The Three Mouseketeers is the name of two separatetalking animal comic series published byDC Comics.
The originalThree Mouseketeers were published in DC's humor seriesFunny Stuff, first appearing inFunny Stuff #1 (Summer 1944).[1] The strip was drawn by Ronald Santi.[2]
The series was a loose parody of the classic 1844Alexander Dumas novelThe Three Musketeers. In this case, the leadswordsmice were namedAramouse,Amouse, andPorterhouse (with young accompliceD'Artagmouse), and had various adventures while servingKing Looey XIV. Their arch-enemy is Duke Bazook.[3]
The series ran inFunny Stuff until early 1948, after which the characters remained unseen for years.[4] The Mouseketeers were revisited in a 1982Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew time-travel storyline in which it is revealed the Mouseketeers are historical figures inEarth-C's version ofFrance during the 17th century.[5]
The secondThree Mouseketeers series appeared in a comic title of the same name, which ran from 1956 to 1960 for 26 issues.[6] They were created bySheldon Mayer, though most of the work was done by Rube Grossman after the first few issues,[7] and DC humor staffLarry Nalde edited the title.[8][a]
Though the title was clearly inspired byAlexandre Dumas' novelThe Three Musketeers, nothing else about the characters was, with no similarities to the earlier Golden Age series. The stories revolved around three mice, all members of a club. There was the pompous, self-styled leader, Fatsy, who was obese and wore a sailor's uniform similar toDonald Duck's, then Patsy, tall and dim-witted (also the only Mouseketeer to go without clothing), and last of all Minus, short, dressed in oversizedt-shirt andbaseball cap with the bill pointing to one side. Of the group, Minus was the most likely to get into trouble (a running gag had him getting many demerits from Fatsy) though this was usually not of a malicious nature. The mice met at a clubhouse, which was an old tin can with the open mouth covered by a leaf. The mice rarely used this entrance, preferring an underground secret entrance. Their adventures involved dealing with humans (whom they referred to as the Bigfoots), neighborhoodcats, and a particularly nastyhawk named Hamilton.
The series ended its initial run when DC decided to concentrate on its line ofsuperhero comics. The series did get a revival when it was reprinted for seven issues from 1970 to 1971;[9] later, in the 1980s,Mouseketeers stories were reprinted indigest format along with other classic DC talking-animal characters under theFunny Stuff banner.