"The Spectre" #12 (2002) - DC Comics J.M. DeMatteis

"The Spectre of Christmas"
"The Spectre" (Volume 4) #12 (2002)
DC Comics 
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Artist: Ryan Sook

Here's another comic book that features the character of Ebenezer Scrooge in a different setting - the world of The Spectre!

The Spectre also meets Charles Dickens in the story and, amusingly, Scrooge is mad at Dickens for doing such a good job of portraying him as a miser that people forget he actually reformed at the end of the story!

In any event, it's interesting, but I admit I don't really have a grasp of the whole thing. Somehow Hal Jordan is now The Spectre and not The Green Lantern!

I must look into this!

"Humbug" (2015) - 451 Media Group

"Humbug" (2015)
Publisher: 451 Media Group
Writer: A.J. Gentile
Artist: Cosmo White

Here's an interesting extension of the "Scrooge-verse," if you will, in the form of a five-issue comic book, I mean graphic novel, series casting Ebenezer Scrooge as a paranormal investigator.

Here's the blurb:

Meet the world's first paranormal investigator - Ebenezer Scrooge! A dark revisionist take on Dickens' classic 'A Christmas Carol', Humbug poses the question, 'Whatever happened to Scrooge the day after Christmas Eve and that grave encounter from the Other Side?' Answer: Scrooge opens London's first Paranormal Agency for hire, The House of Humbug. Together with his team of Humbuggers - nephew Fred, Bob Cratchit and Bob's all grown up six-foot, not-so-tiny-son, Tiny Tim, Scrooge together with his turn-of-the-century ghostbusters use their wits and resources to rid the city of malevolent spooks and spirits taking over London! 32 pages, full color.

Issue #1 is shown at the top and here are 2-5:

The series was also collected in this 2017 volume:

It's always interesting to see the Scrooge character taken in new directions!

A Little More Archie!

The Archie-verse of comics is always good from some random Scrooge references as well as spins on "A Christmas Carol!"

The Little Archie story "George to the Rescue" is one such example. 

The basic story is that the school wants to buy some bird feeders, but Mr. Weatherbee is too cheap to sign off on the necessary expenditure, so Little Archie refers to him as an "Ol' Scrooge."

It happens that Little Archie brought "George," his new parakeet to school that day for show and tell.

George gets out if hsi cage and flies into Mr. Weatherbee's office, where he repeats the Scrooge reference and also throws in a few cheeps, which sounds like he's calling Mr. W "cheap."

Mr. Weatherbee thinks he's being haunted by the bird, so he has a change of heart and buys a bunch of bird feeders!

Probably more than you need to know, but that's the set-up for these panels from the story that mention Scrooge:

I always thought it was odd that in the Little Archie stories, everyone calls him "Little Archie." Since this is Archie as a younger child, there was no "Big Archie" at that time, so why does everyone go out of their way to make the distinction that this is Little Archie?

All of the characters are younger, but nobody calls the younger Jughead "Little Jughead," for example!

These are important things to think about!

More Archie!

Word is that an upcoming special Archie comic book, "Archie's Holiday Magic" is a take-off on "A Christmas Carol" with Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come segments.

You can read more about it here.

Intriguing!

Stories!

This comic book published by K. K. Publications, Inc. in 1942 is of interest:

I hear tell that it contains an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol," but I don't know anything about it.

The cover is one of those "infinity" types, as Santa is holding a copy of the comic book, which shows him holding a copy of the comic book and that shows him holding a copy of the comic book, ad infinitum!

Early McDuck!

Speaking of Scrooge McDuck, I thought it would be fun to take a peek at his first appearance!

It was in the Donald Duck story "Christmas on Bear Mountain," as presented in Dell's Four Color Comics #178 dated October 1947:

He was very Scroogey at first!

Uncle Scrooge was created by Carl Barks just for this story, but he proved so popular that he was given his own comic book!

Who Indeed!

