Treasure: Wee Willie Winkie visits Fleetway

[jehanbosch]

Hi Phil
You were certainly correct about the Harold Hare magazine.
As it used Disney characters during the 1960s.
However, it is simply too old for me.
Because i only became interested in UK comics during the 1970s.
(Probably due to the fact that the US Gold Key comic books were past their zenith.)
The older mags i have usually came from my Liverpool penpal, Bob Hayden of blessed memory.
Meanwhile i only located scans with Disney's Mr. Toad from the Harold Hare mag.
Plus a leaflet with different Disney characters.
So i have not the faintest idea what Harold Hare's version of Peter Pan was like.
Best, Johan

[jehanbosch]

I did locate a scan of a cover that appears to date from May 8, 1961 and the mag seems to contain Peter Pan..

[philcom55]

Hi Johan;

As your cover scan shows Harold Hare inherited some Disney strips for a time when it supposedly 'merged' with Walt Disney's Weekly (even though that comic had never been published by Fleetway). However, you can see from this example that the self-contained humorous tales of 'Peter Pan and Captain Hook - the Crook' were now replaced by more interesting continued stories which introduced new characters like the Snow Princess.

[jehanbosch]

Hi Phil
Thank you very much for your scan and info.
However, i recognized the style and type immediately.
This kind of Peter Pan stories also appeared in the UK Disney Time magazine.
Disney Time lasted only a couple of months in 1977.
I am supposed to have a full run of Disney Time but can not find them - yet.
But again thanks for bringing these stories to my attention.
Because INDEPENDENT Peter Pan stories by Disney are very rare indeed.
Not adapting the movie(s).
I only have less than a dozen or so.
Best, J.

[jehanbosch]

Hi once more
I am fairly certain i saw the PP story with the Snow Princess and the pinguin before.
Probably in one of the DisneyTime specials or annuals.
The ComicVine lists 2 specials and 8 annuals of this particular mag.
However, i thought that more than 2 specials were published.
But as long as i have not unearthed the other half of DisneyTime, its specials and a few annuals i can not be sure.
They are stored/buried in my garage. In one of the circa 100 boxes..
My guess is that the Snow Princess was reprinted in one of the specials.
So i enclose a scan.
Searching for this mag on the Internet is complicated by the spelling of its title.
For it is either Disney Time, DisneyTime or Disneytime..
Best, J.

[philcom55]

After he retired from his position as Director of Juvenile Publications at IPC Leonard Matthews did some kind of deal that enabled him to recycle old Fleetway/Odhams material under the imprint of his own Martspress company. I'd guess that this is how the Peter Pan stories from Harold Hare ended up in his Disney Time - though the reproduction was markedly inferior in most cases.

[jehanbosch]

Still i am glad somebody did reprint these lovely Peter Pan stories.
Because DisneyTime is rather easy to acquire while Harold Hare appears extremely difficult to obtain.
However, the most prestiguous INDEPENDENT Peter Pan story was released in 1952 as Dell comic No. 446 : Captain Hook and Peter Pan
This delightful comic book introduced the Mermaid Queen and a rival pirate: Captain Juan Emanuel Rodrigues Gonzales de la Pancho.
It was transtranslated very often; editions were published in Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Latin America.
However, i read it first as a serial in the Belgian "Mickey Magazine".
It was never reprinted in the US and i am not familiar with any UK edition.
So i will try to post the Latin American edition, which i am unable to find..
I enjoyed it immensely

[jehanbosch]

Hi folks
Received more Mickey Mouse Weekly, two issues even with Joshua Slogg.
This tale plays in "contemporary"(Edwardian) Britain near Bristol.
And the England depicted looks very quaint.
While the ladies' dresses are from widely different periods.
No Edwardian woman would be caught dead in Regency dresses!
Meanwhile i also bought a curious booklet, issued as a supplement to Mickey Mouse Weekly.
Does anybody know a date?
Best, J.

