Disney Comic Book

Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring characters created by the Walt Disney Company, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck.

The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on, starting with the ''Mickey Mouse'' comic strip. ''Mickey Mouse Magazine'', the first American newsstand publication with Disney comics, launched in 1935. In 1940, Western Publishing launched the long-running flagship comic book, ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'', which reached 750 issues in September 2019. ''Uncle Scrooge'', launched in 1952, reached issue #450 in June 2019. In recent decades, Disney comics have seen a decline of popularity in the United States. In the rest of the world Disney comics have remained very successful, especially in Europe, where weekly Disney comics magazines and monthly paperback digests are national best sellers.

Disney comics have been the basis for academic theory, cultural criticism, and fan-created databases.

U.S. comic strips

The first Disney comics appeared in daily newspapers, syndicated by King Features with production done in-house by a Disney comic strip department at the studio. Initially Floyd Gottfredson along with his responsibilities for the ''Mickey Mouse'' comic strip oversaw the Disney comic strip department from 1930 to 1945, then Frank Reilly was brought in to administer the burgeoning department from January 1946 to 1975. Greg Crosby headed the department from 1979 to 1989.

Mickey Mouse

The ''Mickey Mouse'' daily comic strip began on January 13, 1930, featuring Mickey as an optimistic, adventure-seeking young mouse. It was initially written by Walt Disney with art by Ub Iwerks and . Beginning with the May 5, 1930, installment the art chores were taken up by Floyd Gottfredson (often aided by various inkers), who also either wrote or supervised the story continuities (relying on various writers to flesh out his plots). Gottfredson continued with the strip until 1975. By 1931, the ''Mickey Mouse'' strip was published in 60 newspapers in the United States, as well as papers in twenty other countries.

From the beginning, the strips were parts of long continuing stories. These introduced characters such as the Phantom Blot, Eega Beeva, and the Bat Bandit, which Gottfredson created; Disney created Eli Squinch, Mickey's nephews, Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse, and Sylvester Shyster, which were also introduced in the comic.

Starting in the 1950s, Gottfredson and writer Bill Walsh were instructed to drop the storylines and do only daily gags. Gottfredson continued illustrating the daily strip until he retired on October 1, 1975.

After Gottfredson retired, the strip was written and drawn by many other creators. The Sunday page went into reprints in February 1992, and the daily strip ended on July 29, 1995.

In 2011, Fantagraphics Books began the ''Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse'' series, a hardback collection of Gottfredson's run on the strip. A total of 14 volumes were published between 2011 and 2018, collecting the entirety of Gottfredson's Sunday color work (two volumes) and all of his serialized story-themed daily strips (12 volumes). The collection doesn't include any of Gottfredson's gag-oriented material from 1955 onwards.

Silly Symphony

The ''Mickey Mouse'' Sunday strip started on January 10, 1932, with a topper ''Silly Symphony'' strip.''Silly Symphony'' initially related the adventures of Bucky Bug, the first Disney character to originate in the comics. It went on to print more adaptations of ''Silly Symphony'' shorts, often using the characters and setting of the original shorts, but adding new plotlines and incidents. It also went on to print adaptations of the feature films, as well as periods of gag strips featuring Donald Duck and Pluto. By late 1935 the strip was a standalone half-page, not strictly a topper for the ''Mickey'' Sunday.

The strip was initially titled ''Silly Symphonies''; after two years, the name was changed to ''Silly Symphony''. The switch happened in the February 18, 1934, strip, just three weeks before Bucky Bug would be replaced with a new storyline, "Birds of a Feather".

The complete rundown of ''Silly Symphony'' strips, from 1932 to 1945:

* Bucky Bug (January 10, 1932 – March 4, 1934)
* Birds of a Feather (March 11 – June 17, 1934)
* Penguin Isle (July 1 – September 9, 1934)
* The Wise Little Hen (September 16 – December 16, 1934)
* The Boarding-School Mystery (December 23, 1934 – Feb 17, 1935)
* The Robber Kitten (Feb 24 – April 21, 1935)
* Cookieland (April 28 – July 21, 1935)
* Three Little Kittens (July 28 – October 20, 1935)
* The Life and Adventures of Elmer the Elephant (October 27, 1935 – January 12, 1936)
* The Further Adventures of the Three Little Pigs (January 19 – August 23, 1936)
* Donald Duck (August 30, 1936 – December 5, 1937)
* Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (December 12, 1937 – April 24, 1938)
* The Practical Pig! (May 1 – August 7, 1938)
* Mother Pluto (August 14 – October 16, 1938)
* Farmyard Symphony (October 23 – November 27, 1938)
* Timid Elmer (December 4, 1938 – Feb 12, 1939)
* Pluto the Pup (Feb 19 – March 19, 1939)
* The Ugly Duckling (March 26 – April 16, 1939)
* Pluto the Pup (April 23 – December 17, 1939)
* Pinocchio (December 24, 1939 – April 7, 1940)
* Pluto the Pup (April 14 – November 3, 1940)
* Little Hiawatha (November 10, 1940 – July 12, 1942)
* Bambi (July 19 – October 4, 1942)
* José Carioca (October 11, 1942 – October 1, 1944)
* Panchito (October 8, 1944 – October 7, 1945)

The ''Silly Symphony'' Sunday strip ended on October 7, 1945, and was replaced by ''Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit''.

Three of the ''Silly Symphony'' stories inspired long-running features in ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories''. Original Bucky Bug stories first appeared in issue #39 (Dec 1943) and appeared every month for seven years, wrapping up with issue #120 (Sept 1950). "The Three Little Pigs" feature inspired the creation of Li'l Bad Wolf, the Big Bad Wolf's errant son, who wants to be friends with the Pigs. Li'l Bad Wolf's adventures began in issue #52 (Jan 1945), and he made regular appearances until almost the end of the comic's original run, issue #259 (April 1962). Finally, Little Hiawatha had his own monthly story for two years, from issue #143 (Aug 1952) to #168 (September 1954).

