Friday, December 15, 2017
Oleander's Christmas Eve, Part 1
Well folks, it's that time of year again, when the Stripper's Guide blog runs one of those special newspaper offerings of yesteryear, the Christmas strip. As has been discussed on the blog before, many syndicates back in the good old days would thank their subscribing papers by sending out a Yuletide freebie. These were usually in the form of a comic strip that ran three to four weeks.
NEA offered these strips for a longer period than any other syndicate, but sadly they gave up the practice in 2010. This year on the blog, we're featuring their 1961 Christmas strip offering, Oleander's Christmas Eve by writer Jay Heavilin and cartoonist Walt Scott.
Scott provided the art for quite a few NEA Christmas strips, always offering up attractive visuals, and 1961's strip is no exception. Jay Heavilin, who only wrote the Christmas strip in 1960 and 1961, shows us for the second time why he was a bad choice for the job. Stripper's Guide has already run his 1960 story, The Brightest Star, which was so hastily cobbled together that the title had nothing to do with the story. In 1961, Heavilin takes the unusual tack of making Santa into a nasty and vindicitve old grump, who is not above trying to choke a cat. Santa also turns out to have the same powers as another famed Christmas figure, as he can apparently bring the dead back to life. So with highlights like that to look forward to, read on!
Labels: Christmas Strips
