THE LAST 'SKIT, SKAT AND THE CAPTAIN' HALF-PAGE (1940)

Above scan is of the last 'Skit, Skat and the Captain' half-page by British comics artist Basil Reynolds published in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly. Reynolds was writing and drawing 'Skit, Skat and the Captain' since the inception of MMW in 1936 (see this earlier post in this blog on the debut of SSC in MMW). Reynolds was drafted in Oct. 1940 and SSC continued into MMW no. 254 (Dec. 14th, 1940) with apparently material Reynolds had made before being drafted. 'Pinky Green', Reynolds' other half-page title which had started to be published in MMW earlier in 1940, would end in no. 255. Soon, both titles would be picked up by another artist.

KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED SEES "WHAT NO WHITE MAN CAN SEE AND LIVE"

'Mystery of Little Snake', serialized in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly no.'s 152-161 in 1938-1939, is my most favorite 'King of the Royal Mounted' adventure. It involves the attempt of a bunch of baddies to lay their hands on a loot of gold which a tribe of natives are believed to be hiding in the secret burial ground of reserved for their chiefs. For this end, they murder the current chief of the tribe and plan to discover the secret location by trailing his son. The new chief is perfectly aware of their intentions and wisely hopes to use it as an opportunity to avenge his father... Thus, a tense journey starts as three groups, the native carrying the corpse of his father, the baddies, and King accompanied by 'kid' (the little brother of his lover) travel through the snowy terrains towards a destination unknown to all except the native to reach their fate where death is certain to meet some or all of them.
The climax is reached as the baddies follow the chief into a cave he had went in, effectively passing the point of no return in this wonderfully colored panel:
King breaks into the scene, resulting in not only a confrontation with the baddies, but a stand-of with the chief:Btw, note the artist's unfortunate blunder as King's pistol in the panel on the left above disappears on the panel on the right, only to re-appear in the panel on the left below:
Despite this artistic blunder, the face-off between King and the native is highly dramatic as both face the burden of obeying their own laws which necessiates unwillingly confronting each other.

KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED AND THE CIRCUS HORRORS

The earlier adventures of King of the Royal Mounted published in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly (maybe I should paraphrase that as those published earlier in MMW as I cannot confirm whether the British publication followed the sequence of the adventuıres as they were originally run in the US newspapers) had a decidedly authentic tone as they often involved ordinary trappers and other locals of the Canadian countryside in their daily lives and were set in mountainous lanscapes. Eventually, the adventures took a turn in which the plots became more familiar comic-strip fare, such as 'The Terror of the Big Top' serialized in MMW no.'s 174-182 in 1939 where Sgt. King investigates a murder in a circus. The above panel is from the installement in no. 175, involving a dark, cloaked figure which had become a not-so-rare visual motif in the comics of the 1930s in the wake of The Bat Whispers (1930); below is a still from this mystery-thriller movie (whose Bat character was also an inspiration for the Batman):And the below sequence from the installement in the next issue involves the 'murder of a subject who is just about to disclose the identity of the culprit' theme so often seen in comics:The trapeze act in the below sequence from the installement in no. 178 provides an excuse for the first and only instance where some female flesh is displayed in any King of the Royal Mountain adventure that I've seen:
And the below segment from the installement in the next issue makes good opportunity of the circus setting for a tigers-set-on-loose sequence:

KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED AND THE PERILS OF FILMMAKING

No, this post is not about any of the film adaptations of 'King of the Royal Mounted', but rather about an adventure in which Sgt. King, upon the request of his girlfriend Betty Blake who has taken up the job of a scriptgirl, investigates suspiciously frequent accidents occuring during the shooting of a film. Titled 'Mystery on Location', it was serialized in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly no.'s 183-193 in 1939 (I don't know the date of its original run in the US newspapers); the above scan is from MMW no. 187. King's suspicions zero in on none other than the director himself, as in the below sequence from no.'s 189-190 whose coloring I especially like:The relatively advanced film making equipment on display in 'Mystery on Location' suggests an early 20th century time period for the strip.
'Mystery on Location' was the last 'King of the Royal Mounted' adventure serialized in MMW during the strip's consecutive run in this British magazine in 1936-39. Initially, the adventurues carried no specific titles of their own and were run under the generic title of 'King of the Royal Mounted by Zane Grey' from the start in no. 45 till no. 99. Here are the on-print titles of the remaining adventures and the issue numbers they were carried on, and the years these issue are from:
[The Mystery of the Sunken Treasure Ship (*)] # 100-109 (1938)
The Mystery of the Rush River # 110-131 (**) (1938)
The Helium Mine Mystery # 132-141 (1938)
Trouble At Skogen Ridge Ranch # 142-151 (1938)
Mystery of Little Snake (***) # 152-161 (1938-1939)
The History of the Synthetic Diamond Formula # 162-173 (1939)
The Terror of the Big Top # 174-182 (1939)
Mystery On Location # 183-193 (1939)
The Wild Man of the Wilderness 214-22? (1940)
(*) Actually, this title was given only at the end of #99 as the title of the forthcoming adventure, but # 100-109 carried only the generic title.
(**) 'The Mystery of the Rush River' actually consists of two consecutive adventures.
(***) The opening of 'Mystery of Little Snake' refers to the preceeding adventure as 'Border Terror', so at this point, MMW apparently broke out of sequence from the strip's original run.

