Believe it or not, there was a comic book version of this holiday "classic" flick...
...in 1966, from Dell Comics!
Next Friday: Santa's trip to Mars...
(...not to be confused with Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars!)
The writer/adaptor is unknown, but the art is by Bob Jenney, who did quite a few movie and tv adaptations for Dell.
The actual title of the comic is Dell Movie Classic #725. Not only was it sold on newsstands, but it was packaged with an LP album of the movie's audio including dialogue, sound effects and (shudder) the earworm-creating theme song! (Remember, they didn't have streaming services, DVDs/Blu Rays, or even videocassettes back in the 1960s!)
...they will find a way to celebrate joy and happiness even under the most stressful of circumstances, as in this tale behind a very misleading (but extremely-kool) Bill Everett cover!
Illustrated by Bob Forgione and scripted by an unknown writer, this story from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #47 (1956) is more "hard" science-fiction and less "science-fantasy" than this later tale by a pair of Silver Age legends following the same basic plot...
This long-forgotten Stan Lee/Steve Ditko (You've heard of them, right?) tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #78 (1962) amps up the humans' paranoia, but plays down scientific accuracy! (Even in 1962, we knew Mercury was unlivable for humans without extensive protective equipment and clothing!)
But, to be fair, both tales are equally-good at getting the Yuletide message across, eh?
Starring a host of tv and b-movie actors including handsome-but-wooden Leonard Hicks as the benevolent Martian leader Kimar, 60s villain/voiceover artist Vincent Beck (who did lots of work for Irwin Allen's sci-fi shows) as the film's mustache-twirling, scenery-chewing Martian villain, Voldar, and John Call as a pretty damn convincing cuddly Santa Claus, the film is classic kiddie matinee programming at its' retro campy best!
The plot's pretty simple.
The children of Mars are in a funk.
The adult Martians deduce it's due to the children's strict and sterile upbringing, and that to "normalize" them, the kids must have fun!
And what could be more fun than celebrating Christmas?
But, to do a proper Christmas, you need a Santa Claus!
Thus, the Martians journey to Earth to kidnap Santa Claus and force him to create a Christmas celebration on Mars!
Then, as they used to say in TV Guide's plot listings, hilarity ensues! (well, sorta)
As an example of low-budget filmmaking, it's amazingly-effective.
Every penny (what few of them they had) is up on the screen.
The costuming and Santa's Workshop and Mars sets are as good as those of tv shows of the period.
(The Martian robot is probably the weakest element from a design and execution standpoint, but, hey, nobody's perfect!)
There's extensive use of military stock footage (from Dr. Strangelove, no less).
And, the idea to utilize the then-current Wham-O Air Blaster toy guns as Martian weapons was either a stroke of marketing genius or clever use of limited funds. Either way, sales of the guns shot thru the roof after the film hit the kiddie matinee circuit!
If you're between 3-9 years old, the flick's a lot of fun.
If you're between 10 and whatever the local drinking age is, it'll drive you nuts, especially the theme song! And to prove it...here it is!
If you're over the local drinking age...do so before watching! It's available on a host of public domain DVDs and BluRays as well as one of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 snarkfests.
BTW: The image at top is the cover of the comic book tie-in. There was also a 45rpm single of the theme, a spoken-word LP album of the movie's dialogue (which included the comic book), and a novelization, all of which are HTF...and expensive when you do find them!
Be Here Next Friday,
when we begin our re-presentation of the comic book adaptation of the movie!
Now I can't get that damn theme out of my head..."Hoo-ray for Santy Claus..."
With Captain Dildano and the rest of his crew dead, and their ship a derelict, Barbarella is stranded on Lython...
There are more plot elements and characters who ended up in the movie, though at the flick's beginning, rather than midway through the story, as they do here.
Some characters like "Klill, the horrid little Martian", didn't appear in the film. The explanation of why the inhabitants are dressed in mid-19th Century Earth fashions was utilized a year later in the Classic Star Trek episode "Squire of Gothos". At any rate, the "antique-looking" clothing and technology didn't make it into the movie's version of this sequence!
When Jungle Jim returned to comic books in the 1960s in new stories...
...the usually "realistic" high adventure strip jumped head-first into all-out sci-fi/fantasy!
Written and laid-out by Bhob Stewart, pencilled by Steve Ditko, and inked by Wally Wood. this cover-featured story from Charlton's Jungle Jim #22 (1969) was prepared for the character's previous publisher, King Comics, but ended up at Charlton when King Features Syndicate dropped in-house comic book publishing.
You can read Bhob's account of how this story was produced HERE.
All you really need to know is that Captain Dildano's spacecraft was forced down by a gigantic jellyfish...ok, plot logic is not the strip's strong suit.
Just enjoy the kool art...
Dildano also dies in the movie, but under vastly different circumstances. In fact, this particular sequence is not adapted into the 1960s cult classic flick!
