Archive for April, 2018
The Life of Christ: The Easter Story
The Life of Christ: The Easter Story
“We are now on our way to Jerusalem where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses. They will sentence him to death and hand him over to foreigners, who will make fun of him and spit on him. They will beat him and kill him. But three days later he will rise to life.” Mark 10:33-34
Louise Simonson, Mary Wilshire and Bill Anderson flesh out the Easter Story marking the last days of Jesus’s life.
If Marvel had published this earlier in my lifetime, all those Easter Sunday’s sitting on hard pews wondering what confections and presents Peter Rabbit had left for me would’ve gone much faster.
For 33 pages the reader is given the Biblical account of the Son of Man’s final days on Earth. No matter beliefs, the story is a strong and compelling one. It brings the hubris of man to heel, showing the greed and vanity evident in even the most pious of practitioners.
Zombie Tramp: Easter Special (2017)
Basically a collection of “good/bad girl” art wrapped in a very non-traditional Easter tale of fornication and cannibalism.
Zombie Tramp crashes a small town’s Easter celebration dressed in something more from the Hugh Hefner collection than the standard department store bunny suit. During her visit she is thrice mesmerized by a Caligulastic cult leader on a mission from (his) God.
There are several gags to make the reader smile. My favorite had children finding Easter eggs in the folds of the fat woman.
Otherwise this fast read allows the heroine to avenge herself and the hypnotized town folk to foil the festivities culminating in a sacrificial bonfire and orgy.
Probably not a good idea to hide this in the hymnal to read during Easter services.
Yogi Bear’s Easter Parade
Yogi Bear’s Easter Parade
Cover dated 1978, Yogi Bear’s Easter Parade is the second in a hat trick of issues published by Marvel under the title The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.
Captured in this static time capsule of primary colors and pastels are the kings and queens of Saturday morning cartoon favorites. H-B’s roster of characters reads like a who’s who in the history of animation. Almost all are collected in the 50 pages of this book.
Yogi leads off with his self-titled Easter Parade story. Like a vintage Our Gang short, Yogi musters the colorful inhabitants of the Hanna-Barbera world to save Easter morning from capitalism.
Scooby-Doo and “those meddling kids” team with Blue Falcon and Dynomutt in Phantasma Gloria. The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour debuted in 1976 and by 1978 had run its course and was heading for syndication by the time this book was released.
Robots Bloom in Spring brought the Jetsons out of before- and after-school reruns with a short story centered on housekeeper Rosie who feels she has become obsolete.
Spring Fever is a cautionary tale of love and bank accounts. Top Cat and his band of Manhattan alley cats heavily inspired by the 1940’s East Side Kids save Officer Dibble from financial ruin.
The Flintstones bookend the issue in Spring Training. Barney and Betty’s adopted son, Bamm-Bamm, is signed to a Major League Baseball franchise only to find black gold instead.
Sprinkled between the stories are pages of puzzles sponsored by the Hanna-Barbera gang including Yakky Doodle’s Scrambled Eggs, Captain Caveman: Twin Trouble, Touche Turtle’s Crossword Puzzle, Huckleberry’s Comic Crostic and Magilla Magic.