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Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring Walt Disney characters. The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on. In 1940, Western Publishing began producing Disney comic books in the United States. The most notable American Disney comics books are Walt Disney's Comics and Stories and Uncle Scrooge. In recent decades, Disney comics have seen a lack of popularity in their country of origin. In the rest of the world Disney comics have been very successful, especially in Europe, where stories are produced and also printed in the pocket format (see Donald Duck pocket books).
[edit] Production by country[edit] United States[edit] Comic stripsThe first Disney comics appeared in daily newspapers, syndicated by King Features with production done in-house by a Disney comic strip department at the studio. The Mickey Mouse daily comic strip began on January 13, 1930, featuring Mickey as an optimistic, adventure-seeking young mouse. In January 1932, the Mickey Mouse strip began appearing in Sunday papers, with an extra Silly Symphony strip at the top of the page. Donald Duck made his first comics appearance in the Silly Symphony adaptation of the 1934 Disney short The Wise Little Hen. As Donald's popularity grew, he became the star of the Silly Symphony strip, and then got his own daily strip starting on February 7, 1938. A Donald Sunday strip was begun December 10, 1939. Specialty Sunday-only adaptations of Disney feature animated movies like Snow White and Pinocchio were distributed, in part to publicize the films. These eventually would be included in the Treasury of Classic Tales An oddity is in the 1930s a Disney strip was done outside the purvue of the Strip Dept. for a national audience. It was created by Fred Spencer, an animator at the studio. Entitled "Mickey Mouse Chapter", it appeared in the newsletter of Demolay beginning with its Dec. 1932 issue. This was a two tier black and white strip depicting happenings in the Demolay Chapter formed by Mickey and his barnyard friends. Spencer and Disney were both members of Demolay. How long the strip ran is unknown. Spencer died in a car accident in 1938. [1] [2] The Silly Symphony Sunday-only strip ended July 12, 1942.[3] This is replaced with an adaptation of Bambi, after the conclusion of which (beginning Oct. 11, 1942) a José Carioca strip was launched which ran until it is replaced by Uncle Remus in 1945. Initially Floyd Gottfredson besides doing the Mickey comic strip oversaw the Disney comic strip department from 1930 to 1945, then Frank Reilly was brought in to administer the burgeoning department from January 1946 to 1975. Greg Crosby headed the department from 1979 to 1989. Besides the strips described above the other Disney strips distributed over the years included:
Also beginning in 1960 [11] a special daily strip with a holiday theme utilizing the Disney characters was offered each year through 1987.[12] [13] It generally ran for three weeks with the concluding strip appearing on December 25. These were unique in that they in some cases showcased the crossover of Disney characters that otherwise rarely interacted (e.g. the Big Bad Wolf and the fairies from Sleeping Beauty). The tradition was revived in the mid 1990s to publicize contemporary Disney feature animated films: Beauty and the Beast (1992), Aladdin (1993), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and The Little Mermaid (for its re-release, 1997). [14] Newspaper Enterprise Association offers a similar holiday themed special strip to this day. [15] Among the artists working on the Disney comic strips were Floyd Gottfredson (Mickey Mouse, Treasury of Classic Tales), Roman Arambula (Mickey Mouse), Rick Hoover (Mickey Mouse, Gummy Bears), Manuel Gonzales (Mickey Mouse), Bill Wright (Mickey Mouse, Uncle Remus), Ted Thwaites (Mickey Mouse), Riley Thomson (Uncle Remus), Chuck Fuson (Uncle Remus), John Ushler (Treasury of Classic Tales, Scamp, Uncle Remus, holiday), Carson Van Osten (Mickey Mouse), Al Taliaferro (Donald Duck), Frank Grundeen (Donald Duck), Al Hubbard (Donald Duck), Kay Wright (Donald Duck), Ellis Eringer (Donald Duck), Dick Moores (Uncle Remus), Paul Murry (Jose Carioca, Uncle Remus), Daan Jippes (Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse), Tony Strobl (Donald Duck, holiday), Jim Engel (Mickey Mouse), Ken Hultgren (Mickey Mouse and His Friends), Julius Svendsen (Mickey Mouse and His Friends), George Wheeler (True Life Adventures) and