[The Australian Panther]

Reading Group subject this time. Christmas. And I'm going to choose 4 items. And no, I don't want to make a habit of doing that.

But i thought we could do a survey of what we have in the way of Christmas items on CB+. So please feel free to comment in any way you see fit.

First, something really different, a TV episode.
Dragnet s2 ep07 - The Big .22 Rifle for Christmas (Dragnet)
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=55366

0172 - Christmas with Mother Goose
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=16720

And something from the UK
A Christmas Mystery for The Silent Three
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=30242

Something to honour Lyons, who has contributed immensely to CB+. This is not the only Christmas book either.
Christmas Drawings for the Human Race
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=74641

Please have a cool Yule.

Cheers     

[Robb_K]

Reading Group subject this time. Christmas. And I'm going to choose 4 items. And no, I don't want to make a habit of doing that.

But i thought we could do a survey of what we have in the way of Christmas items on CB+. So please feel free to comment in any way you see fit.

First, something really different, a TV episode.
Dragnet s2 ep07 - The Big .22 Rifle for Christmas (Dragnet)
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=55366

0172 - Christmas with Mother Goose
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=16720

And something from the UK
A Christmas Mystery for The Silent Three
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=30242


Please have a cook yule.

Cheers   

So, one more book or TV episode, or film, or pamphlet is coming (to make 4)?

[SuperScrounge]

Dragnet s2 ep07 - The Big .22 Rifle for Christmas (Dragnet)
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=55366

Errrrrggg... I've heard that's a depressing one. I'd better line up some comedies to watch afterwards.

So, one more book or TV episode, or film, or pamphlet is coming (to make 4)?

Maybe counting is different in Australia? 

[The Australian Panther]

Three has now become four. I did the original post in a hurry on my way out of the house, with the clock ticking down for an appointment.

cheers!

[narfstar]

Christmas Drawings was wonderfully fun. A look into the past and some fantastic art. You get a feel for the era through the eclectic drawings.

[narfstar]

What a revelation when I first found British "girl" comics. I think the Silent Three may have been the first and it may have been this story. This was how comics were meant to be. It was good to have Mother Goose around for some fun. It may be for little kids but who can not smile with Walt Kelly. Wish I would have done Dragnet then Mother Goose not the other way around. Who wants to end on such a downer. Wow how morbid for Christmas.

[SuperScrounge]

A Christmas Mystery for The Silent Three - Seemed familiar, like I'd read it before. I wonder if this had been a previous reading group choice? Okay story, nice art. Although the Silent Three's secret won't be a secret for long if they keep telling people who they are.

What book did these stories originally appear in? There didn't seem to be any info on that.

[SuperScrounge]

Yep The Silent Three story was a Week 149 reading group selection.

[SuperScrounge]

A Gun For Christmas - Ah yes, what says Christmas better than the story of a dead child. Now excuse me while I go slit my wrists.

Tacky story idea and moralizing aside it was otherwise an okay written story. The stylized/stilted Dragnet acting style takes a little getting used to.

Last week I listened to an episode of Escape that starred Jack Webb and I think he displayed more emotion in that episode than he did for the whole series of Dragnet. 

[crashryan]

If you've never heard Jack in his private eye radio series, "Pat Novak for Hire," you've missed a classic of Webbian emotion delivering over-the-top tough-guy dialogue which sounds like a Stan Freberg parody. Not to be missed.

[gregjh]

I look forward to digging in to these.

[Andrew999]

The Silent Three appeared in School Friend - but we like to keep that hush-hush

[SuperScrounge]

The Silent Three appeared in School Friend - but we like to keep that hush-hush

Why, is it not public domain?

---

Thanks, Crash, I'll try listening to episode.

---

Christmas With Mother Goose

Remembering - Okay poem and illustrations.

Mother Goose Helps Santa - How did the Black Giant capture all Santa's helpers silently? Why weren't there some workers in the candy mine already? I suppose if you ignore the illogical bits it's an okay story, but if a little more thought had been applied it probably would have been better. I wonder how many children got Black Giant flavored taffy? 

My Little Pony - Friendship is... oh, wrong series. Eh. Not terrible, but not that great either.

Old Granny Hipple Hopple - Uh... nice drawings.

Goosey Gander's Gift - This was a cute one. I liked it.

A Crooked Party - Okay, this was a fun little poem that gave me a crooked smile. 

Tommy Tucker's Song - Eh.

A Bear For Bed - Ditto.

The Three Blind Mice and A Christmas Deed - Cute. 

Rub-A-Dub-Dub - *sigh* another lackluster poem.

My Favorite Tree - Okay.

Little Jack Horner's Christmas Pie - Interesting mix of characters, but a weak story.

What's The Day? - Eh.

Contrary Mary and the Angel - Not as good a story as the others.

Christmas Eve - Kind of amusing.

The Merry Pigs - Okay. Nice expressive art.

Overall a nice little comic that I could give a pdf to young kids.

[Robb_K]

The Silent Three appeared in School Friend - but we like to keep that hush-hush

Why, is it not public domain?

---

Thanks, Crash, I'll try listening to episode.

