Historic Christmas Comics: A Holiday Journey

The grand tradition of the Christmas-themed comic episode started pretty much with the modern comic strip itself. Topicality was baked into the newspaper format. But as recurring characters and extended storylines developed, artists found a range of creative ways to integrate holiday greetings with their strips. Today, let’s dance across some noteworthy, even historic, Christmas funnies. Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland often referenced an upcoming holiday. In 1906, Nemo dreams up a pony as his own present.

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Shelf Scan 2024: Reviving Calvin, Nancy, Flash, Mandrake and Popeye…Again.

There are now generations of young adults who have no memory of daily newspapers, let alone that back page and Sunday section of comics. Without that experience, I wonder how that legacy survives and continues to inspire everyday readers and young artists. If the volume of classic reprints this year is any indication, however, we graying lovers of newspapers past can’t be the only market for decades-old dailies. Many essential strips enjoyed fresh or continuing reprint projects this year that keeps the likes of Popeye, Nancy, Mandrake and more on current store shelves. Even the most reprinted strip of the last generation got revisited in 2024.

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Shelf Scan 2024: Necessary Reprints – From Anita Loos to Betty Brown

Moving through this year’s  shelf of notable titles for comics aficionados, I wanted to call out several projects that revived forgotten or previously uncollected work. From a pharmacist heroine to an illustrated prayer, the ultimate 20s flapper to a pioneer of cartoon journalism, 2024 surfaced some real gems.

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