'THE WILD MAN OF THE WILDERNESS'

Above scan (broken into two due to the size of my scanner), featuring the first installment of a King of the Royal Mounted adventure titled 'The Wild Man of the Wilderness', is from the color central pages of the no. 214 (dated March 9th, 1940) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly. 'The Wild Man of the Wilderness' concerns a mysterious title character stealing pelts of trappers. The art is pretty good with impressive splash panels and some decent rendering of good-looking women, as in the below panels from no. 216:

I also like how the utilization of a windy and snowy setting contributes to the establishment of a moody atmosphere in the below panels from no. 219:

And below is a nice action sequence from no. 222:

I am not certain about the artist working on 'The Wild Man of the Wilderness'. The art chores of 'King of the Royal Mounted' had passed onto Jim Gary from Charles Flanders in 1939 and 'The Wild Man of the Wilderness' was serialized in MMW early in 1940, but this British magazine was probably running the American strip with some delay from its original run in the US newspapers, so its original run might have corresponded with the tenures of either Flanders or Gary.
'King of the Royal Mounted' is credited to famous Western writer Zane Grey, but Zane's byline was used for publicity purposes and the actual scriptwriter(s) of the strip are anonymous. The character is widely regarded as the brainchild of Stephen Slesinger, a literary agent who was one of the pioneers of merchandising popular literary characters. Eventually, Slesinger also conceived the idea of creating original characters and the Canadian mounted lawman King of the Royal Mounted was born. The Sunday strip kicked off in Feb. 17th, 1935 and the daily less than a year later; the original artist was Allen Dean who would eventually be replaced by Flanders. The strip would be popular enough to be adapted into the silver screen as a feature movie in 1936 and as serials in the early 1940s. It would also spin-off comics books headlining the title character who would remain in syndication till the 1950s.

SMOKING MARMADUKE STRIP (1939)

Above scan of Basil Reynolds' Marmaduke strip from no. 187 (dated Sept. 2nd, 1939) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly is a testament to times of a different attitude towards smoking...

SKIT, SKAT AND THE CAPTAIN BY WILFRED HAUGHTON

Above scan is of a detail from the cover of no. 39 (dated Oct. 31st, 1939) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly featuring the non-Disneyic comics characters Skit, Skat and the Captain created by the British comics artist Basil Reynolds for MMW alongside regular Disneyic characters in an illustration by MMW cover artist Wilfred Haugton. The full image of the cover is below:
Later in 1936, Haughton, who had been drawing the covers of MMW since its inception, also began a series titled 'The De(f)tective Agency!' featuring Goofy and Toby Tortoise as private detectives. Reynolds' characters made a cameo appearance in this series as well, in no. 50 (Jan. 16th, 1937):

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).

ALADDIN JUNIOR

One of the non-Disneyic comics ran in Britain's Mickey Mouse comics magazine in the wartime era was 'Aladdin Jr.', chronicling the humorous exploits of a magic lamp genie accompanying a boy. 'Aladdin Junior' or alternatively 'Aladdin Jr' was an American import, a King Features Sunday newspaper comics written by Les Forgrave and drawn by William M. Prince. It had been syndicated in the US in 1942-43. According to Andy Madura's 'Comics and Paper Collectibles' site, "the story of the strip revolved around a young lad named Jack who was living the country life with his Aunt Belle and Uncle Pete. One day, his aunt breaks down and gives Jack a crate that his father had bequeathed to him. Inside was an arabian lamp, and when he rubbed the lamp a very mischevious Genie popped into Jack's life." The above scan is from MM no. 331 (dated March 13th, 1943) and the below ones from no. 358 (dated March 25th, 1944) and no. 371 (dated Sept. 23rd, 1944):

DEBUT OF BASIL REYNOLDS' MARMADUKE STRIP

Above scan is from no. 157 (Feb. 4th, 1939) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly, marking the debut of British comics artist Basil Reynolds' Marmaduke strip. Marmaduke had initially appeared as a frequent background character in Reynolds' 'Adventures of Skit And Skat' comics in the same magazine. The strip would be renamed as 'The Adventures of Marmaduke' in the following issue.

