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Nothing much to say about this one. Just merry Christmas, everyone.

(also the hatching and cross-hatching in this is beautiful, just look at it)

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Here's another Will-Yum, having a horrible time the day before Christmas. It reminds me of when I was a kid, trying to figure out what was in my presents by size and weight, and never being able to. One year, there was one under the tree from my dad, which was relatively small but very heavy. I thought about it for days, unable to think of anything that it could be. It turned out there was actually a brick inside (yes, an actual brick), which I never would have guessed. I think it's one of few presents I've received that have rendered me speechless, due to my laughing so hard.

Of course, this was because the actual present wouldn't fit under the tree, as it was a giant framed poster, but I still like telling people that my dad once got me a brick for Christmas.

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I've covered The Gumps previously at Christmas (here and here), and showed Andy Gump's incredible generosity at this time of here. This one, however, goes as far as to quantify just how generous he is. I like the fact that when he discovers he has more money than he thought he did, he realizes he has more to give away.

If only there were more people like Andy in the world.

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Will-yum was a relatively obscure comic strip even in its own day. It ran for 13 years, but was never in a very large number of newspapers. The character of Will-yum first appeared in a number of creator Dave Gerard's magazine cartoons, and was eventally turned into a syndicated strip by the National News Syndicate. It unfortunately wasn't unique enough to survive among the many strips featuring young boys getting into trouble.

In this strip, we have a common device cartoonists use when they run out of ideas: put themselves into their strips to converse with their characters. I think every cartoonist has done it at some point, and some do it so often they count as a recurring character. It's even the whole idea behind the Brenda Starr movie (which is so goofy and self-aware and I love it).

It seems to work here, though. I think the joke could've worked if Will-yum had been speaking to about any adult, but it may not have been as interesting to look at that way. I'm always up for great looking, deceptively simple artwork as well. It's a shame this strip never reached a very wide audience.

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Toppers are notorious for only being a footnote related to the comic strip that they sit atop. That's no exception here. Little Brother ran as a topper to H.J. Tuthill's The Bungle Family, and that's the extent of the information available on it on the internet. I include it here because I don't find The Bungle Family to be that interesting, but I really like this joke.

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The Ripples, also known as Our Neighbors, The Ripples was the Sunday version of George Clark's comic panel The Neighbors. It was a slice of life strip similar to Out Our Way, in which the idea was to depict scenes from life without necessarily having a joke. They might be funny, but didn't necessarily have to be; the point was more that they were relatable or nostalgic.

Here we have young Butch having a Little Nemo moment with Santa, which looks fun at first, but quickly becomes so boring that he falls asleep in his own dream. Santa needs his help, for some reason. I guess he's supposed to watch the reindeer while Santa goes in the house, which he fails to do. It's a really fun strip to look at either way, as the artwork is superb.

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Blatant knock-offs were quite common in the early days of comic strips, and even the biggest syndicates were known to copy popular strips by launching their own. Little Orphan Annie was an extremely popular strip published by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, and which ended up running for an impressive 86 years, as well as spawning a broadway musical with 3 movie adaptations to date. It was popular enough a mere 3 years after it debuted that King Features Syndicate decided to publish their own comic strip about an orphan girl and her dog, called Little Annie Rooney.

While the concept was nearly identical, the execution was a bit different. Little Orphan Annie was adopted by Daddy Warbucks, but Annie Rooney was constantly running from her evil caretaker Miss Meaney and fending for herself. She was fortunate enough now and then to have kind people allow her to stay with them for a short while, as we see in this strip. As we also see, both Annies are incredibly positive and optimistic despite their circumstances. While Annie Rooney didn't achieve the same fame as the Annie that came before her, the strip did run for 39 years under various writers and artists, which isn't bad at all.

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Muggs McGinnis was an attempt by the small Central Press Association syndicate to capitalize on the popularity of King Features syndicate's Skippy by creating an extremely similar comic strip. Unfortunately, it didn't do well enough to keep the CPA syndicate afloat, as King Features acquired them, and Muggs McGinnis, in 1930, merely three years after the strip debuted. CPA remained a subsidiary of King Features and retained control of most of their strips. In 1936, however, King took over Muggs McGinnis, renaming it "Muggs and Skeeter." As we can see here, however, not all newspapers printed it with the new name right away, as this paper was still running it under the old name in 1937.

As for this strip, I wonder why it is that Peewee isn't happy that a halo has appeared over his head. I guess he doesn't want grown-ups' expectations of him to be too high. Either that, or it shines too brightly and keeps him awake at night.

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Here's another High Pressure Pete, which was published exactly a year after the last one. Here, Officer 6 7/8 (whose civilian name is Joe) tries his best to help out his friends with their Christmas decorating, but is too dimwitted to do it right. It's not a total loss, though. There's nothing stopping them from hanging some things from that, uh, trunk. Plus, they can use the rest for firewood.

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I posted a High Pressure Pete strip a few years ago, but I can't get enough of George Swanson.

One of the more popular characters that Swanson created for the strip was Officer 6 7/8, who, as shown here, eventually found his way into the title. As we see, he's a good hearted fellow, though not too bright. I guess we know where all of his Christmas money is going.