1) Jingle & Bell -The Eskimo Twins
This is a fun story for little kids, but is not very consistent - even for its own special Universe. Firstly, it seems very unrealistic and condescending to assume that ALL the descendants of the Siberians who migrated from various parts of northeast Asia across The Bering Sea Land Bridge spoke the same language up until modern times, so they would ALL speak English with the same Pidgin peculiarities, such as the cliche Native American word ending "-um". That was, perhaps, and individual Native American's habit (probably from a tribe in the central USA, during the mid 1800s), which got stereotyped. It would be utterly impossible for Inuit speakers from a language group very distant from the Inuit family, to share a pronunciation quirk with even the less distant Athabaskan language group, let alone the VERY distant Algonkian or other groups found in USA, and even more unlikely that they'd share a quirk that was probably just that from a single person.
Next, the villain, the wolf, at first, acts like a realistic animal, chasing the kids, who are riding the sled. We are supposed to guess that he is a lone wolf, who is starving, and can't find any deer or small prey to eat, so he goes after the human kids. While chasing them, he interrupts their mother from washing her neighbour, Santa Claus' coat. Then he, amazingly, falls down Santa's house's chimney, and is captured by the kids' mother, who, at gun's point, Forces the wolf to quickly become humanlike, by sitting as a human, gaining human limb dexterity, and finish washing the coat, as a punishment for behaving like the animal he is.
When I was very young, I thought silly, illogical stories like this were a waste of time, unless the artwork was of excellent and interesting. The artwork of this story is adequate, but not very special.
2)The Miracle of The Snowman
This story involves the "magic" of Christmas. I expect it to have lots of fantasy, but this one's logic is inconsistent internally. The snowman has magically come to life because he wants to see "spring" for the first time, but it is the heat of spring's arrival that always melts him. Yet, he is shivering in the cold, which keeps him from melting, and gets even colder, when his coat is removed by the boy. The boy takes him in to his cabin, and has him sit in the room with the fire. Of course he melts, to bring life to the tulips the boy will sell. Again, I guess little kids would like it. But, I'd have thought it was silly.
3) Benny Brown Bear's Christmas Sleep
This story was drawn well, seemingly by a Sangor Studio artist, with whom I'm familiar. The plot was simple and for young children, but it had an unexpected ending - so it was worth reading. The credits list this as "Bill Walsh" with a question mark. I don't remember Disney Comics Department (Newspaper Strips) epic Mickey Mouse story writer, Bill Walsh working on any comic books as an artist, so. I assume that he should be credited as the writer, IF, indeed it was he who wrote it. The question mark indicates that is just a guess. Personally, I would be very surprised to find out Walsh wrote short comic book stories for Ziff-Davis. I don't remember hearing about him moonlighting while working for Disney.
4) How The Reindeer Came To Fly
This story has decent to fairly good artwork, and the story premise is based on a clever idea, which involves Santa's Elves helping him, and the reader discovering how and why Santa started using reindeer to pull his slay. The problem is that the author failed to provide a reason why the "magic" that allows the reindeer to fly, and the "magic" that allows Santa's seven league boots to propel him seven leagues with each step (step-jump) works.
Of course, the little scientists (of which, I was one) would STILL have had a problem trying to believe that Santa could reach ALL the houses of Humans (or even just all those born into Christianity) in one evening/night,- EVEN first using seven league boots, and later, when the number of households got too large, using flying reindeer. And how could an Eastern Orthodox bishop, who died in modern-day Turkey, during The 4th Century A.D. still be alive after The Year 2,000 A.D., and what is he doing living at The North Pole, where the sea ice is now gone for 3-4 months? But, as we all know, all those scientific realities must be left aside, as there is no semi-realistic answer to those questions that could even be remotely plausible or remotely possible. However, the child reader would be more satisfied with some sort of reason provided for why this apparent magic works.
Being from a non-Christian background, myself, had I been given the assignment of writing this story, I might have taken the Old Norse pagan tradition (of Yule (Jul) from which Father Christmas originated, a little further, and involved some of the other "gods", like "Jack Frost" (The Ice Maker), and "The North Wind". I'd have mentioned that Santa Claus (Sinterklaas) (Father Christmas) used some of his built-up goodwill with his fellow "Magical", immortal beings, to get some help with his growing problem, based on The Earth's Human population growing ever greater, and spreading all over our planet, to its farthest reaches (this could provide a chance to sneak in some Human history, and lengthen the story to 10 pages, and show some interesting visual scenes). I'd show Santa's pal, Mr. North Wind, helping him travel farther, faster, by blowing gales pushing his sleigh and reindeer over long distances. I might also show groups of elves stationed in different parts of The World, ready with new packaged gifts to refill Santa's sleigh each time it empties.
