This Belgian children’s magazine published its first issue on October 14, 1950, and its last on September 24, 1959. The success of this new format enabled “Le Journal de Mickey” to be reborn in France in 1952. The first issues contained comic strips, including the story “The Seven Dwarfs and the Pirate”, directly inspired by the universe of Snow White. An adaptation of Cinderella helped to promote the theatrical release, which became a habit for the magazine, so that the following year, an adaptation of Snow White was offered, after having published that of Bambi from May 12, 1951.
The Snow White Comic Strip
The magazine published the story of the film as a comic strip, with one panel per week. These are the plates from the American comic strip illustrated by Hank Porter, inked by Bob Grant, with text by Merrill De Maris. The original work was published from December 12, 1937 to April 24, 1938.
The Belgian adaptation features a few local expressions (“Maudits soient ces mêle-tout!”) and is published in 20 weekly strips. In issue 47, September 1, 1951, there was already a page entitled “decorate your bedroom” with an illustration on a yellow background inspired by Gustaf Tenggren’s poster. On September 8, 1951, in issue 48, this illustration was repeated on the cover, and a central double-page spread, ” Snow White enters the stage!” described the genesis of the story, the film and briefly introduced the characters, then announced the first episode for the following week.
In fact, the first panel was published in issue no. 49 of September 15, 1951, when the film had been back at L’Eldorado in Brussels since August 10, 1951. The publication corresponded with the release in the rest of Belgium. The boxes are nested for a central double-page layout. A golden frieze with green foliage crowns the contents in the center. As with all adaptations of this comic strip, the colors are specific to this publication. And they don’t necessarily match those of the film, nor those of the original American publication. Over the course of the publication, other drawings are published to decorate the reader’s room with Dc, Sleepy, Happy, Bashful, etc. Only one other cover evoked the film, close to the end of the publication, which occurred on January 25, 1952 with issue no. 68.
However, this was not the end of Snow White in the magazine: a few months later, the story “The Seven Dwarfs and Humpty Dumpty” appeared, and images of the characters regularly illustrated the pages of Mickey Magazine.