Bob Grant (Merry Menagerie). Writers included Merrill De Maris (Mickey Mouse), Ted Osborne (Mickey Mouse), Bill Walsh (Mickey Mouse, Uncle Remus), Bob Karp (Donald Duck, Merry Menagerie), Carl Fallberg (Treasury of Classic Tales, holiday], Frank Reilly (Treasury of Classic Tales, holiday), Milt Banta (Mickey Mouse and Hid Friends), Roy Williams (Mickey Mouse and His Friends), George Stallings (Uncle Remus), Jack Boyd (Uncle Remus), Dick Huemer (True Life Adventures) and Floyd Norman (Mickey Mouse, holiday). Norman in an article listed the writers working in the comic strip department in the 1980s and mentions Cal Howard, Del Connell, Bill Berg, Don Ferguson, Tom Yakutis and Bob Foster and notes that their boss, Greg Crosby, had gotten his start as a writer for the strips before moving into management.[16] Currently reprints of Merrie Menagerie are a regular feature of Disney Newsreel, a bi-weekly magazine for Disney employees in Southern California. Disney's fan-oriented website D23 daily posts a installment of the Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Scamp strips. Among the regular features of the quarterly Disney Twenty-Three magazine for D23 members being launched in 2009 will be "The Funny Pages", a section reprinting classic Disney comics strips.[17] [edit] Comic booksComic book publisher Western Publishing brought the Disney strips to comic books in 1940, through Dell Comics Four Color title. The Four Color books reprinted a variety of newspaper strip material, and issue #4 featured a selection of Donald Duck strips. The Disney reprints were a big seller, and encouraged Western to convert Mickey Mouse Magazine [third series] (which had included comics along with text stories, poems, jokes, puzzles, games and full-page illustrations) into a full-fledged comic book, Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, whose first issue was dated October 1940 and by the mid-1950s was the best selling comic book in America with a circulation hovering around three million a month (with the highest level reached being 3,038,000 for the Sept. 1953 issue).[1] In addition many releases in its popular Big Little Books series adapted Disney comic book and comic strip stories. By the late-1950s relations between Dell and Western had become strained. Former Western writer Mark Evanier states part of this was due to "... a small battle going on between the two companies over the ownership of properties in non-licensed comics."[2] Eventually in 1962 Western ended the partnership and continued their comic book line under the Gold Key Comics label. Comic book historian Joe Torcivia has dubbed the mid-1960s "... a period of creativity for Western Publishing’s Disney line not seen since its formation, and never seen again."[3] By the 1970s Disney comics were undergoing a steep decline in circulation, with newsstand distribution discontinued in 1981. Western thereafter released its comics under the Whitman label, distributing them to candy stores and other outlets in bags containing three comics and also eventually distributed them to the emerging network of comic book stores. Western ceased publishing comics in 1984. Disney comics in the USA were later published by Gladstone Publishing and then by Disney Comics, then Gladstone again (for the classic characters) and Marvel Comics (for the modern characters). In 2003, after a couple of years' hiatus, regular publication was restarted by Gemstone Publishing. Gemstone's two monthly Disney titles were Walt Disney's Comics and Stories and Uncle Scrooge, but the license was not renewed with the last releases dated Nov. 2008. [4] Between 1999 and 2003, Dark Horse Comics published occasional adaptations of Disney's new movies. More recently, Disney has licensed some of their modern properties to Slave Labor Graphics (Gargoyles) and BOOM! Kids (The Muppet Show, The Incredibles, and Cars). Boom now also has the license for the classic characters. [5] Notable American Disney comic book writers and artists include Carl Barks, Tony Strobl, Paul Murry, William Van Horn, and Don Rosa. Van Horn and Rosa now work for European publishers. [edit] Disney Studio ProgramFrom 1962 to 1990 the Walt Disney Studio had a unit producing comic book stories exclusively for foreign consumption, in response to complaints of foreign comic book licensees that Western Publishing was producing less stories they could reprint plus their voracious need for material (some European titles are weekly) was using up the available inventory of stories. George Sherman, head of Disney’s Publications Department at the time, hired Tom Golberg to run the program.