1937-38 Hank Porter Comic Strip

Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this Snow White Sunday newspaper comic strip ran for twenty weeks, from December 12, 1937 to April 24, 1938, actually beginning nine days prior to the film's colossal premiere at the Cathay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937 and a whopping 45 days before the movie's general public release on Feb. 4, 1938. By the time the film actually appeared in theaters, devoted readers would have already been familiar with the princess, prince and queen. They'd also have had a silhouetted glimpse of the dwarfs marching home from their diamond mine.


-December 12, 1937 - week one...

- December 19, 1937 - week two...

- December 26, 1937 - week three...

- January 2, 1938 - week four...

- January 9, 1938 - week five...

- January 16, 1938 - week six...

- January 23, 1938 - week seven...

- January 30, 1938 - week eight...

- February 6, 1938 - week nine...

- February 13, 1938 - week ten...

- February 20, 1938 - week eleven...

- February 27, 1938 - week twelve...

- March 6, 1938 - week thirteen...

- March 13, 1938 - week fourteen...

- March 20, 1938 - week fifteen...

- March 27, 1938 - week sixteen...

- April 3, 1938 - week seventeen...

- April 10, 1938 - week eighteen...

- April 17, 1938 - week nineteen...

 - April 24, 1938 - week twenty...

The strip was illustrated by the talented but lesser-known Hank Porter, a staff artist in the Disney Publicity Art Department from 1935 to 1950. The story was authored by Merrill de Maris, one of several writers credited with the Snow White screenplay.

Hank Porter. Image via Walt Disney's Mickey and the Gang, p 10.

Comics copyright Disney. Images courtesy of the Thom Buchanan collection via The Pictorial Arts blog.