DISNEYANA

Dedicated to the great merchandising empire of The Mouse between 1928 and 1958, this book looks at Mickey Mouse books and magazines (yeah, watches, too); Donald Duck castile soap figures; Bambi pencil sharpeners (ouch); rubber Dopey dolls; and Goofy wind- up action toys. And it does it with a straight face, which the gazillions of dollars spent on the stuff no doubt warrants. The authors, who write frequently on pop culture, tell the story of Disney merchandising and how the company used its characters during WW II for army training films and for morale on the home front. (The illustration for the sheet music of Oliver Wallace's ``Der Fuehrer's Face'' shows the intrepid Donald Duck flinging a giant tomato, pow!, right in der Fuehrer's face.) A time capsule of images and characters that are an integral part of American culture, the book is a testament to an even more integral part- -merchandising (exemplified by the book's publisher itself; Hyperion is a division of Disney Book Publishing).