Thursday, February 26, 2009

Whither Disneyland Magazine?

sg
sg

Every so often, I get an email from a helpful reader of TreasuryComics.com, asking me if I've ever seen a particular, large-sized comic that might warrant inclusion on the site.

I love getting these emails, because they almost always end up with me discovering some book(s) I've never heard of. I like the idea of this site being as all-encompassing as humanly possible.

So, the other day I got an email from Mark Arnold, who is a fellow comics historian. He asked me about Disneyland Magazine--which drew a complete blank from me. What's Disneyland Magazine?

Turns out, DM was a treasury-sized (10x12.5"), saddle-stitched magazine, published by Fawcett, that ran for at least 206 issues (I haven't been able to find much info on the magazine, but I have seen pictures of issue #206, so we know it at least made it that far!).

Each issue was in full-color (as you can see from the scans above), was 20 pages in length with no ads, and featured most of the Disney stars in short stories, that are almost in what most of us would call comic book form, but not quite.

Intrigued, I bought one issue on eBay, which you see before you. But I'm not quite sold that this magazine belongs being classified as a "treasury comic." I know my ad hoc rules for what I consider a treasury comic are just that--ad hoc--but this magazine feels a little more like a kid's magazine, like Highlights or something, rather than a "comic book."

So I'm asking you, those who enjoy the site and take time to visit the What's New blog whenever I post something--what do you think? Would you consider this a treasury-sized comic book, the kind that belongs to be seen here?

Of course, I can't hope to get copies and/or scans of all 206 (and maybe more!) issues, but if the consensus is that Disneyland Magazine does belong here, I'd give it its own page and try and catalog as many of them as I could.

Let me know, treasury fans!


8 comments:

Devlin Thompson said...

I got this fairly regularly when I was 4-6 years old. I believe that some or all of the material was reprinted from a British source... the format and certain design aspects (like the lettering on the "Snow White" header) scream "United Kingdom" to me, but I have no firm data to support this. I'm inclined to say that it doesn't quite qualify as a "comic book" per se.

rob! said...

Devlin-

Thanks for your thoughts and info on the series!

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
I have about 85 of these Disneyland magazines in my possession. I don't want to just throw them away. Do you know of anyone who might be interested in them? I live in South Africa. Thanks

Isabella said...

Hi!
If you're still interested, I'd like to buy all the issues from you. I live in Brazil and my email address is isabellambezerra@yahoo.com.br
Thanks
Isabella

Carole said...

Hello, I have a few of these too. Numbers 41, 66, 73, 80-83, 102, 104-5, 120. Dating 1971-73. Publisher is IPC Magazines, Fleetway House, Farringdon St, London EC4.

Carole, London, UK

Anonymous said...

Hi!
You can see almost all covers from Disneyland on:
http://www.tonystrading.co.uk/galleries/index-comics.htm

Mario, Portugal

Bob Avis (New Zealand) said...

I have three binders each containing 26 copies of the first 72 published in 1971. If anyone is interested in buying them contact me on bobandpat@slingshot.co.nz.

Back to Ville De Pandan KB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.