The Disney company has always gone the extra mile to ensure they are keeping the holiday magic alive at their parks, within their films, and with their merchandise. Walt Disney loved Christmastime, as he loved to participate in the Disneyland Christmas parades and have the Wonderful World of Color Christmas specials. Walt also had a very special place in his heart for cartooning, as drawing was his first love and passion. When he was in school, he would write and draw the comic strip in his high school newspaper. To tie the 2 passions of his together, the company created a tradition that stayed alive for 27 years: The Disney Christmas Story comic strip.

Introducing Comic Strips in Newspapers

Comic strips have been around since the early part of the 18th century, mostly being printed in Europe with a political storyline. The focus of them at the time was just for satirical reasons, and depicted many famous people and political leaders. Benjamin Franklin created and printed a comic in 1754, to urge people to join the newly forming United States. When the first multi-panel comic written by Rodolphe Topffer titled The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck was printed in 1827 in Europe, it became such a massive success that it travelled over to the US, where it was printed again in a New York based newspaper.

According to Thought Co., the first newspaper comic that would feature a cast of reoccurring characters was The Little Bears created by Jimmy Swinnerton in 1892. Eventually, this medium of storytelling became even more popular in the US, especially through the 1900s. Legendary cartoon characters began to make their appearances around this time, such as Krazy Kat created by George Herriman (1913), Peanuts created by Charles Schultz (1950), Garfield created by Jim Davis (1988), and Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes (1985).

Disney in the Comic Strip Industry

Just 2 years after introducing Mickey Mouse to the world through the technology of cartoon films, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks wanted to dive back into the cartoon publishing world, and bring Mickey to a whole new audience of newspaper-readers. Walt handled the writing of the stories, and Ub would handle the art to bring the whole story together. The Mickey Mouse comic strips began being published in newspapers in 1930. This seemingly small project grew rapidly, and eventually needed an entire department to fulfill the requests of Disney comic strips for newspapers. Artist Floyd Gottfredson took control over the strips in June 1930. During the time that Floyd was writing and drawing for Disney, Mickey’s appearance in the comics became more detailed and fine tuned. Starting out as a more basic design, he eventually adopted more facial expressions, different clothing, and a rounder nose. He also introduced iconic characters and storylines, such as the Phantom Blot and Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse. Floyd worked on the Mickey comic strips until his retirement in 1975.

A Mickey Mouse comic strip. Image from: http://bobcat74.free.fr/mmds/mmdsnotes.htm

Eventually, his work would become the foundation to all other avenues of the cartooning world of Disney, and those comic strips were reprinted into a full-blown comic book titled The Mickey Mouse Magazine. Carl Bark’s print comic books made their appearance at the same time, featuring the most successful Disney comic book character there has ever been: Donald Duck.

The Disney Christmas Story

Beginning in 1960, Disney had a deal with King Features Syndicate to distribute Disney comic strips in the Glendale News Press Newspaper along with other established newspapers. They would run a Disney comic strip, hidden somewhere in their newspaper, for 4 weeks prior to Christmas Eve, when it would promptly end. The addition of these comics in the newspaper added value to them, and got more people to be interested in reading. The writers of the storylines of these strips often took creative freedoms and put characters from several different Disney movies into them. The very first Disney Christmas Story was Peter Pan’s Christmas Story, following Captain Hook displaying some Grinch-like behavior. The comic was written by Frank A. Reilly, the head of the Disney comic strip department, and it was drawn by Manuel Gonzales. It was a massive hit, with over 400 newspapers running the artwork.

A strip from the Peter Pan Christmas Story comic. Image from: https://sundaycomicsdebt.blogspot.com/2014/12/peter-pans-christmas-story.html

Other titles of these stories include Pinocchio’s Christmas Story (1961), The Three Little Pigs' Christmas Story (1963), Snow White's Christmas Surprise (1966), Dumbo and the Christmas Mystery (1967), Cinderella's Christmas Crisis (1981), Cruella's Very Furry Christmas (1985), and Snow White’s Sinister Christmas Gift as the very last one of these iterations in 1987.

“The first CHRISTMAS STORY from WALT DISNEY - “Peter Pan’s Christmas Story” - was the biggest smash hit Christmas feature in newspaper history!”

— From the brochure to promote Pinocchio's Christmas Story (1961)

The Disney Holiday Story

27 comics later, Disney didn’t want to lose their momentum, so they revived the comic strips in 1992 as The Disney Holiday Story, in order to be more inclusive to those who don’t celebrate Christmas. Previous writers for the comics, Frank A. Reilly and Carl Fallberg, passed the torch onto Disney animator Floyd Norman. According to Floyd, he didn’t like that the characters all lived in one universe in the previous comics, and wanted to make it a goal moving forward that the comics would have specific themes and characters for each. The first strip for the Holiday Stories was Beauty and the Beast (1992), followed by Aladdin (1993), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and The Little Mermaid (1997). The comic strips officially ended in 1997 when the deal with King Features Syndicate ended.

Floyd Norman. Image from: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/movies/floyd-norman-an-animated-life-review.html

IDW Publishing

These wonderful stories can be read and adored all over again as of 2017, when IDW Publishing created a book that compiled all of the comic strips into one, titled Walt Disney’s Christmas Classics.

“...when I think back on all my assignments in Disney’s Publishing Department, the Disney Holiday Stories was always a favorite and the perfect way to begin the holidays.”

— Floyd Norman