Good heavens, Santa! Yesterday you're driving turkeys around and now THIS! The reindeers are one step away from walking off the job if this keeps up. Bear with him, he's old ... and this vintage Russian card actually does tie in to out topic today - take a look!
Most years I devote one page to Christmas in the Comics - well, I've uncovered another doozy - with a very impressive pedigree! Let's back up a moment - those of you who have followed the K.A.C. for all these years may recall my earlier post from December 18th, 2013 (and the follow-up post from December 19th, 2015) regarding the Moon Christmas Coloring Book from 1970 that was given out to kids as a freebie when they went to see Santa at Lord & Taylor (and nervously read off their Christmas lists to him).
Twelve years before that came out (1958), the Ben Franklin stores (a five-and-dime store chain similar to Woolworth's that is long gone) also had a holiday giveaway comic to kids who brought their parents to the store for their Christmas shopping - called 'Spaceman Discovers Christmas', it tells the story of ... you know what? The good folks over at Andertoons did all the heavy lifting on this one - let's turn the story over to them:"Distributed by Ben Franklin Stores (and possibly other retailers). Rather than pages of product promotion, the complete comic is the story of a space alien named J.B. Grook who lands in his flying saucer and is escorted around town learning about what Christmas is all about (not a religious comic, rather giving to others, etc.). Produced by Will Eisner’s commercial studio, Promotional Publications, with art by and/or supervised by Eisner, creator of the Spirit."
Yes, you read that right - Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit and the man whom the Eisner Awards {the highest award given out annually in the comics industry, seen at left} is named after, made a Christmas comic! And (once again with thanks to Andertoons), you can link to it and read the entire missive for yourself - a word about reading it, though: start at the bottom of the linked page and read up, then click on 'Previous' instead of 'Next' to read the rest of the pages of the comic ... just another Christmas mystery! Here you go - Enjoy!https://www.andertoons.com/cartoon-blog/tag/spaceman-discovers-christmas/page/4
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Coming Tomorrow: One of our historical pieces comes to the fore - and the answer to a line in a well-loved poem comes to light - see you then!
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