As a good number of you reading this know, Walt Disney's Comics and Stories sold in vast quantities in the '50s, routinely selling in excess of three million copies a month for years on end, without need for gimmick covers, crossovers with Daisy Duck's Diary and Spin and Marty, or some sort of major event in which the Big Bad Wolf rapes and murders Clarabelle Cow, only to himself be killed in revenge by an enraged Horace Horsecollar. No... the only gimmick they needed was six or eight pages a month by Carl Barks or Paul Murry! But besides high quality and universally-known characters, one other secret sales weapon was subscriptions, which Dell comics pursued more aggressively than many other publishers. Untold thousands of parents and relatives gave subscriptions as Christmas gifts... including my Great-Aunt Cora, on whose behalf the letters below were sent.
My father was eight and nine years old, respectively, when he received these in the mailbox.
The envelope art is from Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #2 from 1950 (art by Jim Pabian). The painted art on the 1956 letter looks familiar to me, but I can't seem to trace it. Any art detectives out there got my back on this one? (UPDATE: Alan Hutchinson gave us the answer in the comments-- it's the back cover of Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #6, 1954. Thanks!)
My father was eight and nine years old, respectively, when he received these in the mailbox.
The 1955 letter takes its image from Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #4, from 1952 (art by Bob Grant), and...
The envelope art is from Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #2 from 1950 (art by Jim Pabian). The painted art on the 1956 letter looks familiar to me, but I can't seem to trace it. Any art detectives out there got my back on this one? (UPDATE: Alan Hutchinson gave us the answer in the comments-- it's the back cover of Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #6, 1954. Thanks!)
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6 comments:
That painted art is from the front cover of Christmas Parade No. 6, 1954.
Is it perhaps the back cover? The GCD image shows a different painted image of the group carrying a Christmas tree. It's a very similar style, but definitely not the same image.
You are correct, sir. The art is indeed from the BACK cover of WD Christmas Parade #6.
Sorry to appear anonymous above. I'm new here. Alan Hutchinson is the name and Dells are the game.
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