BRITISH-MADE BIG BAD WOLF ILLUSTRATED STORY (1953)

The no. 709 (dated Dec. 12th, 1953) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly featured an interesting Three Pigs vs Big Bad Wolf illustrated story titled 'The House That Wasn't There'. Inspired by the classic tale 'The Emperor's New Clothes', Practical Pig spreads the word that he has built a very strong house. Even though no such house has been built, he instructs his brothers to act as if there was such a house. However, the Big Bad Wolf has also read the tale and rushes onto the scene, aware that there is no house on the spot. Unfortunately for him, the cunning Practical Pig has dug up a hidden trench:
I find this story interesting because it implies the wolf to be a cultured creature; the Practical Pig can outwit him because he takes it for granted that the wolf would be familiar with the tale.

CENSORED BIG BAD WOLF IN BRITAIN'S MICKEY MOUSE XMAS SPECIAL (1939)

Mickey Mouse Xmas Special, published by Britain's Odham Press late in 1939, carries a two and a half pages long illustrated story titled 'Laugh, Hyena, Haugh' which features the Big Bad Wolf as a supporting character. This is actually a revised edition of a story earlier published in vol.2 no.2 (dated Nov. 1936) of the American Mickey Mouse Magazine under the exact same title. The story concerns a boxing match between Donald Duck and a hyena, assisted by the Big Bad Wolf. While the original US edition carries a single illustration featuring only Donald and his nemesis, the British edition features new illustrations and the wolf is depicted in two of them, once in the background (see above) and once in the foreground:And yet, the differences between the two editions are not limited to the illustrations. The texts are almost identical, except for a few insignificant paraphrasings here and there and one case of censorship: In the US edition, the Big Bad Wolf calls Donald a "sissy"; in the US edition, he calls the duck a "coward"...

THREE LITTLE WOLVES ILLUSTRATIONS IN BRITISH PAINTING BOOK

Above photo from the vintage Mickey Mouse Painting Book by the British publisher Dean shows two page of illustrations based on the cartoon short Three Little Wolves (1936). The illustration with the Big Bad Wolf was also used in the British Silly Symphony Annual (1937) by Collins.

BIG BAD WOLF ON THE COVER OF MMW ANNIVERSARY ISSUE (1957)

Above image is of the cover of no. 874 (dated Feb. 9th, 1957) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly. The "birthday" referred to in the illustration is not actually of Mickey Mouse himself but of MMW.

BIG BAD WOLF GAG ON THE COVER OF MMW (1940)

Above scan is of a detail featuring a British-made Big Bad Wolg gag from the cover of no. 234 (dated July 27th, 1940) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly. Below is the full picture of the cover:

BRITISH-MADE BIG BAD WOLF GAG COMICS FROM 1958

Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly comics magazine had ceased publication late in 1957 and was replaced by a new (and similar) magazine titled Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse. This new magazine, which lasted for about a year, ran a series of apparently British-made Big Bad Wolf gag comics. Above scan is from no. 8 (dated Feb. 22nd, 1958).

RE-DRAWN BIG BAD WOLF COMICS FROM BRITAIN'S MICKEY MOUSE WEEKLY (1950)

The Big Bad Wolf full-page gag comics on the cover of no. 551 (dated Dec. 2nd, 1950) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly is actually a abridged and re-drawn version of an 8-pages long comics from no. 121 (dated Oct. 1950) of the US Walt Disney's Comics & Stories. The British version largely omits the first 7 pages of the original, adding one new splash panel and two new regular panels featuring the Wolf's attempts to capture the sheep using his Bo-Peep costume. In the American original, the Wolf considers using the same costume but drops the idea:

The subsequent panels of the British version, starting with the "But Later" tag, reproduce the material on the last page of the American version:

BIG BAD WOLF COVER ILLUSTRATION FROM 1939

Above scan is of the bottom-left corner of the cover of no. 161 (dated Mar. 4th, 1939) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly. Big Bad Wolf had been frequently featured on the covers of MMW in 1936, but this appears to be his first appearance after 1937.

RE-LETTERED AND RE-WORDED BIG BAD WOLF

The above scan is from the color central pages of no. 525 (dated June 3rd, 1950) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly and features a reformatted edition of a Big Bad Wolf gag from the back cover of a one-shot 3 Little Pigs comics magazine (dated March 1949) from the US (below scan). Note that during the course of re-formatting of the British edition, speech balloons have been re-lettered with altered wordings of dialogue. The new lettering appears to be the work of British artist Basil Reynolds.

