ADDITIONAL BRITISH HIAWATHA STRIP FROM 1948

In the previous entry in this blog, I had posted about British-made Little Hiawatha strips published in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1941. Recently, I came across the above two-row strip published in a issue of the bi-weekly Mickey Mouse (the successor to MMW) dated March 20th, 1948. At first glance, it looks like an American Sunday, but going over all Little Hiawatha Sundays yielded no corresponding Sunday, so it must be a British production. The most likely candidate for the art is veteran MMW artist Basil Reynolds who had returned to MM around those times and began making Disneyic material for the magazine.

BRITISH HIAWATHA STRIPS (1941)

Little Hiawatha (1937), featuring a native American boy, was a cartoon short from Disney's Silly Symphony series. It was very loosely inspired from the American poem 'The Song of Hiawatha' (1855) which, in turn, was loosely based native American folk tales, including a legend about a native American leader called Hiawatha. Disney's cartoon, however, told the misadventures of a native boy who was an inept hunter. Little Hiawatha appeared on the cover of Mickey Mouse Magazine v. 2 no. 12 (dated Sept. 1937) and, according to the inducks index, there was an obscure 'Little Hiawatha' comics serial published in a Disney comics magazine in Sweden in 1938, but his appearance in the American Silly Symphony newspaper strips was delayed until late 1940. Early in 1941, Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly began running a strip titled simply as 'Hiawatha' (rather than Little Hiawatha) at the top rim of its last pages. The scan above is of the earliest 'Hiawatha' strip in my MMW collection and it may very well be the first one (the scan is from no. 258 and no. 257 is missing from my MMW collection, but no. 256, which I have, doesn't have any Hiawatha strip). The artist of these apparently British-made Hiawatha strips is unknown, but a likely candidate is Ernest Richardson, who is the only known staff artist of MMW on board after his collagues were drafted in late 1940.

About two months after these Hiawatha strips began to appear on the last pages, MMW also began to publish the American 'Little Hiawatha' Sundays on its front pages. Below is the scan of the first one, originally published in the US on Nov. 10th, 1940: 

This was not only the first LH Sunday published in MMW, but also the first-ever LH Sunday. For its next issue, however, MMW skipped six LH Sundays from their original run in the US and published the below Sunday originally from Dec. 29th, 1940:

Simultaneously with these, MMW also continued to publish its own Hiawatha strips which were no longer titled:

Since my MMW collection is largely incomplete in the war-time era from 1941 onwards, I cannot say precisely when the British-made Hiawatha strips ended, but I can confirm that they did not last into 1942.

The American 'Little Hiawatha' Sundays, on the other hand, would end in 1942, but Little Hiawatha would be revived in American Disney comics magazines early in the 1950s. Today, short Little Hiawatha comics are made by various European artists for the Dutch market.

BRITISH-MADE COVER GAG (1948)

Above is the cover of the no. 479 (dated Nov. 27th, 1948) of Britain's Mickey Mouse comics magazine, featuring a British-made gag. While fogs are not obviously unique to Britain, they are ann integral part of the popular image of London, so this fog-themed gag has a distinctively British feel to it.

BRITISH WAR INSIGNIA WITH PLUTO

This cover of Britain's Mickey Mouse comic dated Nov. 6th, 1943, which was recently sold on ebay, features a British war insignia with Pluto. While Disney characters are known to be featured extensively in US war insignia, this is the first such British item that I have come across.

DONALD DUCK AND THE PELICAN

Above scan is of the cover of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly no. 476 (dated Oct. 16th, 1948) featuring a British-made Donald Duck gag strip. The splash panel is actually re-drawn from the last panel of a Donald Duck daily strip (dated Jan. 24th, 1948) from the US:The British version was also used as the cover of the no. 3 (dated June 1949; seen below in a 2002 reprint) of Italian Topolino:

BRITISH-MADE UNCLE SCROOGE CHRISTMAS 1-PAGER FROM 1956

The above photo is of the page 5 of the no. 868 (dated Dec. 29th, 1956) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly featuring an apparently British-made Uncle Scrooge one-pager. I have no idea as to the identity of the artist. This issue was recently auctioned at ebay along with some consecutive issues, but I opted not to bid because the seller was asking for a ridiculously unfair postage charge, so I cannot unfortunately post any scan but only this photo from the ebay listing. And below is the photo of the central pages of the same issue, featuring a pleasantly colorful Christmas illustration; the non-Disney characters are Strongbow the Almighty and Robin Alone, the heroes of two non-Disneyic British comics serialized in MMW at the time.

