[The Australian Panther]

Christmas comics

My apologies if any of these have been posted before.
The search-bar only brings up books filed in the Christmas section.
I'm sure there are others.
 
Giant Comics 3 - Christmas Book
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20280

The Magnet 1140 - Billy Bunter's Christmas
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=29382

Schoolgirls' Picture Library 106 - The Merrymakers' Swiss Christmas
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=83125

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=83193
Santa Claus, Kriss Kringle, or St. Nicholas

Christmas Fantasy by David Orme and William Sherb
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=83192

Your choice which one or how many you care to  comment on.

cheers!

[Robb_K]

Christmas Fantasy doesn't show up at that link's address.  It's a dead link.  Can you re-upload it for us, please?

[The Australian Panther]

Try it now Robb!

[Robb_K]

Try it now Robb!

It's there now.  Thanks.  I've read this one before.  it's a good choice.  Nice old fashioned artwork.  Heavily inspired by my favourite Christmas story, Dickens'  "A Christmas Carol".

Billy Bunter's Christmas is a favourite of mine, too.

Glad you listed several other stories along with those two.

[SuperScrounge]

My apologies if any of these have been posted before.

Didn't see them as I was checking the master list to add them.

Merry Christmas, Santa Panther! 

[SuperScrounge]

A Christmas Fantasy

or A Christmas Carol with the Serial Numbers Filed Off 

Okay, but short, especially with all those different spirits Jemmy must meet. A little more fleshing out would have helped. Who is Jemmy? Is he really so bad he has no good thoughts? Also the whole it's all the night before Christmas. Well, goodness gracious, if he'd slept an hour or two later he might not have had time to buy and assemble things for that party.

Not terrible, but could have been much better.

[SuperScrounge]

Giant Comics #3 - Christmas Book

Li'l Genius & Li'l Tomboy
Okay one-pager.

The Night Before Christmas
That's what the original poem needed... mindless violence!!!  Cute variation and the writer managed to keep the rhyming rhythm so it wasn't painfully obvious when he varied from the original.

Playing It Safe
This story might make more sense if the artist had actually drawn shoes on Cuckoo Cat's feet. Not the best joke.

It Was the Day Before Christmas...
People liked this character? I found it a chore to get through. No need to make a Li'l Tomboy Collection for me.

Milton Mouse's Discovery
Okay, but nothing special, although I think the writer had more fun thinking up the foreign mouse names.

How Do You Explain That?
Cute.

A Special Present
Timmy is annoying. The story wasn't bad though.

Me and My Badge
Okay. His badge must be made of amazonium. 

Gus, the Goofy Ghost
Feels like two half-page gags forced together.

Atomic Mouse
Speaking of welding two unconnected things together. Count Gatto's early scheme had nothing to do with gaining powers. And why did Atomic Mouse play judge and decide that Gatto & Shadow had suffered enough. If they were in prison Gatto couldn't have stolen the U-235 pills. Shakes head. They had potential for good stories, but squandered them.

Atomic Mouse again
He's heading south southeast by north northwest? Bwha??? And the solution to the story makes just as much sense. Sigh.

What's in a Name?
Okay.

A Dragon Has Many Lives!
With that title I was figuring something like an immortal dragon, but since the dragon wasn't real what does the title mean?

Circus Capers
Entertaining.

Winter Sports
A Christmas-adjacent story, not about Christmas like too many stories in this Christmas issue, but at least it's in the right season.

A Late Christmas
Well, at least, it's a Christmas tale.

The Giftnappers
Ah, a return to violence. What's Christmas without violence? 

Seal Psychology
A third text story??? Probably okay for kids, but I find myself wondering if it would have worked better as a hard-boiled mystery story. 

Li'l Ghost
Ouch. Is this the worst punchline in the collection?

The Trap
So why didn't Atom just dig his way out of the trap when it was sprung?

A Lot of Good
Well, it wasn't annoying, at least.

The Longest List Ever
Okay.

Bearing Gifts
Cute.

Santa Gets Going
Good. A nice wrap up to the book.

For a Christmas collection there wasn't enough Christmas stories to fill this out.

[SuperScrounge]

Schoolgirls' Picture Library #106

The Merrymakers' Swiss Christmas
The heads of the Merrymakers seem to be a little large for their bodies.

