THECROOKEDCAT

The only secondary character from Walt Disney's funny animal comic book stories that can be found in all the universes is the always crooked and villainous cat usually referred to as Pete. He is especially known for his repeated participation as the main antagonist to Mickey Mouse and Goofy in the Mouse universe, but he is also an occasional guest in the Forest universe (Brer Bear, Chip'n'Dale, Li'l Bad Wolf, Mad Madam Mim, and others). And he is often seen in the Duck universe as well. Here Carl Barks used him in his stories on special occasions...

RESUME

Cartoons: Pete was invented in Disney's first animated cartoons by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, and he is by far the oldest Disney character still in use! He first appeared in Alice Solves the Puzzle from 1925. Since then he has participated in about 50 animated Disney cartoons (short and long). He was also a frequent guest in TV series such as DuckTales and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Stories: Pete's first comic book story appearance took place in a newspaper strip (149 strips) in YM002 Mickey Mouse in Death Valley from 1930, primarily made by the famous mouseman Floyd Gottfredson. As co-writer he had Walt Disney himself in one of his very rare script performances!
Since then Pete has participated in hundreds of comic book stories, and he is still going strong.

CHARACTERISTICS

Pete is an anthropomorphic cartoon character who was actually 'born' as a bear, but when Mickey Mouse entered the scene in 1928 he was redefined as a cat, which is how he has been portrayed ever since.

From the start Pete's right leg ended in a knee-high pegleg which was later reduced to a foot-high prosthesis. The very visible handicap soon led to a series of goofs where the cartoon animators kept switching the pegleg from right to left and back again. In one cartoon, Two Gun Mickey from 1934, it changed position an astonishing 4 times!!!). Even Gottfredson occasionally switched the pegleg from right to left, and in one story, YM047 The Mystery at Hidden River from 1941, the pegleg simply disappeared and was substituted for a shoe! In the story Pete tells Mickey that it was just a new and improved model of a normal pegleg. From then on Pete seems to have two normal feet...

Another distinctive feature was a chewed and smelly, burning cigar butt hanging from Pete's lips, but it was removed after a few years.

As a character Pete has a reputation for being bossy, brutal, bullying, cocky, crass, demanding, despotic, dictatorial, dishonest, evil, feared, gluttonous, greedy, hypocritical, ignorant, impatient, merciless, oppressive, overconfident, power-hungry, rude, ruthless, selfish, shameless, sinful, sleazy, sneaky, unfair, unreliable, unscrupulous. Just to name a few traits...

NAMECALLING

A well-liked person often has several unofficial names as signs of endearment. But Pete surely tops the list over unliked persons' call-names. Below are some of his aliases from cartoons and stories presented in alphabetical order:
Bad Pete, Big Bad Bill, Big Bad Pete, Big Pete, Black Pete, Black Pierre, Bold Pete, Bootleg Pete, Captain Black, Captain Blackheart, Captain Pietro, Dirty Pete, Dogface Pete, Louie the Leg, Mighty Pete, Pee Wee Pete, Pegleg Pedro, Peg-leg Pete, Pegleg Pete, Pete, Peter Pete, Pete the Bear, Pete the Cat, Petey, Pierre the Trapper, Pistol Pete, Putrid Pete, Sharkey, Sneaky Pete, Sylvester Macaroni, Terrible Tom, The Cactus Kid, and Tiny Tom.

So it is really an open question what Pete's real name is, but according to WDCS243 Mickey's Strange Mission from 1960 he has a good brother, a lawyer to boot, by the name of Percy P. Percival, so maybe 'our' Pete was born Peter Percival...

BARKS CARTOONS

Barks was employed at the Walt Disney Studios from 1935 to 1942, and during that time he worked on diverse cartoons as in-betweener, storyman, or story director. Below are all the 11 cartoons (7 published and 4 unpublished) in which he incorporated Pete, presented in chronological order (see more details HERE):

(Northwest Mounted - 1936)			Pete kidnaps Minnie Mouse and tries to force her to reveal where a goldmine is located. Mickey Mouse, as a mounted police officer, intervenes. Barks wrote the story and drew close to 400 storyboard sketches as well as model sheets for Mickey and his horse Tanglefoot.			(Tanglefoot - 1938)
			Mickey Mouse races on his horse Tanglefoot but the race is sabotaged by Pete. The story was never storyboarded and Barks was probably just involved because of his prior work with the horse character.

(Traveling Salesman Donald - 1940)

Timber - 1941

(Donald's Tank - 1942)*

Donald Gets Drafted - 1942

The Vanishing Private - 1942

Sky Trooper - 1942

Bell Boy Donald - 1942

The Old Army Game - 1943

Trombone Trouble - 1944

BARKS STORIES
Pete must be one of the busiest characters in Disney's comic books, because he divides his time between all the universes. Not only did Barks use Pete in several stories with a varied likeness to the initial character, but there can be little doubt that he had the character in mind when he drew the villain. Also, he would often invent new names for the culprit possibly in a vain attempt to 'blur' who he really was namely a character foremost from the Mouse universe. Pete is presented here in chronological order with his names in the stories.
FC0009 Pirate Gold - 1942 Black Pete	FC0029 The Mummy's Ring - 1943 (No name)	WDCS045 Rival Boatmen - 1944 J.P. Diamondtubs
FC0062 Frozen Gold - 1945 Pete de Fox	FC0079 The Riddle of the Red Hat - 1945 Black Pete	WDCS108 'The Jumping Frog' - 1949 Snake Eyes McViper
WDCS132 'Attic Antics' - 1951 (No name)	U$28 Inventors' Contest - 1959 Pierre de Fraud	WDCS267 The Log Jockey - 1962 Black Pierre

It has been argued that this is Black Pete in disguise, but he is not for various reasons: He has normal scalp hair, and he joyfully kills Donald - or thinks he does. Pete was never that ruthless.

FC0199 Sheriff of Bullet Valley - 1948
Blacksnake McQuirt