MANDRAKE ARTWORK IN SHUFFLED SYMPHONIES

'Shuffled Symphonies', Basil Reynolds' illustrated story series in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly, initially began with narratives bringing various characters from Disney's 'Silly Symphony' cartoon short series together with regular Disney characters as Mickey and Donald in novel plots. Over the years, storylines evolved into more and more off-Disneyic terrains with Donald et al embarking on various fantasy-oriented adventures. It seems that during the course of this evolution, Reynolds occasionally (or perhaps frequently?) borrowed graphic material from non-Disneyic sources. One such case is in the installement in MMW no. 147 (dated Nov. 26th, 1938) where Donald, Mickey and his twin nephews time-travel to the future. The illustration of the "metal man" in the above scan is clearly redrawn with minor alterations from the illustration of the 'wheel man' in a Mandrake the Magician adventure (with art by Phil Davis) from 1936-37 titled 'Chamber into the X Dimension':

I am certain that the helmeted figure in the lower left corner (or perhaps even the whole background landscape) of the below illustration from the same installement is also redrawn from a non-Disneyic comics, but I cannot immediately pinpoint the source

BRITISH DEBUT OF DONALD'S NEPHEWS

Donald's nephews first appeared in a Sunday strip in the US newspapers on Oct. 17th, 1937. They were created by Al Taliaferro, Disney's Sunday strips artist of the time. By the time the first strips with the nephews were reprinted outside the US, they had already returned to their home after staying on with their uncle for six consecutive Sundays in the US newspapers (*). In the UK, Donald's nephews were first heralded at the bottom rim (see above scan) of the back cover of the no. 98 (dated Dec. 18th, 1937) of Mickey Mouse Weekly. The art on this slim herald, by an unknown British illustrator, is rather substandart, but it is somewhat historically important for being the first non-American rendition of the nephews. Nevertheless, talented British artist Wilfred Haughton used them in his cover illustration for MMW no. 100; below scan is of the portion of the said cover with the nephews
...and below image is of the full cover:
And here is the first strip with the nephews as reprinted in the color central pages of that issue:The same issue also featured a puzzle with British-made illustrations of Donald's nephews (along with Mickey's nephews):

(*) Donald's nephews would return to Donald's home in daily strips in 1938 for "just a few days", but stay on indefinetely.

JUNGLE CLUB MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATE

This 'Jungle Club membership certificate' issued by Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1952 was sold on ebay for a surprisingly high winning bid of 104 pounds today!

GHASTLY IMAGES FROM SHUFFLED SYMPHONIES (1940)

Above scan is from the 'Shuffled Symphonies' page of the no. 210 (dated Feb. 10th, 1940) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly. 'Shuffled Symphonies' was long-running series of illustrated text stories serialized in MMW from its first issue in 1936 onwards till 1940. Written and illustrated by the talented British comics artist Basil Reynolds, it featured silly but widely imaginative stories -frequently with fantasy motifs- told with a tongue-in-cheek. The installement in no. 210 is unusually creepy however, with Donald, Mickey's twin nephews and Pluto getting lost in a scary dark forest one night and taking shelter in a desolate-looking mansion. The installement ends on a cliffhanger note as Donald meets a ghost. However, in the next installement in the subsequent issue, the ghosts are revealed to be friendly. Nevertheless, Reynolds continued to toy with eerie imaginary for a while as in the below illustration from the installement in no. 212:

DONNA DUCK CUT-OUT FROM 1940

In an earlier post in this blog, I had covered the earliest appearances of Donna, the initial incarnation of Donald's girlfriend Daisy, in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1936-37. The above scan is from the color central pages of MMW no. 206 (dated Jan. 13th, 1940).

