Merry Christmas from Mike and ComicsDC!

from Puck Christmas 1896 / C.J. Taylor. Puck, v. 40, no. 1031, (1896 December 9), cover. 

Courtesy of Library of Congress at https://www.loc.gov/item/2012648493/
 

War comics in LOC's serials exhibit case

 Library of Congress's serials division houses the comic book collection, and they usually have a small exhibit case right inside the entrance where people come for their library cards. This month's is on war and Christmas and there are two comic books in the case along with other publications. One is a Sgt Rock comic, and the other is the Dogs of War graphic novel.

Corporations vs Collectors: The Excesses of Hallmark Christmas ornaments (UPDATED)

An editorial by Mike Rhode
(updates in italics 12/26/2019)

I used to collect Hallmark's Christmas ornaments. I slowed down last year and completely stopped this year. (Hypocrisy update: Well, I had stopped until I went to a Hallmark store looking for Scooby-Doo ornaments and cartoon cards. Then I slipped off the wagon again. A habit since 1993 is hard to break it turns out, at least at half-price.)

Here's roughly what's on offer for 2019:

(not pictured - Spider-Man, Lego Robin)

In 1993 Hallmark started producing superhero ornaments for their Keepsake line, but only one a year: 1993 - Superman; 1994 - Batman; 1995 - Batmobile; 1995 - Superman.  In 1996, Marvel was included and Wonder Woman and Spider-Man appeared. 1997 was Marvel's Hulk with no DC one. The situation reversed in 1998 with DC's Superman miniature and no Marvel one.  1999 saw three DC ones - The Flash, Batman and Robin miniature, and a Celebrate the Century postage stamp of Superman. 2000 was back to two from DC - a Catwoman miniature and a Super Friends lunchbox.

By 2006, 13 years after Hallmark started licensing them, they had four ornaments - two from DC (Superman The Man of Steel and Batman The Bat-Signal) and two from Marvel (Spider-Man and New Breed of Superheroes).

Christopher Reeve as Superman is this year's Superman, and a bit strange, since there's no anniversary associated with the 1978 movie and 2019.

This year, they have 13. Or 14 if you count the two "mystery" versions of Captain Marvel. The second version shows her uniform in the Kree colors.

 

Or 15, if you count the non-Keepsake series Flash.

For some reason, the 1960s Batman tv show continues to be popular, with two ornaments this year. The second of which is a Bat-guitar, for some odd reason.

 

As does the Lego Batman movie, with a Robin figure this year.

Wonder Woman in her invisible jet is at least a classic icon from the comic books.

Batman's pose is taken from the classic Frank Miller story, The Dark Knight Returns, which has seen several sequels in recent years.

And the Iron Man ornament wears his classic armor from the 1960s and 1970s, drawn most often then by Gene Colan.

Spider-Man in a Santa hat is a perennial.

(photo from Hallmark's website)

For a few years, they've done these mini-ornaments.

One wonders who wants to hang Thanos, a genocidal space alien villain on the tree though. That's two ornaments by the way - the Infinity Gauntlet has broken from it's hanger above.

Let alone a villain from The Walking Dead...

But the main reason I stopped collecting these is cost.

 

Aquaman	$8.99
Green Lantern	$8.99
Here Comes Spidey Claus	$15.99 $16.99
Lego Robin Captain Marvel	$17.99
Marvel Studios Avengers: Endgame Thanos	$18.99
Infinity Gauntlet	$19.99
Christopher Reeve as Superman	$19.99
Batman Rocks!	$19.99
Batman	$22.99
Wonder Woman Invisible Jet	$24.99
Iron Man	$29.99
Batboat	$29.99

At an average cost of $20, the whole superhero collection (not counting Walking Dead or the non-Keepsake Flash at $8.99) will cost you $256 before tax. And there's so many of them, that within a couple of years, the only ornaments on a tree would be superheroes. I've already got at couple of storage tubs full, because I foolishly never expected these to be produced for so many years when I started collecting them at the beginning. It's in the nature of corporations to maximize their intellectual property, and I shouldn't be surprised about this. I also know that nobody is forcing me to buy all of these, or any of these, and that superheroes are big business now. I'm just bemoaning the ever-increasing tendency of  fandom to be run into the ground by the ever larger companies that control the IP behind it. A very similar blog post could have been written about Hallmark's Star Wars or Star Trek ornaments. And this isn't even looking at animation characters from Disney or Warner Bros... At some point, the golden goose is going to die from overuse, I think. But I might be wrong about that too.

