And Universal would continue to produce Oswald shorts until the end of the 1930s, with nearly 200 shorts to his name. But Walt did come up with Mickey Mouse shortly after the Oswald deal collapsed, even while he was under contractual obligation to finish the Oswald shorts.

On the train ride back to New York was where, probably apocryphal legend has it, he came up with the idea for Mickey Mouse. Walt vowed to never work for anyone again and to own everything he created. What’s more Universal suggested, as a way of salvaging things, for Mintz to take over the studio from Walt. Walt wouldn’t own the character he had created for the studio. But Mintz had signed a new deal with the studio and Universal was ruthless. Even after he found out that many of his animators had been scooped up from underneath him, he worked to make a separate deal with Universal, going around Mintz. Instead of offering Walt a raise, Mintz only offered the negative costs, about $1,000 less than the brothers were already making, and Walt scrambled to get his bearings, frantically telegraphing Roy but generally keeping positive. Unaware of the treachery (or perhaps willfully ignorant), Walt took a trip to New York to renegotiate his contract as Mintz was in the process of signing another deal with Universal for additional Oswald shorts. George Winkler, another producer on the shorts, began making arrangements with some of Walt’s artists to join the new venue (Iwerks wouldn’t budge). In early 1928, Mintz, tired of Walt’s demands and in disbelief of his actual talent, began negotiating for more Oswald shorts without Walt.

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