"Uncle Remus and His Tales of Brer Rabbit" appreciation thread!

[Hepcat]

Any collector of "Uncle Remus and his Tales of Brer Rabbit" comic items faces a daunting task. Granted only three comic books devoted to Brer Rabbit and crew have been published, those being Four Color 129, 208 and 693. Here are scans of the latter two from my collection:

 

 

 

In addition though Brer Rabbit was also the character feature of the 1955 Kite Fun Book giveaway of several electric power utilities across the U.S. Here's one from Hake's website:

 

 

Brer Rabbit was also the title feature of Wheaties premium D-4 and Cheerios premiums X-3 and Y-2. Here are scans of these from my collection:

 

 

What makes collecting the appearances of the Briar Patch stable of characters so daunting, however, is that an "Uncle Remus and His Tales of Brer Rabbit" comic strip ran weekends from October 14, 1945 to December 31, 1972 in select newspapers across the breadth of the country:

 

 

I have several dozen of these newspaper strips but that's not much more than just scratching the surface.

 

I do though have a couple of one-of-a-kind Uncle Remus items in my comic room. The first is the original art for the poster from the 1972 rerelease of the "Song of the South" movie:

 

 

The second is a stained glass window of Brer Fox and Flower I commissioned for the door in my comic room leading to my upper porch:

 

 

[comicdonna]

I used to own one of the Wheaties premiums.

[selegue]

Any collector of "Uncle Remus and his Tales of Brer Rabbit" comic items faces a daunting task. Granted only three comic books devoted to Brer Rabbit and crew have been published, those being Four Color 129, 208 and 693. Here are scans of the latter two from my collection:

 

 

 

Lovely copies!

 

Here's my beater of Four Color 129 to complete the set.

 

 

Jack

[selegue]

PS

 

"Song of the South" was the first movie I saw in a theater, apparently warping me for life.

 

Zip a deedoodah

Zip a D.A....

 

Jack

 

 

Lovely copies!

 

Here's my beater of Four Color 129 to complete the set.

 

 

Jack

[Ted Knight]

 

The second is a stained glass window of Brer Fox and Flower I commissioned for the door in my comic room leading to my upper porch:

 

 

 

That stained glass is pretty cool. I really miss Song of the South as it's one of the first I remember seeing as well.

 

Nice posts, guys.

[markseifert]

What a great idea! (thumbs u

 

The second is a stained glass window of Brer Fox and Flower I commissioned for the door in my comic room leading to my upper porch:

 

 

[Hepcat]

"Song of the South" was the first movie I saw in a theater, apparently warping me for life.

 

I didn't see the movie until its 1986 rerelease. I came to my love of the Uncle Remus characters from the newspaper strip that ran Saturdays in the London Free Press until sometime in the late sixties.

 

[Larryw7]

I saw "Song of the South" when it was re-released in the early seventies. I wish Disney would release it on DVD/Blu-ray, I'd love to see it again.

[BB-Gun]

Any collector of "Uncle Remus and his Tales of Brer Rabbit" comic items faces a daunting task. Granted only three comic books devoted to Brer Rabbit and crew have been published, those being Four Color 129, 208 and 693. Here are scans of the latter two from my collection:

 

 

 

I think I have two copies of this one and one of FC 208

 

I saw it at the movies back in the fifties and loved it. I don't think I have seen it since. Enjoyed the story in the Sunday funnies as well

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Four Color 129 is a tough book. My first copy came from a flea market in 1973 or 1974 and was a true beater with brittle pages as I recall. It still sold on EBay warts and all probably indicative of how hard it is to find copies. A few years later I picked up a nice copy at a New York show which I still own. It is pictured below.

 

As a kid I also enjoyed the comic strip you mentioned and I believe it ran in our local paper. I also enjoyed the tales in the back of WDC&S that I was avidly collecting. On a trip to Walt Disney World in the early 70's I was surprised to find these great bisque figurines handmade in Japan. I had forgotten all about these until just a few years ago when my brother found them while cleaning out my Dad's house. They now sit in our living room on display and are quite nice.

 

Have you considered looking into collecting any of the record albums? The 78 RPM records are particularly nice with some nice artwork gracing the covers.

 

As for DVD/Blu-Ray don't hold your breath. Disney will not be releasing this movie anytime soon due to its (admittedly moderate) stereotypical characterizations. They just won't go there. Your best bet (although expensive) is to get the Japanese Laser Disc assuming you have or don't mind getting a Laser Disc player. If that won't do bootleg VCR's exist that you can pick up somewhere. It is a great movie and we can only hope that Disney releases it in a historical collection someday.

