Thursday, January 19, 2012

Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales

"Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales" was a weekly syndicated comic strip that ran from July 13th, 1952 to February 15th, 1987 and serialized (usually in 13 weeks) the Walt Disney movies that were currently in theatrical release. I grew up a huge fan of the Disney live-action comedies of the 1960s and '70s -- especially the ones starring Dean Jones, Kurt Russell, Tim Conway and Don Knotts -- but only had limited exposure to the comic strip because the newspapers in my neck of the woods never carried it. I caught up with some of the stories when they were reprinted as comic books in the "Walt Disney Showcase" series...


...but many of the films, like the nine sampled below, never appeared in comic form again after their initial newspaper runs. I'd like to see these and others get reprinted in color eventually (Jack Kirby's adaptation of THE BLACK HOLE would be a great way to kick off the series), but for now I'm satisfied with the black-and-white copies I've been able to track down.

THE SHAGGY D.A. (9/5/1976 - 11/28/1976)

KING OF THE GRIZZLIES (3/1/1970 - 5/31/1970)

THE COMPUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES (12/7/1969 - 2/22/1970)

NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON'T (4/2/1972 - 6/25/1972)

THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG (5/4/1975 - 6/29/1975)

ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING (7/6/1975 - 9/28/1975)

SNOWBALL EXPRESS (10/1/1972 - 12/31/1972)

THE LEGEND OF LOBO (7/2/1972 - 9/24/1972)

NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN (12/7/1975 - 2/29/1976)

The Paperback Film Projector book, which is slated for release later this year, will not include comic book or comic strip adaptations unless they were also published as mass market paperbacks, but we will review them here on the blog.

3 comments:

  1. I have actual copies of THE BLACK HOLE and THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS strips.

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  2. Jimmm Kelly over at the Comic Book Plus site clued me in about the 1954 Frank Reilly / Jesse Marsh adaptation of "20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA". Although I'm missing some parts of it, I'm doing a "restoration" project and posting it at my blog. It's like piecing an old movie together that's been butchered over the decades.

    http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2014/03/jules-verne-part-6.html

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  3. Nice article.

    Thanks to Jimmm Kelly (over at the Comic Book Plus site), I was made aware of the Jesse Marsh "20,000 LEAGUES" adaptation. After several months (off and on) and a lot of work downloading, cleaning up & re-posting, I now have the entire story (all 22 weeks) set up at my blog. Some of it's still in B&W, but, you do what you can.

    http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2014/03/jules-verne-part-6.html

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