Mickey Mouse's Public Domain Journey Leads Him to Savage Dragon

Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy, the two earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons from Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, fell into the public domain on January 1, and in the weeks since, the Disney mascot has been up to all sorts of shenanigans -- most of which involve being murderous. Now, his trail of blood is leading him to San Francisco -- specifically, the San Francisco of Savage Dragon, where Mickey appears to be the antagonist in an upcoming issue of the series. Erik Larsen took to social media to share the issue's cover, along with a teaser that fans can expect the story in June, suggesting that the series is getting (more or less) back on a monthly schedule after an uneven couple of years.

Bringing in public domain characters is nothing new for Larsen, who previously incorporated the Golden Age Daredevil and even Captain Tootsie into decent-sized roles in Savage Dragon. Mickey makes his first appearance in Savage Dragon #268, which is available in stores now.

"He'll be a recurring character for a bit," Larsen told ComicBook.com. "My spin on him is that he's an old actor who starred in Steamboat Willie and worked in Hollywood until his roles dried up."

In the first appearance, Mickey makes a pass at Maxine and Malcolm Dragon, suggesting that he's open to swinging with the couple. While it doesn't appear they are interested...well, it's hard to put anything past Maxine sometimes.

"I'm trying to keep him as on model as I can," Larsen said of the character. "This Mickey was pretty elastic in his own right, getting stretched and distorted when he was involved in any physical altercations. I'm going with that as the basis for the character. Later version's of Disney's Mickey Mouse were far more grounded and realistic in their own way. Because there's so little material in the public domain -- just Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie -- I've had to build on that and make it my own."

Whether this cover is a misdirection, or if Mickey will be an actual villain, is anybody's guess. There are certainly power-enhancing substances in the world of Savage Dragon that could explain the "you know how dangerous he is" word balloon, if that's something that is to be taken literally.

Savage Dragon recently underwent a change of venue, with the lead characters moving back to the United States following several years in Toronto. They didn't return to Chicago, where the comic took place for its first 25 years or so, but instead moved to San Francisco, Larsen's own stomping grounds.

Savage Dragon #269 will continue the story in March.