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Even though it was one of the lesser known Disney comic strips, Scamp ran for an impressive 33 years, from 1955 to 1988, with the Sunday strip running almost as long, from 1956 to 1988. The character first appeared at the very end of the movie Lady and the Tramp, as the child of the titular characters. It didn't take long before he was appearing in a Dell Comics comic book series, and a few months later a newspaper strip, both of which debuted the same year as the movie. It wasn't until 2001 that Scamp would get his own direct-to-video movie, though given the track record of Disney direct-to-video, I imagine the comics were of a higher quality.

Here, we see Scamp's friend Cheeps complaining about the cold, though if a bird is cold even in its nest then it probably wasn't built properly in the first place. Though, from my understanding, that's the gimmick behind Cheeps; he's very bad at making nests. Maybe this year Scamp can lend some of his fur to Cheeps to line his nest with so he won't be so cold.

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Much like Snoopy, while in some ways I was quite prepared for December, such as getting all of my Christmas cards made and sent out, in other ways I was woefully unprepared, such as having comic strips related to the month of December ready to post on my blog. So, today's comes a little late. But rest assured, while the blog may be relatively dormant for the majority of the year (something which, every January, I resolve and ultimately fail to remedy), I will still post winter and Christmas themed comic strips for the month of December. My newspapers.com subscription will not go to waste.

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We end this December 2024 as we began it, with another Yellow Kid. Like before, there's always so much to see in these comics. You might see some bad, unsightly things, but there are a lot of good things to see here as well, much like the year that has just passed. Hopefully this next year will have fewer of the bad things and more of the good.

Happy 2025 everyone.

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George Herriman is of course most well known for his masterpiece of a comic strip, Krazy Kat, but prior to the Kat's kreation creation Herriman penned several other strips which lasted for varying amounts of time. Professor Otto and His Auto lasted less than a year, beginning in March 1902 and most likely not lasting into 1903. Today's comic is probably the last Professor Otto strip that ran.

The strip was, as the title suggests, about a professor and the various things he does while in his automobile. I guess one thing he really enjoys is running into things with it, so his resolution is to only run into snowmen from now on. It seems causing emotional trauma to children is preferable to causing physical harm to people, at least in his mind. Mistaking Henry for a snowman and plowing into him, causing Henry to beat him to a pulp, is possibly why Professor Otto did not return for another strip.

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As a kid, when you get socks or underwear or clothes of any kind for Christmas, it can be a major disappointment. Maybe getting a cool new jacket or some neat graphic t-shirts or something could be fun, but socks are always boring. Socks with fun patterns on them are disappointing, too, because it just feels like a boring thing that's trying too hard to not be boring. Extra points off if they're Christmas themed, because in reality those are socks you can't even wear until next Christmas.

Contrast this with how some adults feel about getting socks. While it seems nearly all socks made for kids are basically the same, and all you really worry about is if they will fit or not, adult socks come in so many different shapes, sizes, textures, and fabrics that getting some good ones as a gift can actually be exciting for some people. So when adults give kids socks, they may not actually be thinking about how the kid would feel about getting them and are mostly thinking about how they would feel. This, of course, leads to the Aunt Eloises of the world giving the Sonnys of the world socks for Christmas. If you are an Aunt Eloise, perhaps next year you should consider giving those socks to your adult siblings, and get something more fun and exciting for your nieces and nephews.

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I'm just reading between the lines here, but I get the feeling Colonel Beef was trying to keep the boys from leaving because he either was aware of the surprise party being planned, or planned it himself. It's a shame they didn't get to be there, but I hope the colonel had a good party with the rest of the folks even in their absence. Dalton deserved to lose that 47 cents, though.

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I don't remember having to return very many presents that I've been given over the years, either for Christmas or for birthdays. Perhaps once or twice. On the whole, though, I've always felt bad about doing it because it seems ungrateful to the person giving the gift. If someone has gone out of their way to give me something that they thought I would like, the least I can do is at least use it or try to enjoy it.

I can understand it when it comes to clothing, however, which seems to be what today's strip is referring to. Giving someone clothing is always difficult, especially children who are growing and who it may be hard to keep track of what size they are at any given moment. Using the returns as an opportunity to get entirely different clothing seems a bit ungrateful, though. I would have to return it and get something either exactly the same or as similar as possible in order for me to not feel bad about it.

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Gift giving is hard. I've never been good at it. I'm never sure what someone else would like to receive. It appears the Candy family has the same issue, and what they've done is give gifts that they would like to have given back to them when the person they gave them to doesn't like them. It all works out in the end, I guess.