The Little Tree That Talked: Day 1, Introduction

It's that time of year again, kiddies, when Stripper's Guide rolls out our annual Christmas strip. Everyone gather around the warm glow of the Yule monitor and pour yourself a steaming mug of Christmas cheer. 

This year we have a good one for you, too! Usually I spend most of my introduction apologizing for the series, but this one by Walt Scott, while a little sappy and tad preachy, has a lot going for it. And of course by that I mean Walt Scott's utterly sumptuous art. But even the story has its charms. 

Walt Scott produced the NEA Christmas series through the 1950s and early 60s, and some of his best outings used the characters from his Sunday strip, The Little People. The Little Tree That Talked, produced for the 1953 holiday season, was 22 strips designed to run from November 30 to December 24th, starring characters from The Little People.

I am lucky to have the original syndicate proof folder for The Little Tree That Talked, so today you'll get to see the material that was sent out to newspapers for promoting this special series. The only problem is that my proof folder was missing one sheet of four strips, so I had to use much inferior newsprint versions from the Rocky Mountain News, whose printing presses were turning out really crummy printing quality at this time.  Ah well, beggars can't be choosers. 

One final note about this series: can one help wondering if Charles Schulz read this story, and the concept of a scraggly little Christmas tree rolled around in his noggin until it popped back out for A Charlie Brown Christmas?