DONALD Sunday - June 13, 1937

DONALD Sunday - May 30, 1937

DONALD Sunday - May 23, 1937

As I continue posting some of the Silly Symphony Donald Duck Sunday strips, I am struck by how well they are drawn and just like the Mickey strips of the 30's in some way resemble the Donald of the shorts. I wonder how much of that was because the strips were drawn at the Disney studio. Maybe one day Al Taliaferro will get a collection.

Don't get me wrong I love Carl Barks' work, but I think the Donald strips are an important part of Donald's comic history which is usually just glossed over. They don't tell serial adventure type stories and the characters are not terribly well rounded as in the later comic books, but they are a good example of a gag strip.

Walt and the King of the Leprechauns

Here's a fun little piece to start the weekend with, from the February 1959 issue of Walt Disney's Magazine.

Of course Walt didn't write the article, in fact it reads like a virtual transcript from his TV segment titled I Captured The King Of The Leprechauns which can be seen as a special feature on the Darby O'Gill and the Little People DVD.

I have something of a soft spot for this Disney live action film and from this vantage point in time it's a bit odd seeing 'James Bond' singing. OK Sean Connery's first apprearance as Bond was still about 4 years away.

Here's a bit of trivia, Walt was apparently friends with Albert R Broccoli, the producer of the Bond films. He also reportedly went to Walt for advice when he was producing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

DONALD Sunday - April 11, 1937

Walt in Kansas - 1922

I've had this for about a year, it was supposedly scanned from the original photo belonging to the Cowles family.

Walt can be seen at the far right of the photo filming the the Cowles children. That's probably Mrs Cowles in sand pit with the kids. One of Walt's principal backers in the Laugh-O-Grams venture was Dr. John V. Cowles and this is no doubt his family. It was also in 1922 that Laugh-O-Grams placed an add in the Kansas City Star offering their services to photographing babies.

The upcoming "Walt Before Mickey" will cover this and more, hopefully in more detail than we've read before, I can't wait for that one.

DONALD Sunday - March 28, 1937