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Mickey Mouse and the Phantom Blot
But what, you may be wondering, is a phantom blot? And what makes the story so special? Well, it all starts when Mickey is summoned to the police station to help solve a mystery. We see a huge, black, ghost-like creature behind him the whole way there, but Mickey himself is oblivious. Turns out, this ghost-like creature is exactly the guy police want Mickey to help track down. We learn a little more about him in the next few panels: he's a crook who calls himself the "Blot", he signs his cryptic letters with a blob of black ink, and he's too slick for the gang at the Police Department. Weirdest of all, though, is that he steals only cameras - which he ends up smashing to bits. Mickey and the gang at the station are mulling all this over when suddenly, the lights go out and Mickey disappears - only to be seen again in a most unfortunate booby trap rigged up by the Blot himself. He's tied to a table with a gun pointed at him - a gun that's attached to a fish. And beneath the fish is a sleeping cat. And as soon as the cat wakes, he grabs the fish, the gun goes off, and...Mickey is just barely missed. After this little game of cat and mouse, Mickey has more resolve than ever to capture the evil Blot. In his investigations, he discovers that the Blot only steals one type of camera, and that he smashes them all the same way. This leads him on a jaunt through the city in hot pursuit of the wily phantom, where he only realizes that instead, the phantom is still trailing him! A wild chase ensues, until Mickey disappears into his backyard (he manages to hide underground, but we don't know that until later). When the phantom can't find him, he leaves a sinister note and a knife in the door - both of which are promptly found by a terrified Minnie. So with the Blot on the loose, Minnie at the police station and Mickey escaping to an underground hideaway, adventure is in full swing (Interestingly, however, this is the last we see of Minnie. Some boyfriend Mickey is...). Regardless, Mickey decides to disguise himself before reemerging above ground - where his costume tricks all of the friends he runs into. He starts his investigations of the cameras again, but he's soon discovered and captured by the Blot all over again. He escapes this trap, but is unable to remove the noose the Blot has placed around his neck. So, still in his disguise, wearing a noose, Mickey tries to make his way home. And he's naturally caught by the cops, who believe him to be a suicide case (he's released, of course, once he reveals his true identity). So, it's back to the camera investigations and a brand new disguise. That's when he has his epiphany. Mickey realizes that only 250 cameras of this particular type have been manufactured, and 237 have been stolen. By looking at sales slips and police reports, he sets out to find the remaining 13 cameras. He meets with little success until he dons a costume strikingly similar to that of the Blot...He finds an unusual piece of paper in one of the cameras and seems just about to crack the case when, you guessed it, the Blot catches him once again. One more narrow escape on Mickey's part, and another wild Blot/Mouse chase ensues that leads the two from sea to sky. Meanwhile, back at Police Headquarters, the cigar-puffing Detective Casey thinks he has it all figured out, but his corn-beef-and-cabbage-eating notes didn't quite show the kind of hard-boiled detective work our Mouse would soon prove himself capable of. After all, at this point Mickey was controlling Blot's plane from outside, and manipulating his every move. Even after the Blot makes a fateful parachute jump to escape, Mickey doesn't miss a beat. He ties him up and delivers him to the police, where, at long last, his identity is revealed. We learn that the Blot was after a chemical compound found in one slip of paper in one of the cameras he was stealing (hence, he had to smash them all to find the one) - a chemical that could also be used in warfare. The Chief of Police is so grateful to Mickey for all his work in the case, that he writes him a great check - when his pen explodes, however, and leaves a huge black "blot" on the paper, Mickey realizes he's rather have this souvenir than any amount of money. "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot" was conceived by Floyd Gottfredson, written by Merrill deMaris and inked by Ted Thwaites and Bill Wright. And it's an absolute delight to read, and is a perfect example of the Mickey of the times. Gottfredson's Mickey stories were much longer than any Mickey stories seen before or since, and were full of riveting adventure and often perilous situations. These stories were immensely popular with audiences of the '40s, and today, they are still every bit as exciting and engaging. Today, however, there is that element of nostalgia that makes them all the more fantastic - from the first page to the last blot.
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