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!

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Conclusion

When Last We Left Flash Gordon (ahh-ahh!)...

...there's more to the plot, but it's easier for you to just read Part 1 & Part 2 than have me explain it.

BTW, Patch has her silver/white hair and original clothes from Part 1 back, while Flash is in a new uniform!

Sadly, we've never seen that showdown!

The tale, illustrated by Gil Kane, appeared in the back of King Comics' The Phantom #20 (1966) and the writer is unknown.
The storyline wasn't concluded in Flash's King Comics title and neither Patch nor Straker have ever appeared anywhere else.

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Part 2

When Last We Left Flash Gordon (Ahh-ahhh!)...

...wow, the opening caption covered the plotline perfectly!

You'll note Flash is wearing a more ornate outfit while Patch's clothes are the same, but mis-colored (as is her hair, which was silver/white in the previous chapter)!

The story concludes next Saturday!

Illustrated by Gil Kane, replacing Wally Wood.

The writer is unknown.

Though Flash had his own comic at this time, this three-parter appeared in the back of The Phantom's book from the same publisher, King Comics, a division of King Features Syndicate.
(All the King Comics books did this, presumably to expose their target audience to other titles they might not otherwise read.)
Interestingly, Flash's own book ran backup stories of Mandrake the Magician (who also had his own book) and Secret Agent X-9 (who didn't have a book at the time)!

The particular tale appeared in the back of King's The Phantom #19 (1966).

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...

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.

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Part 1

Ya Want Full-On Space Opera?

Now, Here's SPACE OPERA!

...starring the one-and-only Flash Gordon as rendered by EC Comics legend Wally Wood!

The story continues next Saturday...with a different artist!

Illustrated by Wally Wood and his studio.

Wood (and writer Harvey Kurtzman) had previously-done the hysterical MAD comic book parody "Flesh Garden" (which you can read HERE), but this is his only "official" Flash Gordon work...which is a really shame, because is there's anybody who deserved a chance to do at least one continuity featuring the character, it's him!

The writer is unknown.

Though Flash had his own comic at this time, this three-parter appeared in the back of The Phantom's title from the same publisher, King Comics.

The particular tale appeared in the back of King's The Phantom #18 (1966), which was actually the first issue of the series from King Comics.

(They just continued the numbering from the previous publisher, Gold Key!)

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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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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Reading Room: STRANGE WORLDS "Weapon Out of Time"

Barbarians, advanced technology, and beautiful, half-clad women...

...we're obviously back in the retro-cool era of the Golden Age of science fiction!

So, if the fountain was "Old Faithful", where would nearby Anthor be located?

And, what happened to Anthor and it's inhabitants, who obviously weren't around when Paleoindians first migrated across the Beringia land bridge between Asia and North America around 12,000 years ago (or earlier)?

Yeah, I know it's "just a comic book story", but I can speculate, can't I?

Was this meant to be the first in an ongoing series about Prof Chalmers and his time-viewer/matter analyzer?

Art for this wild story from Avon's Strange Worlds #2 (1951) is by Wally Wood.

The writer is unknown, but it's theorized to be Gardner Fox, who created comics' first barbarian, Crom, for Avon the previous year.

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Monday Mecha Madness CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "Robots of Ra"

For sheer weirdness (not to mention incomprehensibility), few stories can top this tale...

...from the back of Youthful's Captain Science #2 (1951)!

You'll note the art style for this never-reprinted story varies wildly from page to page.

The credited artist, Walter Johnson, depended heavily on assistants to produce a high volume of pages for the various comics companies (including Avon, St John, Fiction House, and Youthful Publications) he supplied art to!

The work of several different illustrators with varying levels of draftsmanship is apparent on this one story, including one or more who swipe from both Flash Gordon's Alex Raymond and Phantom Lady's Matt Baker!

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