Christmas Fun

It's almost Christmas, so all of you boys and girls make sure to be good so Santa Claus will visit you when you sleep on Christmas Eve!  Until then, here's some stories to entertain you! 

"Santa Claus Funnies" #1 (1942) has a humorous cover with Santa driving a jeep.  On the back we see his reindeer laughing at him.  Obviously Santa needs to stick to his sleigh. 

This story is "The Fir Tree" by Hans Christian Andersen, with art by Walt Kelly, the creator of Pogo Possum.  It's also from "Santa Claus Funnies" #1.  

The next story is from "Four Color" #359, the first comic with Frosty the Snowman.  It was reworked ten years later for "Four Color" #1272.  The front cover is taken from Heritage Auctions.    

Now here are some Christmas comic covers that I like, including one for a silly movie adaptation.  All covers are taken from Heritage Auctions.    

Captain Marvel Adventures #19

Comic Cavalcade #5, copyrighted by DC Comics.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

I hope everyone has a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year!  I think I got that right....   

The Original Captain Marvel

Every comic book fan has heard of the name Captain Marvel.  There have been many characters with this name since the original debuted in late 1939.  Fawcett Publications tried to secure a copyright on both the names "Flash Comics" and "Thrill Comics" and released an abbreviated version of what eventually became known as "Whiz Comics" #2 as an ashcan edition.  Ashcan editions are basically black and white comics printed up in very small quantities, often without the entire contents of said comic, in order to secure the copyright.  Captain Marvel's original name was Captain Thunder.  Another suggestion was Captain Marvelous, which was shortened to Captain Marvel.  All of this is legend amongst comic fans.  You can read this on Wikipedia as well as any number of fan blogs, which basically rehash what's on Wikipedia.  I'm not here to give you a history lesson, though.

Below are the ashcan covers for Captain Marvel's debut.

Here now are the best scans I have seen of the Captain Marvel story in "Whiz Comics" #2 (February 1940).  

Now here's a funny story.  Many "experts" on the various characters named Captain Marvel have shared the cover for "Whiz Comics" #2 on their blogs, but do not seem to be aware of the various versions of the cover.  The cover was redrawn for various DC Comics reprints, as DC now owns the rights to the character.  While I understand the need to remove "Gangway For Captain Marvel!" in order to avoid any problems with Marvel Comics, I don't understand the other changes.  Why, for example, was it necessary to have only one gangster fly out of the smashed car?  Why change a flying brick to a white puff?  

I guess no one thought comic book readers would notice the differences. 

I won't go into details about the various versions of Captain Marvel published by M. F. Enterprises or Marvel Comics.  You can read about them elsewhere.  Captain Marvel at DC Comics has undergone many changes.  He is now referred to as Shazam! in order to avoid copyright issues with, of course, Marvel Comics.  There is even a movie for SHAZAM! coming to theaters in April 2019.  

Thank you to all the people who have generously shared scans of these wonderful comics.  And thank you for reading my blog.  Captain Marvel and Shazam! are copyrighted by DC Comics (at least the version I'm blogging about).               

 

     

Vampires Do Exist!

It's been quite a while since I wrote in this blog, but I have returned for a special Halloween treat!  No tricks, just a full-length tale of the most famous vampire of all!  Obviously I am talking about Dracula!

Eerie #12 (August 1953) features a 25 page adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula".  It's more or less faithful to the book, which I read back around the time Francis Ford Coppola released his film version.  I spent more time last year editing the scans than I should have using my old computer, which died over a year ago.  I kept straightening the pages and cropping them a bit, never quite being satisfied for a couple days.  Finally I was happy with my edits.  I was editing them on the photo editing program that came with Windows Essentials.  Unfortunately as I have learned after purchasing this new computer Windows Essentials is no longer available.  I can't figure out how to use the photo editor that came with my current computer so my comic scan editing days may be over.  But in any case, please enjoy this tale of Dracula.

As always, thanks to all the cool people from Digital Comic Museum who are kind enough to scan and share these old classic comics!

Happy Halloween, boys and ghouls!