This story sketch was drawn by legendary animator Ub Iwerks during the production of the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon.

Mark Sonntag posted these fantastic storyboard pages from Plane Crazy (the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon ever made) on his Tag Toonz blog about a week ago. They are really good, especially considering the crude nature of animation at that time. A lot of people don’t know this, but storyboard is a process that was invented at the Disney studio. As Mark points out, actual storyboards weren’t in use at Disney until about 1932 so these are technically just “story sketches” created by the legnedary Ub Iwerks, who helped Walt Disney create Mickey Mouse.

Spotting this was kind of timely for me because I’m currently reading Neal Gabler’s Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. I’ve read several biographies of Disney, but I think Gabler’s is the definiative one. If you have an interest in Disney or animation in general and haven’t read it yet, you should.