Saturday 28 November 2009

THE FIRST KNOWN PRINT APPEARANCES OF THE BIG BAD WOLF IN TURKEY (1937-38)


The earliest known appearance of the Big Bad Wolf in a Turkish publication was in the serialization of the illustrated story adaptation of the Three Little Wolves (1936) cartoon short in the children's suplement of the Ulus newspaper in 1937. However, of the illustratios in this four-part story, he appears only in one, in the first part in no. 5, dated Dec. 11st, 1937 -and he is in drag in there!
Next, what appears to be a rendering of the Big Bad Wolf by an unknown Turkish illustrator was printed in the cover page of no. 23, dated Apr. 23rd, 1938, along with several other Disney characters:


In the central pages of the same issue, another figure of the Big Bad Wolf appears (again alongside other Disney characters):


Proper comics featuring the Big Bad Wolf would begin to be reprinted in Turkish comics magazines only in early 1950s.

Friday 27 November 2009

BIG BAD WOLF IN WHEATIES GIVE-AWAYS (1950-51)


In a previous post on July 23rd, 2008 at this blog, I had covered Secret of the Woods, one of the four oblong-formatted mini-comics featuring the Big Bad Wolf and the Li'l Wolf, distributed as giveaways for the Wheaties label cereals in 1950-51. Since then, I managed to collect the rest, but was disappointed that none were nowhere as good as the marvelous Secret of the Woods. The only noteworthy point of Forest Ranger is that it features the first-ever appearance of Big Bad Wolf on the cover of a US publication, not counting the cover of a pre-war Mickey Mouse Magazine where he was seen in drag as a mermaid -and his pose in the cover of this 1950 mini-comic is not very flattering either!

For some reason, the title of Hollow Tree Hideout has a somewhat promising ring to it and I was most curious about this one, but the story turned out to be as mediocre as Forest Ranger and the less said about it, the better.

On the other hand, Fire Fighter is amusing and interesting on several counts. It starts with a modestly impressive splash panel:
Note that the Big Bad Wolf's costume is red and not blue as customary. It turns out that the fire the wolves see has wiped out Br'er Bear's chicken house. Big Bad Wolf's taunting of Br'er Bear on the occasion is superb:

And Br'er Bear's below complaint reflects a more mature humour in the script clearly intended for adults and not merely for kids:

The plot then unfolds as the task of being the fire warden falls on Li'l Wolf while his father fetches plans to get Br'er Bear's hens using false fire alarms..

The comics in the four Wheaties Li'l Bad Wolf books are by Gil Turner. On the other hand, the paternity of the cover arts is problematic in my opinion. Alberto Beccattini's Disney Index credits the cover arts of all Wheaties give-aways to Carl Buettner. However, while the covers of Hollow Tree Hideout and Fire Fighter does indeed look like the work of Buettner, the covers of the other two seem to be the work of a different artist, perhaps Turner. You be the judge by comparing the faces of Li'l Wolf especially with regards to his hair and mouth..

Wednesday 18 November 2009

BIG BAD WOLF IN THE COVER ILLUSTRATION OF TURKISH MAGAZINE FROM 1938


The above scan is from the cover illustration the of third special issue of Turkish children's magazine Yavrutürk from 1938. The scan of the full cover is below:

The cover art seems to be a patch-up job. The central figure of Mickey Mouse has obviously been copied from the below illustration from the 'Shuffled Symphonies' page of no. 72 of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly:

..which itself has been copied from a panel of an American Mickey Mouse newspaper strip previously reprinted in MMW no. 8:

Monday 16 November 2009

BIG BAD WOLF IN THE COVER ILLUSTRATION OF UK BOOK FROM 1940


Above image of the Big Bad Wolf is from the cover illustration of a British book titled The Disneyland Omnibus, published by Collins. However, neither the wolf nor the pigs appear in any of the stories featured in the book whose full cover is below:

The book is undated, but the presence of Pinocchio indicate a post-1939 date and hence, some online sources which date it at 1940 appear credible.

Sunday 15 November 2009

BIG BAD WOLF TRAY FROM 1934


This tray, manufactured by an Ohio-based compay in 1934, was recently sold on ebay for 37 US dlrs. The illustration is from the reverse-side of the covers of the Three Little Pigs (1933) book by Blue Ribbon. The tray was reportedly part of a tea set for kids.

Tuesday 10 November 2009

SPANISH EDITION OF THREE LITTLE PIGS BOOK


Above image is of the cover of the Spanish edition of Blue Ribbon's Three Little Pig illustrated story book, adapted from the first cartoon featuring the Big Bad Wolf. The Spanish edition by Barcelona-based Urgel was first printed in October 1934 and saw four reprints till December 1935.
Covers of the original American and various other editions can seen in the post on May 28th, 2008.

Friday 6 November 2009

ITALIAN BIG BAD WOLF COMICS FROM THE 1970S


Even though local production of Disney comics in Italy is one of the most established and prolific in the whole world, Italian comics artists had very rarely made Big Bad Wolf comics. The first Italian Big Bad Wolf comics, published in the Albi d'oro series in 1956, would remain as an isolated case for many years. The next Italian-made Big Bad Wolf comics would appear only in 1972, in no. 881 of Topolino. Written by Rodolfo Cimino and drawn by veteran Italian Disney comics artist Giovan Batista Carpi (1927-99), one of the best Disney comics artists ever, this short (9 pages) but wildly imaginative and highly energetic delirious story has the three pigs residing in a medieval-looking castle. The wolf resorts to bizarre vehicles to get in, only to be repulsed by equally unexpected machinery devised by the Practical Pig:



Unfortunately, this marvelous comics has never been published outside of Italy, even though it has been twice reprinted in its home country in the 1990s. Cimino used the Big Bad Wolf in yet another story next year, published in Topolino no. 939. Titled as 'Conferenziere da Caccia' (Lecturer of Hunting), this 18 pages story is one of the longest Big Bad Wolf stories ever. This time, the wolf uses a mechanical pig to trick the three little pigs...

but his plan is, once again, foiled by the Practical Pig:

While lacking the crazy energy of the previous story, this one also rises considerably above the average by its pleasing artwork, this time by Sergio Asteriti, and its interesting plot. It has luckily been published in Germany and Norway as well.
Cimino's third Big Bad Wolf comics would come five years later, in no. 1165 of Topolino, but it doesn't rise to the standards of the previous efforts and hence the less said about it the better!

Thursday 5 November 2009

REDRAWN BIG BAD WOLF COMICS IN MICKEY MOUSE WEEKLY (1948)


The comics serialized in Britain's Mickey Mouse comics magazine beginning with issue dated March 20th, 1948 is a redrawn and heavily abridged version of the Li'l Bad Wolf comics published in Walt Disney's Comics & Stories no. 77 from the previous year. The above scans are from the British version's first and the last installments published in MM.
And below is the American version of the last panel of the above scan, note how the sheriff has been redrawn as a more British-looking cop in the British version.