The Walt Disney Treasure Book

In February 2016 I made a blogpost about two pages of comics where I was trying to identify what publication they came from. And it turned out they were from a British book called The Walt Disney Treasure Book. Now two years later, I finally got hold of a copy of the book!

I already knew that the Barks story had dialogue changes in the British edition, so I did a little search for more examples.

The first story in the book is a re-arranged version of the Sunday pages with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The dialogue in the first part of the story is pretty much unchanged. But when the dwarfs start talking, a lot of the slang is removed.
 

Original dialogue to the left - British dialogue to the right

Original dialogue to the left - British dialogue to the right

We also get an occasional British word inserted.

Original dialogue to the left - British dialogue to the right

The next story is Mickey Mouse and The World Under the Sea.

Original dialogue on the top - British dialogue at the bottom

Then we have Christmas on Bear Mountain.

Original dialogue to the left - British dialogue to the right

Original dialogue to the left - British dialogue to the right

And Bambi, where not much is changed, just some minor adjustments here and there. But here I also checked another early British print of the story.

Original dialogue (left), from World Distributor #33 (middle), and the Trasure Book (right)

And finally, the book ends with Mickey Mouse and Pluto the Hero.

Original dialogue to the left - British dialogue to the right

Today’s exchange rate is about 0.7, but trying to check historical data it looks like the exchange rate was about 0.36 in the early 50’s. So 18 thousand pounds would have been more accurate when the book was printed, while it’s not too far off today. (I’m not sure exactly when the book was published)