TLK Comic Errors

TLK Comic Errors

This is a collection of some interesting coloring errors I've found in various comics based on The Lion King and Simba's Pride. It's meant to serve as an amusing diversion for TLK fans, and is not meant as an attack on the artists who worked on these comics. To read the English versions of the comics and/or look at the untranslated, unresized versions, please check out the links on this page.

I'll start this page off with one of the most common errors seen throughout the comics: Nala's "redesign". In several comics, she has bright blue eyes and/or ear rims (like cub Simba), and various other design anomalies pop up in other stories. (It's worth noting that all of the comics where her eyes are blue instead of green were published after the release of Simba's Pride. I'm not sure where the ear rim idea originated, though.)
"Trouble in Paradise", page 3:
Nala with blue eyes and ear rims.
"Trouble in Paradise", page 2:
Nala has blue eyes and ear rims throughout most of this comic. However, like adult Vitani, her ear rims occasionally disappear.
"Trouble in Paradise", page 3:
Nala with ear rims and orange eyes (either that or cub Sarabi somehow wandered into the comic).
"A Girlfriend for Zazu", page 1:
Nala's blue eyes and ear rims make a reappearance.
"Simba's New Brother", page 1:
Nala has blue eyes and ear rims yet again -- however, this is the only time we see the color of her eyes. For most of the story, many of the characters don't have irises (but Nala has ear rims on every panel she appears in).
"The Cheeky Bird", page 4:
Nala has ear rims again, but this time they're black instead of tan. She only looks like this in one panel.
"Rafiki's Cousin", page 5:
Another one-panel black ear rim sighting.
"The Flying Lion", page 1:
Nala has black ear rims yet again, and this time she has them for the entire first page.

"The Orphaned Birds", pg 6:
This error isn't that obvious at first. I also can't take credit for discovering this error either -- TLKFAA member Digsu was the first one to bring it to my attention. However, look at the two panels that appear immediately after it:

In these panels, Simba is on the left while Tojo is on the right. Also, though Tojo is more or less a Simba-clone, he has a scruffier head than Simba, and in all other panels of this story, the lighter fur on his belly reaches his chin while Simba's stops at his chest. Both of these traits are reversed in the first panel. Also, during this story, Tojo is limping on his right hind leg, just prior to the first panel, Simba jumped off a small cliff in an attempt to persuade the baby birds to fly, and the baby bird hovering in front of Simba's nose in the first panel drops to the ground just in front of Tojo in the panel that follows.

In short, the artist accidentally swapped Simba and Tojo's colors in the first panel.

"Simba's New Brother", page 3:
Poor Malka. Not only is Simba leading him into an unfamiliar place, but his chin is miscolored. (That blemish under his nose is most likely an imperfaction in the scan.)
"Rafiki's Cousin", page 6:
In most of the comics, Sarabi has coloring much more like Nala's than her own. There's nothing really wrong with that, but if Nala's mother Sarafina (whose colors are nearly identical to Nala's) appears in the same comic as Sarabi and Sarafina is darker than Sarabi, I call foul.
"The Family Tree", page 1:
Looks like Simba and Nala were fighting so roughly that Simba smeared the coloring on Nala's chin across her cheek! (Nala also has ear rims throughout this comic, but none of the characters have irises, only pupils.)
"From Shadow to Shadow", page 1:
Yow -- those are some seriously bloodshot eyes that Simba's got there (his eyelids are the wrong color too, but I couldn't think of anything witty to say about that).
"Landslide", page 1:
For a comic that's only two pages long, this one has some pretty wild coloring errors. For starters, through the comic, Simba has dark coloring around his eyes, much like Scar.
"Landslide", page 1:
Timon has pale fingers and toes throughout this comic, and Pumbaa appears to have been experimenting with some white hoof polish.
"Landslide", page 2:
Simba's white eyes will stare into your soul.
"Wake Up!", page 1:
Wow -- not only does Simba still have dark coloring around his eyes, but look at his nose! He's turning into an Outlander! (Timon's coloring is a bit off, too.)
"Small Giants", page 6:
Simba has just experienced a nightmare about giant ants taking over the Pride Lands...but when he awakens, he finds that Nala now has visible whiskers!

"Dream Child":
This may not be an error at all, but I still thought it was worth bringing up here. In this comic, Simba is rescued by a troop of monkeys. The monkeys' leader (in the first picture) recognizes Simba immediately, and is distinctly different from the others in appearance -- he has a huge tuft of hair on his head.