Aspects of this story seem similar to Schoolgirls' Picture Library #40 - Christmas in The Highlands, a mysterious figure helping out, a relative accused of theft, missing jewelry. I wonder if it was written by the same writer who reused some elements?

Similarities aside, it's a nice little tale.

[paw broon]

SS, there was a habit in British comics of re-using/adapting previous scripts for use in newer issues.  Before he passed, Colin Noble was researching this very subject, although he started with the  blatent re-use of covers on war libraries which even were used by different companies.
I prefer Christmas in The Highlands and it has a lovely, atmospheric cover.  The Merrymakers always seem a bit too cheerful all the time.  Grumpy old man, that's me.

[Morgus]

Read the Charlton comics GIANT CHRISTMAS BOOK issue. Really had one criterion; would I have liked to have read this as a kid at Christmas? Yeah, it would have kept me amused for the day after the gifts were opened and there was nothing on  the TV to watch. Nice uniform style. The story quality went up and down, but given Charlton's potential for low balling quality, there was nothing TOO out of whack.
Nice selection, 'Panther, and 'Super was right. Mindless violence is a plus with the NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS poem. And no, I don't see a l'il Tomboy collection in the cards either.

happy holidays everybody

[SuperScrounge]

SS, there was a habit in British comics of re-using/adapting previous scripts for use in newer issues.

Interesting. Now that you mention it I'm reminded that US comics used to reuse ideas because they thought the readership would turnover every 2 years or so, and few would notice the reuse. Wonder if that was the belief in England as well?

'Super was right. Mindless violence is a plus with the NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS poem.

'Twas the fight before Christmas,
and all through the ring,
no one wanted peace,
no-no, not a thing...

[crashryan]

US comics used to reuse ideas because they thought the readership would turnover every 2 years or so, and few would notice the reuse. Wonder if that was the belief in England as well?

It's funny that in some of the picture libraries (as well as the weekly papers, I believe) they'd adapt into comic form an earlier text serial. They'd even acknowledge the original. For example the title page of Schoolgirls' Picture Library #6, "Prisoner of the Pagoda," says "From the story 'The Golden Pagoda' by Hazel Armitage." Hazel Armitage was a pen name of John W. Wheway. The original story appeared in The Girls' Crystal in 1950 (SPL #6 is from 1958).

[crashryan]

Giant Comics #3

I must be in a crummy mood tonight. I found this book depressing. The art isn't the worst ever. It's the stories that drove me up the wall. Almost all of them ramble incoherently from one unfunny scene to another. You know you're in trouble when the most intelligible story is an episode with that obnoxious little squirt Li'l Tomboy.

A couple of features stand out. Atomic Mouse vs Santa Claus is appalling. AM pounds the stuffing out of St Nick for several pages before revealing him to be the villainous Count Gatto, and socks him yet again after Gatto surrenders. Would a kid really enjoy seeing Santa beaten up?

That isn't the most insufferable story though. That honor goes to "Timmy the Timid Ghost."The exploits of a ghost who's afraid of absolutely everything isn't exactly the stuff jollity is made of. Timmy's dad is a jerk and the story is a tedious four-page build-up to an unfunny punch line. Speaking of build-ups, Atomic Rabbit in "Me and My Badge" uses three pages to tell a joke that could be polished off in half a page.

Finally, let me reiterate my loathing for Li'l Tomboy. The original (American) Dennis the Menace was an annoying twerp, but each of his imitators tried to outdo each other in rottenness. Li'l Tomboy takes first prize in the "Worse than Dennis" awards. Yet she somehow managed to last sixteen issues.

In sum, this is a hundred-page dud. Off to Switzerland.

[SuperScrounge]

Atomic Mouse vs Santa Claus is appalling. AM pounds the stuffing out of St Nick for several pages before revealing him to be the villainous Count Gatto, and socks him yet again after Gatto surrenders. Would a kid really enjoy seeing Santa beaten up?

I did wonder what if Count Gatto had been clever? Contact Atomic Mouse on the radio and pretend to be Santa claiming that Count Gatto is disguised as Santa?

[SuperScrounge]

The Magnet #1140

Billy Bunter's Christmas
Billy Bunter's personality would make for a great victim in a murder mystery.

When Coker calls Bunter a fag is he saying he's a cigarette, a bundle of sticks, a homosexual, or some other definition?

