We start today with the well-kept secret that is the Prankster, an Ellison-inspired Denny O’Neil/Jim Aparo one-shot character who turned up as a back-up at Charlton in 1967 and has been beloved by aging fanboys ever since!

http://www.thecharltonstory.com/2010/12/prankster-of-ultrapolis.html

Some of the funniest and best drawn (by Wallace Wood and others) newspaper comic strip parodies ever appeared in a 1961 Mad reprint collection as an actual folded up newspaper section, seen here today.

http://hairygreeneyeball2.blogspot.com/2010/12/worst-from-mad-sunday-funnies.html

Speaking of newspaper strips, today is the birthday of the one and only Stan Lee and here we have a link to the rarely seen first few weeks of daily strips from his little-known 1959 Willie Lumpkin, as drawn by Dan DeCarlo.

http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-wonderful-strip-tuesday-comic-strip.html

Finally today, from that same period, let’s head across the pond for a number of beautifully illustrated girls’ comics from a 1960 British School Friends Annual.

http://kb-outofthisworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/british-girls-comics-school-friend.html