Silly Symphonies Volume 2: The Complete Disney Classics 1935-1939

Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics #2

by Earl Duvall (Writer), Ted Osborne (Writer), Merrill De Maris (Writer)

This second of four volumes presents the spectacular Sunday pages from 1935 to 1939, featuring the first comic strip adaptation of a feature-length film--Snow White...the original Donald Duck series, plus the Three Little Pigs (and the Big Bad Wolf, of course), Elmer the Elephant, Pluto, Goofy, and the Three Little Kittens. The artwork for these rare strips has come straight from the Disney vaults, each page meticulously colored using as a guide the original file copies that belonged to Walt Disney himself!

Genres: Comics

192 pages, Hardcover

First published February 21, 2017

Reviews

[Gijs Grob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Second Volume of the Silly Symphonies Sunday Pages features comics based on the Silly Symphony cartoons 'Three Little Kittens' (1935), 'Elmer Elephant' (1936), 'Three Little Wolves' (1936), 'The Practical Pig' (1939), 'Mother Pluto' (1936), 'Farmyard Symphony' (1938) and an unreleased sequel to 'Elmer Elephant'. The first three are in rhyme, and all are drawn with considerable skill by Al Taliaferro.

But more interesting than any of these is the Donald Duck pilot strip, which lasted from August 1936 to December 1937. Although Donald Duck had made his comic strip debut in the previous volume, this marks the real start of the Donald Duck comic strip, one Taliaferro would draw until his death in 1969(!). These panels are excellent pieces of (mostly silent) comedy. What's more, in these pages Donald Duck still is part of the Mickey Mouse universe, and co-stars with Goofy, Horace Horsecollar, Pluto and Clarabelle Cow.

Even better, on October 17 1937 Huey, Dewey and Louie make their debut. This mischievous trio was an invention of scenarist Ted Osborne and Taliaferro , although in behavior they clearly take after Gottfredson's Morty and Ferdy.

Also featured is the comic strip based on Disney's groundbreaking feature 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. Drawn by Hank Porter this is an inferior piece of work, paling when compared to either the feature film itself or Taliaferro's surrounding art. The ugly coloring doesn't help, either. These pages are most interesting for displaying story ideas that never reached the final film.