I've never quite understood the British love of Billy Bunter. He's an unpleasant fellow that I do not enjoy reading about, except those scenes where he's getting his comeuppance, but there's not enough of that.

Not my cup of tea.

[crashryan]

When Coker calls Bunter a fag is he saying he's a cigarette, a bundle of sticks, a homosexual, or some other definition?

British Dictionary definitions for fag 1. / (fæɡ) / noun. informal a boring or wearisome task: it's a fag having to walk all that way. British (esp formerly) a young public school boy who performs menial chores for an older boy or prefect.

Wikipedia: "Until around 1900, a fag's duties would include such humble tasks as blacking boots, brushing clothes, and cooking breakfasts, and there was no limit as to hours the fag would be expected to work. Later, fagging was restricted to such tasks as running errands and bringing tea to the fag-master's study."

[Robb_K]

The Magnet #1140

Billy Bunter's Christmas
(1) Billy Bunter's personality would make for a great victim in a murder mystery.

(2) When Coker calls Bunter a fag is he saying he's a cigarette, a bundle of sticks, a homosexual, or some other definition?

I've never quite understood the British love of Billy Bunter. He's an unpleasant fellow that I do not enjoy reading about, except those scenes where he's getting his comeuppance, but there's not enough of that.

Not my cup of tea.

(1) 

(2) 

[Robb_K]

Giant Comics #3

I must be in a crummy mood tonight. I found this book depressing. The art isn't the worst ever. It's the stories that drove me up the wall. Almost all of them ramble incoherently from one unfunny scene to another. You know you're in trouble when the most intelligible story is an episode with that obnoxious little squirt Li'l Tomboy.

A couple of features stand out. Atomic Mouse vs Santa Claus is appalling. AM pounds the stuffing out of St Nick for several pages before revealing him to be the villainous Count Gatto, and socks him yet again after Gatto surrenders. Would a kid really enjoy seeing Santa beaten up?

That isn't the most insufferable story though. That honor goes to "Timmy the Timid Ghost."The exploits of a ghost who's afraid of absolutely everything isn't exactly the stuff jollity is made of. Timmy's dad is a jerk and the story is a tedious four-page build-up to an unfunny punch line. Speaking of build-ups, Atomic Rabbit in "Me and My Badge" uses three pages to tell a joke that could be polished off in half a page.

Finally, let me reiterate my loathing for Li'l Tomboy. The original (American) Dennis the Menace was an annoying twerp, but each of his imitators tried to outdo each other in rottenness. Li'l Tomboy takes first prize in the "Worse than Dennis" awards. Yet she somehow managed to last sixteen issues.

In sum, this is a hundred-page dud. Off to Switzerland.

Enjoy your visit to Die Schweiz!  You've earned it just attempting to read that awful Charlton so-called "Christmas Comic Book".  It wasn't your mood.  No need to feel guilty.  That book is utter garbage.  The artwork is substandard (lousy), and uninspired.  The so-called "stories" were scratched out in no more than the time it took to put the words on paper, without the slightest thinking.  Charlton paid almost nothing for "writing", and they had no respect at all for their "funny animal" and comedy fans having any taste, at all.  they assumed that kids would like ANY colourful, cartoony, animation-style drawings, and their parents would just pick up the first book they'd see, with a cartoon character on the cover, to quiet their nagging begging for comics. 

My reaction to that book was the same as yours, and I'm a big funny animal and cartoony comedy comics fan.

[The Australian Panther]

For all, [except the Brits, because they know.

Fagging Explained

Fagging was a traditional practice in British public schools and also at many other boarding schools, whereby younger pupils were required to act as personal servants to the eldest boys. Although probably originating earlier, the first accounts of fagging appeared in the late 17th century. Fagging sometimes involved physical abuse and/or sexual abuse. Although lessening in severity over the centuries, the practice continued in some institutions until the end of the 20th century.
History

Fagging originated as a structure for maintaining order in boarding schools, when schoolmasters' authority was practically limited to the classroom. Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby from 1828 to 1841, defined fagging as the power given by the authorities of the school to the Sixth Form, to be exercised by them over younger boys. Fagging was a fully established system at St Paul's, Eton, and Winchester in the sixteenth century.

