MM - Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine was an Italian monthly comic, published by Disney Italy from May 1999 to March 2001, about Mickey Mouse and his investigation in the city of Anderville. The series, a noir story starring Mickey Mouse as the main character, is composed of only twelve parts, and it is regarded by fans as one of the best Disney series ever, together with PKNA. It is often called MM or even MMMM and it is set in Anderville, a chaotic metropolis, modelled on the city of New York City. Anderville is a deceiving city, full of criminals. In this new setting, Mickey Mouse has a hard life, because he has no friends and because the authors wanted to break traditional cliché of his adventures in Mouseton, featured in Italian comic Topolino. Villains are different from Black Pete and even from Phantom Blot, often unsuspected, and even friends act in a rude way toward Mickey Mouse, who often feels disoriented in the big city. These stories were directed to a more adult reader, trying to bring to a new life the "old style Mickey Mouse" of the 1930s and 1940s stories, written and illustrated by Floyd Gottfredson. Mickey Mouse leaves Mouseton for Anderville, being involved in the case of his missing young friend Sonny Mitchell. To prove his innocence, being mistaken for a criminal, both from Anderville villains and police inspectorJan Clayton, he faces some dangerous situations, running the risk of being killed. He becomes friend with Little Ceaser, a well-respected, and somewhat rude, bartender, and with his friendly customers. He eventually proves his innocence but he is forced to stay in Anderville, waiting for furthermore investigations. He finds out that his friend left to him an investigation agency: Mickey Mouse becomes a detective and, during all the series, was involved in very dangerous events, which led him to act in a more violent way than the usual Mickey Mouse. First number of the series was written by Tito Faraci and illustrated by Giorgio Cavazzano. They created Anderville, through many sketches and decided a specific rangeof color to use for the stories, preferring the dark and cold tones to the light and warm ones. MM showed the talent of Francesco Artibani and Tito Faraci, main writers of the series, and was a showcase for the talent of some young, at the time, drawers: Silvio Camboni, Corrado Mastantuono, Paolo Mottura, Marco Palazzi, Alessandro Perina, Claudio Sciarrone, Stefano Turconi, Silvia Ziche and Giuseppe Zironi. There were also two side stories: one featuring the weird journalist Chester Soup, a comical one, and one called Anderville Confidential.
Main characters
Mickey Mouse
Sonny Mitchell
Patty Ballestreros
Jan Clayton
Little Caesar
The story through the issues
MM#0 Anderville: the first issue of MM. Mickey Mouse leaves Mouseton to Anderville, being involved in the case of the missing of his old friend, Sonny Mitchell.
MM#7 Black Mask: Mickey is now free to return to Mouseton. He will leave Anderville aboard a new train, in its inaugural trip. The train, named Black Mask is controlled by an A.I.. During the trip, a killer is sent to kill Mickey. When he misses his target, the blast of his weapon causes the A.I. to malfunction. and Black Mask becomes unstoppable. With a surprising idea Mickey save the train and finds the killer.
*Prima Pagina:
MM#8 Victoria:
*Anderville Confidential - Patty Chiari: an unusual love story for the toughest detective ever, Patty Ballesteros.
The series was originally published in Italian from May 1999 to March 2001. The entire series has been translated to German, Dutch, Greek and European Portuguese, and is currently published in Finnish and Brazilian Portuguese. The first story has also been translated to Spanish, Swedish and French. So far no English translation has been published.
