MAGAZINE FROM 1933 WITH BIG BAD WOLF COVER ART

This magazine was recently offered on ebay. It came to my notice from this blog post:
http://disneybooks.blogspot.com/search/label/Ebay

BIG BAD WOLF FOOTBALL GAG STRIP FROM 1939

The above scan (click on the image to view it in larger size) is from Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly no.202. I find the pig's facial expression in the first two pictures as priceless. Also, the fact that the wolf is depicted with its gaze turned towards the readers is very interesting -and in line with a feature frequently seen in his appearances in Sunday comics in the pre-war era.

BIG BAD WOLF POEM SERIAL FROM 1939

Above scan is of the illustration accompanying the last installement of a three-part poem-story published in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1939. The story is about the pigs being kidnapped by the wolf ona sea voyage and then being rescued.

Update from Dec. 7th: I have now realized this poem was earlier published in Mickey Mouse Magazine of the US in 1936 albeit with different illustrations; see post above on Dec. 7th for scan of the original American edition.

BIG BAD WOLF WAR INSIGNIA (1943)

The below set of war insignia from the 2nd World War era, one of which feature the Big Bad Wolf 's as above, were published in no. 30 (dated March 1943) of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories.

By the way, readers interested in comics'/cartoons' role in the war effort in WW2 are urged to chech out this blog: http://toonsatwar.blogspot.com/

BIG BAD WOLF IN MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE (1937)

The forerunner of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories was Mickey Mouse Magazine published between 1935-40. Besides non-comics material, it largely reprinted US newspaper daily and Sunday comics. Today, this is a relatively rare publication and is yet sparsely indexed. Via ebay, it has come to my notice that 1936's 'Silly Symphony' Sunday comics serial which featured Big Bad Wolf's first appearance in the comics medium had been reprinted in Mickey Mouse Magazine in 1937, albeit in a reformatted manner to fit standart magazine page format.

Note that, in a series of posts in previous months in this blog, I had provided a detailed overview of this Silly Symphony continuity, with extensive scans from its reprint in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly which had ran it in a form identical to its original format.

BIG BAD WOLF MEETS DONALD DUCK

In a below post in late August, I had noted that artist Gil Turner had introduced well-known Disney characters as guest stars into a succession of 'Li'l Bad Wolf' stories in 1950. In this post, I will cover Big Bad Wolf's encounter with Disney comics' arguably most celebrated star, Donald Duck in Walt Disney's Comics & Stories no. 115 (dated April 1950).
The plot of the story involves Donald Duck taking up an offer of the pigs to swap their country house with his city house for one month. Consequently, Big Bad Wolf unintentionaly kidnaps Donald.

Turner's take on Donald Duck seems inspired by the hot-tempered Donald of cartoons and of newspaper gag strips. Big Bad Wolf's initial reaction to meeting such a personality is very interesting. When faced with someone he is unfamiliar with and especially someone who stands up to him, he initially backs off, which is perhaps somehow typical of (the popular conceptions regarding) the humble attitude of 'the country folks' towards 'the city people'. The realization that he could prey on him as well comes only gradually.
The wolf then enlists yet another one of his disguise tricks to re-capture Donald, unaware that his son had already tipped the duck of his plans..

Note that the very last panel is reminiscent of the finale of the cartoon short Three Little Pigs (1933).
In the coming days, I will post more on Gil Turner's works, so stay tuned on...

BIG BAD WOLF PRODUCTION DRAWING FROM 1934

The above production drawing for the cartoon Big Bad Wolf (1934) was recently sold at an ebay auction for 177.5 US dlrs. Below is that particular scene as it appeared in the cartoon: