Mickey Mouse and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks again served as the head animator, assisted by Johnny Cannon, Les Clark, Wilfred Jackson and Dick Lundy. This short was intended as a parody of Buster Keaton's "Steamboat Bill, Jr.", first released on May 12 of the same year. Although it was the third Mickey cartoon produced, it was the first to find a distributor, and thus is considered by The Disney Company as Mickey's debut. "Willie" featured changes to Mickey's appearance (in particular, simplifying his eyes to large dots) that established his look for later cartoons and in numerous Walt Disney films. The cartoon was
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse (also The Floyd Gottfredson Library) is a series of books collecting the span of work by Floyd Gottfredson on the daily Mickey Mouse comic strip. The strips are reproduced from Disney proof sheets and artwork from private collections. The strip debuted on January 13, 1930, and was initially written by Walt Disney and drawn first by Ub Iwerks, then by Win Smith. Gottfredson took over the strip when Disney and Smith found themselves too busy, and he continued with it until 1975. These volumes start with Gottfredson's work from April 1, 1930,