Here's an interesting British comic book from 1972:

Easy to guess who that is!

I'd love to see the inside of that issue someday!

I don't know much about the "Valiant" series other than it was published for quite a while and at some point has something to do with "Knockout Comic" for a bit.

My non-Britishness is rally showing!

Happy Fourth of July

Scrooge's nephew (Donald, not Fred) says Happy Fourth of July and Buy more bonds!

Random Scrooge Reference Department

OK, before I get stuck in 1946, we need a random contemporary Scrooge reference:

Thanks, Archiverse!

"Archie's Christmas Stocking" #6 (1959)

We've taken a look before how "A Christmas Carol" seems to be a well-known story within the comic Archieverse.

But what's the significance of  the "Archie's Christmas Stocking" issue from 1959?

Well, it's not the issue itself, but the house ad promoting it that appeared in other comics in the Archie line:

Wait, does that mean that Scrooge himself exists in the Archieverse? Or is Archie a fictional character in the Scroogeverse?

Now I'm confused! 

"A Christmas Carol" All-Star Team - Day 12

We finish up the Christmas Present characters as we hit the half-way point of our countdown of our "A Christmas Carol" All-Star Team!

The most memorable guest at Fred's Christmas party is his friend Topper!

It's indeterminate as to what Topper's actual name is. "Topper" is probably not his first name, although it might be his last name. Or it could just be a nickname. He's only called "Topper" and not "Mr. Topper" or anything else. So, who knows?

I think he really gets his much-deserved due in the wacky 1944 promotional "Animated Coloring Book" courtesy of the Sears Roebuck company.

He gets one of the action pictures:

This is a fun item and you can't beat making Topper sing!

Next: we head to the future...

Happy Halloween!

 

Hope you have more treats than tricks!

Classics Illustrated Revisited

We get back into the comic book, I mean graphic novel world with this "new" edition of "A Christmas Carol" from Classics Illustrated.

I think it's just a reprint of the old story from 1948 (discussed here)with the color zhuzhed up digitally:

It's Number 53 in the series even.

But.. it has a snappy new cover as seen at the top of the page.

What's most interesting is that Marley's Ghost is totally Leo G. Carroll from the 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol," (which featured Reginald Owen as Scrooge)!

Not "inspired by" or anything, it's just straight-up him!

Perhaps I will get my mitts on this edition to see what it's all about.

Or not!

"Disney A Christmas Carol Starring Scrooge McDuck" (2019)

"Disney A Christmas Carol Starring Scrooge McDuck" (2019)
Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Guido Martina
Artist: Jose Colomer Fonts

We stay in the graphic realm for this recent volume from Dark Horse comics with the somewhat awkward title of "Disney A Christmas Carol Starring Scrooge McDuck."

So, one's first thought might be, "Wait, isn't that 'Mickey's Christmas Carol?'" It's not though! It's a fairly straightforward adaptation of the Dickens classic, but also features Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge.

It's actually part of a series of classic works featuring Disney characters, such as Mickey Mouse as "Don Quixote" and Donald Duck as "Hamlet" (!!) published by Dark Horse.

They put me most in mind of "The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo" TV series, as they're fairly straightforward adaptations with a popular cartoon star in the lead.

So, this version of "A Christmas Carol" features Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge, but is he Ebenezer Scrooge or (Uncle) Scrooge McDuck? Hard to say. The splash page calls him "Old Uncle Scrooge":

This also shows how the supporting characters such as Bob Cratchit are mostly that semi-canine "dogface" types that pop up in cartoons and comics.  These guys have the dog nose but human ears, reminiscent of the Beagle Boys from Uncle Scrooge stories:

The Ghost of Christmas Past:

 ...and Present also fit this mold:

I dig that sort of thing. You have human-ish characters that aren't exactly human, as realistic humans would mix oddly with giant ducks, at least in the Duckverse!

