The Chicago Bears Beat the Green Bay Packers in the Playoffs for the First Time in Decades!

Celebrate the Chicago Bears' Playoff Victory Against Their Eternal Regional Rivals, the Green Bay Packers...

...with this cool, never-reprinted tale from Prize Comics' Babe V1N4 (1948-49) about the "Chicago Crushers" pro football team by writer/artist Gordon "Boody" Rogers, a graduate of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago, who obviously was a Chicago football fan!

(Though we're uncertain if the strip's Crushers were a variation of the Chicago Bears...or the Chicago Cardinals, who later moved to St Louis, then to Arizona!)
But the guys in green she's mopping the gridiron against on the cover (whom she never actually plays against in the tale) are pretty clearly the Green Bay Packers!

...we thought we'd re-present an almost century-old example of how the game might be with a woman super-star...and what a woman she is!

Note: Though I'm a born-and-raised New Yorker (specifically Brooklyn), I currently have "dual citizenship" with residences in both Chicago and Manhattan,
Sadly, though, neither the Jets or Giants made the playoffs, so, this year I'm going with the Bears...
One of writer/artist Boody Rogers' wildest creations, Babe: the Darling of the Hills, was one of several hillbilly series "inspired" by the phenomenal 1940s success of Al Capp's Li'l Abner!

Babe Boone derived her abilities from "lightning juice" which was fermented from the bark of trees struck by lightning!

When it and Rogers' other ongoing series, Sparky Watts, were cancelled, Boody retired from commercial art and comics, opening a pair of art supply stores!

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Boody

Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers
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Space Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "Without a Body!"

It's the Last Chapter of Captain Midnight's Adventures in Space...

...as he and Xog, Ruler of Saturn come to final blows!

Xog was never seen or heard from again, even though the comic ran for one more issue!

Illustrated by Leonard Frank, this cover-featured tale from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #66 (1948) proved to be the last journey into space for the intrepid hero as he returned to Earth-bound adventures!

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Captain Midnight Archives

Volume 2

Captain Midnight Saves the World!

(Which includes this story)

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Friday Fun ABBOTT AND COSTELLO "Soup to Nuts"

From the Late 1930s to the Late 1950s, the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...

...were multi-media stars, appearing in movies, radio, TV, and...comic books!

This feature from St John's Abbott and Costello Comics #7 (1949), illustrated by Lily Renee and Eric Peters, was typical of the sort of stuff you'd see (or hear) in their other media appearances!
The comic ran for 40 issues, from 1948 to 1956, including a 3-D issue!
But that wasn't the end of four-color fun for the pair!
With their old movies and 1950s TV series proving to be popular on syndicated TV, Hanna-Barbera revived the duo as an animated series in 1967 with Bud Abbott providing his own voice.
(Costello had passed away in 1959).
This resulted in a new comic book series from Charlton using the cartoon as a springboard for a 22-issue run from 1968 to 1971!

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Lily Renee, Escape Artist

by

Trina Robbins
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Merry Christmas

Santa Claus' World War II-era attempt at updating his transportation...

...doesn't quite go as planned in this wraparound cover from Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942).

Unfortunately, the artist didn't sign it, and the experts at various comic indexing sites have been unable to offer possible illustrators.

Personally, I'm thinking Walt Kelly.

(The snarky reindeer are an obvious giveaway)

Any suggestions?

Merry Christmas to All!

Holiday Reading Roon SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Recitation"

Could anyone do these gentle one-pagers better than Walt (Pogo) Kelly?

Nope, as this never-reprinted piece from Dell's Four Color Comics #91 aka Santa Claus Funnies (1945) proves!

Comics About the Guy Christmas is Named After!

It's the Sunday before Christmas, an appropriate time to look at comic book stories about...

...the birth of Jesus Christ, the one and only!

BTW, your eyes do not deceive you!

Marvel Comics published a one-shot about the origin of Christ!

You can read that long out-of-print story by clicking on these links...

Part 1

Part 2

Conclusion
Epilogue

But there's more!

Here's a shorter, never-reprinted version from Marvel's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics...

Bible Tales for Young Folks

From a small publisher who did only a half-dozen comics, all based on Christian themes...

Life of Christ Visualized

Fiction House, noted for really-fun series like Planet Comics and Sheena: Queen of the Jungle took a somewhat more sensationalistic approach to telling the story of the Nativity....using 3-D!

Part 1

Conclusion

and Finally...

EC Comics, aka Entertaining Comics, the guys who later gave the world graphic horror in Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear began as Educational Comics, publishing wholesome material like Picture Stories from Science, Picture Stories from American History, Picture Stories from World History, and Picture Stories from the Bible...which ran material based on the Old Testament!
They added a second series of Bible tales, this time from the New Testament, kicking off with Christ's birth!
As you'll see, they gave very little attention to the actual event, covering the whole thing in only 1 1/2pages!

Picture Stories from the Bible: New Testament Edition

Holiday Reading Room PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE: NEW TESTAMENT "Story of Jesus: Part One"

The origin tale of Jesus Christ has, usually, been presented tastefully, even reverently!

Here's the most-reprinted comic book version of all...

The story continues with a caption mentioning that Mary and Joseph escaped and then takes up with Jesus as a 'tween.

Originally published by All-American Comics under the DC Comics logo in 1942, later editions were done by EC Comics after publisher MC Gaines sold his rights to most of the All-American line to National Allied Publications who combined the two groups into National Periodical Publications.

(National Allied and All-American had been marketing and distributing their books together, usually using the DC Comics logo, which was the result of an earlier buyout of Detective Comics Inc by National!)

Retaining the rights to the Picture Stories series, Gaines used it as the cornerstone of his new EC Comics imprint.

Note: EC Comics, now famous (or infamous) for its horror/sci-fi titles and MAD was originally conceived as Educational Comics with lots of wholesome, young-kid oriented material like Tiny Tots Comics and Land of the Lost!

Don't remember them?
Their sales (except for the Picture Stories of the Bible) were pitiful.

That's why "Educational" Comics became "Entertaining" Comics, though they continued reprinting Picture Stories (but without the EC logo on the front after the whole "Seduction of the Innocent" scare...)

Note: the entire Picture Stories series (including this tale) was written by Montgomery Mulford & Edward Wertheim and illustrated by Don Cameron!

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Picture Stories from The Bible
The New Testament in full-color comic strip form
(The Complete EC Mini-Series)
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Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "First Christmas Tree"

 An never-reprinted tale from Dell's  first Santa Claus Funnies (1942)...

...details a "legend" (involving young Jesus Christ) about how the tradition of Christmas trees came to be!

Well, it's as plausible as any theory that combines Christianity with the pagan tradition of decorated fir trees...
If the artwork looks "classier" than the usual comic book art, that's because illustrator Arthur Jameson was already a major artist in the pulp magazine field when he debuted in comic books with this tale!
As a result, his work was largely confined to fairy tale-themed and holiday comics.

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories
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