Preview: Taschen Will Release Colossal ‘Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History’

As a follow-up to its massive book about the classic Disney animated features, Taschen will next release a similarly oversized tome devoted exclusively to Walt Disney’s most famous creation, Mickey Mouse.

Arriving in November, Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History will come out in time for Mickey’s 90th birthday.

The 480-page book by Daniel Kothenschulte, like the earlier Taschen volume on Disney, will be extremely heavy, shipping in its own cardboard box with handle. It will retail for $200. The book will include 1,400 images covering all of Mickey’s 122 cartoons, his comic adventures, and the world of Mickey merchandise and memorabilia. More about the book:

With unlimited access to the Disney archives and public and private collections, the authors bring Mickey’s success story to life: concept art, story sketches, backgrounds, and animation drawings as well as historical photographs trace the origins and evolution of such timeless favorites as Steamboat Willie, The Band Concert, and Brave Little Tailor; they also follow Mickey as he builds on this legendary library of short cartoons by appearing in two historic feature-length films, Fantasia and Fun and Fancy Free.

Unfinished projects, many of them presented for the first time through original storyboard drawings, unveil a Mickey that might have been. Extensive archival research sheds new light on little-known chapters of Mickey’s career, such as his pioneering radio shows, the origins of the Mickey Mouse Club, or his use as a patriotic icon during World War Two.

Along the way, we encounter the work of all major Mickey artists in both film and comics, including such greats as Ub Iwerks, Win Smith, Ferdinand Horvath, Freddie Moore, Floyd Gottfredson, Carl Barks, Manuel Gonzales, Paul Murry, Romano Scarpa, Giorgio Cavazzano, Byron Erickson, César Ferioli, and Noel Van Horn.

A preview of some of the book’s pages can be seen below (it should be noted that these are rough layouts and not final pages). Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History can be pre-ordered on Amazon right now.