The complete strip has been reprinted in four hardcover collections, ''Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics'', published by IDW Publishing's Library of American Comics imprint. The first volume, published in 2016, includes all of the strips from "Bucky Bug" (1932) to "Cookieland" (1935). Volume 2, published in 2017, includes "Three Little Kittens" (1935) to "Timid Elmer" (1939). Volume 3, published in 2018, includes "Pluto the Pup" (1939) to "Little Hiawatha" (1942). The fourth volume, published in 2019, concludes the series with "Bambi" (1942) through Panchito" (1945).

Donald Duck

Donald Duck made his first comics appearance in the ''Silly Symphony'' adaptation of the 1934 Disney short ''The Wise Little Hen'' (Sept. 16, 1934-Dec. 16, 1934). As Donald's popularity grew, he became the star of the ''Silly Symphony'' strip for an extended run (August 1936 to December 1937), and then got his own daily strip starting on February 7, 1938. A Donald Sunday strip premiered December 10, 1939. Carl Barks, known to fans as "The Duck Man," wrote at least 20 of the strips between 1938 and 1940. ''Donald Duck'' ran until May 2005, when it went into reprints.

Starting in 2015, IDW Publishing's Library of American Comics imprint has been publishing hardcover collections of the ''Donald Duck'' strip. As of 2019, five volumes of '' Donald Duck: The Complete Daily Newspaper Comics'' and two volumes of '' Donald Duck: The Complete Sunday Comics'' have been released.

Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit

''Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit'' was launched as a Sunday strip on October 14, 1945, as a preview of the upcoming 1946 film ''Song of the South''. The ''Uncle Remus'' strip began, like ''Silly Symphony'', as a topper for the ''Mickey Mouse'' strip, but after the first few years, almost always appeared on its own.

The previous comic strip adaptations of Disney films lasted for four or five months, but the ''Uncle Remus'' strip continued for almost thirty years, telling new stories of Br'er Rabbit and friends, until the strip was discontinued on December 31, 1972.

Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales

In 1950, Disney distributed a limited-time Sunday strip adaptations of their new animated feature ''Cinderella'', and followed the next year with ''Alice in Wonderland''. Judged a success, the experiment was turned into an ongoing feature in 1952—''Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales''—beginning with '' The Story of Robin Hood''.

The Sunday strip ran for thirty-five years, from July 13, 1952, to February 15, 1987. The animated features adapted for the strip include ''Peter Pan'' (1953), ''Lady and the Tramp'' (1955), ''Sleeping Beauty'' (1958), '' The Sword in the Stone'' (1963) and ''The Jungle Book'' (1968). ''Classic Tales'' also featured animated shorts, including ''Lambert the Sheepish Lion'' (1956) and ''Ben and Me'' (1953), and featurettes like '' Peter & The Wolf'' (1954) and ''Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree'' (1966). The 1979-80 adaptation of '' The Black Hole'' was particularly notable for featuring pencil art by comics icon Jack Kirby, with Mike Royer inking.

''Treasury of Classic Tales'' also adapted live-action films like '' Old Yeller'' (1957–58), '' Swiss Family Robinson'' (1960), ''Mary Poppins'' (1964) and ''The Love Bug'' (1969). The strip transitioned from historical dramas like ''The Sword and the Rose'' (1953) and '' Kidnapped'' (1960) to comedies like '' The Shaggy Dog'' (1959) and '' The Parent Trap'' (1961).

In 2016, IDW Publishing and their imprint ''The Library of American Comics (LoAC)'' began to collect all the ''Treasury of Classic Tales'' stories in a definitive hardcover reprint series. As of 2019, three volumes have been published, reprinting all the stories from ''Robin Hood'' (1952) through '' In Search of the Castaways'' (1962). In April 2018, it was announced that, due to the sales goal of the series not being met, the third volume may be the last one to be published.

Scamp

In 1955, the animated film ''Lady and the Tramp'' inspired a new comic strip based on an adorable, unnamed puppy glimpsed at the end of the movie. ''Scamp'' debuted in newspapers on October 31, 1955, and ran for more than 30 years, ending on June 25, 1988. The strip was created by Ward Greene, a King Features Syndicate editor who wrote the original magazine story, ''Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog, and Miss Patsy, the Beautiful Spaniel'', which inspired the film. Greene and artist Dick Moores produced the strip for eight months as a continuing story. Starting in May 1956, other creators took over, and the strip moved to a gag-a-day format.

Disney Christmas Story

Beginning in 1960, a special daily strip with a holiday theme utilizing the Disney characters was offered each year through 1987. It generally ran for three to four weeks with the concluding strip appearing a day or two before Christmas, often promoting the latest Disney release or re-release. These were unique in that in some cases, they showcased the crossover of Disney characters that otherwise rarely interacted.

The tradition was revived in 1992 as ''Disney Holiday Story'' to publicize contemporary Disney feature animated films.

In 2017, the Christmas stories were collected in a hardback volume, ''Disney's Christmas Classics'', published by IDW Publishing. The collection includes all of the Christmas stories except for 1986's story based on ''Song of the South''.

Winnie the Pooh

Disney created a ''Winnie the Pooh'' comic strip for King Features Syndicate starting June 19, 1978. Based on the Disney adaptations of the characters, the strip was written by Don Ferguson and drawn by Richard Moore. In addition to the regular cast of characters, Ferguson and Moore also added a knight named Sir Brian, and his worrywart dragon. The strip lasted for almost ten years, ending on April 2, 1988.

