I admittedly know almost nothing about Australian comics, but what I do know I like, which is is why I’m presenting this issue of Invisible Avenger. It’s pretty clear from the first cover that at one time there actually was a character called The Invisible Avenger, but at some point the comic became an anthology title featuring other characters. Such as The Blue Ghost…

…and Cometman.

Today, one final example of a 1912 comic strip book, that comics fans of a century ago might have hoped to find waiting for them, beneath the Christmas tree — Joys & Glooms, by T.E. Powers, reprinting comics which had appeared in the newspaper New York American.

Powers’ strip was populated with tiny characters, which represented a variety of emotions, but most often used were those representing “Joy” and “Gloom”. Above, on the front cover, along the top runs a row of dancing yellow “Joys”, while along the bottom trudge the purple “Glooms”.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Below, a full list of Powers’ cast of emotions.

Above, presentation signature to Stewart Knapp from his parents, showing that this copy was once a gift (albeit not dated when or for what occasion). Below, sample extracts from the book.

NOTE: for all double-page samples, read first the top tier of panels across both pages, then the next tier of panels across both pages…

Doug Wheeler

— Doug

As I’ve said before, one of the unexpected consequences of doing these things is discovering things that I could never have ever imagined, for instance, Jetman, a (presumably) Australian comic from the 1950′s. I could find absolutely nothing about it on the internet, though while searching I discovered another foreign comic called Jetman. In 1951 Canadian publisher Bell Features published four issues of a comic called Jetman that as far as I can tell were just random American comic reprints with no character named “Jetman” (like this issue which features reprints from Blackhawk #24 and a Reed Crandall cover)

The Australian version is definitely a kind of interesting,with the strong art (that to me shows a very definite George Wunder influence) and a standard space age superhero. He’s billed as “The Space Ranger” yet in this outing he stays on earth battling evil with his super science; as to who or what Jetman actually is, we’re never given a clue.

Well, I don’t suppose I’ll ever have a better excuse than a supposed Mayan Apocalypse near Christmas Eve, to run this post-Apocalyptic Christmas tale from 1988. (Let’s hope not!)

Anyway, from the one-shot Comico Christmas Special, with cover by Dave Stevens, art by Steve Rude, Al Williamson, and Brett Blevins, and story by Yours Truly (sometimes known as The Reviled One, depending on your bent this fine World’s End), I give you, “Traditions Everlasting”.

Click on the above & below pages to view larger versions, and more easily read the word balloons.

Doug “My-Birthday-is-the-Apocalypse” Wheeler

— Doug

Today, from the January 1913 edition of Cartoons Magazine, we’ve a second helping of Christmas cartoons, that had spilled over into the next month’s issue.

Above, Entitled to a Pension for his Christmas Shopping duties, by Herbert H. Perry. Below, a husband not deserving of a pension, depicted by O’Loughlin.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Next, a set of cartoons on Christmas and the Poor, including one by Robert Minor, Jr..

Above, Billy Ireland on Santa’s up-to-date spying methods. Below, Harry Murphy proves that our nation’s state didn’t just start yesterday.

Doug Wheeler

Christmas Comics Waifs W.A. Ireland

Here’s a fascinating story about two pieces of Simon and Kirby artwork from the mid-forties.

http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2012/12/original-art-stories-jack-kirby-joe.html

From 1972, some great Win Mortimer artwork on the much maligned Linda Carter, Night Nurse strip.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2012/12/12-days-of-christmas-2012-murder-stalks.html

Here’s a fun collection of gags from the 1950′s that are pretty bland now but were considered hot stuff back then.

http://themagicwhistle.blogspot.com/2012/12/50s-gags-that-were-considered-dirty-then.html

Finally, a serialization of the delightful Why Christmas Almost Wasn’t from 1968 by Jack Kent.

http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-christmas-almost-wasnt-part-ii.html

For our second week in the March of Progress in Santa Science, we have more excerpts from my (unpublished) project collecting Victorian Age through WW I Christmas cartoons & comics. In more modern times, (particularly during the Space Race / Apollo Program), one can find such cartoons as Santa straddling space rockets, or, of him drag racing NASA astronauts around the Earth or the Moon!

Regarding why Santa is seeking to upgrade his seemingly “green” Faster-than-Light / Time-Space-warping reindeer, one need only recall the carbon hoofprints of shipping hundreds of tons of reindeer food to the middle of the barren North — nevermind positioning thousands of C4 cargo planes with said reindeer food, mid-air on Christmas Eve, for their fly-through non-stop “refueling”. (Chronowave surfing to visit billions of locations in Earth-Time one hour, is not done on one meal!)

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Above & beneath, two color cartoons from Christmas 1910 issues of Judge magazine, as found in a copy of Judge’s random remainders collection, Caricature: The Wit & Humor of a Nation. The below Santa cartoon references that year’s passage of Halley’s Comet near Earth.

Above, Santa depicted as mystical flying machine pilot, from the front cover of the December 21st, 1895 edition of Town Talk. More down to Earth below, we have Santa, his flying contraption, and the presents he was carrying, after their encounter with a church steeple. From Life magazine, December 5th, 1912, by Harrison Cady.

Above, another bit of filler art from Judge magazine, 1910.

And finally, the full panorama of Santa-Science-To-Date (that date being December 20th, 1896). Art by Bodfish, from the centerspread of the New York weekly Twinkles.

Doug Wheeler

Christmas Comics JudgeMag NYLife NYTwinkles

Well, here’s one you weren’t expecting.

Ferdinand The Bull (1936) was a charming children’s book by Munro Leaf about a sweet, non-violent bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight.

In 1938, the popular story was adapted into a memorable, Academy Award-winning animated cartoon by the Walt Disney studio.

You can watch the entire seven-minute film by clicking here.

On May 3rd, 1938 (isn’t is amazing the detailed information you get here?), the story of peace-loving Ferdinand was told in song by Slim & Slam, the seminal jazz duo who also gave us “Cement Mixer (Puti Puti)” and “Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy).” O-voutie!

Click the link below to listen and enjoy-o-roonie!

Ferdinand The Bull - Slim & Slam

Continuing our theme of 1912-published comic books, that might have been found beneath the Christmas Tree, one solution for parents on a tight budget, may have been (assumed) premium comic book (given away with x puchases (??) of Kelloggs Toasted Corn Flakes), The Adventures of Willie Winters, by Byron Williams and Dearborn Melvill.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Below, we have some sample pages from the book. As we can see on the last page shown, giving this comic might have back-fired on parents, as the lesson it teaches, is to throw back in the face any cereal given that is not Kelloggs Corn Flakes!

To see other examples of Victorian Age & Hearst Era advertisting comic books & strips, click here.

Doug Wheeler

AdvertisingStrips

I’ve been rather neglectful in my postings, of the fact that we’re in the midst of the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War. Today, a meager bit of catching up, with some Christmas-themed cartoons, from the Civil War-era comic periodical , Vanity Fair.

Above, a series of individual Christmas-themed cartoons, by Frank Bellew, Sr., appearing in the December 31st, 1859 first issue.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Above & below, cartoons typical of Christmas for that time, in the U.S. or Britain. Both are from the December 22nd, 1862 issue. The cartoon above is by Henry Louis Stephens.

Beneath, H.L. Stephens again, providing what we might have more expected in a Civil War Christmas cartoon, with Mrs. Columbia (representing the Northern States) Shows Little Jeff Davis (President of the Confederate States) His Christmas Tree. From January 4th, 1862.

Doug Wheeler

Christmas Comics BellewSr