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

Holiday Reading Room JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "They Wait in the Shadows!" & JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Monsters on Mercury!"

No Matter Where Humans Travel in the Universe...

...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?

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

Monday Madness / Holiday Reading Room HOT WHEELS "Humbug Run"

If a Santa in a motorized sleigh running two teens down isn't the very definition of "madness"...

Art by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano

...I don't know what is!
Enjoy this never-reprinted tale from the Silver Age of Comics!

The cover story for DC's Hot Wheels #6 (1971) was written by Len Wein, with art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano, following Alex Toth's character designs from the 1969-1971 animated series based on the toy line.
Toth also illustrated most of the stories in the comic series, as shown below!

Art by Alex Toth from Hot Wheels #1

Reading Room: Kool Walt Scott Christmas Treats!

For our final Walt Scott-themed post this year...

...here's a few Yuletide one-page features starring his Little People characters...that Scott himself neither wrote nor drew!

The first two pages were from the front and back inside covers of Dell's Four Color Comics: Walt Scott's the Little People #868 (1957), which were printed (as was the case with many comics) in black and white.

The last one was the comic's back cover, in full color, of course!
Unlike the two Walt Scott's Christmas Stories issues which Scott himself adapted from the newspaper comic strip into comic book format, the ten Little People issues were written and illustrated by Dell Comics' creatives, in this case, by artist Dan Gormley.

But we're not letting you go Scott-free (as it were)!

Here are the new painted covers Scott did for the two Four Color Comics Christmas Stories issues...

#959 (1958)

#1062 (1959-60)

Plus, the cover for the three-color promo brochure for NEA's 1957 Christmas strip...

...which was only seen by the art directors of NEA's client newspapers!

(We presented thst strip HERE!)

Holiday Reading Room WALT SCOTT"S CHRISTMAS STORIES "Animals' Christmas"

Here's another Yuletide tale unseen by anyone...

...since its' appearance in Dell's Four Color Comics: Walt Scott's Christmas Stories #969 (1958).

This story originally-appeared in newspapers as NEA's 1956 Christmas strip running between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Scott himself did the modifications to adapt the art to comic book formatting.