Mickey Mouse and the Sword of Ice (Topolino e la Spada di Ghiaccio) is an Italian-made comic saga by Massimo de Vita, that ran from 1982 until 1993. It is a fantasy adventure epic where Mickey Mouse and his friend Goofy are summoned to another dimension, the world of Aargar which is a land of magic and monsters. They are assisted by the wise old mage Yor, his assistant Boz and the ranger Gunni Helm.
The evil Prince of Fogs is trying to invade the land, using his horde of foul monsters and his dark magic. The prophecy says that only the legendary Sword of Ice can destroy the Prince. It used to be wielded by the mythical warrior Alf. Mickey and his friends pretend that Goofy is Alf's cousin in order to cheer the people, and also eventually have him wield the Sword.
However, defeating the Prince of Fogs will not be the end of the problems...
This saga is considered one of the best works by Massimo de Vita, and has gotten several re-releases, including a special limited-edition package with figurines of Mickey, Goofy (in their Aargar attire) and Yor.
- Chapter 1: "Mickey Mouse and the Sword of Ice" (1982)
- Chapter 2: "Mickey Mouse: Return to the Land of Adventure" (1983)
- Chapter 3: "Mickey Mouse and the Return of the Prince of Fogs" (1984)
- Chapter 4: "Mickey Mouse and the Sleeping Beauty in the Stars" (1993)
Mickey Mouse and the Sword of Ice provides examples of:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: subverted and weaponized, too. When Goofy and Mickey are attacked by troops of the Prince of Fogs riding winged monsters, Goofy declares that similar monsters cannot be real and the monsters suddenly vanish. That gives an Oh, Crap! moment by the Prince of Fogs, since they are materialized illusions, and with him reduced to his own shadow expressing disbelief is enough to vanquish them. In the meanwhile, the troopers are falling (on the snow: this is a Disney comic).
- Big Bad: The Prince of Fogs. Nominally thrice. Or at least, his mask is.
- The Chosen One: Goofy seems to be, although he presents himself as Alf's cousin. Also the Sleeping Beauty is presented as such, played completely straight.
- Clothes Make the Superman: The Prince of Fogs's mask proves to contain elaborate evil machinery, and just its atoms are evil enough to poison and curse a whole land.
- Dangerous 16th Birthday: The Sleeping Beauty in the Stars becomes... well, the Sleeping Beauty in the Stars by pricking her finger on a pointy iron arrow head at her 16th birthday.
- Deus ex Machina: In the fourth chapter, Goofy and friends have to cross a river of lava... and how do they do this? Goofy confronts the comic's artist to make the situation easier. So the artist draws a stone bridge. Later, the team is under attack by evil comets while in space, but Goofy renders the comets tame... by screaming that all comets are good by definition! While Goofy has a certain level of Your Mind Makes It Real abilities in this universe, it has broken too many readers's suspension of disbelief. Though, to be fair, it could be seen as Self-Parody and those moments as supposing to
Cross the Line Twice. - Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Yor ends up chased by a monster in the very end of the saga, a monster that is just being shown as drawn by a fourth-wall-breaking artist!
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: The Sleeping Beauty in the Stars herself. She actually has quite an alien face, but Goofy eventually finds her cute after first finding her creepy.
- Lampshade Hanging: The Sleeping Beauty in the Stars actually looks like a kinda-freaky alien? Boz asks Goofy what he expected from the daughter of a comet.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: The world of Argaar seems to be populated with humans and Dog Faces.
- Magic Kiss: Only the kiss of a great warrior can awaken the Sleeping Beauty in the Stars... and it's up to Goofy to do it!
- Mundane Made Awesome: some toys in the pockets of Goofy, in particular in the tournament of the second episode.
- No Fourth Wall: The fourth story is infamous for this. Goofy even calls upon the artist to draw them a bridge to cross a lava river.
- No Name Given: The Sleeping Beauty in the Stars. The characters even realize that they don't even know her name, including Boz and Gunni Helm, and so Goofy says goodbye to her, calling her "Nameless princess".
- Paper Tiger: The Prince of Fogs's magic is vulnerable to simply voicing disbelief, and he runs on the fear he accrued back when he still had his body and his magic was far more powerful. Goofy stumbling on his weakness makes him react with horror.
- Post-Script Season: The fourth chapter was obviously not planned after several years.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: Yor's costume.
- Warrior Princess: The Sleeping Beauty in the Stars.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The Prince of Fogs wields powerful magic capable of materializing terrifying monsters, but ever since his body was destroyed by Alf his monsters are nothing than materialized illusions that can be vanquished simply by expressing disbelief.