Nevertheless, it is an interesting and fun story, just as it is.
5) Crystal and The Snowflake
This is another story drawn by a competent artist, with a storyline relating to Santa needing help to serve all the burgeoning number of households on Earth in one evening and night. The snowflake-making elves come to his aid. It's a nice story for little kids, but the problem is a big one that is solved in a relatively boring and expected way, with little suspense and no real villain to be an antagonist, making it more difficult and rewarding for the heroes to succeed. These simple stories are fine for kids from 3 to 7 years old, but pale in comparison to the Disney and Warner Brothers Christmas giant book lead, and even their secondary (filler) stories.
6) Filler Fables and Moral Tales
I agree with Crash that the fables and folk tales in this book were thrown in as fillers, possibly because Ziff-Davis didn't have any spare artists and writers to work on the less important stories, given that this special Christmas book was unusually large, and their production staff was already strained working on their regular monthly, bi-monthly, and quarterly series issues, and these fables and folk tales didn't require story writing, and, maybe they didn't even require drawing, IF they were reprints of stories previously issued in that publisher's regular Fairy Tales series. In any case, most of them seemed relatively uninspired, with fairly ordinary artwork, and using the same dialogues and staging as I had seen in those same stories, issued by other publishers. "The Funny Nest" displayed the best artwork, to my taste, and the story was reasonably interesting.
7) Boswell The Brat
I don't understand why this story is in a Christmas book. I wonder for which Ziff-Davis book or series this was originally written and drawn? Clearly, it wasn't drawn especially for this book. Maybe the editor saw that his artists were behind schedule and couldn't finish anywhere near 120 pages, so he asked his free-lance artists if they had any stories ready for sale, in their storage, which weren't already committed to other clients? And one of the artists had this one (a story without a home). I have several of those I could rattle off quickly for someone who just needs "filler". In any case, this story is worth reading, because of some funny scenes, and a few clever scenes. The artwork is somewhat before its time, looking more like a 1970s or 1980s simplistic newspaper strip style. But, it is very ordinary, and on the level of many of the Charlton 1960s and 1970s comics for young kids.
8} The Mouse Who Played Santa Claus
The artwork on this one is also very good, and looks the same as that of the "Benny Brown Bear" story. And, it is also credited to Bill Walsh (with the question mark). The story, of 3 orphaned kittens, who don't believe in Santa Claus, are taken in by a lonely mouse, who tries to bring the spirit of Christmas to them. It is a nice little holiday tale for children.
9) The Sparrow Who Came for Christmas
This story has a good premise, and a decent setting, and could have pulled at the reader's heartstrings. But, it wasn't developed enough, and to be honest, that fact built up hopes and expectations for the reader which were unfulfilled, leaving the reader sorely disappointed. Were were told something, but didn't see almost ANY of it in the illustrations. And THAT is what sequential art stories (best shown in comic books and comic strips, is all about.
We barely got to see the boy in one scene being hopeless and uninterested in anything. So, we didn't FEEL his sadness, depression, and hopelessness along with him. We didn't see and feel his joy in first discovering the bird, and feeling that it just came for him. That could have been shown in a more expanded scene, perhaps with the boy alone, first slowly coming to know the bird, then, excitedly realising that the bird came just for him, to make him happy, and then in a big, unexpected scene, running into the living room and announcing to his parents, that his depression is cured by the magical bird, so the reader could feel and share the changed emotions along with the boy. It would have been more believable and effective to have shown the boy gradually warming up to the bird over, at least, a few panels. Where we could see a friendship building (and would hope that he would adopt the bird for, at least, some extended period).
Showing only results in single panels and asking the reader to believe that really happened isn't enough. The boy's magical mood transformation would only be believable if the reader had already suffered along with the boy and his parents, over a period in which his depression was worsening, and the parents' fear was increasing. All of that could have been added in only a few (perhaps 2 or 3) more pages. But the artwork was also holding back the reader from living in the story (e.g. feeling the emotions of the characters). The expressions of the characters just didn't convey their emotions very well. The inadequate storytelling and weak artwork left me feeling sorely disappointed, having the story fall far, far short of my expectations.
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Topic: Week 215 - Santa Claus Parade (Read 786 times)
