Gasoline Alley, December 24, 1939

Gasoline Alley, December 24, 1939

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A year after the strip I posted yesterday, we see Skeezix coming to visit his family for Christmas, though it seems he's much more interested in visiting his girlfriend Nina. During the past year, Skeezix had turned 18, left home, and had some interesting adventures and gotten various jobs. It had only been a few months since they last saw him, but I guess when it's your family a relatively short time can seem like quite a while. Of course, it's always good to see your family at Christmas, no matter how long it's been.

It's interesting that at the beginning of the strip Judy seems much more excited to see Santa Claus, and not really that interested in seeing Skeezix. After all, she hasn't really known him for that long. I imagine she'll learn to appreciate these visits more as she gets older. It's also interesting to note that while Corky is there, he doesn't say anything in this strip. I guess Frank King decided to save all of the Corky dialogue for the topper.

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Gasoline Alley, December 18, 1938

Gasoline Alley, December 18, 1938

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Gasoline Alley is a continuity comic strip with a long and interesting history. The characters age in real time, and many of them have lived for far longer than you would expect (at time of writing the comic is still running, and the principal character, Walt Wallet, is 123 years old). There are many and varied family relationships, and a fair amount of adoptions. The first major event in the strip was Walt finding a baby on his doorstep, who he named Skeezix (a name the origin of which I still have not been able to surmise), and adopting him as his son. Years later, he would find another baby, Judy, on his car seat and would end up adopting her as well.

Here we see Skeezix as a young man taking Judy around to see the various Santa Clauses in town. I believe she's supposed to be around 3 or 4 here, so she clearly does not yet understand that these are all different people in costumes. I think that's a good thing, though. It makes the entire experience that much mo…

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Dixie Dugan, December 24, 1939

Dixie Dugan, December 24, 1939

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As was seen previously, Dixie Dugan is very modern and not at all old fashioned, so she must keep up with the times and decorate in the most up to date way. Apparently in 1939 that meant having an outdoor Christmas tree. To me that sounds very old fashioned, but of course I'm from nearly 100 years in the future, so it's all relative.

I just really enjoy the overall construction of this strip, how there is a flurry of excitement at the beginning, but then as the novelty wears off they all realize, without having to say a word, that they really like the old fashioned way better. Good traditions just stand the test of time, I guess.

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Smokey Stover, December 24, 1939

Smokey Stover, December 24, 1939

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Smokey Stover is back this year, now trying to hire someone to play Santa for his son. Now, I don't think the comic is saying that if you hire any random man off the street with a long beard that they will definitely turn out to be a wanted safe cracker and house breaker, but it does seem safer to give the job to someone you know. Besides, it seems like there are more men with beards these days, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a friend or neighbor to do it. There have also been major advances in costume beard technology, so even if you don't have a beard, there are ways to more easily trick your kid into believing it.

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Corky, December 19, 1937

Corky, December 19, 1937

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Corky just loves using his hatchet. Whether it's for cleaning up after Christmas or getting a tree from a tree farm, he'll just find a way to use it even if he doesn't need to. Maybe instead of getting trees using credit he should get a job cutting them down. I bet Mr. Ruff would hire him.

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