Comic Review: Silly Symphonies, Vol. 3: The Complete Disney Classics 1939–1942 (IDW)

Wow, what a swell look at Disney’s Silly Symphonies comic strips! The IDW Disney Silly Symphonies Volume 3 is wonderful.

This volume contains collected runs of Sunday color comic strips, printed between 1939 and 1942. You and I were far too young to have read these strips, of course, so what a treat to be able to enjoy them as collected here.

As explained in the book’s prose introduction, Disney was releasing Silly Symphony cartoons in the theatres back in the 30’s, as a way of testing audience reaction to characters. Eventually, the Silly Symphony short cartoons stopped and were replaced by Disney feature films. However, the Sunday comic strips continued, with some of the same Disney animators working on them. These stories were different from the magic pill.

This volume contains long runs of Pluto, The Ugly Duckling, Pinocchio, and Little Hiawatha. Each of the stories ran for a few ‘months of Sundays’, as the saying goes, and several ran for up to 6 months, meaning the story had time to progress, strip by strip, drawing by drawing, to its conclusion. It’s all good, folks!

The color reproduction and line quality of this volume is excellent. The quality of the illustrations is truly amazing, and it is a real treat to read through the adventures of these cartoon characters in this format.

Highly recommended for fans of Disney animation.

IDW Disney Silly Symphonies Vol 3 1939-1942 $49.99, 208 Pages 12″ wide x 8.5″ high, Hardcover with dust jacket Family reading