The Mickey Mouse comic was first published on January 1930 in 60 newspapers in the U.S. and in 20 other countries. A man realized he could make more money by selling merchandise based on the characters from the comic and asked Walt for a license to put Mickey Mouse on his product. By 1934, Disney had 40 licenses for Mickey Mouse and by 1936, it had $35 million worth of sales, making more money from merchandising Mickey Mouse than from the character's films.