BRITISH-MADE LI'L/BIG BAD WOLF COMICS (1948)

A series of Li'l Wolf gag comics were briefly run in Britain's Mickey Mouse comics magazine in 1948. The above scan, featuring the Big Bad Wolf alongside his son, is from no. 468, dated June 26th.
This apparently British-made gag series had been preceeded by the serialization of a redraw Li'l Wolf comics of America origin (see post dated Nov. 5th, 2009 in this blog).

BIG BAD WOLF IN BRITAIN'S MICKEY MOUSE (1947)

The above scan is of the cover of no. 448 (dated Sept. 20th, 1947) of Britain's Mickey Mouse magazine and marks the first-ever cover appearance of Li'l Wolf anywhere in the world, as well as the first re-appearance of Big Bad Wolf in the cover of a British publication in the post-war era.
In 1947, the Big Bad Wolf also appeared in some illustrated text stories in Mickey Mouse. The first one, titled as 'The Mystery of the Missing Pig' and published in 431, is very interesting due to its un-typicality. One of the pigs is missing and Mickey and the gang take the Big Bad Wolf to Disneyville's police as the usual suspect for interrogation where he is cleared of blame.

Eventually, it turns out that the Practical Pig himself had unknowingly locked up his own brother in a coal shed!.. The Big Bad Wolf also appears in 'Sergeat Duck, Sir' published in no. 450 where he takes part in war games organized on Mickey's birthday:

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.

BIG BAD WOLF IN MICKEY'S PARTY (1939)

The above scan is from the first Donald Duck Annual published in the UK by Collins Clear-Type Press in 1939. It's the illustration of a two-page story titled 'Games to brighten a Party: The Thought Reader'. The Big Bad Wolf isn't mentioned in the text itself.

PS: In the coming days, I intend to cover Donald Duck Annual and other obscure annuals by Collins in my other blog at http://kayaozkaracalar3.blogspot.com/

BRITISH BIG BAD WOLF GAG COMICS FROM 1950

The popularity of the 'Li'l Bad Wolf' comics initiated in Walt Disney's Comics & Stories would soon tempt the editors and artists of Disney comics magazines around the world to produce their own Li'l / Big Bad Wolf comics themselves in addition to the imported American material. One of the first (if not the first) to do so appear to be the staff of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly, as exemplifed in the above scan of the cover of issue dated Oct. 14, 1950. As far as I can ascertain, it does not appear to be a redrawn version of an American gag and hence possibly an original British production (If anyone knows otherwise, please correct me). The artist is unknown to me, but likely candidates are Ernest Richardson, Ronald Neilson and Basil Reynolds who are known to have worked at MMW in that era. Incidentally, the idea for this gag would later be used in a Donald Duck daily strip in the US in 1962.

Other non-American Big Bad Wolf comics will eventually be also covered in this blog, so please stay tuned on..

PS: I am sorry to have neglected this blog for some time; this time around, the unfortunate reason is the world-wide economic recession which has began to hit the shores here as well, prompting me to spend some of my extra time in trying to find ways to make ends meet in the face of devaluation of our currency.

BIG BAD WOLF FOOTBALL GAG STRIP FROM 1939

The above scan (click on the image to view it in larger size) is from Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly no.202. I find the pig's facial expression in the first two pictures as priceless. Also, the fact that the wolf is depicted with its gaze turned towards the readers is very interesting -and in line with a feature frequently seen in his appearances in Sunday comics in the pre-war era.

BIG BAD WOLF POEM SERIAL FROM 1939

Above scan is of the illustration accompanying the last installement of a three-part poem-story published in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1939. The story is about the pigs being kidnapped by the wolf ona sea voyage and then being rescued.

Update from Dec. 7th: I have now realized this poem was earlier published in Mickey Mouse Magazine of the US in 1936 albeit with different illustrations; see post above on Dec. 7th for scan of the original American edition.

PRE-WAR LANTERN SLIDE SETS

I give a short break to my coverage of post-war Big Bad Wolf publications and temporarily revert back to the pre-war era with this post about British lantern slides. The above image is of the box of a set of slides with sequential images from the short cartoon Three Little Pigs (1933) in which the Big Bad Wolf had debutted. Below are the actual slides themselves; click on the image to view it in real size.

