In 1932 the editor Mario Nerbini decided to open a new weekly newspaper for kids, containing illustrated tales with Mickey Mouse.

The first issue of Topolino was published on December 31, 1932: it contained Mickey's first Italian story drawn by Giove Toppi.

[3] When Nerbini bought the publication rights from Disney and King Features Syndicate, he changed the title back to Topolino with issue #5.

Topolino had eight pages and also published non-Disney comic strips such as Tim Tyler's Luck (Cino e Franco).

December 1937 also saw the publication of a companion newspaper, Paperino e altre avventure (Donald Duck and Other Adventures), which ran for three years before being merged with Topolino in October 1940.

Because of the fall of fascism in Italy, Mondadori could once again publish Mickey Mouse stories by Floyd Gottfredson.

In 1949, Mario Gentilini [it], Topolino's director, decided to convert the newspaper into a pocket comic book containing only Disney stories.

[6] Topolino started as a monthly comic book,[7] and the first issue was released on April 10, 1949: it had 100 pages and its price was 60 lire.

Mickey's Inferno (L'inferno di Topolino), written by Guido Martina and drawn by Angelo Bioletto, was the second Italian story to be published on Topolino (#7–12): a satiric retelling of Dante Alighieri's Inferno, the panels of the comic also have a poem, written using hendecasyllables in terza rima, describing what's happening in each scene.

The third Italian story to be published was Topolino e i grilli atomici (literally Mickey Mouse and the atomic crickets, #13-16), written by Martina and drawn by Bioletto: for the latter, it was his third and last Disney work.

I signori della galassia (The Lords of Galaxy, a sort of parody of Star Wars), C'era una volta in America (Once Upon a time in America, a far west saga that tells the story of the United States through the lives of Mickey's ancestors) and The Time machine saga.

He wrote also some stories, such as the Ice Sword Saga starring Mickey and Goofy in a fantasy word threatened by the "Lord of the Mists".