---

Christmas With Mother Goose

Remembering - Okay poem and illustrations.

Mother Goose Helps Santa - How did the Black Giant capture all Santa's helpers silently? Why weren't there some workers in the candy mine already? I suppose if you ignore the illogical bits it's an okay story, but if a little more thought had been applied it probably would have been better. I wonder how many children got Black Giant flavored taffy? 

My Little Pony - Friendship is... oh, wrong series. Eh. Not terrible, but not that great either.

Old Granny Hipple Hopple - Uh... nice drawings.

Goosey Gander's Gift - This was a cute one. I liked it.

A Crooked Party - Okay, this was a fun little poem that gave me a crooked smile. 

Tommy Tucker's Song - Eh.

A Bear For Bed - Ditto.

The Three Blind Mice and A Christmas Deed - Cute. 

Rub-A-Dub-Dub - *sigh* another lackluster poem.

My Favorite Tree - Okay.

Little Jack Horner's Christmas Pie - Interesting mix of characters, but a weak story.

What's The Day? - Eh.

Contrary Mary and the Angel - Not as good a story as the others.

Christmas Eve - Kind of amusing.

The Merry Pigs - Okay. Nice expressive art.

Overall a nice little comic that I could give a pdf to young kids.

Of course it's nice.  It was drawn by Walt Kelly!

[SuperScrounge]

Christmas Drawings For The Human Race - A very nice book of Christmas cartoons & illustrations. 

Merry Christmas to all! 

[paw broon]

"The Silent Three appeared in School Friend - but we like to keep that hush-hush
Why, is it not public domain?"

Well, sort of, perhaps, maybe.  We have some examples of School Friend on the site and as with many British and European publications, no-one has objected.  They are of their time, never reprinted and are digitally available all over the place.  We just don't put them up front.

[gregjh]

Silent Three - never heard of these before. I guessed they were Victorian Era but a quick check reveals they are actually a product of the fifties. Very much in the trend of Famous Five and Secret Seven these "chums" have a "jolly good" adventure in well drawn panels. This is one comic that provides a lot of text yet it all feels required rather than verbose. A fun read!

Christmas Drawings - very interesting. I'm fascinated by the late 19th century so this book is a treasure. Some of the caricatures, particularly small children with older faces strike me as creepy but that's probably due to modern perceptions of various issues in modern times (I won't say more to avoid pulling things off topic). This book was class.

Thanks for these great Christmas reads, AP!

[Robb_K]

The Silent Three
This was a well constructed children's mystery, with excellent drawings.  I wouldn't say that the engraving style was late 19th Century.  The backgrounds were 1930s-1940s at the earliest, but the human figures were straight out of the 1950s (British style).  The mystery held my interest, although the set-up of the story was obvious, and we knew what the outcome would be.  But, we still wanted to see how it would happen.  The wording of the location of the key was a clue which gave its location away.  "Under" the Bay of Biscay" would be buried in the earth below the ocean's water, rather than thrown into the water.  That would be an awkward way of describing it.  So, it leads to the conclusion that the key was placed by the uncle in a slightly hidden location below a map or World globe, as a small joke, on the person who was in charge of Father Christmas' Box (most likely Cherry).  But, giving away THAT little "secret" to the reader did no harm, because it only moved the story along without giving away the story's ending, and also made the more clever young would-be sleuths a reason to feel accomplished (which is a requisite for writing children's mysteries.

All in all, it was a pleasant read.

Christmas With Mother Goose
As usual, Walt Kelly's art is terrific.  He wrote his fairy tales and children's stories in the old-fashioned, late 19th Century style, and his artwork fit that mood.  An excellent group of stories for that genre.

Christmas Drawings For The Human Race
This book has wonderful old-fashioned, late 19th Century engraved-style drawings, which I really enjoy. 

Dragnet TV Episode (Christmas Story)
Not a fun story to get one into the holiday mood, to say the least.  Jack Webb was one of my favourite actors along with John Agar and Tod Slaughter. 

[Morgus]

Walt Kelly was terrific and pretty much a Christmas tradition that I look up every year.
CHRISTMAS DRAWINGS FOR THE HUMAN RACE was a revelation. You see the more famous ones of Santa reproduced again and again, but never the lesser known ones. Amazing detail and whimsy.

[The Australian Panther]

No great commentary or review from me on these reading group choices. My purpose was to introduce members and visitors to the range of Christmas material on the site. What needs to be said has already been said by those who responded.
I hope Robb and I with the occasional help of Andrew will continue to bring you interesting choices during 2021.
I plan to look for more guest reviewers, myself.

And may you all have a great new year in 2021. Hey, we gotta live in hope, right?

Cheers!     

[crashryan]

As I sit in the tub finally washing off the stench of 2020, I guess I'll be the last to comment on these Christmas-related items. An already messed-up season was wrapped up by my sister-in-law dying of Covid-19 after a relative visited a sick friend and brought the virus back to their family. Fortunately for us they live in Idaho so we weren't endangered. Though my wife and I weren't close with S. I. L., her passing was a most  unpleasant Christmas gift. Especially given that at the very same time someone papered our neighborhood with expensively-printed windshield flyers reminding us that the virus (and any upcoming vaccine) was a complete fraud manufactured to make the Glorious Leader look bad. Bah effing humbug.