There is a monkey character named Simon (in the second picture) who has appeared in two other TLK comics, "A Kinglike Hairdo" and "Royal Duties". He is friends with Simba and also has a huge tuft of hair on his head. I think that the monkey in "Dream Child" may just be a badly miscolored Simon. (Of course, it could just be a big coincidence.)
"Dream Child", page 6:
Simba and Nala awake from a peaceful sleep to find things very different...
"Hakuna Matata", page 6:
Simba's white eyes make a reappearance. Weirder still, they remain uncolored throughout the entire comic, and his colors are very washed-out compared to the other characters' colors.
There are several errors in the official TLK Comic, but they are quite subtle. Not only that, but some of the errors that appear in the UK edition of the comic (the only version available online at the moment) are corrected in the two-part version that was published in Disney Adventures magazine (June 1994 and August 1994), and vice versa. Here are a couple of examples:
The Disney Adventures version, page 6:
Both Sarafina and Nala have lighter colored paws throughout the comic in both versions (though sometimes it's hard to tell with Nala), and for some reason, Sarafina is lighter than Nala rather than slightly darker.
The UK version, page 6:
Sarabi is missing her ear rims, and Sarafina is so pale that she's practically an albino! The fur in her ears and even her tail tuft isn't colored.

The Disney Adventures version, page 6:
Sarabi is missing the lighter coloring on her front paw, and her entire hind foot seems to be painted a lighter shade.
The UK version, page 6:
Sarabi's paws are now colored correctly, but she's now missing both her ear rims and the dark color on her eyelids.


The Disney Adventures version, page 41:
There's nothing terribly amiss with these panels except for the lighter color missing on one of Scar's toes...


The UK version, page 41:
All of Scar's toes are now colored properly, but Sarabi is missing her ear rims (something which happens a lot in the UK version). Easy come, easy go, I guess...

Simba's Pride comic, page 2:
For some reason, a couple pieces of official SP art depict Nala with narrow ear rims (like cub Kovu's). This panel is the only spot in the SP comic where she has them...and for some reason (again), they're pale instead of the usual dark.
Simba's Pride comic, page 10:
Thoughout this comic, the whites of Vitani's eyes are pure white instead of the pale yellow of the other characters' eyes. The only exception is in this panel, where her whites are yellow...and her irises are orange instead of blue.
Simba's Pride comic, page 21:
The dark strips in Zira's ears are pale, and they stay this way in both of the panels she appears in on this page.
Simba's Pride comic, page 27:
Kovu and Simba's colors have been swapped. This error appears in the Dutch and French versions of the comic, but is absent from the Polish version (which I translated). Click here to see the French version of the error. (Thanks to Rai-che for the scan!)
Simba's Pride comic, page 27:
Apparently Nuka bleached his mane between panels -- and part of his muzzle is the same color of the rest of his fur.
Simba's Pride comic, page 32:
I've got to admit, pale strips do give Zira an interesting look.

Simba's Pride comic, page 37:
Kiara's eye and the color around her eye are the same as Kovu's in their dual reflection. So maybe it's not exactly half Kiara, half Kovu, but more like 48% Kiara, 62% Kovu?
Simba's Pride comic, page 37:
Wow -- not only did Zazu's eyes change color, but his eyebrows turned...purple?
To my knowledge, there is only one official comic based on Simba's Pride besides the novelization: a 4-page comic called "Birds of a Feather" that appeared in Disney Adventures magazine, starring Kiara, Timon and Pumbaa.

However, even though Kiara is the star of the sequel, the artist couldn't even get her coloring right in this comic. Throughout it, she has a scruffy dark brown tail tuft, a reddish-brown nose and dark fur around her eyes.
However, the coloring in this panel on the third page is especially off. It really makes it look like Kiara is an Outlander...with weird paw pads.
"Simba and the Snake", page 4:
Looks like Nala caught Malka's miscolored chin condition.
"Simba and the Snake", page 5:
All that stress from constantly getting Simba and Nala out of trouble must be turning Mufasa's mane pale.
"Simba and the Snake", page 5:
Mufasa's mane is partially pale again, and his muzzle is tan instead of yellow. Also, the lioness in the foreground is supposed to be Sarabi, but she is colored like Sarafina.
"Simba and the Snake", page 7:
This character is supposed to be Simba. Simba does not have green eyes or light tan fur. No further explanation should be required.
"Simba and the Snake", page 7:
Whoops, looks like Sarabi's tail turned green. That can't be good.