MM Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine

MM - Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine is an Italian 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's set in Anderville, a chaotic metropolis, modelled on the city 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 the late 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 inspector Jan 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 range of 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.

Though fans were pleased about these new Mickey Mouse stories, reactions from Disney were not so enthusiastic. Modern Mickey Mouse was a character far away distant from that of the 1930s and the 1940s, and main readers of his adventures on Topolino, in Italy, were considered being mostly kids. MM tried to change the classic beloved cliched Mickey Mouse. For that reason, from the second number to the fifth, we see Mickey Mouse watching the end of each episode in a theater screen, as if the stories were movies, with him as the main character, not being an official development of Mickey Mouse. Those reasons, together with the low sales pushed for the premature closing of the series. Fans were disappointed and MM was considered a great experiment which was not given any good chance to survive.

Main characters

• Mickey Mouse
• Sonny Mitchell
• Patty Ballestreros
• Jan Clayton
• Little Caesar

The story through the issues

1. 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.
2. MM#1 The Link:
3. MM#2 Estrelita:
4. MM#3 Lost & Found:
   • Lo Scoop:
5. MM#4 Mousetrap:
   • Corsa Semplice:
6. MM#5 Firestorm:
   • Una Questione Di Principio:
7. MM#6 Calypso:
   • Spy Story:
8. 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:
9. MM#8 Victoria:
   • Anderville Confidential - Patty Chiari: an unusual love story for the toughest detective ever, Patty Ballesteros.
10. MM#9 Run Run Run:
    • Anderville Confidential - Maryam + Jan: the first encounter between Jan Clayton and his future wife Maryam.
11. MM#10 The Dark Side: a parallel police acts in the shadow against villains in Anderville.
12. MM#11 Small World: the final adventure of Mickey Mouse in Anderville. A pyromaniac is coming from past to menace the old members of a firemen squad.

Detailed list of issues

See also

• Mickey Mouse
• PKNA