DINOSAUR TERRORS FROM 'THE BUCCANEERS' (1939)

Above scan (the series' logo and summary panel couldn't fit my scanner) is of the third installement of the swashbucler comics 'The Buccaneers' serialized in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly between no.'s 194 (Oct. 21st, 1939) - 205 (Jan. 6th, 1940). The hero is a captain who, after a mutiny, is put on a boat together with his loyal men and left on open seas. They land on an island with dinosaurs, but the main plot is about the captain's fight against pirates. It all ends with a volcanic eruption, of course..
'The Buccaneers' had replaced 'King of the Royal Mounted' in the magazine's color central pages and I am not sure if it is another imported comics or a British production.

DEBUT OF BASIL REYNOLDS' PINKY GREEN (1940)

Above scan is from no. 217 (dated Mar. 30th, 1940) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly, featuring the debut of Basil Reynolds' Pinky Green half-page strip.

DEBUT OF BASIL REYNOLDS' SKIT AND SKAT (1936)

Above scan is of the debut of British comics artist Basil Reynolds' 'Adventures of Skit and Skat' in no. 1 (dated Feb 8th, 1936) of Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly. Born in 1916, the talented Reynolds, who had already done strip work for several newspapers, was only 20 years of age when he was given the full 3rd page of MMW, the flagship British Disney publication with more than half a million circulation. In his memoirs (reprinted in http://www.mouseplanet.com/), Reynolds has noted that he was recruited into the staff of MMW at the magazine's founding with the endorsement of his draft of 'Skit and Skat' by British Disney artist Wilfred Haughton.

The mouse which appears in the second panel of this first installement is the prototype of Marmaduke who would soon make semi-regular appearances in 'Skit and Skat' and eventually have his own strip.

Below is the scan of the 'Skit and Skat' page from no. 2 of MMW:

'Skit and Skat' would shift between gag-a-week or continuity narratives and lasted uninterrupted till (including) no 66 (dated May 8th, 1937). It would resume at no. 97 (dated Dec. 11th, 1937), retitled as 'Skit, Skat and the Captain', and last till 1940.

'THE ADVENTURES OF SIR ENDOR NEVAH THE KNUTTY KNIGHT' (1938)

'The Adventures of Sir Endor Nevah the Knutty Knight' is a very interesting humorous adventure comics serialized in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1938 (no.'s 115-126, above scan is of the first episode). It features the exploits of the title hero and his page as they try to rescue a princess. What makes it stand out as almost avanguard is the presence of weird pseudo-futuristic motifs in its medieval setting:

I am surprised to find absolutely no mention of this exceptional comics anywhere on the net. If anyone knows anything about its writer and/or artist, please tell us...

ADDENDA FROM OCT. 2010: I've just realized that this obscure comics has also been serialized in the weekly Turkish children's magazine Afacan in 1939 as 'Kral İle Devin Resimli Masalı [The Illustrated Fairytale of the King and the Giant]'.

'HEAVENLY TWINS' (1936)

Above scan is of the first installement of the gag-a-week comics 'Heavenly Twins' ran in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly in 1936 (no's 28-44).

TWO ORIENTALIST ADVENTURE COMICS FROM MMW (1936-37)

In this post, I will cover two orientalist adventure comics serialized in Britain's Mickey Mouse Weekly. 'Gordon Gale - Air Rover' by British artist Stephan Chapman began in no. 43, dated Nov. 28th, 1936. It tells the story of the title hero, a pilot-mechanic who has invented a special type of plane called Hydro-Gyro. In its first full-fledged test flight, he is accompanied by a young woman who is desperate to deliver some papers to her uncle in Africa. First half of the story takes place in Morocco where the protagonists are assaulted by Arabs:

Morocco was under French occupation at the time, and several textual references to the Arabs as "rebels" testify to the colonialist stand of the comics. Furthermore, in one instance, the Arabs are also humiliated for lacking the know-how of the westerners:

The second half of the story takes place in tropical Africa, with appropriate jungle perils:

The comics ends with the protagonists getting hold of a treasure and becoming wealthy, ie. by looting Africa...

Right after 'Gordon Gale - Air Rover' ended, another orientalist comics, titled 'Green Eyes', started in its place in no. 53, dated Feb. 6th, 1937:

'Green Eyes', by an unknown author and whose plot is apparently inspired from the Hollywood film The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), tells the story of the title villain's attempt to get hold of four scarabs (all in London, but apparently brought to the UK from the Orient, ie. stolen in the first place!) which will somehow give him authority over certain "tribes" in Egypt (under British occupation at the time). Admittedly, this comics features several visuals with delicious imagery:

Even routine action scenes are well staged:

In the end, Green Eyes manages to get the scarabs back to Egypt, but secret service agents trail him:

It all ends happily -for the westerners, of course, and not for the Egyptians..

If anyone knows the artist of 'Green Eyes', please let us know.

Both 'Gordon Gale - Air Rover' and 'Green Eyes' were also serialized in the Turkish children's magazine Çocuk Sesi. The former was re-titled as 'Havalar Kahramanı Bay Metin', with the protagonist given the Turkish name Bay Metin! It started in no. 366, dated Dec. 28, 1936, only one month after its original debut in MMW.