanation, Roy suddenly felt his temper rising. When it came to making animation, Walt Disney was undoubtedly a genius, but in some respects, his dedication to animation often gave Roy, the head of the studio, a headache.
"Besides that, you still haven't told me why you came to the studio, have you?"
Seeing his brother Roy's anger starting to build, Walt Disney promptly asked the question to avoid a lecture.
"It's a newspaper from New York."
Hearing Walt Disney's question, Roy had to suppress his emotions and handed the newspaper to his younger brother.
"They say its sales in New York are so high that it's constantly sold out. If the serialized story in the paper wasn't coincidentally related to us, they wouldn't have mailed it to us."
New York.
Hearing his brother Roy mention New York, Walt Disney couldn't help but frown as some unpleasant memories resurfaced.
Come to think of it, the birth of Mickey Mouse was a direct result of a trip to New York.
In 1927, Walt Disney Studios produced the *Oswald the Lucky Rabbit* series of animations, which was well-received upon its release. Therefore, in February 1928, Walt Disney took his wife to New York to discuss a contract renewal with the distributor at the time, Charles Mintz.
Walt Disney's original intention was to ask for a higher price, but Mintz demanded that Walt Disney lower it. He then informed Walt Disney that he had already hired away most of the animators for *Oswald the Lucky Rabbit* and that, according to their contract, he owned the copyright to the animation series. If Walt Disney didn't agree to the price cut, he could continue producing *Oswald the Lucky Rabbit* himself.
On that trip to New York, Walt Disney not only lost the copyright to *Oswald the Lucky Rabbit* but also had most of his studio's animators poached.
This was undoubtedly a massive blow to Walt Disney Studios.
And on the train back to Hollywood, a dejected Walt Disney was struck by a sudden inspiration and created a cartoon character based on a mouse—Mortimer.
Later, at his wife's suggestion, Walt Disney changed the character's name to Mickey.
And from that point on, Mickey Mouse became the symbol of Walt Disney Studios.
(end of chapter)