Indie Comic Review: Steppers

It's no surprise that after Steamboat Willie entered the public domain, there would be a wave of stories featuring Mickey Mouse. Actually, this trend lies close to my heart as I myself made a Steamboat Willie comic for my sci-fi series Grimm Space. Steppers follows this tradition by framing Steamboat Willie in a completely different light. As a concept, Steppers is quite interesting. But the execution is a bit wonky and leaves a lot of room for improvement. 

The story starts with Mickey in prison. This isn't a Disney world at all. It's dark and gritty, filled with crime and despair. After getting out of the big house, Mickey is shown Steamboat Willie and is enraged by his silly and ridiculous appearance. In truth, Mickey has led a very dark and twisted life. But with this anger bubbling beneath the surface, he has vowed to start a revolution.

By itself, the premise is very interesting. Having a dark and gritty Mickey be pissed off by his depiction in Steamboat Willie is a great jumping off point. There's a lot of potential here to tell a great story. The issue I read contained the first five chapters, which I believe to be half the story. Most of the action is set to come in the second half, but that just means that the pacing is pretty off. Steamboat Willie is incredibly short and streamlined. There's not much there to work with. So the best way to treat it in the public domain is to keep things simple. This story has too many characters with too much dialogue. It was all over the place and could have used a nice editorial pass. Coupled with some rough art and lettering, the issue isn't as strong as it could be.