Other comic strips

Other Disney strips distributed over the years included (chronologically by start date):
* ''Merry Menagerie'' umorous daily panel featuring anthropomorphic animals, but no Disney characters(Jan. 13, 1947-March 17, 1962).
* '' True Life Adventures'' aily panel(March 14, 1955 – February 27, 1973)
* ''Mickey Mouse and His Friends'' antomime aimed at an international audience, gag strips featuring Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto(September 1, 1958 – March 17, 1962).
* '' Gummi Bears'' (Sept. 1, 1986–April 1, 1989)

A proposed Roger Rabbit strip underwent development but cancellation of the sequel led King Features to pass on it.

The Disney comic strip department closed in January 1990. The last two strips, ''Mickey Mouse'' and ''Donald Duck'', continued to be supervised by King Features. The Donald strip was drawn by Larry Knighton with King Features staffers writing it. The Donald strip was discontinued in the mid-1990s. In this period the Mickey strip had Floyd Norman as the writer and art rotating between Rick Hoover and Alex Howell. Norman convinced the syndicate to allow him to drop the gag-a-day format in favor of adventure continuities of up to four weeks, much in the style of the classic Gottfredson era. By 1994 the strip was running in only 30 newspapers and by mutual agreement of Disney and King Features it ended. Both strips continued with reprints.

In recent years Creators Syndicate has offered reprints of the ''Donald Duck'', ''Mickey Mouse'' and ''Winnie the Pooh'' strips as part of a "classics" package and posts the current strip on its site (without archiving). Domestically the strips have 20-30 clients at any one time; they also appear in many newspapers outside the United States (exact number unknown).

U.S. comic books

''Mickey Mouse Magazine''

''Mickey Mouse Magazine'' (1933–1940) was the first Disney comics publication, and preceded the popular 1940 anthology comic book ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories''. The concept was created by Kay Kamen, a Disney merchandiser. There were three versions of the title: two promotional giveaway magazines published from 1933 to 1935, and a newsstand magazine published from 1935 to 1940. The publication gradually evolved from a 16-page booklet of illustrated text stories and single-page comic panels into a 64-page comic book featuring reprints of the ''Mickey Mouse'' and ''Donald Duck'' comic strips.

''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories''

In October 1940, Western rebranded ''Mickey Mouse Magazine'' as ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories,'' an anthology comic book series featuring an assortment of Disney characters, including Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, Chip 'n Dale, Li'l Bad Wolf, Scamp, Bucky Bug, Grandma Duck, Brer Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and others. With more than 700 issues, ''Walt Disney's Comics & Stories'' is the longest-running Disney comic book in the United States.

By the mid-1950s, ''WDC&S'' was the best selling comic book in America, with a circulation hovering around three million a month (with the highest level reached being 3,038,000 for the Sept. 1953 issue). It is regarded as one of the best-selling comic books of all time.

The book was originally published by Dell Comics (1940–1962), and there have been many revivals over the years, continuing the same legacy numbering. The revivals have been published by Gold Key Comics (1962–1984), Gladstone Publishing (1986–1990), Disney Comics (1990–1993), back to Gladstone Publishing (1993–1999), Gemstone Publishing (2003–2008), Boom! Studios (2009–2011) and IDW Publishing (2015–2020). IDW relaunched the title as ''Disney Comics and Stories''. IDW lost Disney comics rights in the 2020s and the comic book license for Disney properties passed to Marvel Comics.

Four Color

When ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'' launched in 1940 as a partnership between Dell Comics and Western Publishing, the comic only reprinted existing ''Mickey Mouse'', ''Donald Duck'' and ''Silly Symphony'' comic strips, rather than creating original stories specifically for the comic book form. This was common for comic books at the time.

Dell also had an anthology series, ''Four Color'', which started in 1939 as a series of "one-shot" specials, each focused on a particular character. In the early days, ''Four Color'' mostly featured comic strip reprints of ''Dick Tracy'', ''Little Orphan Annie'', ''Terry and the Pirates'' and others. The first series included two issues of Disney comic strips -- ''Donald Duck'' strips were reprinted in issue #4 (Feb 1940), and Gottfredson's ''Mickey Mouse'' serial '' Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot'' was colored, reformatted into comic form and released as issue #16 (1941).

In 1941, ''Four Color'' published the two earliest Disney comic book stories, based on new Disney films. Issue #13 featured an adaptation of '' The Reluctant Dragon'', and a ''Dumbo'' adaptation was the focus of issue #17. Both of these stories were assembled by using a film-editing machine called the Moviola, and having artist Irving Tripp trace the actual frames of the film to make up each panel. Each issue also had additional short back-up features—the ''Reluctant Dragon'' issue included comic adaptations of the 1941 shorts '' Old MacDonald Duck'' and Goofy's '' How to Ride a Horse'', and ''Dumbo of the Circus'' had an illustrated text adaptation of the Donald Duck short '' The Village Smithy'', as well as some filler comic strips from ''Silly Symphony'' and ''Mickey Mouse''.

The next story specifically created for Disney comic books was '' Pluto Saves the Ship'', published in Dell Comics' ''Large Feature Comics'' #7 in July 1942. The story was written by Disney animators Carl Barks, Jack Hannah and Nick George; it was Barks's first comic book work.

''Four Color'' relaunched with a new numbering system in 1942, and in October, Dell published " Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold" as issue #9 of the second series. This 64-page story was the first Donald Duck story drawn (but not yet written) by Barks.

''Four Color'' went on to produce more than 1,000 issues from 1942 to 1962, and the major ongoing Disney comics series were all launched as individual issues of the ''Four Color'' series. "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold" eventually became the first ''Donald Duck'' comic, ''Mickey Mouse'' began as issue #27 (1943), and the first ''Uncle Scrooge'' comic was issue #386 (March 1952). '' Scamp'' also began as a ''Four Color'' one-shot with issue #703 (May 1956), which turned into a series in 1958. When they each "graduated" to their own comic books, Dell continued their numbering as if they had been part of a series all along.

There were many other Disney characters featured in issues of ''Four Color''. This list shows the first issue for each character:

* ''Bambi'': issue #12 (1942)
* '' Thumper'': issue #19 (1943)
* ''Bambi's Children'': issue #30 (1943)
* ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'': issue #49 (1944)
* ''The Three Caballeros'': issue #71 (1945)
* ''Pinocchio'': issue #92 (Jan 1946)
* '' Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit'': issue #129 (Dec 1946)
* '' Three Little Pigs'': issue #218 (March 1949)
* ''Cinderella'': issue #272 (April 1950)
* ''Alice in Wonderland'': issue #331 (May 1951)
* '' Duck Album'': issue 353 (Nov 1951)
* '' Li'l Bad Wolf'': issue #403 (June 1952)
* ''Pluto'': issue #429 (Oct 1952)
* '' Little Hiawatha'': issue #439 (Dec 1952)
* ''Peter Pan'': issue #442 (Dec 1952)
* ''Goofy'': issue #468 (May 1953)
* '' Chip 'n' Dale'': issue #517 (Nov 1953)
* '' Daisy Duck's Diary'': issue 600 (Nov 1954)
* ''Lady and the Tramp'': issue 629 (May 1955)
* ''Dumbo'': issue #668 (Dec 1955)
* ''Jiminy Cricket'': issue #701 (May 1956)
* '' Bongo and Lumpjaw'': issue #706 (June 1956)
* '' Grandma Duck's Farm Friends'': issue #763 (Jan 1957)
* '' The Adventures of Tinker Bell'': issue #896 (April 1958)
* ''Sleeping Beauty'': issue #973 (May 1959)
* '' Sleeping Beauty's Fairy Godmothers'': issue #984 (April 1959)
* '' Vacation in Disneyland'': issue #1025 (Aug 1959)
* ''Gyro Gearloose'': issue #1047 (Nov 1959)

Donald Duck

''Donald Duck'' (1942–2017) first appeared as part of the ''Four Color'' one-shot series, beginning in issue #9 (Oct 1942). Carl Barks, the first great figure among Disney comic book creators, wrote all of his early long stories for the ''Donald Duck'' one-shots, including '' Donald Duck and the Mummy's Ring'' (1943), ''The Terror of the River!'' (1946), ''Volcano Valley'' (1947), '' The Ghost of the Grotto'' (1947), '' Christmas on Bear Mountain'' (1947), '' The Old Castle's Secret'' (1948), '' Sheriff of Bullet Valley'' (1948), '' Lost in the Andes!'' (1949), ''Voodoo Hoodoo'' (1949) and ''Luck of the North'' (1949).

The title received its own numbering system with issue #26 (1953) and ended with issue #388 (June 2017).

Mickey Mouse

''Mickey Mouse'' (1943–2017) first appeared as part of the ''Four Color'' one-shot series, beginning in issue #27 (1943). It received its own numbering system with issue #28 (December 1952), and after many iterations with various publishers, ended with #330 (June 2017) from IDW Publishing.

Dell Giants

In 1949, Dell began a tradition of publishing occasional "Disney Giants", plus-size comic books with more pages and a higher price. The first Giant was ''Walt Disney's Christmas Parade'' #1 (Nov 1949). This was a 132-page square-bound comic that sold for 25 cents, considerably higher than the typical 10-cent comics. ''Christmas Parade'' had a cover by Walt Kelly, and began with a Carl Barks-penned Donald Duck story, "Letter to Santa".

''Christmas Parade'' was a success, and Dell followed up the next year with ''Walt Disney's Vacation Parade'' #1 (July 1950) and ''Christmas Parade'' #2 (Nov 1950). Dell also introduced '' Bugs Bunny's Christmas Funnies'' in 1950, and soon all of Dell's top-selling characters had regular annuals and giant issues.

''Christmas Parade'' ran for ten issues from 1949 to 1959, and was followed by ''Walt Disney's Merry Christmas'' (Dec 1960) and ''Donald Duck Merry Christmas'' (Dec 1961).

''Vacation Parade'' ran for five annual issues from 1950 to 1954, before being retitled ''Picnic Party'' from 1955 to 1957, ''Mickey Mouse Summer Fun'' (1958), ''Walt Disney's Summer Fun'' (1959), ''Daisy Duck and Uncle Scrooge Picnic Time'' (1960) and ''Mickey and Donald in Vacationland'' (1961). There were also six annual issues of ''Donald Duck Beach Party'' from 1954 to 1959.

Dell also published nine annual issues of ''Silly Symphonies'' (1952–1959).

When Disneyland, the first Disney theme park, opened in 1955, Dell celebrated with the Giant ''Donald Duck in Disneyland'' (Sept 1955), and made frequent returns to the park over the next few years, including ''Mickey Mouse in Frontierland'' (May 1956), ''Mickey Mouse in Fantasyland'' (May 1957), ''Uncle Scrooge Goes to Disneyland'' (Aug 1957), ''Christmas in Disneyland'' (a one-time retitle of ''Christmas Parade'', Nov 1957) ''Donald and Mickey in Disneyland on Tom Sawyer Island'' (May 1958), ''Vacation in Disneyland'' (Aug 1958), ''Disneyland Birthday Party'' (Oct 1958) and ''Disneyland U.S.A.'' (June 1960).

There were also three annual issues of ''Huey, Dewey and Louie Back To School'' in October 1959, 1960 and 1961, and a number of one-shot Giants, including ''Peter Pan's Treasure Chest'' (Jan 1953), ''Mickey Mouse Birthday Party'' (Sept 1953), ''Mickey Mouse Club Parade'' (Dec 1955), ''Mickey Mouse Almanac'' (Dec 1957) and ''Daisy Duck and Uncle Scrooge Showboat'' (Sept 1961).

Uncle Scrooge

Carl Barks introduced Donald's Uncle Scrooge in the story " Christmas on Bear Mountain", published in ''Four Color'' #178 (Dec 1947). Scrooge made regular returns to both the ''Donald Duck'' comic and Barks's stories in ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'' over the next few years, and he finally received his own title in ''Four Color'' #386 (March 1952).

The spin-off title was very popular, and by issue #4 ''Uncle Scrooge'' shed its ''Four Color'' association and became its own independent book. ''Scrooge'' is one of the longest-running American Disney comics books, and is still presently ongoing, reaching issue #450 in June 2019.

The book has been produced under the aegis of several different publishers, including Western Publishing (initially in association with Dell Comics and later under its own subsidiary, Gold Key Comics and its Whitman imprint), Gladstone Publishing, Disney Comics, Gemstone Publishing, Boom! Studios, and IDW Publishing (until 2020), and has undergone several hiatuses of varying length. Despite this, it has maintained the same numbering scheme throughout its six decade history, with only IDW adding a secondary numbering that started at #1.

Gold Key / Whitman era

By the late 1950s, relations between Dell and Western had become strained. Former Western writer Mark Evanier states part of this was due to "... a small battle going on between the two companies over the ownership of properties in non-licensed comics." In 1962 Western, ended the partnership and continued their comic book line under the Gold Key Comics label. Comic book historian Joe Torcivia has dubbed the mid-1960s "... a period of creativity for Western Publishing's Disney line not seen since its formation, and never seen again."

Western continued publishing Dell's four main titles: ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'' (starting with issue #264, Sept 1962), ''Mickey Mouse'' (issue #85, Nov 1962), ''Donald Duck'' (issue #85, Dec 1962) and ''Uncle Scrooge'' (issue #40, Jan 1963). They also started (or restarted) several titles:

* '' The Beagle Boys'' (47 issues, 1964–1979)
* '' The Phantom Blot'' (7 issues, 1964–1966)
* '' Chip 'n' Dale'' (83 issues, 1967–1984)
* '' Moby Duck'' (30 issues, 1967–1978)
* '' Scamp'' (45 issues, 1967–1979)
* '' O'Malley and the Alley Cats'' (9 issues, 1971–1974)
* ''Daisy and Donald'' (59 issues, 1973–1984)
* ''Winnie the Pooh'' (33 issues, 1977–1984)
* ''The Beagle Boys vs Uncle Scrooge'' (12 issues, 1979–1980)
* '' Huey, Dewey and Louie: Junior Woodchucks'' (81 issues, 1966–1984)
* '' Moby Duck'' (30 issues, 1967–1978)
* ''Ludwig Von Drake'' (4 issues, 1961–1962)
* ''Super Goof'' (74 issues, 1965–1984)

By the 1970s, Disney comics were undergoing a steep decline in circulation, with newsstand distribution discontinued in 1981. Western thereafter released its comics under the Whitman label, distributing them to candy stores and other outlets in bags containing three comics and also eventually distributed them to the emerging network of comic book stores. Western ceased publishing comics in 1984.

Disney Studio Program

From 1962 to 1990 the Walt Disney Studio had a unit producing comic book stories exclusively for foreign consumption, the Disney Studio Program, in response to complaints of foreign comic book licensees that Western Publishing was producing fewer stories that they could reprint.

Many European publishers saw a great demand for Disney comics, and it was a typical pattern for a company to publish a comic once a month, then add regular specials, then phase out the specials and publish the comic biweekly, and finally turn it into a weekly magazine. France's '' Le Journal de Mickey'' and the Netherlands' '' Donald Duck Weekblad'' started the trend, publishing weekly comics in 1952, and the others followed in the late 1950s. Germany's '' Micky Maus'' turned weekly in 1957, Denmark's ''Anders And & Co.'' in 1958, Sweden's '' Kalle Anka & C:o'' in 1959, and Italy's ''Topolino'' in 1960. By the early 1960s, the weeklies' voracious need for material was using up the available inventory of stories.

George Sherman, head of Disney's Publications Department at the time, hired Tom Golberg to run the program. Sherman noted the purpose of the program was "We illuse new characters in our foreign comics, characters that we don't have n the United States... to bring out facets of existing characters, nd togive the stories more variety."

Tony Strobl, Cliff Voorhees, , Paul Murry, Jack Bradbury, Carson Van Osten, Ellis Eringer and Romano Scarpa were among the artists during its early years; Carl Fallberg, Floyd Norman, Ed Nofziger, Cecil Beard, Jim Fanning, Dick Kinney, Diana Gabaldon and Mark Evanier were among those who at some point did scripts for it. From the late 1970s on, the Jaime Diaz Studios of Argentina drew most of the stories.

In a few instances, Studio Program stories were reprinted in the United States in promotional giveaways of Gulf Oil (''Wonderful World of Disney'') in the late 1960s and Procter & Gamble (''Disney Magazine'') in the mid-1970s. Mickey and the Sleuth stories were published by Gold Key in ''Walt Disney Showcase'' #38, 39 and 42 (1977–1978). Besides the Sleuth, other characters created for the program include Donald's cousin Fethry Duck and the hillbilly hermit Hard Haid Moe. Also, while Carl Barks created John D. Rockerduck, he used the character only in a single story ("Boat Buster", ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'' #255, Dec. 1961) while the program subsequently created numerous stories with the Scrooge McDuck rival and helped refine him (along with stories by Brazilian and Italian Disney comic book licensees).

Domestic printing of Studio Program stories became common starting in the late 1980s as the Disney comics published by Gladstone and Gemstone have featured them on a regular basis, along with reprints from Gold Key/Dell and material produced by foreign licensees.

This program was merged into Disney Comics, and is the precursor of the comics that subsequently appeared in ''Disney Adventures''.