[6] Tony Strobl, Al Hubbard, Jack Bradbury, Carson Van Osten and Romano Scarpa were among the artists during its early years; Carl Fallberg, Floyd Norman, Dick Kinney, Diana Gabaldon and Mark Evanier were among those who at some point did scripts for it. From the late 1970s on, the Jaime Diaz Studios of Argentina drew most of the stories. In a few instances studio program stories were reprinted in the United States in promotional giveaways of Gulf Oil (Wonderful World of Disney) in the late 1960s and Procter & Gamble (Disney Magazine) in the mid-1970s. A Mickey and the Sleuth story was published by Gold Key in Walt Disney Showcase #39 (1977). Besides the Sleuth other characters created for the program include Donald's cousin Fethry Duck and the hillbilly hermit Hard Haid Moe. Also while Carl Barks created John D. Rockerduck, he used the character only in a single story ("Boat Buster", Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #255, Dec. 1961) while the progam subsequently created numerous stories with the Scrooge McDuck rival and helped refine him (along with stories by Brazilian and Italian Disney comic book licensees).[7] Domestic printing of studio program stories ceased being a unique event starting in the late 1980s as the Disney comics published by Gladstone and Gemstone have featured them on a regular basis, along with reprints from Gold Key/Dell and material produced by foreign licensees. This program was merged into Disney Comics and is the precursor of the comics that subsequently appeared in Disney Adventures. [edit] DenmarkDanish publisher Egmont (previously Gutenberghus) has one of the largest productions of Disney comics in the world. This production is not only for Denmark proper, but nearly identical magazines are being published simultaneously every week for all the big Nordic countries, with much material also exported elsewhere. The Danes started publishing their own series in the early 1960s, however, a large part of Egmont's production have been made by foreign artists such as Vicar and Daniel Branca. The Scandinavian countries are among the countries in which Donald Duck is more popular than Mickey Mouse. [edit] GermanyThough Mickey Mouse was a famous movie character in Germany since the late 1920s/early 1930s no regular comic books were produced then. Comic strips were published in some German newspapers, e.g. the Kölner Illustrierte Zeitung. The only regular publication in German language was the Swiss Micky Maus Zeitung from publisher Bollmann in 1937, but it lasted only for 18 issues. As the Nazi government did not like comic books at all, in the Third Reich there were almost no Disney comic books. After World War II the Ehapa Verlag in Stuttgart, West Germany, a subsidiary from Danish Egmont (then Gutenberghus) started in September 1951 the monthly publication of Micky Maus, a format similar to Walt Disney's Comics & Stories. From the start it featured stories from Carl Barks, translated from chief editor Dr. Erika Fuchs. The comic book was published on a bimonthly basis 1956/57 and from 1958 on it changed to a weekly. Renamed Micky Maus Magazin it is still published today from the now Berlin located Egmont Ehapa publishing company and thus is the longest running German comic book. In its heyday (early 1990s) its weekly circulation number rose up to one million copies. Since then it dropped down to ca. 240.000 today. Despite of the name most stories of Micky Maus feature Donald Duck as he is the most popular Disney character in Germany. Many other titles were/are published by the same company, for example Die tollsten Geschichten von Donald Duck (1965-today), the Lustige Taschenbuch (1967-today, mainly Italian stories from Topolino and I Classici di Walt Disney) and many others. In socialist East Germany (1949-1990) no Disney comics were printed. [edit] ItalyThe first Italian Disney comics was published already in the early 1930s, and Federico Pedrocchi wrote and illustrated the first long Disney comic book as early as in 1937. Italy is the country of origin for some of the most famous Disney comic artists, including Romano Scarpa, Giorgio Cavazzano, and Giovan Battista Carpi. Italy has introduced several new characters to the Disney universe, including Donald's superhero alter ego Paperinik. Production was handled by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore (commonly referred to