Show Us Your Ducks! 16 16

[tb]

It is very rare that I buy a duplicate copy of an issue when I already have a copy in exceptional condition. I never liked hoarding rare comics that other collectors might be looking for. This "undercopy" is an exception. Initially, I passed on it when it was offered last year although I gave it top marks during my inspection prior to the auction, but when it came up again a few months ago I couldn't resist. My nicest copy is still not certified; I've been hesitant to submit some of my most beautiful books but am still considering it.

 

The back cover message is unique in that it is neither an ad for merchandise nor for an animated short or feature.

 

The review of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" below is copied from the New York Times archives. A particularly interesting note to me was the criticism of the human figures. Pixar struggled with the same kind of problems for their human characters when they did the first Toy Story movie, before physically accurate models of the scattering of light in hair and skin had been developed. Today, 15 years later, Pixar's approach seems just as outdated as the animation of Snow White and Prince Charming would have appeared in 1950 when Cinderella was released. I keep getting amazed by how similar the evolution of 3d animation has progressed compared to what transpired at Disney in the 1930s.

[Duffman_Comics]

Thanks for the NYT review, TB.

 

Boy, they don't write 'em like that anymore - nailing the problems that the flick has without in any way detracting from it.

 

Nugent's observations regarding the problems of animating "real" people stand today. Real people cannot "squash and stretch" as animated characters must.

 

This, in part, explains why actors like Jim Carrey and Bob Hoskins are cast in films that largely involve animation.

 

As for your MM's, I am green. I have but one, obtained many years ago with a singular peculiarity.

 

I have posted this one before. The inside back cover has a "local" i.e. Australian ad pasted .

 

What's underneath?

 

 

 

[AJD]

Thanks for the NYT review, TB.

 

Boy, they don't write 'em like that anymore - nailing the problems that the flick has without in any way detracting from it.

 

 

The NYT is a wonderful institution. I love the way they give everyone their title; 'Mr Disney'. (I read a review last week of a concert by Bruce Springsteen - 'Mr Springsteen took the stage...'). And D. Duck

 

The Australian ad in Mr Duffman_Comics' MMM really took me back. My dad ran a grocery shop when I was growing up and I can remember selling PMU sauce - but never knew it abbreviated 'Pick Me Up'. I learn something every day on these boards. One day it may even be something useful.

[tb]

That's a really fun ad. I had no idea that Disney had some kind of licensing deal for foreign distribution of the MMMs, especially this early. Do you have any idea how the book ended up in your neck of the woods? I am very interested in the experiments Kay Kamen did back then when the medium still was virtually unexplored. It seems almost incomprehensible that this issue somehow was circulated abroad... Despite being printed on the high quality paper t is one of the rarest issues. The circulation in North America surely can't have been more than 50,000 since you see the issues from 1937-38, most of which still had a print run of less than 100,000, far more often.

 

I'll look up the inside back cover when I get a chance. Unfortunately, I no longer keep my collection at home. I actually just got a second file copy of #4 CGC graded (I've shown my own copy before) but I just mailed that to another collector.

 

Edit:

 

Here's my own copy again. Not much action upgrading this in the past 8 years; I'll check back in around 2020 if there's any news by then. It takes a fair amount of patience collecting high grade books from the 1930s.

 

On Ice was released in December 1935 as the 5th Mickey Mouse short in color. It is one of my all time favorite cartoons, especially the opening sequence with all the early depictions of Disney characters and Mickey and Minnie dancing to the Skater's Waltz: this is just classic, classic Disney at it's best. The "Mickey Mouse in Living Color" DVD featured this awesome pencil test with the bonus material. The cover is an unusually direct adaption of Tom Wood's Good Housekeeping page. It was the first cover to promote the latest Disney cartoon that was playing in theaters.

 

Here's a movie that On Ice almost certainly would have been the opening act to when it premiered in New York City on December 13, 1935.

 

My copies of V1#5 and #6 both have arrival dates from the middle of the month prior to the month published on the cover, so #4, the January 1936 issue, would have appeared on the newsstands around December 15. Here is another

of a rather different genre that was released a few weeks later.

 

 

[Duffman_Comics]

Well, being able to see the whole cover is a pleasant surprise. (thumbs u

 

Why was this book shipped out here so long ago? I have no idea. WWII put an end to funny book importation here for a very long time, then import restrictions were only really lifted in the early sixties. Until the real deals arrived, we put up with black and white reprints.

 

The thing that puzzles me is that this ad had to have been pasted in manually. What a tedious exercise.

 

Maybe the low availability of this MMM in North America is attributable to the export of a large chunk of the print run?

 

P.S. (for AJD) HP sauce stands for Houses of Parliament. Any other condiment currently puzzling you?

[tb]

Next up in my little series of improved scans is this The Brave Little Tailor cover from 1938.

