Monday Madness / Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Christmas Comes to Mars"

A decade before Santa Claus Conquers the Martians...

...this short story about little (non-green) Martians meeting Saint Nick showed the Christmas Spirit could be universal...

Illustrated by workhorse Dan Gormley, this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Four Color #666 (1955) jumped on the then-popular flying saucer craze.
Gormley began in 1940 by doing super-hero, sci-fi, and horror strips, then transitioned after several years to humor and funny animal, spending the bulk of his career doing lighter fare.
He had a real knack for matching various animation styles and illustrated numerous tales and covers based on animated films and TV shows from the Walter Lantz, Walt Disney, UPA, and Warner Brothers studios until he retired from comics in 1965!

The story is part of the annual Santa Claus Funnies anthology which ran in Four Color every Christmas from 1942 to 1961, and most of the tales have never been reprinted!

So we're going to correct that omission this year, running a number of these stories along with Walt Kelly's Christmas with Mother Goose tales.

Watch for them.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics at Christmastime!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

CoronaVirus Christmas Festive FaceMasks

Though the pandemic is limiting our usual Yuletide festivities, we should be prepared...

...if we can celebrate with family and friends by using festive face masks like these

Santa Claus-featured coverings...

...or, if you're feeling grumpy, some

Scrooge/A Christmas Carol-themed facewear...

...or comic-book coverings...

...or, last (but not least),

seasonal SnowMan nose/mouth protectors!

Each double-layer mask is reusable, washable, and built for comfort.
Every one-size-fits-all adult or kid mask features a pocket for optional filter use...and comes with two free carbon filters!
PLUS: these are exclusive designs, not available anywhere else or line-or in Brick-and-mortar stores!
(Even Amazon doesn't have them!)

Richard Corben (1940-2020)...by Will Eisner

Richard Corben was one of the greatest of comics creators!

Who says so?

No less a personage than Will Eisner, in the intro to the HTF Warren's The Odd Comic World of Richard Corben (1977)!

At this point, Corben had only been a published artist for seven years!

Yet the one-and-only Will Eisner penned an intro to his first "best of" compilation book.

(The fact Richard had a "best of" book after only seven years in the field is an accomplishment in itself!)

And this was about the period I first encountered, and was extremely-impressed by his work.

I've been extremely-impressed ever since.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Odd Comics World of Richard Corben

(a hard-to-find collector's item in itself)

Friday Fun / Holiday Reading Room: RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER "Rudolph's Swelled Head" Part 4

Sorry, but it looks like the kid who owned this book before it was scanned did the activity on this page.

Still, it looks cool, doesn't it?

Anyway, When Last We Left Rudolph...

As preparations for Christmas proceed, two children, Jack and Judy, make their way to Santa's Workshop.

...but their innocent visit has unintended consequences!

Rudolph develops an inflated ego as a result of the kids' mention of his world-wide fame.

Proclaiming he's "too important" to do mundane things like chores, Rudolph alienates everyone around him with an arrogant, self-important attitude.

Santa grounds Rudolph from his usual Christmas Eve run, and the petulant reindeer responds by running away from home.

When his nose freezes and goes dark, the runaway reindeer panics and runs onto thin ice, falling into a lake.

Rescued and nursed back to health by Grover Groundhog, Rudolph realizes the error of his ways and wants to apologize to Santa.

But it's Christmas Eve and because he's so far away, there's no way Rudolph can make it back to Santa's in time.

Grover sends Caspar the Carrier Pigeon with a note to Claus...

To be concluded...

Next Friday!

Written by Sy Reit and illustrated by Rube Grossman, this 1950 annual was the first of a series that ran until 1963.

The concept was revived in the tabloid-sized "Treasury" (10" x 14") format in 1972 and was published annually (except in '75 and '77) until 1978.

(Both DC and Marvel experimented in the 1970s with the over-sized format.

They were much bigger than normal comics with cardstock covers, though the interior pages were printed on the usual comic book paper stock.)

The series was more-or-less a sequel to the original story (which we presented HERE.) and classic song.

(The animated TV special that tells a totally-different version of the tale didn't appear until 1964.)

One thing you'll note is the unique idea of including activity pages as part of the story, giving us perfect chapter enders and openers in our serial presentation format.

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

75th-Anniversary Edition

(a replica of the original 1939 book which is quite different from the TV special and its' sequels!)

The Inspiration for Disney's "Frozen"...Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen"

Disney has a long history of adapting classic fairy tales...

...but none went further away from the source material than "Frozen".

Yes, it's been a commercial phenomenon, but, if you're looking for the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale...this ain't it!

If you want to see an extremely-faithful version of the classic tale...

...click HERE, and "Let It Go, Let It Go, Let It Go!"