Revivals

Starting in 1986, Disney comics in the United States were published by Gladstone Publishing (a subsidiary of Another Rainbow Publishing dedicated solely to Carl Barks). Impressed by Gladstone's unanticipated success, Disney revoked their license in 1990 to publish the comics themselves by the subsidiary W. D. Publications, Inc. under the name "Disney Comics",Gerstein, David
"Disney Comics: Back to Long Ago!"
''Comic Book Marketplace'', Vol. 3, no. 103, June 2003, Gemstone Publishing, p. 52. and a large expansion was planned. However, following the Disney Implosion in 1991, Disney gradually returned licensing to Gladstone again (for the classic characters) and Marvel Comics (for the modern characters). Respectively, reprints of classic Barks stories were licensed to Gladstone again from 1991, while it took Gladstone until the demise of Disney Comics in 1993 to regain a license also for other stories containing the classic characters. Gladstone from then on remained publishing Disney comics until 1998.

In 2003, after a few years' hiatus, regular publication was restarted by Gemstone Publishing, a reformed version of Gladstone. Gemstone's two monthly Disney titles were ''Walt Disney's Comics and Stories'' and ''Uncle Scrooge'', but the license was not renewed with the last releases dated Nov. 2008.

More recently, Disney licensed some of their modern properties to Slave Labor Graphics ('' Gargoyles'') and BOOM! Kids (''The Muppet Show'', ''The Incredibles'', and ''Cars''). Boom eventually also got the license for the classic characters, and began publishing comic books with them in 2009. Although cancelling two titles previously published by Gladstone and Gemstone (''Donald Duck Adventures'' and ''Uncle $crooge Adventures''), Boom! expanded their Disney portfolio in 2010-'11 by launching three new titles based upon the 1990s Disney Afternoon TV format ('' Darkwing Duck'', '' Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers'', and ''DuckTales''). However, in August 2011, it was reported that Disney and Boom! were to end the licensing agreement, leaving the future of comics including their classic characters as well as those from the ''Disney Afternoon'' format uncertain.

In October 2014, ''Comic Book Resources'' (CBR) reported that Joe Books, a small new Canadian publisher founded by former BOOM! vice president Adam Fortier, had acquired the rights to a "remastered" omnibus reprint of BOOM's entire ''Darkwing Duck'' comic series that would lead into an all-new on-going ''Darkwing Duck'' series produced by Joe Comics, and in February 2015, CBR ran an interview with series artist James Silvani and series writer Aaron Sparrow on the new "remastered" omnibus collection published by Joe Books that month, as well as their plans for the announced new series. As the November 2014 edition of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide also contained ads for Joe Books comic adaptations of two theatrical Disney features, observers have expressed rumors that Joe Books has acquired the full North-American comic license to all Disney animated and live-action properties.

In January 2015, IDW Publishing announced on their public Facebook account that they were to start publishing all the classic-characters Disney titles, starting with ''Uncle $crooge'' in April of that year and focussing on reprints of European Disney comics with these characters by artists such as Marco Rota and Romano Scarpa. The rights to North-American reprints of Carl Barks and Don Rosa comics are currently (2015) held by Fantagraphics Books.

Disney has also begun publishing a bimonthly magazine based on ''Phineas and Ferb'', featuring comic stories based on the show. Between 1999 and 2005, Dark Horse Comics published occasional adaptations of Disney's new movies.

The Disney Studio launched Kingdom Comics division in May 2008 led by writer-actor Ahmet Zappa, TV executive Harris Katleman and writer-editor Christian Beranek. Kingdom was designed to create new properties for possible film development and reimagine and redevelop existing Disney library movies with Disney Publishing Worldwide getting a first look for publishing.

Peachtree Playthings in Marietta, Georgia, published several issues of ''Mickey Mouse'', '' Frozen'', ''DuckTales'', ''Toy Story'' and ''Disney Princess'' in 2019–20. Dynamite Entertainment in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, began publishing a new monthly '' Darkwing Duck'' series in January 2023. Dynamite also publishes comic books featuring Scar, Maleficent, Gargoyles, Cruella De Vil and Lilo & Stitch.

Disney Afternoon comics

There have been many comic books based on the popular 1990–1997 " Disney Afternoon" slate of afternoon television cartoon series:

* '' Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers''
** Disney Comics: 19 issues (1990–1991)
** Boom!: 8 issues (2010–2011)
* '' Darkwing Duck''
** Disney Comics: 4 issues (1991–1992)
** Boom!: 18 issues & 1 Annual (2010–2011)
** Joe Books: 8 issues (2016–2017)
** Peachtree Playthings: 5 issues (2019–20)
** Dynamite Entertainment (2023)
* ''DuckTales''
** Gladstone: 13 issues (1988–1990)
** Disney Comics: 18 issues (1990–1991)
** Boom!: 6 issues (2011)
** IDW: ongoing (2017–18)
** Peachtree Playthings: 5 issues (2019–20)
* '' Gargoyles''
** Marvel Comics: 11 issues (1995)
** Slave Labor Comics: 12 issues (2006–08) 9-12 TPB-only** Slave Labor Comics: Gargoyles: Bad Guys: 6 issues (2007–08) 5/6 TPB-only* '' Tale Spin''
** Disney Comics: 4-issue miniseries and 7-issue series (1991)

More comic books

Notable American Disney comic book writers and artists include Carl Barks, Tony Strobl, Paul Murry, William Van Horn, and Don Rosa.

Disney comic titles in the United States include:

* ''Donald and Mickey'' (1945–1949, 1987–1990, 1993–1997, 2017–?) Note: originally a giveaway comic (alternate titles = ''Mickey & Donald''/''Donald Duck & Mickey Mouse'')* ''Huey, Dewey and Louie Junior Woodchucks'' (1966–1984)
* ''Walt Disney Comics Digest'' (1968–1976)
* '' Uncle Scrooge Adventures'' (1987–1990, 1993–1997)
* '' Donald Duck Adventures'' (1988–1990, 1993–1998, 2003–2006)
* '' Mickey Mouse Adventures'' (1990–1991, 2004–2006)
* '' Walt Disney Giant'' (1995–1996)

Europe

United Kingdom

Disney comics first appeared in the United Kingdom in the ''Mickey Mouse Annual'', which published 18 editions between 1930 and 1947. The books were published by Dean & Son, and illustrated by Wilfred Haughton.