But, since Scrooge has a nephew, he should be a duck, and naturally Donald Ducks fits the (ummm) bill:

Interestingly, Marley's Ghost is also a Duck, but he's called "Rock" Marley here:

Marley's Ghost reminds me of Ludwig Von Drake, the character who first appeared in 1961 on the "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" series:

In any event, the story is pretty faithful, but I think the dialogue is a bit stilted. I somehow get the impression it was translated from the book into another language (Italian?), then translated back into English, rather than just starting over with English.

Like "humbug" was translated into whatever, but then became "nonsense" when it was translated back to English.

Such things are always worth a look and you can find more info at www.darkhorse.com

Simpsons Comics #52 (2000) - Part 2

The "A Springfield Christmas Carol" from 2000's "Simpsons Comics" #52 is another quick, wacky take on Charles Dickens's venerable story.

I think this is the closest the Simpsons franchise has ever come to a straight-up parody of the story, but it quickly goes off the rails!

I like how the framing story goes back to "The Front," which was the 19th episode of the fourth season of the TV series back in 1993. That was seven years before this comic book story and the series at the time was already in its twelfth season and that was 20 years ago! Kind of mind-boggling!

That memorable episode had Grampa Simpson taking credit for an "Itchy & Scratchy" cartoon that was actually written by Bart and Lisa.

Rather than Marley's Ghost, C. Montgomery Scrooge is visited by Homer's little pal Ozmodiar, the Great Gazoo homage(?) first seen in episode 24 from the eighth season, "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" from 1997.

And Ozmodiar squares off against Smilin' Joe Fission, who first appeared way back in "Homer's Odyssey," the third episode of Season One! I see him as a take-off on the Reddy Kilowatts of the world.

The back cover of the comic book features a spot-on take-off of the ubiquitous Evel Kneivel toy ads from the 1970s featuring Lance Murdock from "Bart the Daredevil" (Season 2, Episode 8):

Lots of fun for Simpsons fans!

Next up: The best Simpsons/Scrooge mash-up!

Simpsons Comics #52 (2000) - Part 1

"A Springfield Christmas Carol"
Simpsons Comics #52 (2000)
Bongo Comics
Script: Paul Dini
Art: Phil Ortiz
Surrogate Scrooge: C. Montgomery Burns

Next we take a look at another Simpsonized take on "A Christmas Carol" with 2000's "A Springfield Christmas Carol" from issue number 52 of "Simpsons Comics."

Take a look:

Fun!

The Simpsons Winter Wingding #6 (2011) - Part 2

So, "Grampa's Christmas Origins: Christmas Cards" from 2011 comic book "The Simpsons Winter Winding" #6 is only two pages long, but I have plenty to say about it!

Homer Simpson's boss at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, one C. Montgomery Burns, is so Scroogey already that he easily slips into the "Burnseneezer Scrooge" part.

I also think it's fun that they have Sideshow Bob as Bob Cratchit, since he's already named Bob. Interesting that he's not called "Sideshow Bob Cratchit," though!

The framing story with Bart and Lisa attempting to mail Christmas cards has a major gaffe: Bart says his scarf trick "from watching old Christmas cartoons on TV" (as seen at the top of the page).

But... Linus does that trick with his blanket while mailing a letter to the Great Pumpkin! Oh, Bart...

Still, some wacky Simpsons fun!

Next: Ample amounts of more Simpsons homages!

The Simpsons Winter Wingding #6 (2011) - Part 1

"Grampa's Christmas Origins: Christmas Cards"
The Simpsons Winter Wingding #6 (2011)
Bongo Comics
Script: Eric Rogers
Art: John Costanza
Surrogate Scrooge: C. Montgomery Burns

We now check out another wacky comic book take on "A Christmas Carol," this one from the 2011 edition of "The Simpsons Winter Wingding."

It's a "Grampa's Christmas Origins story, this time dealing with Christmas Cards.

Take a look:

Funny stuff!