as just Mondadori) from 1935 until 1988, when Disney Italy took over. Recently, Disney Italy has launched several new lines, including PK (a comic book version of Paperinik), W.I.T.C.H. , and the comics published under the imprint Buena Vista Comics (including the original Monster Allergy comic series and a few other titles, such as Kylion and a comic inspired by the Alias TV show). [edit] The NetherlandsAlso the Netherlands (current publisher: Sanoma) has a significant school of Disney comics. The first Dutch Disney comics appeared in 1953. In 1975, Daan Jippes became the art director for production of these comics, and created a heavily Barks-inspired line that remains the best-known Dutch Disney style. Donald Duck is the most popular Disney character in the Netherlands, but Sanoma also produces comics starring lesser-known characters such as Li'l Bad Wolf. [edit] FranceFrench-produced stories started in 1952, as a one-pager comic published in each issue of the Journal de Mickey, drawn by Louis Santel (Tenas) and written by Pierre Fallot. After a few issues, a new series started (Mickey à travers les siècles) and continued up to 1978, drawn almost entirely by Pierre Nicolas and written by Fallot and Jean-Michel le Corfec. Later in the beginning of the 1980s, a new production started, led by Patrice Valli and Pierre Nicolas as editors with adventures of Mickey Mouse, Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck. Among the best artists, one recalls Claude Marin, or Claude Chebille (known as Gen-Clo), and Italian artists like Giorgio Cavazzano. Some of the best writers were Michel Motti and Pierre-Yves Gabrion. In the late 1980s up to now, an increasing number of Spanish artist from the Comicup studio provided the art, while the writing stayed to French authors. Among the most popular characters in French stories are all mice characters and more exotic local characters like Ellsworth (originally created in the USA) or the Disney babies. [edit] BrazilIn Brazil, through the publisher Abril, national stories have been published since the 50's, with artists like Jorge Kato, hugely inspired by Carl Barks. In the 60's and 70's, Renato Canini drew a number of stories in a style inspired by the popular design of the era. He also developed a universe around José Carioca, a very popular character in Brazil. In the 70's and 80's, Abril intensified the production. Except for José Carioca, recurring characters in the production included Daisy (turned feminist) and Fethry Duck. Among the most prolific authors, were the writer Arthur Faria Jr. and the artist Irineu Soares Rodriguez. At the end of the 90's, the Brazilian production ceased, to start up anew for a short while in the 2000s. Recently, only a few stories are produced for special events. Brazil are also known to have retained many "obscure" characters, largely forgotten elsewhere. [edit] Others
[edit] Story codeMost Disney comic stories carry a story code. This is a code written on the first page of the story (usually in the panel margin). The first letter of the code usually indicates who produced the story. For instance stories done for the studio program carried story codes that began with the letter S, thus the code for the first Mickey and the Sleuth story ("The Case of the Pea Soup Burglaries") is S 75164. When a licensee decides they wish to reprint stories originally produced by another licensee and need films or other reproducible materials to facilitate said reprinting, the request is made making reference to the story code. It is the policy of Disney that all licensees must cooperate in the facilitating of such reprinting by providing the reproducible materials at cost. The codes are also a useful tool for indexers, especially those wishing to keep track of the diverse output of the various Disney comics publishers worldwide (c.f. entry on the I.N.D.U.C.K.S. database). [edit] I.N.D.U.C.K.S. DatabaseI.N.D.U.C.K.S. is a freely available database aiming to index all Disney comics ever printed in the world. The project started in 1992; today, the database lists Disney publication, stories, characters, authors, and much more. Most people use the I.N.D.U.C.K.S. through a search engine, browser and website abbreviated COA, which is daily updated based on I.N.D.U.C.K.S. data, and is available in a dozen languages. [edit] Notable writers and artists
[edit] Comics published by Gold Key/Whitman
[edit] External links
[edit] See also[edit] References
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