Roy Lichtenstein’s 1961 painting that first used Ben-Day dots and comic imagery was Look Mickey.
The oil-on-canvas work depicts Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in a deliberately flat, cartoon-like scene, complete with a speech balloon. It marked Lichtenstein’s first full use of Ben-Day dots, comic-book language, and popular imagery as central elements of a painting. The dots imitate the mechanical appearance of commercial printing.
Look Mickey is often described as a bridge between Lichtenstein’s earlier abstract-expressionist experiments and his mature Pop Art. He adapted the image from a children’s book illustration, enlarging and transforming ordinary commercial material rather than presenting it as a traditional hand-drawn composition.
It is easy to confuse Look Mickey with later Lichtenstein works such as Drowning Girl, Hopeless, or Whaam!, which also use comic conventions and Ben-Day dots. Look Mickey is the key answer because it is specifically identified as his first painting to employ this combination so fully. The work is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.