Christmas with Mother Goose is wonderful mostly for Walt Kelly's artwork, though the stories have a lot to offer. "Goosey Gander" and "Three Blind Mice" are my favorites. In addition to kid appeal they have some of the clever dialogue and word play that make "Pogo" a treat. Kelly loved language. One item of proof: unlike 99% of comic book poetry, his poems (almost) always scan. The lead feature is a disappointment. Kelly didn't seem to have thought it through completely. The story is confusing and I can't believe how Santa learns the giant's plans. "I'm going to sneak down and see if I can catch the giant talking to himself!" **Groan!** If it weren't for the rest of the story being played straight I'd think this was a fourth-wall breaking poke at how often comics characters reveal their secrets by thinking aloud.

Finally, having a lifelong fondness for bears, I would read the poem on page 28 to my own kids if they weren't in their 30s. I confess the bare butt shot caught me by surprise.

A Christmas Mystery for the Silent Three: Everyone knows I'm a Silent Three fan. This is like the distilled essence of a typical S3 story. But those vertical-striped school uniforms have got to go.

Christmas Drawings for the Human Race is a wonderful Nast collection. Some drawings seem to date well before the 1889 publication date. The references to absent fathers fighting the Civil War are quite poignant.

Dragnet: Friday's closing line says it all. Webb was big on trying for "realistic" stories (hence the banal, flatly-delivered dialogue) but one scene is so incredibly cruel that I can't believe it happened. They take the corpse of a dead boy--shot in the heart; not pretty--to his home without even telling the father he's dead so Dad comes home to see his boy and has to figure it out for himself because Friday and friend just stand around staring at the floor. How would you feel if it were your kid?

That's it. Happy New Year from a bear of adiposity..."who gets what exercise he can / By falling off the ottoman / And yet he always seems to lack / The energy to clamber back."

[Robb_K]

As I sit in the tub finally washing off the stench of 2020, I guess I'll be the last to comment on these Christmas-related items. An already messed-up season was wrapped up by my sister-in-law dying of Covid-19 after a relative visited a sick friend and brought the virus back to their family. Fortunately for us they live in Idaho so we weren't endangered. Though my wife and I weren't close with S. I. L., her passing was a most  unpleasant Christmas gift. Especially given that at the very same time someone papered our neighborhood with expensively-printed windshield flyers reminding us that the virus (and any upcoming vaccine) was a complete fraud manufactured to make the Glorious Leader look bad. Bah effing humbug.

Christmas with Mother Goose is wonderful mostly for Walt Kelly's artwork, though the stories have a lot to offer. "Goosey Gander" and "Three Blind Mice" are my favorites. In addition to kid appeal they have some of the clever dialogue and word play that make "Pogo" a treat. Kelly loved language. One item of proof: unlike 99% of comic book poetry, his poems (almost) always scan. The lead feature is a disappointment. Kelly didn't seem to have thought it through completely. The story is confusing and I can't believe how Santa learns the giant's plans. "I'm going to sneak down and see if I can catch the giant talking to himself!" **Groan!** If it weren't for the rest of the story being played straight I'd think this was a fourth-wall breaking poke at how often comics characters reveal their secrets by thinking aloud.

Finally, having a lifelong fondness for bears, I would read the poem on page 28 to my own kids if they weren't in their 30s. I confess the bare butt shot caught me by surprise.

A Christmas Mystery for the Silent Three: Everyone knows I'm a Silent Three fan. This is like the distilled essence of a typical S3 story. But those vertical-striped school uniforms have got to go.

Christmas Drawings for the Human Race is a wonderful Nast collection. Some drawings seem to date well before the 1889 publication date. The references to absent fathers fighting the Civil War are quite poignant.

Dragnet: Friday's closing line says it all. Webb was big on trying for "realistic" stories (hence the banal, flatly-delivered dialogue) but one scene is so incredibly cruel that I can't believe it happened. They take the corpse of a dead boy--shot in the heart; not pretty--to his home without even telling the father he's dead so Dad comes home to see his boy and has to figure it out for himself because Friday and friend just stand around staring at the floor. How would you feel if it were your kid?

That's it. Happy New Year from a bear of adiposity..."who gets what exercise he can / By falling off the ottoman / And yet he always seems to lack / The energy to clamber back."   

Sorry to hear about your sister-in-law.  This disease is hitting home to a lot of people.  My condolences to you and your family.  The authorities can't get the vaccines distributed fast enough for my taste.  I've avoided it with luck, and staying sequestered for at my sister's house for almost a year, while many of my landlord's family in Denmark (some of whom are my neighbours), have caught it.  Being 74 years old, had I caught it from them, I might have fared poorly.  So far in Holland, none of my friends, neighbours and family have caught it.  Same in Munich.  However, a colleague of mine in his late '60s caught it, and had a rough time of it.  But he has recovered with no after affects, so far.