Number 961


Walt Kelly's Lost Prince


Is "The Lost Prince" a "real" fairy tale, as opposed to something a comic book scripter, or even Walt Kelly himself, made up for Fairy Tale Parade #4 in 1943? The only reference to the title I can find on the Internet is a 1915 novel by Francis Hodgson Burnett, which, based on its synopsis, is not the same story. If this "Lost Prince" is a Kelly story then it's full of his usual delightful stuff. The giant with two heads, one head covered by a hat, reminds me of the EC story from a decade later, "The Basket."*

I've also included the other Kelly story from this fine issue of Fairy Tale Parade, "The Traveling Musicians," which I know is adapted from an old story.



























*I showed "The Basket" by Graham Ingels in Pappy's #570.