[jehanbosch]

Hi
Managed to buy more Peter Pan from the UK but most items did not arrive yet.
However, yesterday arrived my first Peter Pan Joy book from Italy.
It is a heavy cardboard picture book.
But half of the pages are also puzzles.
The drawing style is rather cute with most of the population of Neverland being blonde..
Seems to me a harmless version of the popular fantasy by Italian youths about blonde people..
Nevertheless , it is nice to have one
Best, Johan

[jehanbosch]

Hi Phil
A long time ago you told me about an UK comic book of Peter Pan, reprinting one of the US comics in 1958.
I am unable to find any data on it.
In the first place it is not yet listed in the inducks website i frequent.
And in the second place there is no trace of it on amazon.co.uk or ebay.co.uk, not at the moment, though.
Not that i doubt its existence but more information would be most helpful.
I do own a more recent UK reprint of Peter Pan as well as the UK edition of the brand new movie story made in Spain.
Scans are shown.
And i am aware of a Peter Pan serial in "Donald and MIckey" of the 1970s as well in "D&M"s successor , the UK "Mickey Mouse".
For i do own most of "D&M" as well as parts of "MM".
There even exists a Special of "D&M" that reprints the serial; it is not listed in inducks either..
Best wishes, Johan

[philcom55]

To be honest I'm a bit puzzled about the 1958 British comic you're referring to Johan. As far as I'm aware the only title I mentioned from that year was Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse (home of 'Peter Pan and Captain Hook - the Crook') which was Disney's own replacement for Odhams' long-running Mickey Mouse Weekly. Apart from that most direct reprints of American Disney material that appeared in Britain during the 1950s were published by World Distributors Ltd, one example being this version of the Peter Pan Treasure Chest.

[jehanbosch]

Hi Phil
Thank you very much for your answer.
I indeed thought you were referring to a seperate Peter Pan issue in 1958 instead of the "Mickey Mouse" mag of 1958-59.
My mistake; i know very little of UK comics and relied too much on my friend Bob Hayden, who was mainly interested in the early issues of "Mickey Mouse Weekly".
(By the way i now own most of "Mickey Mouse", a complete run from March 1, 1958 till the end in January 1959. I kind of like it.
And the "Peter Pan and Captain Hook, the Crook" gag serial continues even longer, in fact till issue 14 of "Mickey Mouse"s successor,"Walt Disney's Weekly", according to the inducks website.)
I think i have one issue of World Distributors with Jimmy Crickett and Tinkerbell if i remember correctly. Again from Bob Hayden. I always thought it was an Australian publication!!! And many thanks for the information. I never even knew there was a British edition of "Peter Pan Treasure Chest" but i have the American original and a German edition that reprints the longer movie story only...
I want to show some prints from the Spanish adaptations of the Peter Pan movie stories. Peter Pan I and II were both adapted by the same Spanish studio...
Thanks again and best, Johan

[jehanbosch]

I have no Mickey Mouse Weeklies of 1957 so i really can not compare it to his successor.
But i wanted to say i had a swell time reading it: the twins Morty and Ferdy Mouse flooding or otherwise upsetting Mouseville and Peter Pan as a bad boy outwitting Captain Hook and his gifted but stupid sidekick Smee. However, I did miss Tinkerbell quite often and Wendy never came by.
Yet Mickey Mouse 1958-59 did have a couple of non-Disney features i had not seen: Buster's Bus travelling from Africa to Britain through every cliché of that time followed by a serial of boys fighting for the Empire at the North West Frontier. You do not see that often these days.
I do not think the Annuals published by Dean around 1958 have anything to do with it but i wanted to throw in some scans:

[jehanbosch]

Hi Wishing everybody a Happy New Year
I have been busy on the comic books front, especially on Peter Pan
A couple of weeks ago i opened a board on Pinterest with my Peter Pan scans.
https://www.pinterest.com/jehanbosch/peter-pan/
But i have only started.
Enclosed is a Peter Pan card from 1951
Observe that Wendy has pigtails..
Best, Johan

[jehanbosch]

As a treat i am posting a scan of "Mickey Mouse and the Shadow Thieves" aka "Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan".
Purists will object it joins Peter with an even more fantastic person.
But somehow i have always seen the classical Disney figures as oddly disguised humans.
I like this story to death but i am uncertain whether it was ever published in the UK.
And i love that it portrays two slightly warring tribes of dwarfs although they look much alike.
Nevertheless these dwarfs do not live in Neverland.
So the story does not play in that odd Avalon..
But in an odd 1950s Earth.. J.