Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales - "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1982)

Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales - "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1982)
Writer: Carl Fallberg
Artists: Richard Moore and Frank Johnson

We turn from the recent Scrooge McDuck adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" to the more familiar territory of "Mickey's Christmas Carol," this time in the form of a comic strip from 1982!

The story ran on Sundays from October 3 through December 6, 1982 as part of the umbrella comic strip "Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales." 

At first glance, the 1982 seems like typo, as "Mickey's Christmas Carol" didn't hit theaters until Christmas of 1983, so why would Disney be promoting a project that wouldn't be released for another year?

The simple enough answer is that "Mickey's Christmas Carol" was supposed to be a prime-time TV special in 1982, but an animators' strike delayed production and it was finally released as theatrical short in December of 1983. But the comic strip had been completed and set to run in 1982, so there you go!

The "Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales" strip ran for a long time, 1952-1987, but only appeared in 50-ish newspapers, despite being syndicated by the mighty King Features Syndicate, talked about in this post, which had its mitts on tons of papers!

The first adaptation in 1952 was "The Story of Robin Hood" based on the Richard Todd-led live-action Disney movie with the full title of "The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men." I think that movie is awesome, by the way!

The road leads us to 1982 with "Mickey's Christmas Carol" getting it turn.
I can't seem to find much in the way of images from the strip, but here's a look at a few pages of the original artwork:

Thing not to sleep: Tiny Tim is identified as being portrayed by Mort Mouse, nephew of Mickey!

An interesting side-note in the history of a well-known and loved classic animated film!