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This one is just incredibly wholesome, and Annie here has the attitude that I wish far more adults would have. Annie was, of course, an orphan who was adopted into a wealthy family, yet she doesn't take it for granted. She's grateful for what she has, and she remembers that there are others who are still in the position that she used to be in. If only we could all act this way, the world would be in a much better state.
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Yes, Winnie Winkle's younger brother is named Perry Winkle. Perry was an orphan living on the streets who was adopted by Winnie's parents, and is therefore not well-versed in proper etiquette. The Spud Finnegan he mentions in the first panel is a member of the local kids' gang the Rinkydinks, who Perry hung around with and was shown with more and more as the strip continued.
I really like this particular strip, because although it shows a very stark contrast between Perry's behavior and the behavior of the other children, and although they do laugh at the end, Reggie and the Hyatt family are very kind and welcoming to Perry and are tolerant of his errant behavior. I can imagine many other strips that wouldn't be nearly as nice to their protagonists, and would most definitely end with the child being flung unceremoniously out the front door. Actually, I'm pretty sure I've read a few of those.
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The Peanuts character Schroeder was a massive fan of Beethoven, and over the years Charles Schulz had shown him celebrating Beethoven's birthday on December 17. In 1967, however, he obviously was busy or something because he forgot. Poor Schroeder.
Also, Snoopy is apparently on his way to the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. He never made it there, however, as when he originally set out he didn't realize he had no way of crossing the ocean.
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Thimble Theater, and the character of Popeye, were created by E.C. Segar, but several artists and writers have continued the strip long after Segar's death. Here we have a strip by Tom Sims and Bob Zaboly, featuring the famous glutton J. Wellington Wimpy. Wimpy was known by those who read the strip and those who watched the cartoons as a man with a bit of a black hole for a stomach, but 5 entire turkeys is even more than I imagined he could handle. The strip seems to indicate that he had appointments to eat all of those dinners, so it's not necessarily his fault entirely. I imagine each of them were just kind enough to invite him over to eat a holiday meal, and Wimpy graciously accepted each invitation. How could he refuse? Obviously there were consequences, but I don't imagine turkey sickness lasts more than a day or two.
A fun side note: While the popular chicken restaurant chain Popeye's was not named after the comic strip sailor man but was instead named after the police detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle from The French Connection, the popular diner restaurant chain Wimpy was actually named after J. Wellington Wimpy, at least according to the official company website.
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The escalation in this Christmas sequence is so great. Every time you think Ignatz has been foiled, he is already way ahead, even though the logic of it is still completely absurd. Given how many times Ignatz has been locked in jail, though, I guess it only stands to reason that if hanging up four stockings is against the law Ignatz would be the first to know, and would be the first to do whatever he could to dodge the law. He wouldn't want Officer Pupp giving him any new Christmas lodgings.
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Today's strip is a continuation of the one from yesterday, and raises an interesting question: How many stockings would you put up if you were a centipede? Further, how many stockings would you need if you were, say, a centipede family of four? Would you have enough space in your home to hang all of them? Do centipedes have chimneys? Does centipede Santa have a beard or just more antennae? So many questions.
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I love this one. The absurdity of Ignatz hanging two stockings because he has two feet is already funny enough for me, but the escalation to four stockings due to having four feet is even better. It's kind of odd as far as cartoon animals go, though. We say four legged animals have four feet because they stand on all four of them, but cartoon animals only stand on two. So, do cartoon animals also have four feet? I'm actually inclined to say they don't.
So sorry, Ignatz, only two stockings for you this year.
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It's Papa Who Pays was the topper to Toots and Casper, both of which were created by Jimmy Murphy. This is a fair representation of the strip as a whole, with Papa always coming out with nothing in the end after his family takes advantage of him somehow. I don't quite understand how the situation in this particular strip happens, though. Why would someone give someone a gift, then take the gift back from them to give to someone else? It's re-gifting of an entirely different sort. I guess it was more common in the 20's.
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I've already gushed about Payne's artwork enough, so for this one I'll just say that I love this joke, or joke within a joke. Willyum "makes a crack" about asking for a goldfish from Santa, which you imagine might actually be true given his age, but the actual punchline is that it's a scheme to get Christmas money. Why people pay him for that I can't imagine. Still, it gets a nickel out of Pop, so that's a success. I just wonder what he's going to buy with it.
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Now, some may see the two middle panels on this strip and call them unnecessary, or call C.M. Payne lazy for including them, and they could possibly be correct. However, I think this is really the way some kids talk to each other, with unnecessary repetitions and continual questions, so it works. Besides, it gives us a chance to see more of Payne's wonderful hatching work.