This was a hard choice. At least as to when to use the comic book.

It’s very suited for anytime in December if no other reason for the cover alone. Events take place beginning December 23 and culminate on Christmas Eve makes it a candidate for December 24.

I guess what made my mind up is the fact it also serves a greater purpose by commemorating a day that’s much harder to find a comic book related for: International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

We’ve done it before. Not once, but twice, but it doesn’t make it any easier finding a third example in the world of four color.

So, when I happened across Superman (1987) 64 and started reading the book, I had to take advantage of the opportunity.

Each December Superman is faced with the impossible task of answering letters of help from persons around the world. For 1991, the Man of Steel has allowed Lois Lane to chronicle the Herculean task.

The first few are from treasure hunters asking Superman to lend his talents in the search for oil or making of diamonds. There are others that can’t be helped, though their woes are worthy of his attention.

What he can do is help a 65-year old Auschwitz survivor be reunited with her sister.

Mrs. Agnes Schommer is a widow of limited means living in Chicago. She had only recently learned her older sister, Ellie, is still living, but is not well. Superman is able to clear her stay at the American Embassy in Germany so the two can reunite.

The reunion only takes three pages of the book, but are poignant when it is remembered approximately 60 percent of the Jewish population was liquidated by the Nazi’s between 1933 and 1945. That’s an estimated six million people.

This does not include the others targeted and considered Holocaust victims. They would number an additional 11 million people.

January 27 has been chosen as a day to commemorate victims as it is the day Auschwitz was liberated.

Been a year already and time to celebrate(?) another National Polka Dot Day.

Faithful followers will remember we initiated our recognition of the day with the Spot, a Marvel Comics villain, known for his dust ups with Spider-Man and Daredevil. This year’s emcee is none other than Minnie Mouse.

But, first, a little bit about the holiday.

   National Polka Dot Day’s history and origins are a little ambiguous. For some reason polka dots became associated with the Black Death through the 19th century. Then, the polka dance craze struck. About the same time, fabric makers discovered how to produce polka dot patterns on fabrics and the pattern has never looked back.

   The dotted revolution was in its hey day during the 1950s.  As with fashion it waned over the next two decades until a resurgence in the 1980s and ’90s.

In 2016 Walt Disney World chose to commemorate polka dots with the inaugural National Polka Dot Day. That may have come as a result of the company’s mouse fashionista, Minnie.

Minnie, or Minerva, Mouse first appeared with her counterpart, Mickey, in the iconic Steamboat Willie in 1928. Her first illustrated appearance was a comic strip entitled Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers that ran from Sept. 22 to Dec. 26, 1930. It also introduced her father Marcus Mouse and an unnamed mother.

While more of a plain Jane in the beginning, Minnie blossomed with her polka dotted style that has become a trademark.

Other uses of polka dots include Shirley Temple’s dress in Stand Up and Cheer from 1934. Marilyn Monroe sexed it up a bit with her white polka dotted dress in the film Seven Year Itch. Julia Roberts launched her career with a polka dotted dandy in Pretty Woman.

So, let’s celebrate with a little Disney fantasy. Donald Duck & Co. may be the first comic book appearance of Minnie.

A Renaissance man before the term was coined, Benjamin Franklin is the focus of today’s non-holiday. January 17 is a day to celebrate an American polymath, a founding father, newspaper editor/publisher, inventor, scientist, revolutionary and more.

   In addition to creating Little Richard’s Almanac, Franklin helped author the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

   Not bad for a Boston-born boy with little means.

   For Benjamin Franklin Day we take you back in time courtesy of Superboy to the beginnings of America. In addition to the boy of steel, ma and pa Kent tag along to clear up a (then) modern-day mystery.

   The (spoiler alert) parallel universe adventure allows the Kent’s to meet not only Franklin, but other Revolutionary War heroes.

Adventure Comics (1938) 296

   In short, Adventure Comics 296 is a four-color trope of the Silver Age. Back when America was still great, before the pre-Vietnam and Watergate era.

    Before branding meant something outside of cattle drives, Marvel was slapping its label on any product they could license outside of the four-color field.

   One of those companies that came calling was Topps.

   Under the Comic Book Heroes moniker, Topps produced a set of 40 stickers, each featuring a Marvel character. Each reprinted image sported the equivalent of a “dad joke.”

   Turned over and placed together, nine of the cards reprinted the cover of Fantastic Four 100.

   All for a dime.

  Our trip down memory lane today is sponsored by the non-holiday National Sticker Day.

   January 13 is National Sticker Day in observance of R. Stanton Avery, credited with the creation of the adhesive label with removable back. Happy posthumous birthday R.

   Stickers, so called because they, well, stick, are said to have first been utilized by European merchants. They stuck labels to their products, beginning in the 1880’s, so buyers would notice.

    The first National Sticker Day was celebrated in 2015.