Showing posts with label Comic Strip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comic Strip. Show all posts

Disney's Robin Hood Comic Strip. 6


This is part six of the Robin Hood strip that appeared in the Belgian comic Mickey during the 1950s. It was based on Walt Disney's wonderful live-action movie The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men which was released in 1952 and starred Richard Todd, Joan Rice, Peter Finch and many other great stars of the time. The artwork is by the legendary cartoonist Jessie Marsh and if you want to learn more about him please click here.


 


A big thank-you goes out to Matt Crandall on the excellent Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland site for uploading these rare pages for us to enjoy.


 

Click on the images to enlarge them and to see previous pages please click here.

Disney's Robin Hood Comic Strip 5.


Here is the fifth instalment of the Robin Hood comic strip that appeared in the Belgian Mickey Magazine. It was based on Walt Disney's live-action movie The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952) and the images were kindly sent in by Matt Crandall.

 
 
 

 

To see previous pages of this comic strip please click here.

Disney's Robin Hood Comic Strip 4.


This is the fourth edition of the comic strip adaption of Walt Disney's live action movie The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).

The comic strip appeared in the Belgian Mickey Magazine during the early 1950's and Matt Crandall has kindly sent me copies of the artwork.




To see previous pages of the comic strip please click here.

Joan Rice and Alice in Wonderland

Joan Rice at the premiere of Alice in Wonderland

Above is a lovely press picture of Joan Rice attending the premiere of Walt Disney's animated cartoon Alice in Wonderland at the Leicester Square Theatre in London on the 26th July 1951. 

By this time, filming of Disney's live-action movie the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952) had just finished at Denham Studios in Buckinghamshire. This would be Joan's first 'big' movie as she had been personally chosen by Walt to play the part of Maid Marian.  J. Arthur Rank had billed her as the 'next Jean Simmons', so she was very popular with the British newspapers and magazines of the time. We can only imagine how this former waitress felt when she attended the premiere of Alice in Wonderland knowing she was the new toast of the film world.

Coincidentally I have been contacted recently by Matt Crandall who has a blog dedicated to Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland. It is a fantastic site, filled with amazing amounts of information and memorabilia from the classic movie. During his search for Disneyana connected to Alice, Matt had seen copies of the Belgian 'Mickey Magazine' containing the strip of Disney's Robin Hood and kindly said he would send me the images.

Below is an example of Matt's Alice in Wonderland blog:





Matt sent me this email:


I have recently come across what I believe is the complete adaptation as it appeared in Mickey Magazine in Belgium (French) issues 120-145.  Let me know if you'd like scans.

Matt
VintageDisneyAlice.blogspot.com

Matt has already sent me this sample (below) from the Belgium Mickey Mouse and there are more to come soon!



Matt's blog is here: Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

Jessie Marsh's Robin Hood

Jessie Marsh (1907-1966)

I have posted this article before about the comic strip of Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood (1952), but since then I have discovered more examples of the excellent artwork of Jessie Marsh.

The Story of Robin Hood was the first Walt Disney live-action movie to be adapted to a comic strip. This was yet another way in which Disney was able to advertise his new releases and keep the film fresh in the audiences mind. Above is an image of the original artist and animator who worked on the Robin Hood strip, Jesse Mace Marsh. His strip version of the film ran for twenty five weeks, from 13th July till 28th December 1952.

Below are some examples of Marsh's fine illustrations:


The first scene at Huntingdon

The archery contest


The death of Robin's father

Jesse was born in Florence, Alabama on July 27th 1907 his father was a small business contractor. From a very young age, Jessie had an interest in art and studied artists he admired in the local library and the museums. He was a self-taught and aspired to be a fine arts painter.


Robin Hood meets Little John


Friar Tuck joins the outlaws


The attack on the royal coach

When Jessie was twelve years old his father moved the family to California, where in 1939 his son’s talents were first noticed and used by the Walt Disney Studio. He was involved in creating the studio’s animated classics, such as Pinocchio and Fantasia, but by 1945 he had also joined some fellow Disney artists in freelancing at Western Publishing.

1n 1947 he began drawing his main claim to fame - the Tarzan Comic for Dell (later Gold Key Comics), from the comfort of his new studio at his home. Other strips were created there, including Gene AutryDaniel BooneDavy Crockett and many more.

Below are a few colorized examples of his Robin Hood strip:


This strip was first published October 12th 1952

But Jessie remained intermittently working for Disney, which included drawing their Sunday newspaper strip that usually featured the current Disney movie as a tie-in. His first was The Story of Robin Hood which had been released in America a few weeks earlier. He began Robin Hood on July 13th 1952 through until December 28th 1952 and worked alongside the strip writer Frank Reilly. 


This strip was first published December 14th 1952

Jessie remained as a staff artist for Western Publishing, often producing over a 100 pages a month, until 1965 when diabetes was seriously affecting his eye sight. Jessie sadly passed away on April 28, 1966.

It would be wonderful if Jessie's complete strip of Robin Hood could one day be released in book-form.

