BIG BAD WOLF IN CARD GAME SET FROM 1946

Russel Mfg Co. of Leicester, Mass., which had picked up the license of Disney characters for card games, released a set of six miniature card game decks in 1946. Each deck headlined one major Disney character, but featured several other characters on its cards. The Big Bad Wolf appeared on the cards of three decks, those headlined by Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and, naturally, the Three Little Pigs. The above card is from the Donald Duck deck.

The Mickey Mouse deck featured an illustration of Big Bad Wolf in different combinations with all the other characters from that deck; the one pairing the wolf with Mickey is shown below:

The Three Little Pigs deck on the other hand featured four different illustrations of the Big Wolf:

The illustration on the lower left had also been previously used in a British card game from 1938. It goes without saying that Russel Mfg Co.'s Big Bad Wolf is clearly modeled on the pre-war short cartoons and not on his post-war revival in comics as father of Li'l Bad Wolf.

Russel Mfg Co. would release a new edition of the Three Little Pigs deck in 1965 with identical illustrations but in regular size with reduced number of cards.