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Priscilla's Pop, by Al Vermeer, has a title that suggests it's supposed to be mainly about the father of Priscilla, yet it ends up being mostly about Priscilla herself. Priscilla was really just a kid who did kid things, but she did have a kind of charm that you might not see in other comic strips. The family was not well off, and her Pop, or Waldo as he was better known, was always worried about their mortgage payments and would only eat mashed potato sandwiches in order to save money to pay it off sooner.

That said, it seems he ate enough of them that they were able to have a pretty nice Christmas in 1955, complete with a cozy fireplace, until it was put out that is. As someone who did not grow up in a house with working fireplaces, I'm not really sure how they work in regards to Santa coming down the chimney. I would assume the magic that he uses to get down the chimney properly would also render him fireproof, so there wouldn't be a risk of him getting burned…

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I've written a bit about Tad Dorgan before, and while I'm not a fan of his self-aggrandizement and exaggeration of the effect he had on American language, I do think his comics are funny. I like this particular one a lot, because it illustrates the importance of proper costuming and make-up when dressing up as Santa Claus. If you have a notable physical feature, especially one that isn't a round belly like a bowl full of jelly, it's always important to either cover it up or disguise it in some way that renders it not nearly as prominent. In the case of Uncle Amos, he may just be out of luck. It might be better if he let someone else be Santa Claus and get himself a snowman outfit instead.

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This strip is a great example of what Herky was: an obvious small child who acts like a small child, yet speaks like an adult. Herky is concerned about not getting Christmas presents from Santa, so instead of doing the right thing because he knows he should, he does the right thing so he can receive more rewards, as a small child would. Further, the crimes he is trying to make up for seem like things only kids would do without any thought of the consequences. However, he does this with a level of politeness and articulation that would normally only come out of the mouths of people at least three times his age. Sure, this is not great comedy, but I find the idea of a toddler showing up at your doorstep and apologizing to you in full proper sentences for throwing potatoes at your cat to be amusing.

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Herky by Clyde Lewis was about a young boy who was given the name Hercules due to the unusual strength he possessed as an infant. In addition, he also exhibited increased cognitive abilities, and was quite articulate even at a very young age. This seems like the setup for some kind of superhero story, but it turns out it's just a normal gag comic the main joke of which is a baby who does things that babies wouldn't normally do. It had very charming art, and the gags were good enough, but after Lewis decided to age Herky up a bit from baby young child, readers lost interest. It ran for 6 years and ended in 1941.

Here we see Herky as a toddler helping out his younger sister Honey. Since he has an increased language capacity, he's able to talk to Santa Claus and let him know what Honey wants for Christmas. Herky is also apparently honest to a fault, as I imagine Honey would rather he not mention the times she hasn't been so good this year. I'm not sure she's entirely…

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Apple Mary, created by Martha Orr, is a comic strip that, if you believe official King Features Syndicate sources, only ran from 1932 to 1939 and has no connection to any other strip that they own and distribute. They did not acquire it from Field Enterprises Syndicate who acquired it from Publishers Syndicate, they did not transform it into Mary Worth, and the two strips are entirely separate entities. Of course, anyone who knows anything about the actual history of the strips knows this is absolute hogwash. In 1939, after Martha Orr left the strip, it was briefly titled "Apple Mary: Mary Worth's Family" before being changed to "Mary Worth," and Allen Saunders, the cartoonist who took over for Orr, has stated multiple times that he was given the strip Apple Mary and he transformed it into Mary Worth. And, of course, the full name of the main character in Apple Mary is named Mary Worth. The modern Mary Worth is certainly a very different strip than Apple Mary was,…