THE FOX HUNT (1938)

Between 1934-42, dozens of Disney cartoon shorts were promoted in the US magazine Good Housekeeping in the form of one page illustrated text story adaptations by Disney artists Tom Wood and Hank Porter. Some of these would later be re-used in Walt Disney's Comics & Stories. And yet, several other Disney cartoons which did not make into Good Housekeeping were also adapted into illustrated text story format and published in Mickey Mouse Magazine, the predecessor of WDC&S. One of these is The Fox Hunt (1938) whose adaptation was published in the central pages of MMM vol. 3 no. 12 (dated Sept. 1938). The last illustration in this story was the basis for the cover of that issue:

Years later, another illustration from 'The Fox Hunt', the upper one in the second page, would be the basis of the cover illustration of the no. 371 (dated Sept. 23rd, 1944) of Britain's Mickey Mouse comics magazine:

BRITISH CHEWIE CHOC CARDS FROM 1939

The above swap card, a giveaway with the Quax "chewie choc" manufactured by the British firm A. J. Caley Ltd of Norwich, was recently sold at ebay for the winning bid of 14.5 pounds. This card in particular is of special interest as it features Donna Duck, the earlier incarnation of Donald's girlfriend Daisy. The below card from the same series had earlier been sold for the winning bid 19 pounds:In my collection, I have the below card with Elmer the Elephant (one of my favorite Disney characters) which I had bought several years ago:The Dirty Bill referred to in the dialogue of this card is the villain of the Disney cartoon short Robber Kitten (1935) who was featured in person in card no. 3:Below are four other cards from the same series, including no. 1 (above left):Online sellers offering these cards have variously dated them as supposedly being from 1932 (!) to 1937 or 1938. The earlier claim is especially preposterious as many of the characters featured in the cards had not been created by then! The truth is that these cards were issued in July 1939. The merchandise which they would be given away with were first alluded to in the editorial page of no. 180 (dated July 15th, 1939) of Mickey Mouse Weekly:
More info was given in the 'Wise Quacks' page of the next issue:Note that the "free gift" referred here is not the cards, but the chocolate bar itself which would be given to any reader of MMW when they present the below coupon provided in the same page:
The cards were first mentioned -and highlighted- in no. 182:From then onwards, similar promotions of Quax highlighting the enclosed swap cards were published in several subsequent issues of MMW. The illustrations in the above and below (from no. 183) promos are by the British staff of MMW:On the other hand, the illustration on the below promo from the next issue is modeled from an illustration from the publicity materials of the Disney cartoon short Donald's Cousin Gus (1939), with the sandwiches in the original material redrawn as Quax bars:The Donald and Donna illustation in the below promo from no. 185 is again by British artists:The below promo from the next issue features a clever re-contextualization by juxtapositioning of illustrations derived once again from cartoon publicity materials:On the other hand, the illustration of the promo from no. 187 appears to me to be of British origin even though the art is more slick than those in earlier ones:The Donald Duck figure on the left in the below promo from the next issue is very familiar, but I can not immediately recall its original source (if anyone can, please let us know):Similarly, I am not sure about the illustration from no. 189, but it is somewhat reminiscent of a scene from the Disney cartoon short Modern Inventions (1937):The last illustrated promo for Quax in MMW appeared in no. 190:The next issue had a promo highlighting the album to be given to those who collect all the 48 cards in the set:

DONALD DUCK AND THE WASTE PAPER SALVAGE CAMPAIGN

In an earlier post on this blog, I had covered a British-made Disneyic strip about savings efforts during the 2nd World War in Britain's Mickey Mouse magazine. Recently, I've come other samples of the same theme, so these strips constitue a short-lived series. The above scan (broken into two due to the limited size of my scanner) is from no. 309, dated May 9th, 1942.