This initial volume in a series spotlighting cartoonists who've left their mark on Disney's iconic characters features Mickey Mouse yarns written and drawn by Italy's Scarpa. When Mickey's American artist Floyd Gottfredson, whose newspaper comic portrayed the rodent as a scrappy adventurer, was directed by the syndicate to switch the strip's format from serialized stories to gag-a-day humor in 1955, Disney's Italian publisher turned to Scarpa to create locally produced works in the Gottfredson mold. These tales, from 1959 to 1961, see Mickey and his sidekick Atomo Bleep-Bleep (a scientifically brilliant mutated atom) hunt down blackmailers threatening Mouseton with disastrous climate attacks, invent an antigravity device, and discover the hidden paradise Shan-Grilla. Scarpa hews closely to Gottfredson's template Atomo resembles his predecessor's creation Eega Beeva, and the villain in all three stories is Mickey's old nemesis Pegleg Pete and his cartooning is a slightly more exaggerated version of Gottfredson's visual approach. Although Scarpa's Mickey doesn't match the best of Gottfredson's work (which has been collected by Fantagraphics), it possesses its own entertaining, if derivative, charms.--Gordon Flagg Copyright 2018 Booklist