1930 Biederman Original Art for King Features/Disney Mickey Mouse Calendar

A one-of-a-kind set of four 30 x 40 inch original 1930 Disney / King Features manuscript pen and ink drawings of impressive size, by the master cartoonist Louis Biedermann. They are among he earliest surviving original artworks related to the Micky Mouse Comic Strip (1930 - 1995). The drawings feature Mikey Mouse (just 2 years after he was created), Felix the Cat, Bonzo the Dog, Jiggs and Maggie, Dub Dora and others.

Disney Licenses Mikey to King Features

The production of these, by King Features, follows the licensing of Mikey Mouse by Joseph Connolly, the president of King Features Syndicate. A July 24, 1929 letter form Connolly to Walt Disney's right hand animator Ub Iwerks, reads,

I think your mouse animation is one of the funniest features I have ever seen in the movies. Please consider producing one in comic strip form for newspapers. If you can find time to do one, I shall be very interested in seeing some specimens.

More focused on animation, the Disney team was slow to respond, but by November, samples of the new strip were approved by the syndicate. King Features had their in-house illustrator, Louis Biedermann, put together new calendar art featuring Mickey - of which these are four of the presumed 12 artworks.

Mel Birnkrant's Description

Describing the four Biedermann calendar drawings in his own collection, cartoon enthusiast Mel Birnkrant writes,

We can date the year that these were done, quite accurately, as 1930. In January of that year, King Features licensed Mickey Mouse. And each of these four scenes includes the newly arrived Mickey … It is clear that Louis has not quite firmed up his take on Mickey; check out those giant ears! … I sometimes sit, for hours, gazing at these, while contemplating Biedermann and the King Features Comic Calendar. It is a reverie that I enjoy. I like to speculate about them. I know, for certain, others existed, as I have collected the scant evidence. What would the missing ones be like? What were the other countries on the World Tour that these four panels of art depict? When I got them, they were on the brink of disintegrating, sort of like the Dead Sea Scrolls. I deacidified the paper before I framed them, hoping that will save them. Will I ever see the others? Or were they destroyed? Surely there are more calendars out there. The missing years; how many were there? Any day, one could appear, as I sit here, waiting for Biedermann.

The calendar itself has never been seen, and may never have been issued.

Mickey's World Tour

The art series supposes a tour around the world, visiting major cities, by a medley of King Features comic characters. King Features issued a popular annual calendar highlighting its iconic comic characters, which in 1930, including Walt Disney's rising star mouse,

1. Shanghai with the Old Shanghai Weather Station and the Bund in background. Features Felix the Cat, Bonzo the Dog, Jiggs and Maggie, and Dumb Dora.
2. Moscow with the Bolshoi Theater in the background. Features an impressive alligator, Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat, Dolly Dimples and Pussycat Princess.
3. Rio de Janeiro with Sugarloaf Mountain prominently in the background. Features a smorgasbord of characters including Micky Mouse, Felix the Cat, Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse, Offisa Pupp, Happy Hooligan, and several Grace Drayton characters including Dolly Dimples and Pussycat Princess.
4. A fourth sheet, with characters flying over a European city we do not recognize. Features Micky Mouse, Felix the Cat, Bonzo the Dog, and Jiggs, Dolly Dimples.

Other known images from the series include Brussells, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Capetown. Birnkrant mentions that in the auction where he acquired his four, a fifth was up for auction available, but he did not acquire it.

Publication History and Census

These artworks were drawn by Louis Biederman for inclusion in the 1930 King Features Calendar. There is no record that the calendar was ever published. Presumably there were 12 original drawings - one for each month. Four are in the collection of Mel Birnkrant, four are offered here, the whereabouts of the remainder are unknown.