| Silly Symphony | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Earl Duvall, Ted Osborne, Merrill De Maris, Hubie Karp, Bill Walsh |
| Illustrator(s) | Earl Duvall, Al Taliaferro, Hank Porter, Bob Grant, Karl Karpé, Paul Murry, Dick Moores |
| Current status/schedule | Concluded Sunday topper strip |
| Launch date | January 10, 1932 |
| End date | October 7, 1945 |
| Syndicate(s) | King Features Syndicate |
| Genre(s) | Humor Funny animals |
Silly Symphony (initially titled Silly Symphonies) is a weekly Disney comic strip that debuted on January 10, 1932, as a topper for the Mickey Mouse strip's Sunday page.[1] The strip featured adaptations of Walt Disney's popular short film series, Silly Symphony, which released 75 cartoons from 1929 to 1939, as well as other cartoons and animated films.[2] The comic strip outlived its parent series by six years, ending on October 7, 1945.[1]
Silly Symphony initially related the adventures of Bucky Bug, the first Disney character to originate in the comics.[3] It went on to print loose adaptations of Silly Symphony shorts, often using the characters and setting of the original shorts, but adding new plotlines and incidents. Later, it went on to print adaptations of some of Disney's feature films, as well as periods of gag strips featuring Donald Duck and Pluto. By late 1935, the strip had become a standalone half-page, and was no longer strictly a topper for the Mickey Mouse Sunday strip.
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".[4]
The complete strip has been reprinted in four hardcover collections, Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics, published from 2016 to 2019 by IDW Publishing's Library of American Comics imprint.
- ^ a b Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 351. ISBN 9780472117567.
- ^ Merritt, Russell; Kaufman, J. B. (2016). Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (2nd ed.). Glendale, CA: Disney Editions. ISBN 978-1-4847-5132-9.
- ^ Bucky Bug
- ^ Duvall, Earl; Taliaferro, Al; Osborne, Ted; De Maris, Merrill (2016). Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics, vol 1. San Diego: IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1631405587.