 

To me, a book like this truly is a piece of art. It should not be read, but preserved in this condition to help communicate the appeal of these books to present and future collectors. I submitted another copy that graded CGC 9.4, but this one is my favorite for aesthetic reasons.

 

[Yellow Kid]

With the great early Disney art being presented in large format, the covers really are works of art. And as such, I think it is more critical to see them in high grade than many other covers of the period. When I look through my set of Famous Funnies, for example, I don't see anything comparable. In fact, many of the comic book covers from the 1930's just seem uninspired. The MMM covers are so beautiful, on the other hand, that I wish I had a poster-sized set of them. I hope that you will keep them coming, tb, so we can enjoy all of them.

[tb]

The insert below was lying loose in the copy of Mickey Mouse Magazine Series 1 V1#3 also shown. This was the first issue not to have a price tag; V1#1 and V1#2 both had 5 cents listed on the cover. I had never heard of such an insert before and thought it was fun since there's so little information about this very rare first series available. It suggests that #3 was indeed some kind of promotional effort before the title became a dairy giveaway.

 

 

Note the publisher, Kamen-Blair, Inc. This was a Kansas City marketing company founded by Kay Kamen and Streeter Blair. Kamen joined Disney in 1932 and the publisher of the Disney books would quickly switch to K.K. Publications.

 

 

Just to add a bit of historical context, the Mickey Mouse short that was playing in theaters in February 1933, when this book would have come out, was The Mad Doctor.

 

As I've mentioned in the past, my interest in these red/black Series 1 issues is entirely in their history and rarity. Unlike Series 3, which features all the beautiful covers, they have no aesthetic value whatsoever to me.

Edited July 2, 2011 by tb

[AJD]

 

 

As I've mentioned in the past, my interest in these red/black Series 1 issues is entirely in their history and rarity. Unlike Series 3, which features all the beautiful covers, they have no aesthetic value whatsoever to me.

 

I dunno - with issues like that, I find aesthetics and history starting to blur for me. The images themselves tell you something about the time, technology and contemporary values (including mid 1930s pop culture aesthetics). I find it hard to separate the two.

Edited July 2, 2011 by AJD

[tb]

[AJD]

Wow tb - that may be my favourite yet! I have to get one to put beside these:

 

 

and this:

 

 

Happy July 4 to American boardies everywhere!

 

Andrew

[Yellow Kid]

I agree, one of my favorites! Happy 4th of July to all!

Richard

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

 

Happy 4th! I first saw this image as a kid in the suburbs in the mid-70's while browsing the poster racks that were so ubiquitous at that time. This image had been recycled for one of those posters and it has been burned into my mind's eye ever since. Bravo on this fantastic copy, it is alone the equivalent of a fireworks display for me.

 

July 4th was also the traditional weekend of the old Phil Seuling annual New York Comic Con which I used to attend each year from about 1972-1981, the highlight of my year.

 

 

[AJD]

Here's some more of the Another Rainbow Barks trading cards. I just picked up the whole 1-25 set from eBay.

 

I'm still looking for a few of the 'Heroes and Villians' WDC&S cards and Scrooge 1, 31-56 if anyone has some spares they don't want.

 

[ciorac]

I agree, one of my favorites! Happy 4th of July to all!

Richard

 

And to you too Rich! I sported my 4th of July pin yesterday at the parade in Newtown Square

[Yellow Kid]

Glad you liked it, Bill, and now I am working on the Christmas edition.

[tb]

I too love YK's pins. A few days ago, I was looking at them and thought I'd post the MMM cover again.

 

---

 

Here's a book that I like a lot. Dopey was probably the first successful demonstration of how an animated character can be compelling enough to carry a feature length movie. A few weeks back, I was going through newspaper articles from the time of the premiere and it struck me how much this breakthrough was emphasized in the reviews.

 

I am still in awe of the condition every time I hold this book in my hands. Magazine sized books with a perfect spine are particularly hard to come by.

 

 

--

 

AJD: I'd never seen those cards together before. I also have some of them from when I was buying the albums. There are a bunch of those illustrations that would have made terrific covers.

 

Here's a panel from Vacation Parade 1 that was adapted to become the cover for the original Scandinavian one-shot edition of that story. I edited out the title. It was one of my favorite covers when I was a kid. Was this cover also published in Australia?

 

Btw., I also like the EC books a lot and I never had much interest in superheroes, except for the early, gothic appearances of Dr. Occult, Spectre, Submariner, Batman etc. which I think are very cool. I still think it is fun to hear about superhero comics, but I'd much prefer to collect the cheaper titles that I like better.

[generic user]

Here's my LF 20. Unfortunatley a previous owner took the advice on the cover and colored the pictures. I love the back cover on this one.

 

 

[generic user]

I've shown my WDC&S 1 reproduction before in some "whole room" shots, but I took a closer shot of it recently.

 

[G.A.tor]

good stuff