Inspired by the 1935 launch of the newsstand-version of ''Mickey Mouse Magazine'', UK publisher Odhams Press established '' Mickey Mouse Weekly'', a large-size 12-page comics magazine, with four pages in full-color photogravure. Wilfred Haughton contributed to this publication as well, which featured the full range of characters from the ''Mickey Mouse'' and ''Silly Symphony'' cartoons. The magazine included new material—both Disney and non-Disney—as well as reprints of the American comic strips. ''Mickey Mouse Weekly'' featured the first ever Donald Duck comic book serial, originally called ''Donald and Donna'', which began in issue #67 (May 15, 1937), drawn by William A. Ward. There were 15 weekly parts of this first serial featuring Donald and his girlfriend Donna, an early version of Daisy Duck. Donna left the series after the first story, which was continued as ''Donald Duck'', ''Donald and Mac'' and ''Donald Duck with Mac'' for the next three years, ending in issue #222 (May 4, 1940). Goofy and Toby Tortoise also had their own strip, ''The Defective Agency'', and so did Elmer Elephant, Pinocchio, Thumper and the mice from ''Cinderella'', Jaq and Gus. The popular magazine ended in 1957, after 920 issues, because of a copyright dispute with Disney. Ronald Nielsen had been producing painted comic book pages in Floyd Gottfredson's 1940s style, as well as of characters from Disney animated films, during the mid-1950s until the magazine lost its license.

Immediately after the close of ''Mickey Mouse Weekly'', another Disney comics magazine was launched: ''Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse'', which ran for 55 issues from 1958 to 1959, and then changed title to ''Walt Disney's Weekly'', publishing another 111 issues until 1961.

Other Disney comics published in the UK include:

* ''Disneyland Magazine'' (1971–1976)
* ''Donald and Mickey'' (1972–1975)
* ''Goofy (and also Pluto)'' (1973–1974); merged as ''Donald and Mickey (and also Goofy)''
* ''Mickey Mouse'' (1975–1981)
* ''Donald Duck'' (IPC Magazines) (1975–1976)
* ''Donald Duck'' (London Editions) (1987–1990)
* ''Mickey Mouse and Friends'' (1989–1990)
* ''The Disney Weekly'' (1991–1992)
* ''Mickey and Friends'' (1992–1996)

Of contributors to American Disney comics who were born in the UK, Ted Thwaites was an inker for Floyd Gottfredson in the early Disney comic strip department, and Frank McSavage from Scotland drew a number of Grandma Duck, Bongo and other stories for the American comic books.

British writers for Egmont include Paul Halas, Gail Renard and Jack Sutter.

British Webcomic creator Sarah Jolley has introduced a romance between Gladstone Gander and Magica De Spell. Her popular online comics, that she calls 'duck doodles', have won praise from Disney artists.

Scandinavia

Denmark

Danish publisher Egmont (previously Gutenberghus) has one of the largest productions of Disney comics in the world. This production is not only for Denmark proper, but nearly identical magazines are being published simultaneously every week for all the Nordic countries, Germany (see below), and since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Eastern Europe. The Danish company started publishing their own series in the early 1960s. Most of Egmont's content has come from several outside sources: reprints of classic Carl Barks stories, reprinted Barks-style stories from the Netherlands, American artist/writers such as Don Rosa and William Van Horn, and the outsourced production of art for Egmont's scripts from Barks-style artists' studios, such as Vicar in Chile, Daniel Branca in Argentina and several studios in Spain. Italian stories are often featured in digest-formatted pocket books.

Artists from Denmark include Freddy Milton (penname of Fredy Milton Larsen), who worked for the Dutch studio with Daan Jippes, and Flemming Andersen who draws in a personalized version of the Italian Disney style. In addition to ''Donald Duck'' stories, Freddy Milton has utilized his highly Barks-reminiscent style for other series that he has written and drawn, including ''Woody Woodpecker'', his own series, '' Gnuff'', and several titles involving a human character named Villiams Verden. The Scandinavian countries are among those in which Donald Duck is more popular than Mickey Mouse. Danish writers include Lars Jensen, Maya Åstrup, Tom Anderson and Gorm Transgaard (Jensen created Scrooge's opponent Velma Vanderduck, amongst other characters).

Disney titles published in Denmark include:
* ' (Donald Duck & Co.) (1949–present): The flagship magazine launched in March 1949 as a monthly, which became bi-weekly in 1956, and weekly in 1958. The weekly publishes new Disney stories produced by Egmont.
* ' (One-Shots) (1953–1956): A series of "one-shot" comics similar to Dell's ''Four Color''; reprinted much U.S. material of the 1940s and ’50s.
* ' (Walt Disney's Monthly Issue) (1967–1970): Another series reprinting a range of American stories.
* '' Jumbobog'' (1968–present): The popular pocket book format was launched in Denmark in 1968, and translated/distributed in many other European countries. This is a 250-page monthly paperback that publishes mostly Italian stories, as well as new stories produced for Egmont.
* ''Anders And Ekstra'' (1977–2014): A monthly magazine launched in 1977, which used to publish new extra-long stories, but then moved to mostly reprints.