Robin Hood in Mickey Mouse Weekly



Part of my collection of memorabilia from Walt Disney's movie the Story of Robin Hood are two copies of Mickey Mouse Weekly. This was a weekly tabloid comic that ran from the late 1930s and was first published by Willbank Publications and later Odhams Press in London. It was the first British comic to use the expensive colour photogravure process.

The two copies that I own date from the time of the release of the live-action movie in 1952.  But sadly I am not sure who the artist was that illustrated the strip (it could have been Jessie Marsh). So perhaps my readers might be able to help?


The colourful strip featured below appeared on the back page of Mickey Mouse Weekly weekending July 12th 1952. 





There is a lot more information on the various comic strip versions of Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood here.

Jessie Marsh's Robin Hood


The Story of Robin Hood was the first Walt Disney live-action movie to be adapted to a comic strip, and recently I posted an article about the legendary artist who drew these wonderful images for Disney, Jessie Mace Marsh (1907-1966). He began Robin Hood on July 13th 1952 through until December 28th 1952 alongside the strip writer Frank Reilly. Disney’s live-action movie had been released in America a few weeks earlier.

Unfortunately I can only find a few copies of some of the pages from the Sunday Strip of his Robin Hood series - I expect they are very rare! But above is the ‘Archery Contest’ scene, beautifully inked before colorization.

Please click on the Label ‘Comic Strip’ to see previous posts.

Jessie Marsh's Story of Robin Hood



The Story of Robin Hood was the first Walt Disney live-action movie to be adapted to a comic strip. This was yet another way in which Disney was able to advertise his new releases and keep the film fresh in the audiences mind. Above is the original Sunday Strip ink drawing, before colorization, by the comic book artist and animator Jesse Mace Marsh.

Jesse was born in Florence, Alabama on July 27th 1907 his father was a small business contractor. From a very young age, Jessie had an interest in art and studied artists he admired in the local library and the museums. He was a self-taught and aspired to be a fine arts painter.
When Jessie was twelve years old his father moved the family to California, where in 1939 his son’s talents were first noticed and used by the Walt Disney Studio. He was involved in creating the studio’s animated classics, such as Pinocchio and Fantasia, but by 1945 he had also joined some fellow Disney artists in freelancing at Western Publishing.

1n 1947 he began drawing his main claim to fame - the Tarzan Comic for Dell (later Gold Key Comics), from the comfort of his new studio at his home. Other strips were created there, including Gene Autry, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and many more.

But he also remained intermittently working for Disney, which included drawing their Sunday newspaper strip that usually featured the current Disney movie as a tie-in. His first was The Story of Robin Hood which had been released in America a few weeks earlier. He began Robin Hood on July 13th 1952 through until December 28th 1952 and worked alongside the strip writer Frank Reilly.

Jessie remained as a staff artist for Western Publishing, often producing over a 100 pages a month, until 1965 when diabetes was seriously affecting his eye sight. Jessie sadly passed away on April 28, 1966.

I expect many of you will be keen to see more of this comic strip and Mace’s fine quality art work.
So stay tuned!

Gold Key: Walt Disney's Robin Hood



This is a Gold Key comic based on the Disney live-action film and was published in 1965 (originally printed as Dell 4 Color in 1952) by K.K. Publications, Inc., Poughkeepsie, New York, in cooperation with Golden Press, Inc. It was designed, produced and printed in the U.S.A. by Western Printing and Lithographing Company. I own the third printing 10163-506. The illustrations are good and the comic does mainly follow the original screen play, although Alan a Dale, (pictured on the back cover)and Little John, (illustrated on the front cover) do not appear in the comic strip.

The cover has a full colour picture of Richard Todd as Robin Hood and on the inside cover are some small, black and white photos of Joan Rice as Maid Marian, Peter Finch as the Sheriff of Nottingham, James Robertson Justice as Little John, Hubert Gregg as Prince John and Patrick Barr as Richard the Lionheart.

Also on the inside cover is an introduction to the story:

During the reign of Richard the Lionheart a great crusade was fought in the Holy Land. While Richard strove against the Saracens, his brother, Prince John, ruled in his place.
Prince John had neither the kindliness or the fighting spirit with which Richard ruled the land. The usurper trampled on the rights of the simple people. Ever jealous of his great brother, grasping after gold and power, Prince John ruled with a mailed fist…….always plotting against his brother’s hoped for return to England and the Throne.
But when his tax collectors and game wardens entered Sherwood Forest, they encountered the Merry Men and their famous leader, Robin Hood. Then, as never before, did Prince John begin to doubt he would ever be the King.

The comic consists of 32 pages in colour. The inside back cover has a good quality film still of Maid Marian (Joan Rice) being rescued from the dungeon with the Sheriff (Peter Finch) being led at knife point by Robin (Richard Todd) . On the back is a full cover still of Allan-a Dale (Elton Hayes) with Little John (James Robertson Justice) and Scathelok (Michael Hordern).

The comic script is by Gaylord Du Bois and Morris Gollub. Pencils by Jon Small and Morris Gollub. Inks by Jon Small.