Those Disney painted covers are really impressive, aren't they? --both this comic and the one I posted earlier for the contest. I just think Dell and Western (Western was the company that held the licenses to the Disney characters and created/produced the comics for Dell, in turn who published them) wanted to make sure these summer vacation/winter holiday giant issues were extra special and ensure that these stood out on the newsstands. So they used painted covers and wraparound covers to give these comics a different sort of look, almost as if they were magazines. I can just imagine the kids seeing these and being entranced and begging their parents to buy these for them
Later on when Dell and Western parted company, Western then created its own comic book imprint (Gold Key). There are so many beautiful painted covers among those Western/Gold Key comics.