This set is one of the many slide sets based on Disney cartoons which were manifactured by the London-based Ensign Ltd. I cannot see any copyright date in the original box of the set in my collection, but it must date from the period 1933-40, possibly circa 1936. The first Three Little Pigs set by Ensign Ltd, which also happened to be their first set with color slides, reportedly came out in 1933, but that set is reported to feature only 14 slides while the set in my collection is from a later edition with 24 slides (as can be seen in the above images).

Among other sets released by Ensign is one based on Three Little Pigs's first sequel, The Big Bad Wolf (1934):

These sets were marketed either individually or in groups together with the lanterns themselves:

Below is a close-up of the wonderful illustration on the reverse side of the lid and further below is the same illustration on the worn-out front side of the lid:

The below advertisement is from no. 40 of British comics magazine Mickey Mouse Weekly, dated Nov. 7th, 1936 (the same advertisement was also published in several other issues of the said magazine in late 1936):

Tragedy befell Ensign Ltd during the 2nd World War as its facilities were hit and destroyed during the Nazi air bombardment of London in September 1940; as a result, the company had to cease its activities and got liquidated...

More info on Ensign can be found here: http://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_uk.htm?/catalogus_ensign_uk.htm

SILLY SYMPHONY ANNUAL 1937

While the British 'Mickey Mouse Annuals' published by Odham Press from 1931 onwards are relatively easy to find today, this Silly Symphony Annual published by the London & Glasgow-based Collins Clear Type Press is a rare item. Note that the cover art includes a barely visible illustration of the Big Bad Wolf at the upper-center section. Below scan is from the spread illustration at the reverse sides of the front and back covers (the full image couldn't fit my scanner completely):


The image of the Big Bad Wolf in this introductory page is based on the cover art of the Big Bad Wolf illustrated story book from 1934:


Below are scans of other pages featuring the Big Bad Wolf:



The above image is based on a scene from the short cartoon Three Little Wolves (1936).
I should add that my copy of this scarce book is unfortunately missing a few pages, so there might be some more Big Bad Wolf related material in an intact copy.
With this post, I round up my coverage of pre-war publications featuring the original Big Bad Wolf. In the coming days, I will start a series of posts on post-war Big Bad Wolf, as re-defined in comics as the father of Li'l Bad Wolf.

'SHUFFLED SYMPHPONIES' AND 'LAST GROUND-UP' FROM 1939

In an earlier post on this blog, I had covered Big Bad Wolf's appearances in the 'Shuffled Symphonies' illustrated stories series in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in the years 1936-37. The Big Bad Wolf appeared at least two more 'Shuffled Symphonies' episodes in 1939.
In the story published in no.176, the wolf opens a snack bar as a front for his plans and manages to capture not only the two silly pigs as usual, but also Mickey's nephews (and he plans to eat them as well!):

Of course, Mickey and the Practical Pig come to the rescue in the end.
On the other hand, the Big Bad Wolf is portrayed relatively in a better light than usual in the episode on no. 182, which takes its cue from an earlier cartoon short titled Mickey's Polo Team (1936). Here, Mickey sets out to assemble a polo team and the duty of inviting the wolf to take part falls on the shoulders of Donald Duck:

At the end of the game, it is revealed that the Big Bad Wolf hadn't refrained from carrying out a petty theft in the meantime, but he is nevertheless pardoned for the sake of his performance in the game!

The Big Bad Wolf appeared in another illustrated story series published in the same amagazine in the same year. The three-part series titled as 'Last Ground-Up' stars Toby Tortoise as a "tender-foot" hero in the wild west with Peg-Leg Pete and the Big Bad Wolf as a team of villains. The below scan is from the second installement, on. no. 194:

HIGHWAYMAN BIG BAD WOLF CUT-OUT FROM 1940

The above cut-out from the no. 210 of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly enables the readers to dress up Big Bad Wolf as a highwayman, a fitting identity for this character. Highwayman was the name given to outlaws who laid in wait on roads and robbed travellers in the medieval ages in England. It has been recorded that they were nevertheless subject to a degree of admiration from the public and heroic portraits in literature.

The below scan is the instructions to the readers regarding the cut-out.