SKIT, SKAT AND CAPTAIN IN MICKEY MOUSE XMAS SPECIAL (1939)

One of the few excursions of Basil Reynolds' 'Skit, Skat and Captain' out of Mickey Mouse Weekly, where it had debutted (see the earlier post in this blog), would be the four Mickey Mouse holiday specials put out by the weekly's publisher Odham Press between 1936-39. The above scan is from the last of these publications, titled Mickey Mouse Xmas Special. Besides 'Skit, Skat and Captain', Reynolds also contributed two Disneyic strips to this christmas special.

MARMADUKE IN COLOR (1942) AND THE RETURN OF MARMADUKE (1947)

British comics artist Basil Reynolds, who had been on board at Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly comics magazine since its launch in 1936, was drafted into the British army in October 1940. However, little "bits and pieces" of material he had earlier produced and un-used at the time occasionally continued to appear in the now understaffed magazine till mid-1942. A few of these were some Marmaduke strips. Unlike the original run of Marmaduke which was in black&white (see the earlier post on this blog covering the debut of Marmaduke), these extra strips were printed at the bottom rim of the back cover and hence in color. The above scan is from no. 307 (dated Apr. 11th, 1942) and the below ones from the two subsequent issues:Reynolds would return to Mickey Mouse some time after the war and would revive his mouse character, this time simply as a host, in a new b & w strip titled 'Marmaduke Presents .. ?' in 1947-48. Below samples are from no. 448 (Sept. 20th, 1947) and 451 (Nov. 1st, 1947):Pinky Green in the strip from 448 is another character Reynolds had created in 1940 for a separate strip (see the earlier post on this blog covering the debut of Pinky).