RARE BRITISH MICKEY MOUSE BOOK FROM THE LATE 1930'S

Early this month, I purchased this vintage Mickey Mouse book off ebay for a very reasonable price (mere 5 British pounds) due to its damaged spine. It is a quite rare book, currently only one copy being offered online elsewhere. It has been published by Britain's Collins Clear-Type Press and, like most vintage British Disney books, it is undated. The seller on ebay had estimated it to date from early the 1940's and the other online seller states it is from "circa 1938". One online Disney books index lists it as from 1937, but I haven't yet checked the reliability of that index in general. Nevertheless, the fact that Donald Duck as drawn in this book is no longer long-beaked (as he was drawn till at least 1936) is in tune with a late 1930s estimate. As the title Things to Make and Do indicates, the book is composed of illustrated text instructions on practical matters:

 Perhaps the best, or rather the funniest, part is reserved for this 'The End' notice!:

BRITISH DONALD DUCK ANNUALS (1938-1943)

In 1938, Britain's Collin's Clear Type Press, one of the two leading publishers of Disney books in the UK in the pre-war era, began publishing Donald Duck annuals, modeled on the Mickey Mouse annuals which were being published by the rival British Disney publisher, Dean, since 1930. These early annuals of the pre-war (and war-time) are very thick (100+ pages) books, compromising illustrated stories, comics and games. Actually, none of the early annuals have printed dates, so dating them is sometimes tricky and since esp. the early Donald Duck annuals are rare and obscure, there is little, if any info, on them. This one has ads for the Snow White books from the same publisher which indicate that it is indeed from 1938, as online sellers date it.  

The color plate at the beginning of this first Donald Duck annual features an illustration clearly inspired from the cartoon short Donald's Better Self (1938) and the opening story of the annual is an illustrated story adaptation of that cartoon. The annual includes illustrated story adaptations of several other Disney cartoons such as Donald's Ostrich (1937). Some of these material may have originated from American publications. Most of the comics in the annual are indeed re-formatted versions of American newspaper strips, but there are a few short gag-comics/caricatures of apparent British origin, the most elaborate (in the sense it has more than two panels!) of the latter is the below one on page 13:

Below is the cover of the 1939 annual. These first two annuals are relatively less rare than the rest, perhaps they had a higher print run in the pre-war era as opposed to the dire economic conditions of the war-time years.

The below annual, on the other hand, is one of the rarest: I've seen it offered on ebay only once (in 2007) and at the time, I couldn't figure if it was the 1940 or 1942 annual:

The below annual is not as rare and is reported by its sellers as the 1941 annual:

The below one is also one of the rarest; actually, I had never seen it until last month when it appeared on ebay (and sold for at the affordable opening price of 15 pounds sterling; I was naturally so frustrated that I missed it!). It's listed as the 1942 annual, so I now figure that the obscure 'Loads of Laughter' annual must be the 1940 one.

The below book is listed as the 1943 annual. Some editions do not carry the word "Annual" on the cover, but others do. The 1942 and the 1943 annuals are not as brick-thick as the earlier annuals. This is the last known British Donald Duck annual in the war-time era, but Collins would publish other annnual-like Donald Duck books around those years.

MICKEY MOUSE FABLES

This vintage British Disney book by the Collins Clear Type Press titled Mickey Mouse Fables was recently sold on ebay for the winning bid of 54.5 pounds. The seller estimated its date as "circa 1934", an estimate which is undoubtedly off the mark by several years as the renditions of Donald Duck does not feature the long and narrow beak he sported in its early appearances in 1934 and in the subsequent few years. I would estimate the book to be from the late 1930s.

PRE-WAR BRITISH DISNEY PUBLICATIONS - PART 2: COLLINS CLEAR-TYPE PRESS

In a post last month in this blog, I had provided a general overview of pre-war Disney books in Britain, concentrating on books by Dean, the pioneer of Disney publications in the UK. In that post, it was noted that the London & Glasgow-based Collins Clear-Type Press was the most prolific publisher of Disney books in Britain in the pre-war era and their books needed to be covered in a separate post. Collins' pre-war publications include a long series of illustrated story adaptation books of Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons, books for school beginner kids, annuals and Snow White books.' Their first Disney publication was Mickey Mouse in Giant Land (1934), featuring an illustrated story adaptation of the cartoon Giantland (1933). Below are scans of its color plate and two of its 44 full page b&w illustrations:

The same adaptation was published in the same year in US by David McKay Co., with a similar but non-identical cover art:

In 1935, Collins put out two more books in the same vein: Mickey Mouse in Pigmy Land and Mickey Mouse Crusoe:

They are illustrated story adaptations of Gulliver Mickey (1934) and Mickey's Man Friday. These two books were published, with identical covers, in the US by Whitman in 1936, that is one year after Collins' books came out, which indicates that Collins' early Mickey Mouse books were originally British-made and not British editions of US publications. Collins' last illustrated books derived from Mickey Mouse cartoons were Mickey Mouse Fire Brigade (1936) and Mickey Mouse and Pluto the Pup (1936), adaptations of Mickey's Fire Brigade (1935) and Pluto's Judgement Day (1935) respectively.

In addition to story books derived from cartoons, Collins also published several books aimed at first-grade school children, such as A Mickey Mouse Story from A to Z:

There is a 1936 Whitman book titled A Mickey Mouse Alphabet Book with an identical cover art, but since Collins' book is undated, it is hard to know which one came out first.
In 1937, Collins published Don Mickey, in a similar format to the cartoon-derived books but with a original story; this book will later be covered in a separate post in this blog.

Around 1934-36, Collins also published illustrated story adaptations several Silly Symphony cartoons, including Santa's Workshop, Nursery Stories, Water Babies, The Golden Touch, The Night Before Christmas:

For the year 1937, Collins put out a Silly Symphoy Annual:

This would remain a one-shot annual, as Collins would begin issuing Donald Duck annuals from 1938 onwards. Following the release of Disney's first feature-length animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Collins published several publications derived from this movie, including coloring books.
One of the most prized Collins publications is the flip-book Donald & Pluto (1939):

Probably the last of Collins' pre-war Disney books (or perhaps the first of their war-time Disney publications, as it is undated) is an adaptation of late Silly Symphony cartoon Ugly Duckling (1939):