Should you be interested in any of these, you can get most of them through Hallmark's website.  There's even more there that I didn't see at my local Hallmark shop, and it's also hard to tell what's new for this year and what they still have in stock from last year. And Hyperallergic just ran an article on the Henry Ford Museum collection of them.

Juana Medina window display at Politics and Prose

A Winter Wonderland at P&P

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Come see our new holiday window display, spanning the entire storefront at our Connecticut Avenue location! We teamed up with local children's book author and illustrator Juana Medina, who drew characters playing against a snowy backdrop exclusively for this display in her typically colorful and vibrant style. Underneath, our Holiday Countdown Calendar will reveal a new item we love each day until December 24, so keep checking to see what's new. Appropriately, our first pick for the Countdown Calendar is the picture book Juana and Lucas, by Juana Medina.

Politics & Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse
(5015 Connecticut Ave. NW)

(202) 364-1919

www.politics-prose.com

books@politics-prose.com

Bruce Guthrie stopped by and  took some photographs this afternoon. Click through to see more.

A Christmas 66 years in the making

Last month we ran the following story about Bill Cogswell reading Whiz Comics in 1949. A friendly reader of ComicsDC, Brian C. (who lives nowhere around here and whom I'm only slightly acquainted with) actually sent a copy of the comic to me for Bill.  Here's Bill enjoying it today for Christmas in 2015.

Here's the original post:

My friend and neighbor Bill Cogswell used to collect comics back in the day. When his sister Ellen passed away recently, I saw this picture of them. It's Christmas 1949 and Bill appears to be reading Whiz Comics #119 (March 1950 cover date)* judging from the Grand Comics Database (which provided the image). Captain Marvel was the main feature.

Following the old familiar story, Bill's mother threw away his comic books when they moved within Arlington.


*comics came out months before their cover date to fool the newsstands into keeping them on display longer.

Original Christmas ornaments by cartoonists

Barbara Dale had a few people over to her house after a tour at Geppi's Entertainment Museum. After pizza, she coaxed people into decorating ornaments. Here's the one-of-a-kind ornaments now on my tree with a Thomas Nast's Santa Claus, a Cliffored Berryman's teddy bear (from the Smithsonian) and a couple of Snoopy's (from Hallmark's Peanuts line).



Carolyn Belefski



Joe Sutliff



Barbara Dale



Steve Artley

I kept getting this glowing nose on Artley's ornament - Christmas is magical after all...

Get a Cul de Sac ornament for 50% off tonight

Richard Thompson has an ornament of Alice dancing on the manhole cover for sale at Cafe Press. Tonight you can get it for 1/2 price ($6.25) by putting in the code SPRUCE at checkout. I assume Richard still gets his full share of the sale.

Comic Riffs on Charlie Brown Christmas

Cavna gets quotes from Mike Peters and Michael Chabon too-

Tonight's 'A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS': Show's Emmy-winning producer reflects on its enduring appeal
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog (December 7 2010)

Cartoonists on greeting cards

My grandmother died a few weeks ago at 96, and we've been going through her stuff. Nobody wanted all the greeting cards she saved since the 1940s, so I've been going through them. Here's a few that might interest this audience.


Miss Peach 1966 birthday card by Mell Lazarus.


1979 Hallmark birthday card by the great MAD cartoonist Paul Coker.

and the interior message:




This 1970-something Hallmark Valentine's Day card is by another MAD artists whose name is escaping me. Help?

And the interior message:



Finally here's a 1966 Christmas card from the Art Guild of Williamsburg with surprising good girl art and it's interior -

Cavna's Our Town on the Mall Santa Experience

I don't think the Our Town feature has quite found its legs yet, but I enjoyed Michael's take on the Mall Santa Experience in today's Post, especially since we've got 20 inches of snow on the ground.

Cul de Sac Christmas sweater contest

Richard Thompson's announced a contest for the most ridiculous Christmas sweater, and you can win Christmas at his house with you in the role of Tiny Tim... no wait, it's actually an autographed copy of his book. Which is nothing to sneeze at.