The Sleuth

The Sleuth is an anthropomorphic canine. He is an English private eye operating in 19th century London and employing Mickey Mouse as an assistant. The character was created by Carl Fallberg (plot) and Al Hubbard (art) for the Disney Studio Program and intended solely for foreign publication. The first story in the series is "Mickey and the Sleuth: The Case of the Wax Dummy". Unusually for material created for the program this story appeared domestically in the Procter & Gamble Disney Magazine giveaway and then was published by Gold Key in "Walt Disney Showcase" n°38 (1977). Given their historical setting, the "Mickey and the Sleuth" stories stand apart from other Mickey Mouse continuities. It is never explained if the "Mickey Mouse" working with the Sleuth is an ancestor of the present-day Mickey or if those stories are to be included in a totally different continuity. Apart from Mickey, no other prominent Disney characters are featured in the stories.

The Sleuth is a good-natured gentleman; wearing a deerstalker hat, smoking a pipe, and using a magnifying glass, he is an obvious parody of Sherlock Holmes, Mickey basically playing the part of Dr. Watson. Like his literary counterpart, he also plays the violin (albeit horribly). Unlike Sherlock Holmes, however, he is totally hopeless as a detective, being sometimes unable to figure out crimes that happen right in front of his eyes. Nevertheless, he always manages to solve his cases - hence ensuring a reputation as a great detective - either by sheer luck, or thanks to his foes' own incompetence, or simply because Mickey Mouse does all the actual detective work for him.

The Sleuth's constant foes are Professor Nefarious (a parody of Professor Moriarty), a London-based "teacher of crime", and his three henchmen-pupils Fliplip, Sidney and Armadillo. Their hideout is a rundown townhouse with the words "University of Criminal Sciences" written on its front door. While Nefarious is reasonably smart (although his own megalomania sometimes hinders his plans), his three accomplices are thoroughly inept comical villains. Mickey and the Sleuth imprison the gang at the end of each story, although Nefarious himself generally manages to escape.

Apart from Mickey - and of course, the reader - no one seems to be aware of the Sleuth's utter incompetence. Nefarious considers the Sleuth - not Mickey - as his greatest enemy. Why Mickey would keep being the assistant of such an inept detective is never explained. Mickey and the Sleuth stories were produced up until the late 1980s.