Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "First Christmas Tree"

 An never-reprinted tale from Dell's  first Santa Claus Funnies (1942)...

...details a "legend" (involving young Jesus Christ) about how the tradition of Christmas trees came to be!

Well, it's as plausible as any theory that combines Christianity with the pagan tradition of decorated fir trees...
If the artwork looks "classier" than the usual comic book art, that's because illustrator Arthur Jameson was already a major artist in the pulp magazine field when he debuted in comic books with this tale!
As a result, his work was largely confined to fairy tale-themed and holiday comics.

Support Atomic Kommie Comics at Christmastime!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories
Paid Link

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...

Pearl Harbor Day Special: UNCLE SAM "Ruthless Invaders!"

Six months before Pearl Harbor, this comic book story predicted the event...

...in Quality Comics' National Comics #18, cover-dated December 1941!

Remember that comic books used to be cover-dated 2-4 months before the actual on-sale date, and that the actual production time for a comic is anywhere between 1-3 months!

So this comic was on sale in September or October of 1941, and the story was written by Will Eisner and drawn by Lou Fine sometime between May and August of that same year!

Eerie, eh?

Note: they didn't get some of the details quite right...

Guam is hit at the same time as Pearl Harbor.

This one is weirdly close to reality!

Guam was attacked and conquered the very next day, Dec 8th!

Aircraft bomb Guam and battleships shell Pearl Harbor.

In reality, aircraft bombed Pearl Harbor and battleships shelled Guam just before it was invaded!

A German invasion fleet heads for New England!

Plus, the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Guam were part of a coordinated plan by Japan and Germany!

In reality, Germany had no such trans-Atlantic fleet available.

Hell, they couldn't even invade England, only 35 miles away from Axis-occupied France across the English Channel at it's closest point!

And, the Germans were less than happy to discover they now had to deal with America, along with England and Russia!

Hitler had hoped to keep the US out of the war for at least another year.

However the Nazis did honor their pact with Japan and declared war on the USA less than a week after Pearl Harbor.

Friday Fun ALL-NEW COMICS "Mummy Madness"

If You Like Slapstick Abbott & Costello-Style Comedy...

...you'll love this never-reprinted one-shot feature from Harvey's All-New Comics #5 (1943)!

The team of Huff & Guff, produced by Bob Powell's art studio, were obviously patterned after Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, and were meant to be an ongoing feature.

Sadly, the response to them must have been absolutely minimal, since no further stories about them ever appeared!

Bob Powell and his assistants remained prolific contributors to numerous publishers (including Harvey) in every genre from romance to horror to humor to Westerns and more, through the 1940s and 50s

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics: Volume 2

Bob Powell's

Terror

Paid Link

Halloween Reading Room: SUPERSNIPE "Halloween" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Boy with the Most Comic Books in America...

...Koppy (SuperSnipe) McFad (wearing his original costume), celebrates Halloween by trick-or-treating with his friends Herlock Domes and Roxy, and ends up at the Van Welty mansion where the trio inadvertently helps an assassination attempt on the mansion's rich owner.

When news reports about the police suspecting costumed kids reach Koppy and Herlock, they investigate in an attempt to clear themselves, discovering the "policeman" who tricked them was a fraud in a rented costume!
After the costume store owner gives them the name of the man who rented the police uniform, the now-plainclothes heroes go in search of the criminal...

Usually, Koppy McFad triumphs despite his rather "Inspector Clouseau"-type antics, but this time he not only figures out the clues (with a couple of handy coincidences), but deliberately puts himself in danger to keep the criminals in the store until the police arrive!

He may not have super powers, but SuperSnipe proves himself to be a real hero...

Story and art for this tale from SuperSnipe Comics V2N12 (1945) by George Marcoux, who did all the "SuperSnipe Universe" strips himself!

Halloween Reading Room SUPERSNIPE "Halloween" Part 2

When Last We Left the Boy with the Most Comic Books in America...

...Koppy (SuperSnipe) McFad (wearing his original costume), celebrates Halloween by trick-or-treating with his friends Herlock Domes and Roxy, and ends up at the Van Welty mansion where the trio inadvertently helps an assassination attempt on the mansion's rich owner.

Discovering that they aided and abbetted a felony, Koppy and Herlock calmly assess the situation...

This tale of terror and trick-or-treat concludes Thursday...

Story and art for this tale from SuperSnipe Comics V2N12 (1945) by George Marcoux, who did all the "SuperSnipe Universe" strips himself!

Halloween Reading Room SUPERSNIPE ""Halloween" Part 1"

You'd think a story about Halloween would begin a bit differently...

...but remember, this is a story about the Boy with the Most Comic Books in America, so it'll all tie together shortly...

This tale of terror and trick-or-treat continues Tuesday...

Story and art for this tale from S&S's SuperSnipe Comics V2N12 (1945) by George Marcoux, who did all the "SuperSnipe Universe" strips himself!