 

[Hepcat]

What a great idea! (thumbs u

 

The second is a stained glass window of Brer Fox and Flower I commissioned for the door in my comic room leading to my upper porch:

 

 

 

Here is a wider angle shot:

 

 

[selegue]

I think I have two copies of this one and one of FC 208

 

I saw it at the movies back in the fifties and loved it. I don't think I have seen it since. Enjoyed the story in the Sunday funnies as well

 

You made my #129 cry.

 

Jack

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

I think I have two copies of this one and one of FC 208

 

I saw it at the movies back in the fifties and loved it. I don't think I have seen it since. Enjoyed the story in the Sunday funnies as well

 

You made my #129 cry.

 

Jack

 

That is because yours got to the stands early! Note the release date on your copy vs. the copy I posted! Interesting, one week apart.

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Here is an interesting note. After my last comment I typed November 12, 1946 into Google to see what day of the week that they released comics on and surprise surprise; look what comes up:

 

November 12, 1946 in History

 

Event:

Walt Disney's "Song Of South" released

 

Wow, the Disney Marketing machine was firing on all cylinders back then. Let's get the product on the market the week the movie is in the theater. Brilliant!

 

[AJD]

What a great idea! (thumbs u

 

Here is a wider angle shot:

 

 

 

That's wonderful - love the colours.

 

(And are you a model builder? Looks like a stash of kits on the right there...)

[selegue]

Here is an interesting note. After my last comment I typed November 12, 1946 into Google to see what day of the week that they released comics on and surprise surprise; look what comes up:

 

November 12, 1946 in History

 

Event:

Walt Disney's "Song Of South" released

 

Wow, the Disney Marketing machine was firing on all cylinders back then. Let's get the product on the market the week the movie is in the theater. Brilliant!

 

WOO-HOO!

Movie release date stamp pedigree.

My copy is probably worth a cool million.

 

Jack

[Larryw7]

As for DVD/Blu-Ray don't hold your breath. Disney will not be releasing this movie anytime soon due to its (admittedly moderate) stereotypical characterizations. They just won't go there. Your best bet (although expensive) is to get the Japanese Laser Disc assuming you have or don't mind getting a Laser Disc player. If that won't do bootleg VCR's exist that you can pick up somewhere. It is a great movie and we can only hope that Disney releases it in a historical collection someday.

 

Disney should just get Leonard Maltin or some other historian to do an intro on the DVD explaining the historical context of the story and the movie. I believe they did this with some of their short subjects that would be considered offensive by modern standards.

[Hepcat]

(And are you a model builder? Looks like a stash of kits on the right there...)

 

Only to the very limited extent of building, painting and decalling Revell NASCAR bodies for slot car racing purposes. I have a very nice collection of vintage model kits though. Here are a couple of pictures from early last summer of my model cabinet:

 

 

 

I'm currently in the process of uploading a new batch of pictures of my comic room that The MAN just took. These I'll be posting in the Comic Room thread later this week.

 

[BB-Gun]

I think I have two copies of this one and one of FC 208

 

I saw it at the movies back in the fifties and loved it. I don't think I have seen it since. Enjoyed the story in the Sunday funnies as well

 

You made my #129 cry.

 

Jack

 

I cry every time I look at BZ's collection but I do have a few higher grade books. Most of my GA is lower grade and fun to collect and read and draw on and fill in the puzzles and cut out pieces for scrap books and coupons for new toys and some were left in the basement during the rainy season. Fortunately Wally took care of his books and I still have quite a few of those. The FC 129 was sold to me with some Fawcett Mary Marvel issues and a bunch of Large Feature Books. All of them pretty nice and the antique dealer I purchased them from was pretty friendly too. A good deal from a nice guy.

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

As for DVD/Blu-Ray don't hold your breath. Disney will not be releasing this movie anytime soon due to its (admittedly moderate) stereotypical characterizations. They just won't go there. Your best bet (although expensive) is to get the Japanese Laser Disc assuming you have or don't mind getting a Laser Disc player. If that won't do bootleg VCR's exist that you can pick up somewhere. It is a great movie and we can only hope that Disney releases it in a historical collection someday.

 

Disney should just get Leonard Maltin or some other historian to do an intro on the DVD explaining the historical context of the story and the movie. I believe they did this with some of their short subjects that would be considered offensive by modern standards.

 

I think it is very unlikely simply because the depiction in their cartoons is probably a little easier to take than the depiction by a live actor in the case of Song of the South. Maybe this will happen but I suspect it won't be for quite some time yet. Too bad, as this is a great movie. Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!!