Sunday 28 December 2008

BIG BAD WOLF MODEL SHEET FROM 1939


The above item, which was recently offered on ebay, appears to be a model sheet of the Big Bad Wolf for the cartoon The Practical Pig (1939).
On the other hand, the below vintage tin box from a UK-based seller was recently sold at an ebay auction for 55 US dlrs. The rather ugly illustration on the lid appears to be modeled from the cover of the Blue Ribbon book Three Little Pigs (1933).

Another interesting item recently offered on ebay was the below framed calender sheet from 1942:

Wednesday 17 December 2008

MISC. EBAY ITEMS


The above box (only the box!) of Big Bad Wolf figurine was recently sold at an ebay auction for 77 Us dlrs!.. Info on Seiberling Latex Products Co.'s Disney items can be found here: http://vintagedisneymemorabilia.blogspot.com/2008/01/seiberling-latex-company.html

Also being offered on ebay are the below "mat prints" of Big Bad Wolf illustrations; they are not vintage, but the illustrations are nice, esp. the first one:


Saturday 13 December 2008

GLOBE-TROTTING BIG BAD WOLF (AND OTHER EBAY STUFF)


Above image (click over to view it in larger size to better observe its details) is of a map offered as a premium as part of a bread merchandising campaign in the US circa 1936. The empty spaces at the bottom and top portions of the map are reserved to stick cards obtained by purchasing the bread from partipating bakeries.

And below images are from another vintage item, a children's plate, possibly from the 1930s:



Not necessarily as vintage, but the below ceramic figurine, reportedly of Mexican origin, was recently sold at ebay for a whooping price of 110 US dlrs!:


and below is a set of pvc figurines from Spain, also recently offered on ebay:

Tuesday 9 December 2008

BIG BAD WOLF IN MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE ISSUES FROM 1937


The vol. 2, no. 6 of Mickey Mouse Magazine, dated March 1937, features a very interesting 3 and a half pages long story titled 'Home, Sweet Home!'. The lead character is Little Red Riding Hood, who had also appeared in the cartoon short Big Bad Wolf (1934). The story kicks off with the little girl getting fed up with getting continuously scolded by her parents, which also includes getting a light slap on her face. When she protests that she doesn't like home anymore, her father literally tells her to pack her stuff and leave... Once on her own, she meets Big Bad Wolf who is surprisingly kind to her! Eventually, we are told (by her parents) that Mickey and the gang were secretly following the wolf and the reason of his kindness was that he was aware he was being watched... It is a very well-written story which enables the readers' to enter the mindset of the little girl completely. In addition, the unexpected behavior of the Big Bad Wolf does evoke a perfect aura of uncannines. This story would make a perfect subject for psychoanalitic scrunity. I will not go into it at length here, but cannot refrain from noting that the German (the native language of Freud, mind you) for 'uncanny' is umheimlich which literaly means home-like but not home. The behaviour of Big Bad Wolf whom she meets outside home is the polar opposite of Red Riding Hood's parents at home. He appears as everything she wants to see at home, but he is not of home. Anyway...
The same issue of MMM also includes this one-pag gag-comics with Big Bad Wolf, with inferior-quality art:


The subsequent issue, vol. 2 no. 7, dated April 1937, features even more material with the Big Bad Wolf, even though none are as interesting as the 'Home, Sweet Home!' story in the previous issue. The story titled '$500 Reward' is set in the wild west and has bounty hunter Mickey on the trail of the Big Bad Wolf.




'April Fool Candy' has Big Bad Wolf forcing the Busy Pig to invite him over to a party, only to have trick played on him.


'The Moo-Maid' is the best of the lot in this issue. Here, Clarabella Cow has been designated as the lifeguard of a beach frequented by the folk of Disneyville. The part where she spends so much time on taking care on how she looks before comingto the drowning Big Bad Wolf's rescue is hilarious.
In additon to the illustrated text stories, the Big Bad Wolf, together with his sons, also appear in the below gag:


The next Big Bad Wolf appearance among the MMM issues available in my collection is in vol. 2, no. 11, dated Aug. 1937, where his face (in an awful drawing) appears on a balloon in a piece titled 'Let's Have A Picnic':


With this long post, I round up my coverage of Big Bad Wolf appearances in Mickey Mouse Magazine till I get more issues to my collection. For coming posts, I intend to go back to covering post-war Li'l/Bad Wolf comics, so stay tuned on.

Sunday 7 December 2008

BIG BAD WOLF POEM AND OTHERS IN MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE FROM 1936


The above scan is of the first page of a two-page poem, titled 'A Tale of the Sea', published in vol.2 no.2 of Mickey Mouse Magazine, dated Nov. 1936. The same poem would also be published in UK's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1939 albeit with different illustrations (see below post on Sept. 20 for a scan from the British edition). The plot of the poem is about the little pigs being kidnapped by the Big Bad Wolf and rescued by Mickey Mouse.
The same issue of Mickey Mouse Magazine also includes this gag-panel (with very inferior-quality art!) featuring the Big Bad Wolf:

In addition, the Big Bad Wolf is also mentioned in an illustrated text story titled 'Laugh, Hyena, Laugh' in which Donald Duck fights a hyena. The wolf is mentioned in the text as an associate of the hyena in question, but he is not depicted in any of the pictures illustrating the story.
On the other hand, Big Bad Wolf's sons are co-featured with Donald in this single-page irregular-format mini-comics in the same issue: