Sunday 29 June 2008

'SHUFFLED SYMPHPONIES' AND 'LAST GROUND-UP' FROM 1939

In an earlier post on this blog, I had covered Big Bad Wolf's appearances in the 'Shuffled Symphonies' illustrated stories series in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in the years 1936-37. The Big Bad Wolf appeared at least two more 'Shuffled Symphonies' episodes in 1939.
In the story published in no.176, the wolf opens a snack bar as a front for his plans and manages to capture not only the two silly pigs as usual, but also Mickey's nephews (and he plans to eat them as well!):

Of course, Mickey and the Practical Pig come to the rescue in the end.
On the other hand, the Big Bad Wolf is portrayed relatively in a better light than usual in the episode on no. 182, which takes its cue from an earlier cartoon short titled Mickey's Polo Team (1936). Here, Mickey sets out to assemble a polo team and the duty of inviting the wolf to take part falls on the shoulders of Donald Duck:

At the end of the game, it is revealed that the Big Bad Wolf hadn't refrained from carrying out a petty theft in the meantime, but he is nevertheless pardoned for the sake of his performance in the game!

The Big Bad Wolf appeared in another illustrated story series published in the same amagazine in the same year. The three-part series titled as 'Last Ground-Up' stars Toby Tortoise as a "tender-foot" hero in the wild west with Peg-Leg Pete and the Big Bad Wolf as a team of villains. The below scan is from the second installement, on. no. 194:

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