Wednesday Worlds of Wonder SUPER-STAR HOLIDAY SPECIAL "House of Mystery"

It's Christmas Eve...

...so let's join the hosts and hostesses of DC's various late, lamented, sci-fi/mystery anthologies as they attempt to top each other with Yuletide tales in this almost half-century old, never-reprinted story...

Written by Bob Rozakis, penciled by Romeo Tanghal, and inked by Dan Adkins, this one-time get-together of hosts plus the The Phantom Stranger and Madame Xanadu (who had their own books) occured in DC Special Series #21: Super-Star Holiday Special (1980)!

A fitting World of Wonder  for Christmas Eve, eh?

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

Friday Holiday Fun CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL "Wolf Who Didn't Believe in Santa Claus"

Here's a Yuletide Tale I Can Guarantee  You've Never  Read...

...unless you're over 75, involving four of the most famous characters in fairy tales!

This combo of Yuletide and children's fantasy, unseen since the 1950s, appeared in Ziff-Davis' one-shot 100-page Christmas Carnival (1952)!

Sadly, the writer and artist (or writer and artists or writer/artist) is unknown, since few records still exist after Ziff-Davis, which is still publishing other magazines, closed the comics division in 1957, selling most of its' assets (both published and unpublished material) to St John Publishing, which itself closed up shop in 1959!

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

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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 BIBLE TALES FOR YOUNG FOLKS "Nativity: the Birth of Jesus"

 Over the years, many  comics companies have published Bible-themed projects...

...such as Atlas Comics' Bible Tales for Young Folk which presented this never-reprinted story in its first issue!

The writer is unknown, but the penciler/inker is the legendary Joe Sinnott, best known for his inking of Jack Kirby and John Buscema on the Fantastic Four during the Silver Age.

(In truth, Joe's done an incredible amount of truly-spectacular work in comics, but that's the first thing most fans think of.)

Joe also did quite a bit of work for Treasure Chest, a comic distributed semi-monthly only to parochial schools during the school year (September thru June) that ran over 500 issues.

Oddly, none of Sinnott's stories for that series were Bible adaptations (which TC did a lot of).

Bible Tales lasted five issues in 1953 and '54, mixing New and Old Testament stories into each issue, illustrated by the cream of the Atlas (later Marvel) Comics crew including; Jerry Robinson, Don Rico, Syd Shores, Fred Kida, Bernie Krigstein, Bill Everett, Joe Maneely, and Gene Colan!

Friday Holiday Fun CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL "Santa's Red Red Nose"

What happens if Kris Kringle gets sick on Christmas Eve?

This tale from St John's Christmas Carnival (1952) 100-page one-shot gives you the answer!

It was all a dream!

Thank Heavens!

The thought of a Christmas without Santa is just too much to bear! ;-)
This tale (and the entire Christmas Carnival 100-page 25-cent book) were published twice!
Once in 1952 by Ziff-Davis and again in 1955 by St John Publishing, which bought the Ziff-Davis comics line's material when the publisher liquidated that division after the "Seduction of the Innocent" witch hunt!
Ironic, since Ziff-Davis Comics was one of the least-offensive publishers on the magazine racks!
The writer and artist(s) are unknown.

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Whether You Call Him "Kris Kringle" or "St Nick" or "Santa Claus", He's the Embodiment of the Christmas Spirit!

Did You Know...

...the image of Santa Claus, as we Americans know it, is based on the work of two artists over 70 years apart?

1) Thomas Nast, who illustrated the first published version of Clement Clark Moore's The Night Before Christmas in the 1860s
and

2) Haddon Sundblom, who took Nast's visual concepts, refined them, and used them to illustrate Coca-Cola's Christmas advertising campaigns in the 1930s
TRIVIA:

Both Nast and Sundblom are equally famous for their other artistic accomplishments...

Nast was primarily a political cartoonist, whose illustrations of New York's "Boss" Tweed were considered the main reason the corrupt politician was forced from office!

Sundblom also created the image of the Quaker Oats man, and was a noted pin-up girl artist! (In fact, his last published artwork was a pin up girl semi-dressed in a Santa outfit for Playboy's December, 1972 cover!

I'm not going to show it, but you can Google it with sundblom christmas playboy...

Friday Holiday Fun CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL "Twas the Night Before Christmas and All Through the House..."

It's a pretty long title for a one-pager...

...but the pay-off makes it worthwhile!

The writer and artist for this piece from the one-shot anthology Christmas Carnival (published by Ziff-Davis in 1952 and reprinted by St John in 1955) are, sadly, unknown.

But we didn't want this piece, unseen for 70 years, to be forgotten...so here it is for your enjoyment!
In fact, since this 100-page comic hasn't been reprinted in almost 3/4 of a century, we're going to run more material from it for the rest of December, with the finale on the day after Christmas being a story by Dave (MAD magazine) Berg!

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories
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Have Yourself a Star Wars Christmas with...CHRISTMAS IN THE STARS!

 Click on the pic to see the superb Ralph McQuarrie cover art in all it's glory!

You were expecting the Star Wars Christmas Special?

Released in 1980, this Christmas album was produced by Meco Monardo (who had previously-recorded Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk).

Anthony Daniels voiced C-3PO and sound designer Ben Burtt provided the sound effects he created for Star Wars to bring R2-D2 and Chewbacca to life!

'What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)' reached #69 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart in 1980. (It was the third digitally-recorded single in chart history.)

Trivia: Jon Bon Jovi made his first recording ever on this album (credited as John Bongiovi), singing lead vocals on 'R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas.' Bon Jovi did it as a favor to his cousin Tony Bongiovi, one of the producers of the album.

Here's John (Finn) Boyega hearing this album for the first time!

(For the record, I got the album when it came out..and still have it!)

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Christmas in the Stars
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SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS

He's the Jolly Old Elf in a red suit!
They are BIG Green Men from Mars with an even BIGGER robot!
Before Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, they were the ingredients for the weirdest Christmas movie ever!

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was filmed in 1964 in that bastion of the cinema, Long Island (in an unused aircraft hangar).

Starring a host of tv and b-movie actors including handsome-but-stiff Leonard Hicks as the Martian Leader (and kids' father) 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 villain, Voldar, and John Call as a pretty damn convincing Santa Claus, the flick is touted as the debut of future talentless chantuse Pia Zadora as Martian Kid Girmar. Thankfully, she has rather limited screen time.

As an example of low-budget filmmaking, it's actually pretty effective.

Every penny (what few of them they had) is up on the screen.

They make good use of stock footage (from Dr. Strangelove, no less).

And the use of then-popular Wham-O Air Blaster toy guns as the 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!

If you're over the local drinking age, do so before watching! It's available on a host of public domain dvds as well as one of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 snarkfests.

BTW: The image above is from the comic book tie-in, which you can read in three parts...

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

There was also a single of the theme, a spoken-word LP album of the movie's dialogue, and a novelization!

Now I can't get that damn theme our of my head..."Hoo-ray for Santy Claus..." AARRRGGGHHH!

An early Christmas gift from us to you:
The Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version of the film (don't tell Dr Forrester)...

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Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Blu-Ray from Something Weird

Loaded with Kool Extras!

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