Holiday Reading Room BEST OF O HENRY "Gift of the Magi"

With the last weekend before Christmas approaching...

...let's look at how True Love and Christmas shopping can go hand-in-hand!

This straightforward adaptation of O Henry's Christmas classic appeared in the HTF Pendulum Press' Best of O Henry (1977) digest-sized comic.
Written by John Fago (whose father, longtime comic artist/editor Vince Fago packaged the series) and illustrated by Anton Caravana, it was part of a series of Classics Illustrated-type publications released like the Scholastic Book Club, directly to students and school libraries.
(Don't despair Friday Fun fans!
Tragg and the Sky Gods will return next week!)

The Cisco Kid & Pancho for Cinco de Mayo

The Cisco Kid was the first Hispanic multi-media superstar, featured in books, movies, radio, comic books, newspaper strips, and eventually, television, predating Zorro in each media (except Zorro never had a radio show)!

As created by legendary writer O Henry, in the short story "The Caballero's Way" in 1907. the Kid was neither Hispanic nor a hero!
A 1914 silent movie of "The Caballero's Way" altered the character to the version that's became famous...a wandering hero, called "The Robin Hood of the Old West", who, with his sidekick, righted wrongs without killing (but with lots and LOTS of shooting) just like the Lone Ranger!
Over two dozen more films followed, as well as a long-running radio series, a newspaper strip, several comic book series, and a 156-episode tv show famous for being the FIRST American tv series filmed in color!
Some of the films and tv series episodes are on dvd.
Note that not all dvds have color tv episodes, some have have b/w versions!
(All the movies were b/w!)
In the 1990s, Jimmy Smits and Cheech Marin starred in a very well-done tv-movie pilot for a new series that, unfortunately, wasn't picked up (and isn't available on dvd).
But, there's talk of a new big-budget film version of the character sometime in the next couple of years!

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ are proud to reintroduce the classic Western character to a new audience in our Western Comic Adventures™ line.
Just go to The Cisco Kid & Pancho for a look at 6 different designs, including his 1st comic appearance on t-shirts, mugs, messenger bags and other goodies including a kool 2010 12-month calendar!
They'll have you going "Oh, Cisco!" "Oh, Pancho!" just like Duncan Renaldo & Leo Carrillo did in the classic tv series!

And, to make a really kool Cinco de Mayo gift set, why not add one of the NEW Cisco Kid graphic novels from Moonstone Books?

For our faithful fans...a FREE early Cinco de Mayo present...over 200 episodes of the radio show!