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:

MICKEY MOUSE PICTURES TO PAINT (1931)

In an earlier post in this blog, I had covered the Mickey Mouse Coloring Book from 1931. Mickey Mouse Pictures to Paint is another similar publication from the same year. A copy of that book was recently sold ebay as part of a lot of other Disney books. Above is its cover and below is a sample page:

BRITISH MICKEY MOUSE CARD FROM 1930

Here is a very early Mickey Mouse postcard from the UK. I have bought (will post scan when I receive it) another card from this same series whose user had dated his inscription on the reverse as Easter 1930, so this one must also be from the same year even though its inscription carries no date:
You can see two more samples from this series in this link: http://classicdisneypostcards.com/Publishers/Woolston.html

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

GOOFY WATCH FROM 1939

This pocket produced by the Ingersoll company of the US in 1939, said to be "in good working condition , was sold for a winning bid of app. 134 US dlrs on ebay today. The illustration is from the poster of the cartoon short Goofy and Wilbur (1939).

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.

DONALD DUCK WATCHES FROM 1937

Above scan of an ad promoting Donald Duck watches in the 1937 Christmas season is from the bottom rim of the back cover of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly no. 96 (dated Dec. 4th, 1937). Disneyic watches produced in the US since 1933 are well-known, but I'd never heard of these Donald Duck watches, "Swiss made", according to the ad and produced for and/or distributed in the UK by London-based Louis Newmark, before. If anyone knows more about them, please let us know.

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!

MICKEY MOUSE GUM CARDS

This lot of Mickey Mouse gum cards was recently sold on ebay for the reserve price of 100 US dlrs. This series of cards were issued in 1933-35. Below are close-ups of some of the cards from the lot:

RARE BRITISH DISNEY ITEMS

This British-made lead figurine, with a detachable head, was recently sold on ebay for a winning bid of 1,000 British pounds!.. The seller dates it from 1939.
Meanwhile, the below tray and plate set with beautiful illustrations was sold for a winning bid of 367 British pounds. The seller gave no date estimate, but it is almost certainly from 1930s. If I was rich enough, I would have loved to get this set; I am not sure, but I think the illustrations might be the work of leading British Disney artist Wilfred Haughton who had worked on merchandise art before embarking on a cover artist career for Mickey Mouse Weekly for which he is better known for.

On the other hand, the below Donald Duck plate from Britain's Wadeheath was sold for a winning bid of app. merely 14 pounds:

And finally, the below British knitting book from 1950 was sold for the openining bid of 4.5 pounds:

'PETER AND THE WOLF' TIN BOX FROM BELGIUM

This tin box from Belgium, featuring characters of the 'Peter and the Wolf' segment of Disney's feature-length compilation animation Make Mine Music (1946) was recently offered on ebay, but received no bids.

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).

MORE BRITISH CHEWIE CHOC CARDS FROM 1939

In a below post, I had covered the set of British chewie choc cards from 1939. Here are images of a few other cards recently offered on ebay from the same series.