Click the image for a larger version.
This one's a follow-on from yesterday. It seems as though Papa didn't really learn anything from his previous experience, and takes the opportunity to play a joke on Junior. I think Junior has the correct reaction in the end, though.
Click the image for a larger version.
Here we have the Sol Hess classic, The Nebbs. It has always been quite common for syndicates and cartoonists to create strips that rip off other, more popular ones. That's how we got Flash Gordon, which ripped off Buck Rogers, and it's how we got The Nebbs, which was a near complete copy of Sidney Smith's The Gumps. It's much less common for the rip off strip to become as popular as the strip being ripped off, but that was the case with Flash Gordon, and was also the case with The Nebbs.
I like this particular strip, because although it isn't necessarily funny, it's still an interesting slice of life. From the beginning, since it's Christmas, you can probably guess what the boy's actually doing, but I guess the mystery is how Mr. Nebb will react. Hopefully he's learned something from this experience.
Click the image for a larger version.
I posted a couple Gasoline Alley Christmas strips a couple years ago, but I can never get enough of them. Plus, the strip is nearing its 100th birthday, and amazingly is still running in newspapers, though the current run is a shadow of the strip's former glory.
Here we have a fascinating journey to the North Pole, to meet a Santa Claus who looks quite unlike what most people these days are used to seeing. He employs not only elves to make toys for boys, but also fairies to make toys for girls. Jack Frost apparently lives there as well. It's an interesting strip in many ways, and the art is superb.
Click the image for a larger version.
I included the topper for this one, not necessarily because it has anything to do with Christmas (though maybe the radio was a gift), but because it includes an exterior panel with a hobo walking in the snow, which makes it winter themed, I guess.
Click the image for a larger version.
Here's a Salemsan Sam from C.D. Small, complete with another Roughin' Reddy topper. I enjoy the gag in this one, but also the interesting imagery in the second to last panel, with the speech balloons emanating out of the telephone wires. Such an image may not make sense to some younger readers.