Fagging carried with it well-defined rights and duties on both sides. The senior, sometimes called the fag-master, was the protector of his fags and responsible for their happiness and good conduct. In case of any problem outside the classroom, such as bullying or injustice, a junior boy's recourse was to him, not to a form master or housemaster, and, except in the gravest cases, all incidents were dealt with by the fag-master on his own responsibility.

https://everything.explained.today/Fagging/

I'm Australian and only know from reading about the practice and no, I'm not a Bunter fan either, but there are those on CB+ who very much are.

Far and away the best book on the english public school is Rudyard Kipling's, 'Stalky and Co' which is a very modernistic serious piece of literature and to my eyes anyway, very funny!
Stalky & Co.
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/readers-guide/rg_stalky_intro.htm
I don't for one minute agree with anything George Sampson or his ilk thought about the book.
Their venom just shows that Kipling nailed it!
Think MASH [ The Movie, not the TV show] in a public school and you will get the idea.
Damn wonderful book, the ending in particular. 

[paw broon]

I only know the term fag,in this context,  'cos I read Bunter and Nelson Lee stories.
While I understand folk disliking Bunter tales, I wonder if British humour gets in te way.  I find Bunter hilarious.  Venal, lying, greedy, cowardly, but he seldom comes out on stop.

[MarkWarner]

Paw, I am a Bunter fan as well. But you missed self-deluded, despite all his faults he sees himself as a hero. I heard a really good interview with Frank Richards. Who when younger spent as much time as possible in Monte Carlo and the rest writing to pay for it

I think this is a copy here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjCmNkMO7NA Wonderful stuff

[paw broon]

That's great Mark.  Thank you and you're right - self deluded. Sometimes by complete accident he actually looks like a hero and it's then he shows his worst but hilarious attributes. 

[Robb_K]

I'm also a big fan of Billy Bunter.  In fact, I had planned to choose "Billy Bunter's Christmas as one of my choices next go-round (a week from today).  I grew up with British comedy films (they showed a lot on Canadian TV during the 1950s and '60s, and am used to their tongue-in-cheek humour.  However, I know that the basic plots of ALL his stories are very similar, and so, can get tedious and tiring after a while for people just Luke-warm to the sit-com style, especially when its regular characters are all very narrow and stereotyped.

[crashryan]

Well, I found out why I was in a crummy mood. My wife and I came down with Covid. We managed to dodge it for years, got all the shots, but here we are. We feel lousy but are in no danger. She had it worse than I did. Bah humbug. Oh, after I was in a better humor I revisited the Charlton Christmas book. It still stank.

The Merrymakers' Swiss Christmas

This is my next stop on the Reading Group railroad. Just to make it clear, Robb, I was not talking about the real Switzerland. The day I visit Switzerland will be the day I win the lottery.

I generally like SPL because the low-stakes stories are a relief from the crash-pow of superhero comics. I acknowledge though that they're pretty repetitive, and not to be taken several at a time. The story here definitely has "Christmas in the Highlands" vibes. It gives away potential surprises early--for example it's clear early on that the Bearded Man is a friend of the kids, not an enemy. Once again I scratch my head over the way the villains in these stories were always allowed to get off scot free. In school stories the perps were rotters but seldom committed a real crime. In this story the pair were genuine jewel thieves! "Because it was Christmas" our heroes let them go. "Never again were they seen in St Lauritz." They were never again seen in St Lauritz because they decamped to some other locale where they could continue stealing jewels without those pesky kids to stop them.

Thinking of how the majority of these schoolgirl stories were written by men, I wondered whether this type of story would have been any different had women written them. Maybe not. The existing formula worked for years, so I suspect the editors and publisher would not allow much deviation.

The art is competent and old-fashioned. Like SuperScrounge says, the kids' heads are sometimes too big. But it's a respectable art job and the artist didn't scrimp on the big party scenes. An oddity on our page 63: arranged the way they are the lines representing planking on the floor give the illusion that the floor goes up and down thus:  /\/\/\.

[SuperScrounge]

Thanks Crash and Panther that's a use of fag I was unfamiliar with.

I wonder if British humour gets in te way.

I could see what the writer was going for humorwise, it's Bunter's unpleasant personality that bugged me. A character like that needs a lot of comeuppance and the story didn't have enough. Heck, at the end is it Bunter who gets his comeuppance? No, it's Wharton and Inky who get their comeuppance and Bunter wins.