GERMAN ILLUSTRATED STORY BOOKLET ADAPTATION OF BIG BAD WOLF COMICS

As a kid, I was especially delighted to see this Big Bad Wolf booklet, among other Disney booklets from the same series, in an Istanbul bookshop selling foreign books and had immediately bought them (or had my parents buy for me!) even though I couldn't read German... That was probably sometime in the mid-1970s. Now, I have discovered that it was derived from an American comics, published in no. 394 (dated July 1973) of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories, with art by Phil DeLara. Below are scans of the whole book and the comics it was derived from:

The no. 10 of Pestalozzi-Verlag's 'Walt Disney's Micky Maus Buch' series features the Three Little Pigs and is titled Die 3 kleinen Schweinchen und der böse Wolf (first published in 1965), but I don't have that one. No. 19, titled Der kleine Wolf, features the Li'l Wolf, but the Big Bad Wolf doesn't appear. On the other had, he makes a small appearance in no. 21 titled Daniel Düsentrieb from 1967, featuring Gyro Gearloose.
Pestalozzi-Verlag had started its 'Walt Disney's Micky Maus Buch' series in 1964, taking over from Bluchert Verlag's series with the identical series title and format from circa 1961-62. The initial books from Pestolazzi were reprints from Bluchert, but eventually they added new entries, such as this one. Not all stories in the series are derived from comics, some are German editions of US illustrated story books from the 1950s and most are of (yet-)unidentified origin. The series also had a British edition in the 1960s by Purnell and a French edition in the same decade by Hachette ("mini livre" series). The Turkish edition by Arkın Kitabevi from 1966-67 was of a larger and taller format than all the rest, some of the stories were also serialized in Arkın's short-lived Renkli Miki weekly comics magazine from 1966.

SPECTACLED BIG BAD WOLF (1945)

Recently, I've began reading the earliest 'Li'l Wolf' comics in Walt Disney's Comics & Stories in chronological order. I was surprised to see the Big Bad Wolf in spectacles in one occasion, while reading a newspaper, in the first installement (no. 52, dated Jan. 1945). I am not sure if he was ever again portrayed wearing eyeglasses.

In any case, this story sets the pattern of the relation between the Big Bad Wolf and his son as the father urges him to be a 'bad wolf' just like himself rather than the benevolent kid the Li'l Wolf is. For this end, in this first story, he forces him to catch small forest animals for food. The ending is however somewhat unsatisfactory as the Big Bad Wolf himself is caught in a trap set up by Li'l Wolf and his forest friends and is oblidged to promise not to force his son to become a bad wolf. The three little pigs are nowhere to be seen in neither this story nor the next one in no. 53.

The first 13 'Li'l Wolf' comics in WDC&S were by Carl Buettner.

BIG BAD WOLF MEETS MICKEY MOUSE

In earlier posts from previous weeks, 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. The first of such encounters had come in Walt Disney's Comics & Stories no. 112 (dated Jan. 1950). In this Christmas story, Li'l Bad Wolf had requested Santa Claus to bring him a puppy as a present:

Big Bad Wolf's attitude in the above panel is a very good depiction of his dismissiveness towards what he apparently deems as loftiness. And yet, fate plays a trick on him as a stray Pluto, chasing a cat, falls down the chimney:

The Big BadWolf is understandably upset with this turn of events:

However, he eventually realizes this is the lost dog of Mickey Mouse who had set up a reward for him:

Nevertheless, as always, the cunning Practical Pig is determined to spoil it all for the Big Bad Wolf in the end...

I am uneasy with these kind of stories where Big Bad Wolf seeks monetary gains which seem to me to to be not very compatible with his overall persona. However, the story is very memorable for Turner's rendering of Mickey Mouse is excellent, on par with the best Mickey artists in my opinion.

BIG BAD WOLF AT THE CIRCUS (1949)

The above illustration (click over the image to view it in larger size) is from a mini-poster given away to new subscribers of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories in 1949; note the Big Bad Wolf lifting weights at the left. The below scan is of the back cover of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories no.100, dated Jan. 1949, promoting the give-away.