A Match of Mouse and Menace

10.07.09 - Who are Disney's vilest villains? Captain Hook is mean enough to make his own crewmen walk the plank. Cruella De Vil plots to turn dogs into dresswear. And dealing with the Queen of Hearts can be hazardous to your head.

Making his 1939 debut, the Blot flawlessly shadows our hero — walking in step without Mickey even knowing he's there! Plot and pencils by Floyd Gottfredson, script by Merrill De Maris, inks by Ted Thwaites and Bill Wright.

But there's no bad guy like the guy whose 70th anniversary we celebrate this summer: the Phantom Blot, Mickey Mouse's scariest foe! A mystery man hidden under a ghostly black cloak, the Blot can shadow you while you think he's just a shadow. And his motives are shadowy, too. The Blot might want wealth or world control — or just ruthless revenge. But Mickey never knows how those goals will come together... till the Blot catches him in a devious deathtrap!

The match of mice and menace began in 1939, when master Mickey comic strip writer/artist Floyd Gottfredson decided to create an extra-spooky serial. Adventurous Mickey often plays detective; why not face him off with a genuine master criminal? Enter a felon who stole seemingly worthless ten-cent cameras... inexplicably destroyed them... and caught pursuing sleuths in outrageous snares, because he was too "soft-hearted" to harm them in person!

The concept was wild enough already, but further classic elements lurked under the Phantom's black cloak. First was his mocking personality: leaving warning notes to scare and taunt his pursuers, the Blot treated his crimes like a twisted game. And the crimes had personality, too: no one knew why cameras were the Blot's target — 'til a priceless chemical

"The first Blot story was reprinted in Four Color Comics 16 (1941), today one of the most sought-after Disney collectibles. Cover artist unknown.

formula was found hidden in one! Even the Blot's traps had personality: pistols, daggers, and explosions were triggered by deceptively harmless cats, barber chairs, and keyholes. Laugh at your peril: this baddie meant business!

After "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot" made its newspaper debut, the serial was reprinted in Four Color Comics 16 (1941), the first one-shot in a series that would become North America's modern Mickey Mouse comic. In Italy, a foreign hotbed of Disney comics production, the serial had already appeared in 1939. Both countries quickly reprinted it again and again. And this begged the question: could the über-spooky Blot strike again in further adventures? In 1955, Italian writer/artist team Guido Martina and Romano Scarpa authored "The Blot's Double Mystery" (published here in Mickey and Donald 6-8 [1988]), giving the Phantom a new talent: hypnotism! The Blot induced Mickey to unknowingly turn criminal — and trapped Goofy in a dungeon full of rising water. Scary stuff... and readers loved it!

Then in 1964, artist Paul Murry's "Return of the Phantom Blot" brought the baddie back to North America — and won him his own self-titled comic. New Adventures of the Phantom Blot (1964-1966) pitted the cowled cad against Mickey, Donald, and their full supporting casts. Fellow Disney nogoodniks dropped in, too: from the Beagle Boys to Mad Madam Mim!

The crossover-heavy atmosphere continued when the Blot entered a new medium: animation! In the DuckTales episode "All Ducks on Deck" (1988), the Blot stole a Navy seaplane out from under Donald Duck's beak. Later, Mickey MouseWorks' "Mickey Foils the Phantom Blot" (1999) found the bad guy battling Mickey atop a giant blimp — and near-drowning him in a roomful of ink! John O'Hurley voiced the Phantom's sophisticated snarl as he threatened our hero: "The late Mickey Mouse... I like the sound of that!"

Italian artist Stefano De Lellis draws the Blot both with — and without — his face-covering cowl. Created for Italy's Disney Parade 18 (2003), reprinted later in Greece (as here).

It's in comics that the Blot reigns supreme, though, so it's there that his greatest schemes continue to unravel. In "A Phantom Blot Bedtime Story" (Mickey Mouse Adventures 7-8, 1991), writer Lee Nordling and artist Stephen DeStefano gave the Blot a doting daughter — and showed how the villain retold his conflicts with Mickey for her, casting himself as a "good king" and Mickey as a wicked "White Knight." In writer Byron Erickson's "The Blot's Birthday Plot" (Donald Duck Adventures 5, 2004), the Phantom confronted Mickey with a classic alligator pit deathtrap. And in today's ongoing "Wizards of Mickey" serial (Mickey Mouse and Friends 296-present), we meet the Blot's medieval counterpart, battling his era's Mickey for ownership of magical crystals. The struggle between these foes really is one for the ages.

Seventy years of the Blot — what an anniversary! With his scary traps and his nimble wit, this legendary villain ranks among Disney's greatest cads... and we never know when he'll strike again. We do know, however, what he looks like beneath his all-covering cowl. In Gottfredson's 1939 tale and countless follow-ups, the Blot is a svelte, mustached man whom some have interpreted as a caricature of a 1930s-era Walt Disney! Walt as Mickey's foe? Nah — couldn't be. By David Gerstein