Sweden

Sweden was the first Scandinavian country to publish a Disney comic book—the flagship comic '' Kalle Anka & C:o'' (''Donald Duck & Co''), which started in September 1948. The comic began as a monthly, became bimonthly in 1957, and then a weekly magazine in July 1959. The comic is now identical to ''Anders And & C:o'' from Denmark and ''Donald Duck & C:o'' from Norway. All are published by the Scandinavian corporate group founded in 1878 as Gutenberghus; the name changed to Egmont in 1992. The Finnish '' Aku Ankka'' is published separately, but is largely the same.

In the 1950s, Swedish Disney comics reprinted existing material from America, both in ''Kalle Anka & C:o'' and a monthly series, ''Walt Disney's serier'' (''Walt Disney's Comics''). When the supply of American comics started to dry up in the 1960s, Denmark's publishing house Gutenberghus began producing original series, followed by Italy's Mondadori and Disney's own "Disney Studio" program. The pocket book ''Kalle Anka's Pocket'' was introduced in 1968, and is still running today. A second pocket book, ''Farbror Joakim'' (''Uncle Scrooge'') was added in 1976. In 1980, ''Musse Pigg & C:o'' (''Mickey Mouse & Co'') was added as a monthly comic, and it continues as a bimonthly. Other current titles are ''Kalle Anka Extra'' and ''Kalle Anka Junior''.

Per Erik Hedman is a writer from Sweden, and artist Tony Cronstam draws in a Carl Barks style. Editor/writer Stefan Printz-Påhlson wrote a time machine series with fellow editor/writer Lars Bergström; the former also created the reoccurring Stone Age character, Princess Oona. Per Starbäck compiled Disney comic book indexes into the Disney Comics Mailing List, expanded by Dutch programmer Harry Fluks into the online database, Inducks.

Finland

Thanks to a multitalented editor, Markku Kivekäs, who was also a skilled translator, essayist and restorationist, comic book stories about Donald Duck, along with the work of Carl Barks, became extremely popular in Finland, more so than in any other country in the world (per capita), and are accepted as part of the mainstream culture. It was estimated in 2002, that a quarter of the population of Finland was reading the Donald Duck magazine, '' Aku Ankka''. Like the Netherlands, Finland publishes their own Disney comics apart from Egmont. Cameos of local celebrities are common. Kari Korhonen has mostly drawn in a Barksian style and also writes some of the stories he illustrates. Songwriter Tuomas Holopainen has written and composed a Scrooge McDuck comic book soundtrack that went Gold, '' Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge''.

Norway

Norway has the comic , which started back in 1948 and is still active. There are several pocket books, amongst them being '' Donald Pocket'' from 1968 to the present day. Mickey Mouse also had a comic, specifically Mikke Mus månedshefte (Mickey Mouse monthly booklet) which lasted from 1980 until 2009.

Arild Midthun is a Norwegian artist who works in a Barksian style. He has written some of the stories that he has drawn, as well as illustrating stories by other Norwegian writers. Midthun has created popular stories about Viking history, and about Scrooge's days in the Klondike gold rush. Carl Barks books, clubs and fanzines first appeared in Norway, the home of Donaldism, a Disney comics fandom movement founded by analyst Jon Gisle (1st fanzine, 1973; 1st club, 1975).

Italy

Italy is a major source for original Disney comic stories. The first Italian Disney comics were published in the early 1930s, and Federico Pedrocchi wrote and illustrated the first Italian Donald Duck adventure comic as early as 1937—a story called "Paolino Paperino e il mistero di Marte" ("Donald Duck and the Secret of Mars") in the weekly paper '' Donald Duck and Other Adventures'' (''Paperino e altre avventure'').

Italy has introduced several new characters to the Disney universe, including Donald's superhero alter ego Duck Avenger (original name ''Paperinik''), created in 1969. Production has been handled by Nerbini (1932–1937), Mondadori (1937–1988), Disney Italy (1988–2013) and Panini Comics (2013–present).

''Topolino'' is the main Italian Disney publication, and its first incarnation was a weekly newspaper published from 1932 to 1949, for a total of 738 issues. In 1949, ''Topolino'' switched to a digest-sized format and its numbering restarted at #1: originally a monthly, it became a biweekly in 1952 and a weekly in 1960. The second incarnation of ''Topolino'' reached its 3500th issue in 2022. At first, ''Topolino'' alternated between translations of foreign stories and original stories produced by Italian authors, however since the early 1990s foreign stories have mostly disappeared from it.

Italy's digest-sized format has been adopted by many other countries in the long running Donald Duck pocket book series.

In the late 1990s, Disney Italy launched several new lines, including '' PKNA: Paperinik New Adventures'' (a comic book version of Paperinik aimed at a slightly older audience), '' MM Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine'' (a noir series starring Mickey Mouse as detective), '' Wizards of Mickey'', '' DoubleDuck'', and '' W.I.T.C.H.'', plus the comics published under the imprint Buena Vista Comics (including the original '' Monster Allergy'' comic series and a few other titles, such as '' Kylion'' and a comic inspired by the '' Alias'' TV show).

The Disney comics published in Italy include:

* '' Topolino giornale'' (newspaper) (1932–1949)
* ' (The Three Little Pigs) (1935–1937)
* ''Paperino e altre avventure'' (''Donald Duck and Other Adventures'') (1937–1940)
* '' Topolino libretto'' (comic) (1949–present)
* ' (1957–present)
* ' (Walt Disney Classics) (1957–present)
* ' (Uncle Scrooge) (1988–2008)
* ''Paperinik'' (Donald Duck's superhero identity) (1993–2005)
* '' PKNA: Paperinik New Adventures'' (1996–2001)
* '' MM Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine'' (1999–2001)
* '' W.I.T.C.H.'' (2001–2012)
* ' (2001–2002)
* ' (2002–2005)
* '' Monster Allergy'' (2003–2015)
* ' (2005–2011)
* ' (2012–2016)
* ''Paperinik'' (2017–present)
* ' (Uncle Scrooge) (2018–present)

Netherlands

The Netherlands (current publisher: DPG Media

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