Santa Claus Funnies - 4-Color #254
Christmas in the Heart
Nice sentiment in this short poem.
Santa’s First Helper
Interesting take on the story, with a good moral of sharing what you have. Contrary Mary’s change of heart also shows that no one is beyond redemption. My favourite character was the talking dog. He had some great facial expressions.
A Visit from Saint Nicholas
An illustrated version of Clement Moore’s famous poem. Though I did wonder why the pipe suddenly popped into the illustration for ‘The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth’, and then disappeared again in the next frame.
The Land Without Christmas
Aside from the fake science of flat stars etc, this was a cute fairytale with an outer space twist. And in spite of the new fandangle technological advancements, Santa’s reindeer and sleigh still have their uses.
Visit Santa Game
The instructions for this board game seem overly complex. Why blindfold each player for their turn when you could just roll dice and move round the Snakes-and-Ladders-type board? I guess it’s an alternative for houses with no dice.
Santa Claus and Timothy’s Horse
Another nice morality tale where the naughty boy learns to share, though I was a bit concerned that ‘broke wind’ seemed to be something that got you on the naughty list (see last item on Santa’s list on the first page). But never fear. It later turned out to be ‘broke window’. Also shows that when someone is naughty, it can be for a deeper reason, in this case because he didn’t have any friends and was lonely. I’m alarmed that capable fireman with a workshop couldn’t figure out how to repair the rocking horse. Lucky that Santa’s surveillance technician was on the job to save the day. Will Timothy be a good boy now that he has a talking rocking horse as a friend? Next year’s ‘naughty and nice’ list will tell.
Baby Reindeer Cut-Out
If you cut the reindeer out of comic book paper, would it stand?
Albert and Pogo’s Christmas
I think Walt Kelly and Pogo were mentioned in the group sometime in the last few months, but I must admit I’m not really familiar with the character or his neighbourhood. I found the original voice difficult to get my head around at first. It’s a creative tale with some sight gags and humour that would probably have made kids laugh, and the art is good. However, some of the Southern humour didn’t translate well for this Aussie girl. For my American friends, has this humour dated or is it still funny? Interesting cartoon though.
Long, Long Ago
Short poem about the Biblical Christmas story. I know the angels are supposed to be ‘bent low’, but the two on the cloud look like they’re fainting.
Christmas Carol
Are these the lyrics to an actual Christmas carol? If so, I haven’t heard this one. If it’s not meant to be sung, I have trouble coming to grips with Joseph ‘a-walking’. But nice to end with the origin of Christmas.
Overall
Quite a good comic, with some original story ideas as well as traditional stories, generally good art, and some nice messages about sharing and not being selfish. Something fun to find in your stocking on Christmas Day. Thanks Robb.
Santa Claus Funnies - 4-Color #254
Christmas in the Heart
Nice sentiment in this short poem.
Santa’s First Helper
Interesting take on the story, with a good moral of sharing what you have. Contrary Mary’s change of heart also shows that no one is beyond redemption. (1) My favourite character was the talking dog. He had some great facial expressions.
A Visit from Saint Nicholas
An illustrated version of Clement Moore’s famous poem. Though I did wonder why the pipe suddenly popped into the illustration for ‘The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth’, and then disappeared again in the next frame.
The Land Without Christmas
Aside from the fake science of flat stars etc, this was a cute fairytale with an outer space twist. And in spite of the new (2) fandangle technological advancements, Santa’s reindeer and sleigh still have their uses.
Visit Santa Game
The instructions for this board game seem overly complex.(3) Why blindfold each player for their turn when you could just roll dice and move round the Snakes-and-Ladders-type board? I guess it’s an alternative for houses with no dice.
Santa Claus and Timothy’s Horse
Another nice morality tale where the naughty boy learns to share, though (4) I was a bit concerned that ‘broke wind’ seemed to be something that got you on the naughty list (see last item on Santa’s list on the first page). But never fear. It later turned out to be ‘broke window’. Also shows that when someone is naughty, it can be for a deeper reason, in this case because he didn’t have any friends and was lonely. I’m alarmed that capable fireman with a workshop couldn’t figure out how to repair the rocking horse. Lucky that Santa’s surveillance technician was on the job to save the day. Will Timothy be a good boy now that he has a talking rocking horse as a friend? Next year’s ‘naughty and nice’ list will tell.
Baby Reindeer Cut-Out
(5) If you cut the reindeer out of comic book paper, would it stand?
Albert and Pogo’s Christmas
I think Walt Kelly and Pogo were mentioned in the group sometime in the last few months, but I must admit I’m not really familiar with the character or his neighbourhood. I found the original voice difficult to get my head around at first. It’s a creative tale with some sight gags and humour that would probably have made kids laugh, and the art is good. However, some of the Southern humour didn’t translate well for this Aussie girl. For my American friends, (7) has this humour dated or is it still funny? Interesting cartoon though.
Long, Long Ago
Short poem about the Biblical Christmas story. I know the angels are supposed to be ‘bent low’, but the two on the cloud look like they’re fainting.
Christmas Carol
Are these the lyrics to an actual Christmas carol? If so, I haven’t heard this one. If it’s not meant to be sung, I have trouble coming to grips with Joseph ‘a-walking’. But nice to end with the origin of Christmas.
Overall
Quite a good comic, with some original story ideas as well as traditional stories, generally good art, and some nice messages about sharing and not being selfish. Something fun to find in your stocking on Christmas Day. Thanks Robb.
(1) I consider Walt Kelly one of the very best fairy tale illustrators, and the 2nd best Funny Animal artist, after Carl Barks. Kelly's animals always had such great human-style facial expressions. He was right up there with Will Eisner in that regard.
(2) To me, that's a novel use of the word "fandangle" as an adjective. I've only seen that spelling used for the noun, and only seen or heard "fandangled" used for the adjective.
(3) For us, who grew up with no TV in the house until in our teens, board games were a very big part of evening entertainment and on days when blizzards were blowing. We always had plenty of dice in the house, and board games without them had to have a spinner, or move markers through picking cards. Even IF you were such a 1940s board game bereft family (poor things), and also had no chronic gambling uncle residing with you, and so, had no dice or spinners, you could draw a circle on a piece of paper with a compass (or a string attached to your finger, holding a pencil), divide it into 3 or 6 equal sections, and make a spinner out of a pencil on a string emanating from the circle's centre, long enough for its point to land inside one of the sections. Everyone seems to want EVERYTHING tailor-made for them now, or they can't function. Back in the 1940s, we were practical, inventive, and a lot more self sufficient than the bulk of the population nowadays! 8)
(4) Ha! Ha! I could understand how IF a kid was a chronic "wind breaker", he might be lonely. :P
I know that is cruel, but true to life. In any case, no American comic book would bring up personal body functions in a story (unless it would be a medical public service giveaway comic book) handed out a doctors offices.
(5) I'd guess that the paper reindeer wouldn't stand up very well. It would probably be practical if you'd reinforce it using pieces of wooden popsicle sticks as a base (glued behind the paper).
(6) Funny thing about Kelly. His Southern Swamp characters are BY FAR, what he is known for around The World. And yet, he never lived in The South of USA. He was a Northerner, who only made a couple trips to The South (which makes up about a third of The contiguous Continental states of USA, and is NOT one large homogeneous culture , with one language dialect and set of customs). His "Swamp World" is TOTALLY fictional, with little resemblance to the real World. But, it is clever, funny, and interesting, nevertheless. And he has captured and portrayed many great character types from real life, and his non-comic book daily and Sunday newspaper strips also made fun of politicians and people in power, and crooked and lazy people, and all sorts of other character types - which makes it enjoyable for most English-speaking readers (EVEN if they know only little about The USA). Like Carl Barks, he made fun of common Human foibles, to which most people can relate.
(7) Yes, maybe Crash or Scrounge might be a lot better at answering whether or not current American comics readers would like Kelly's old-fashioned humour in his comic book stories. He was much more political and doing parodies of current celebrities and more timely with current events in his newspaper strip. I'd guess that most current American kids would be bored with Kelly's old comic book stories. And his "newest" newspaper strips only went up to 1975. So, I'm guessing most would be bored with those, too. But young aspiring artists would probably appreciate and like his drawing style. I know a lot more about what comic-book reading aged children and teens like in Holland and Denmark than in USA or even in Canada. In Germany they all seem to like Manga and Animé. Funny Animal comics are still hanging on in Germany, Denmark, and Holland, but dropping drastically each year. But animated electronic games, and animated films are big.