Monday, December 25, 2023
Christmas with Dot and Dick, Part 7
Sunday, December 24, 2023
Christmas with Dot and Dick, Part 6
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Christmas with Dot and Dick, Part 5
Friday, December 22, 2023
Christmas with Dot and Dick, Part 4
Thursday, December 21, 2023
Christmas with Dot and Dick, Part 3
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Christmas with Dot and Dick, Part 2
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Christmas With Dot and Dick, Part 1
Okay kiddies, time to gather 'round the fireplace in your PJs, sip your hot cocoa, and read this year's Stripper's Guide Christmas Story.
This year we have a 1935 Christmas strip courtesy of Associated Press. It is a 14-part series titled Christmas With Dot and Dick, and it was distributed not only to AP syndicate clients but also apparently to their news wire clients. I say that because this series ran in quite a few papers, not just those who ran the AP strips.
I call this a strip, but in addition to that element there was also a text story that ran with it, which adds depth to the comic strip and gives us a more complete story. There's also an activity component, which you'll see soon, in which kids are shown how to make Christmas decorations and homemade gifts for their family.
This strip was drawn by Milt Morris, one of the stalwarts of the AP syndicate bullpen who would over the decades put in work on many of their features, sometimes credited, sometimes not. Perhaps Morris wrote this feature as well, that's not known for sure.
Christmas with Dot and Dick is a heartwarming tale, made less sugary when we consider that in 1935 the Great Depression was still a huge force in American life. Many kids had no money to buy even small presents for their families and this strip offers them ideas of how to make presents out of even the most basic materials, like an old tin can and a page out of a catalog. It also offers them the fantasy of going on a great adventure.
The only downside of this strip is that it sends a rather unfortunate message -- if you should happen to meet some weird old codger deep in the woods, and he invites you back to his cabin, go right ahead, all will be fine. Ah well, it was in some ways a more innocent time.
So, if you promise not to take Milt Morris' views on Stranger Danger to heart, please enjoy the story!
Labels: Christmas Strips
Friday, December 23, 2022
Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates: Part V
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates: Part IV
But, I must ask... where is the 12/20 strip? I don't want to miss Papa getting his medicine!
Ever notice how so many people he draws, as seen in this series, that people often have eyes like the kids in "Village Of The Damned?"
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates: Part III
Again, the final strip doesn't open properly today.
Love it, tho
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, Part II
But, you can't open the final strip today to make it easier to enjoy.
Monday, December 19, 2022
Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, Part I
Yes, it's time once more for the annual Stripper's Guide Christmas strip. If you've been following this series for the past decade or so you may have noticed that while I can often dig up a Christmas strip with good art, the stories can be, well, to be charitable let's just say they're not quite Christmas miracles.
That formula -- great art, pungently aromatic story -- is alive and well in our 2022 Christmas strip, Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates. It was originally NEA's 1984 Christmas story, one of four produced by the Joe Kubert art school from 1982-85. You've got the transcendent art of Joe Kubert, who may claim his students at the Joe Kubert School did this, but you're not fooling anyone Joe. Kubert's sense of the dramatic shot, the panel bursting with energy, makes me wish that he spent more time doing newspaper work instead of all that funnybook stuff. Well, not really -- his style and sensibility are tailor made for the comic book form. If he'd had full pages to work with back in the golden age of newspaper comics, that would be one thing, but to hobble Kubert's brush with a teeny-tiny 4-column daily? That's just crazy talk, Jerry.
The sloppy storytelling is really a matter of choosing the wrong source material for a very short 20-strip run. Though Hans Brinker isn't exactly War and Peace by any means, there's enough going on that to try to tell the story in that short space is practically impossible. Kubert should have pared the story down to the absolute bare bones, but he inadvisedly tried to hit on some subplots and ended up with a mess. If you already know the story the strip works because you can fill in all the details; if you don't, the story seems disjointed and just plain ridiculous.
Labels: Christmas Strips
Disney's own Christmas strips have been published as a book. Artwork is slick and on model, of course. But stories are likewise a bit lame, usually about characters from animated features.
Some years ago I recall stumbling across an NEA holiday strip that introduced "Pibgorn", then a simple G-rated fantasy. Did the holiday strip launch any other ongoing features?
Friday, December 24, 2021
The Little Tree That Talked: Day 8, Conclusion
Season's greetings and best wishes!