''Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales'' is an American Disney comic strip, which ran on Sundays in newspapers from July 13, 1952, until February 15, 1987. It was distributed by

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...

. Each story adapted a different

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

film, such as ''

Darby O'Gill and the Little People ''Darby O'Gill and the Little People'' is a 1959 American fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions, adapted from the ''Darby O'Gill'' stories of Herminie Templeton Kavanagh. Directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Lawrence Ed ...

'', '' Peter Pan'', or ''

Davy Crockett David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Re ...

''. It was run in relatively few papers, with 58 in 1957 and 55 in 1966, and was principally a vehicle for promoting new and re-released Disney films.

Publication history

From March 8 to June 18, 1950, Disney distributed a limited-time Sunday strip adaptations of their new animated feature '' Cinderella'', written by Frank Reilly, with art by Manuel Gonzales and

Dick Moores Richard Arnold Moores (December 12, 1909 – April 22, 1986) was an American cartoonist whose best known work was the comic strip ''Gasoline Alley'', which he worked on for nearly three decades. Biography Moores was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, ...

. The same team followed the next year with ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

,'' which ran from September 2 to December 16, 1951. Judged a success, the experiment was turned into an ongoing feature in 1952, beginning with ''

The Story of Robin Hood ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. The strip featured a wide variety of Disney stories. The animated features adapted for the strip include '' Peter Pan'' (1953), '' Lady and the Tramp'' (1955), '' Sleeping Beauty'' (1958), '' The Sword in the Stone'' (1963) and ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, ...

'' (1968). ''Classic Tales'' also featured animated shorts, including '' Lambert the Sheepish Lion'' (1956) and ''

Ben and Me ''Ben and Me'' is a 1953 American animated two-reel short subject produced by Walt Disney Productions and released theatrically on November 10, 1953. It was adapted from the children's book written by author/illustrator Robert Lawson and first p ...

'' (1953), and featurettes like '' Peter & The Wolf'' (1954) and '' Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree'' (1966). ''Treasury of Classic Tales'' also adapted live-action films like '' Old Yeller'' (1957–58), ''

Swiss Family Robinson ''The Swiss Family Robinson'' (German: ''Der Schweizerische Robinson'') is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia, goes off course and is shipwreck ...

'' (1960), ''

Mary Poppins It may refer to: * ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character. * Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers. * ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film sta ...

'' (1964) and ''

The Love Bug ''The Love Bug'' is a 1968 American comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and the first in a franchise by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution that starred an anthropomorphic pearl-white, fabric-sunroofed 1963 ...

'' (1969). The strip transitioned from historical dramas like ''

The Sword and the Rose ''The Sword and the Rose'' is a family/adventure film produced by Perce Pearce and Walt Disney and directed by Ken Annakin. The film features the story of Mary Tudor, a younger sister of Henry VIII of England. Based on the 1898 novel '' When Kn ...

'' (1953) and ''

Kidnapped Kidnapped may refer to: * subject to the crime of kidnapping Literature * ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson * ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Ca ...

'' (1960) to comedies like '' The Shaggy Dog'' (1959) and '' The Parent Trap'' (1961). The 1979–80 adaptation of ''

The Black Hole ''The Black Hole'' is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnine, ...

'' was particularly notable for featuring pencil art by comics icon Jack Kirby, with

Mike Royer Michael W. Royer (; born June 28, 1941) is an American comics artist and inker, best known for his work with pencilers Russ Manning and Jack Kirby. In later life Royer became a freelance product designer and character artist for The Walt Disney C ...

inking. Some of the stories created toward the end of the strip's run in the 1980s were original stories featuring characters from different Disney animated movies, including '' The Return of the Rescuers'' (1983), '' Dumbo, the Substitute Stork'' (1984) and '' Cinderella: Bibbidi-Bobbodi-Who?'' (1984). Most stories ran for thirteen weeks. A total of 129 stories were created between 1952 and 1987.

List of story titles

Reprintings

In 2016,

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW), itself formed in 1999, and is regularly recog ...

and their imprint ''

The Library of American Comics Library of American Comics (abbreviated as LoAC) is an American publisher of classic United States, American comic strips collections and comic history books, founded by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell in 2007. History Background Dean Mullaney ...

(LoAC)'' began to collect all the ''Treasury of Classic Tales'' stories in a definitive hardcover reprint series. As of 2019, three volumes have been published, reprinting all the stories from '' Robin Hood'' (1952) through '' In Search of the Castaways'' (1962). In April 2018, it was announced that, due to the sales goal of the series not being met, the third volume may be the last one to be published.Episode 006 with special guest Michael Barrier
." The Library of American Comics. April 6, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2018

Notes and references

External links

(samples of 1970s strips)
INDUCKS database of credits for Treasury of Classic Tales
{{Portal bar, Comics American comic strips 1952 comics debuts 1987 comics endings Disney comic strips Comics based on novels Comics based on films Comics based on fairy tales