Friday Fun TEENAGERS INGENUE "Suzie's Theory of Relative(ity)"

From 61 years ago...

...a look at how teenagers allegedly perceived Yuletide family revelry, from Dell's Teen Agers Ingenue (December, 1961), illustrated by Susan Perl.

And yes, this was a real magazine targeted towards teens!
We'll be showing your more examples from it during the Christmas season!

Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "First Noel" or "First Nowell"?

Is it "Noel"...

...as most spell it these days?

From Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942), illustrator unknown

Or is it...

..."Nowell", as seen in Dell's Four Color Santa Claus Funnies #91 (1945)?

Illustrated by Arthur E Jameson.

"Nowell" is the English (British) spelling...and the hymn is of British origin.

"Noel" is the French (and other Old Latin-based languages') spelling.

Presumably it became the standard when the hymn was used in hymnals (which used Old Latin verses for many songs, though I've never heard an Old Latin version of  "First Nowell") in the 18th Century.

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ROBOTMEN OF THE LOST PLANET "Chapter One: the Massacre of Mankind!"

Last week, we showed you a 1970s version of this robo-apocalyptic tale...

...now witness the sheer terror of the original 1950s version!

The art for this 1952 one-shot title from Avon Comics is by Gene Fawcette, an Avon mainstay who did everything from horror to Westerns to romance.
If you compare the two tales, you'll see the robots are totally different in this version.
They're based on a still-popular toy first marketed in the early 1950s... Obie the Popping Martian/Panic Pete/Bug-Out Bob!
Who came up with the idea is unknown, and there was no attempt at an actual tie-in between the toy and the comic...

Beyond that, the most unusual aspect of this tale is the scripter...Walter Gibson, aka "Maxwell Grant", the primary writer of the legendary pulp character, The Shadow!

Yeah, that guy!

Gibson, a trained magician-turned writer did very little "hard" sci-fi during his long career...except in 1951-54, where he edited (and wrote under several pseudonoms) most of the contents of Charlton's short-lived pulp magazine (only two issues) Fantastic Science Fiction, as well as Charlton's Space Adventures comic for its' first eleven issues and co-creating and scripting Spurs Jackson and his Space Vigilantes for Charlton's newly-created Space Western Comics!
(Yes, it really existed, as shown HERE!)
He also wrote this comic and several other one-shots for Avon Comics.

For the record, Gibson also wrote two volumes of prose adaptations of Twilight Zone TV episodes (with a couple of original tales mixed in), but none of those were sci-fi.
BTW, while this was the only tale adapted into b/w in the 1970s, there were two more chapters of the man vs funky robot saga!
You'll see them next Wednesday and the Wednesday after that...

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Panic Pete!

Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Christmas Carols"

The very first Santa Claus Funnies featured these cool illustrated Christmas carols...

...combining both religious chants...

...traditional folk tunes...

...and contemporary songs!

The artist(s) of these never-reprinted shorts from Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942) are unknown.

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Great Treasury of

Christmas Comic Book Stories

Monday Madness CHRISTMAS WITH MOTHER GOOSE "Miss Cross Patch on Christmas Eve"

Unlike this Goldilocks story, which adapted an existing fairy tale into an Easter setting...

...this is a classic nursery rhyme, greatly expanded and enhanced by Walt (Pogo) Kelly for Christmastime!

From Dell's Four Color Comics #253 aka Christmas with Mother Goose (1949), written and illustrated by Walt (Pogo) Kelly.
For the remainder of the holiday season, we'll present stories (many never-reprinted) from this oversized holiday annual which ran from 1945 through 1949 every Monday!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories