Rudolph Reading Room RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER the Secret Saga!

You only think  you know the story...

...but the truth is far different!

Yeah, you know the 1940s song and you've seen the 1960s animated TV special every Christmas for as long as you can remember.

But, it's not the original tale of the guy with the glowing nose!

Starting Thursday, we're re-presenting a special treat...the rarely-seen prose tale that inspired both the Gene Autry song and stop-motion tv special.

Here's a vintage 1940s cartoon by Max Fleischer that's somewhat closer to the "classic" version...

And be here Thursday for the actual, illustrated, prose tale!

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Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Deluxe 50th-Anniversary Edition

(of the stop-motion animated TV special)

Monday Madness: The Forgotten Inspiration for Disney's FROZEN...Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen"

Disney has a long history of adapting classic fairy tales...

...but none went further away from the source material than "Frozen".

Yes, it's been a commercial phenomenon, but, if you're looking for the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale...this ain't it!

If you want to see an extremely-faithful version of the classic tale...

...click HERE, and "Let It Go, Let It Go, Let It Go!"

Monday Madness / Thanksgiving Turkey TINY TOT COMICS "Dunny the Flying Donkey on Christmas Eve!"

Before EC Comics Became Entertaining Comics and Did Xmas Tales Like This...

...they were known as Educational Comics, and told Xmas tales like this never-reprinted story from EC's Tiny Tot Comics #10 (1947) that qualifies as our "Thanksgiving Turkey" for 2024!

Dunny the Flying Donkey was one of several ongoing strips in Tiny Tot Comics created, written, and illustrated by Burton Geller.

When EC changed direction and cancelled all its' humor and funny animal titles, Geller moved on to other publishers, patricularly Pflaum's Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, where he remained until he retired in 1963.

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories
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SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "There's a Santa..."

Here's a kool one pager...

...written and illustrated by Walt (Pogo) Kelly from Dell's Four Color Comics #91 (1945) aka "Santa Claus Funnies"!

Until Christmas, we'll be presenting various Yultide-related items, some will be one or two-pagers like this, some will be longer, even multi-part stories.

Have a seat, get a mug of hot chocolate, and enjoy!

Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Santa Claus in Trouble"

Ever hear "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"?

...well, when that woman is the Ice Queen, even ol' Kris Kringle better watch out!

Some observations...

Boy, the Ice Queen is a real...#itch, ain't she?

Santa has "magic snowshoes"?

Wonder what other kool gimmicks he has lying around the toyshop...

Illustrated by Lea Bing, this never-reprinted story from Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942) was the first in a series of annual books featuring not only Kris Kringle, but other Christmas-related characters and stories that ran from '42 to '62.

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

Space Hero Saturdays PLANET COMICS "Buzz Crandall of the Space Patrol in 'I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!' "

This strip started out as a typical Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers clone...

...but when eccentric (to put it mildly) writer/artist Fletcher Hanks took over as of Buzz's second appearance in Fiction House's Planet Comics #7 (1940)...well, let the apocalyptic craziness begin!

Just another Tuesday for Buzz Crandall, who, despite the "Space Patrol" in the title, seems to run a two-person operation with only his girlfriend to aid him!

Like the tales of Fletcher's other Space Hero, Fantastic Comics' Space Smith, these stories played with the fact that there werem't any "rules" to follow and took the concept of "anything goes" to dizzying levels!

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I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

by

Fletcher Hanks

CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST "Premiere"

Here's the first appearance of a comics legend (over 100 comic series with his name in the title)...

...who, at the time this came out, was already an animation mainstay!

Utilizing story elements from Casper's first cartoon (1945's Paramount NovelToon "The Friendly Ghost", written by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo) this opener written by Isadore Klien and likely illustrated by one of the cartoon series' animators appeared in St John's Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 (1949)

Interestingly, though Harvey Comics acquired the character rights from Paramount Pictures and continued the series after St John went out of business, they never reprinted the covers or stories of the five issues by St John!

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Casper the Friendly Ghost

60th Anniversary Special

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Space Hero Saturdays FANTASTIC COMICS "Space Smith and the Floating Island in the Lost Sun"

One of the Truly Difficult Things About This Feature...

...is coming up with titles for Fletcher Hanks' almost-always untitled stories!

How do you convey some of the truly weird goings-on?

This Space Smith tale from Fox Features' Fantastic Comics #5 (1940) could've had several different titles including "The Hopping Men of the Floating Island!" or "The Hopping Men of the Lost Sun!"!

We decided on the title based on the two locations shown in the story!
But, like most of Fletcher Hank's stories, there's so much going on that it's hard to pin down one or two aspects.

Best to just go along for the ride and enjoy!

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I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

by

Fletcher Hanks