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Sylvester Shyster is a recurring villain from the Mickey Mouse comics. He is a crooked lawyer and con man who often works with Pete. The character has been described by some as a weasel or a rat (the latter being Floyd Gottfredson's own interpretation), but his ears suggest that he is rather an anthropomorphic canine.
Background[]
He first appeared in the comic strip adventure "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley", the first real Mickey Mouse continuity, which was partially written by Walt Disney and drawn by Win Smith and other artists, before being taken over by Floyd Gottfredson (plot and art). In this story, Sylvester Shyster was a crooked lawyer who attempted, with the help of his henchman Pete, to deprive Minnie Mouse of her inheritance.
Shyster and Pete have been causing trouble for Mickey and his friends since then. Shyster is generally depicted as the duo's brain, with Pete acting as the brawn. He is probably the only person Pete will listen to without rebellion.
After Shyster's first appearance, Gottfredson made no further references to his profession as a lawyer, apart from his name; one might theorize, though it is not canon, that Shyster was disbarred due to his arrest and imprisonment at the end of "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley." Later creators occasionally referenced Shyster's role as a lawyer, with one story ("Trial and Error," 2007) forcing Shyster to defend Mickey himself in an overseas courtroom.
Shyster disappeared for a time after 1934, but made comebacks in 1942, 1950, and again in various 1960s Italian-created stories. More recently, publisher Egmont Creative A/S (in Denmark) revived Shyster as a regular character, a capacity in which he continues today.
In "Race to the South Seas" (March of Comics #41, 1949), a Donald Duck story by Carl Barks, a character named Sylvester Shyster appeared as Scrooge McDuck's lawyer, but his likeness differed from that in the Mickey Mouse strip, and he is not a villain.
In "The Thunderbolt Machine" in Mickey Mouse #34 (1953/4), Shyster is once again Pete's partner in villainy, however Tony Strobl drew a character who looks nothing like Shyster's established likeness. (Instead he is a standard guest character for the time, a humanistic character with a stock canine nose.) The authorship of this story is uncertain.
On a few occasions, it seems that Northern European translators of Egmont-produced stories have confused Shyster with Eli Squinch, another villainous "brain" who often employs Pete as his "brawn." In "The Cavern in the Shifting Sands" (file number D 95122, first published in Anders And & Co. 1996-49), author David Gerstein wrote a role for Shyster as Pete's partner in crime. However, artist Noel Van Horn drew Squinch instead. Gerstein has noted that the character is more active than the disabled Squinch usually is, showing that the role was written for the younger Shyster. Ironically, the German edition appears to have restored Gerstein's original intent in the text, referring to the character as Shyster even though he bears Squinch's face.
Other Apperances[]
In The Perils of Mickey on 1993, Sylvester Shyster was appeared in the page comic title The Mail Pilot.
Gallery[]
