As noted in my previous post, the debut of Big Bad Wolf's benevolent son Li'l Bad Wolf in 1945 had not only marked a resurgence of the wolf vs pigs comics, but had also shifted the center of the attention to the wolves. However, there were occasional exceptions to this trend as well. A one-shot 3 Little Pigs comics from 1949 not only headlined the pigs, but the Li'l Bad Wolf was surprisingly missing altogether from the roster of characters featured in the main comics stories published in that issue. In 1968, it would be reprinted with new cover art, which is seen in the above scan (the cover of the 1949 edition features only the dancing pigs and not the wolf).
The headline comics story of 3 Little Pigs is the 16 pages long 'The Wonderful Magic Lamp', written by the same Chase Craig who had created Li'l Bad Wolf only four years ago then. Losing all hope that he can outsmart the Practical Pig, the Big Bad Wolf enlists the help of a witch to cast a spell on him. As a result, a few rather amusing instances where the Practical Pig becomes even more dumb than his silly brothers ensues. However, the Wolf's victory turns out to be pre-emptive as usual.
The headline comics story of 3 Little Pigs is the 16 pages long 'The Wonderful Magic Lamp', written by the same Chase Craig who had created Li'l Bad Wolf only four years ago then. Losing all hope that he can outsmart the Practical Pig, the Big Bad Wolf enlists the help of a witch to cast a spell on him. As a result, a few rather amusing instances where the Practical Pig becomes even more dumb than his silly brothers ensues. However, the Wolf's victory turns out to be pre-emptive as usual.
The artist on 'The Wonderful Magic Lamp' is Toby Strobl and his rendering of the Big Bad Wolf is unexpectedly sloppy, as can be seen in the above scans. This was one of Strobl's earliest works on Disney comics; eventually, he would turn out to be a prolific Ducks characters' artist (for more info on Strobl, see: http://art-bin.com/art/strobleng.html ).
The back-up comics story in 3 Little Pigs is the 12 pages long 'The Mounties', again written by Craig but this time with art by Gil Turner, who had taken over the art chores of the Li'l Bad Wolf comics in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories from the series' first artist Carl Buettner. Set in a deserted mining town complete with secret passages and underground tunnels and enlivened with ghostly appearances, this story - even though it also ends unhappily for the Big Bad Wolf as usual- entails two instances where he outsmarts the pigs, including the Practical Pig!
The back-up comics story in 3 Little Pigs is the 12 pages long 'The Mounties', again written by Craig but this time with art by Gil Turner, who had taken over the art chores of the Li'l Bad Wolf comics in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories from the series' first artist Carl Buettner. Set in a deserted mining town complete with secret passages and underground tunnels and enlivened with ghostly appearances, this story - even though it also ends unhappily for the Big Bad Wolf as usual- entails two instances where he outsmarts the pigs, including the Practical Pig!
Turner would emerge as the definitive artist on Big Bad Wolf with a decade of tenure on this character and the coming post(s) in this blog will concentrate more on his works, so stay tuned on..
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