Manuel Gonzales, Chuck Fuson, John Ushler, Floyd Gottfredson, Guillermo Cardoso, Mike Arens, Cliff Nordberg, James Swain, Tom McKimson, Lorna Smith, Larry Mayer, Willie Ito, Tony Strobl, Mike Royer, Steve Steere, Bill Langley, Keith Moseley
Disney Christmas Story is an American Disney comic strip that appeared each year in the weeks before Christmas, beginning in 1960.[1] The strip ran Monday to Saturday for the three to four weeks leading up to Christmas Eve, and often promoted the latest Disney release or re-release.[2] The strips were usually not published on the newspaper's comics page; they appeared at the bottom of the page somewhere else in the paper, so that the reader would have to hunt for it, and not-coincidentally pass by some of the Christmas advertising.[3] The strip appeared every year until 1987.
In 2017, the Christmas stories were collected in a hardback volume, Disney's Christmas Classics, published by IDW Publishing.[4][5] The collection includes all of the Christmas stories except for 1986's story based on Song of the South.
The strip was written by Frank Reilly from its inception in 1960 until 1975, and then by Carl Fallberg from 1976 to 1984. Floyd Norman wrote the 1985 and 1986 sequences, and Fallberg wrote the last story in 1987.[1]
When Norman was given the assignment to write the Christmas Story in 1985, he was bothered by the way that the stories mixed up characters from different films. He recalled in a 2013 blog post, "I couldn't help but find this approach somewhat bizarre. Mickey and Pluto didn't fit in the same world as Dumbo and the seven dwarfs certainly didn't mix well with Jaq and Gus Gus from Cinderella. I decided if I was going to write a holiday story the characters used would have to be consistent... No more of this wacky 'mix and match' approach to Disney storytelling."[7] Norman's first story featured only characters from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and his second characters from Song of the South.[8]
In 1992, the strip returned as Disney Holiday Story, telling more straightforward tales starring the characters from the most recent Disney animated release. This strip lasted for six years, until 1997.[7] All six storylines were written by Floyd Norman (with Karen Kreider on the first year), and illustrated by Richard Moore.[1]
The tradition was revived in 1992 to publicize contemporary Disney feature animated films. All six storylines were written by Floyd Norman (with Karen Kreider on the first year), and illustrated by Richard Moore.[2] These stories only included the cast of the featured movie; there were no special crossovers with other characters.
^Becattini, Alberto (2019). "Disney Beyond Mickey". American Funny Animal Comics in the 20th Century: Volume One. Seattle, WA: Theme Park Press. ISBN978-1683901860.
^A detailed description of Norman's Song of the South story, which was not reprinted in the Christmas Classics collection, is included here: Korkis, Jim. "An Uncle Remus Christmas". MousePlanet. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
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