December 2nd: 23 days and counting…

Hallmark began producing and marketing ornaments in 1973. It wasn’t until the late 1990s they started giving us what we really wanted with Spider-Man and the Hulk.  Jade Jaws is sporting some uncharacteristic blue jeans as he gallops along the tree.  Still, a nice addition to anyone’s season.

For the month of December Four Color Holidays is celebrating the Chistmas season by counting down the next 24 days with the licensed likenesses that show just who we are.

Every year I put up a Super Hero Christmas Tree. Dangling from its wire branches are representatives from both Marvel and DC as well as an honorary Big Bang Sheldon in his Flash costume – an ornament Hallmark treated us to several years ago.

Another annual tradition of mine is every year I have a new favorite – along with all the past favorites – making me smile in the soft LED glow of primary colors. This year’s newbie is really an old ornament from the now defunct Warner Bros. Stores and the one hero who will always be part of my Christmas.

I believe this is from 1997.

What can we say about Thanksgiving that hasn’t already been said?

Maybe a few facts to whet the appetite?

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 over a three day festival. Those enjoying were 50 pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians. An estimated five women were in attendance. And, turkey wasn’t on the menu. No, supper consisted of venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel and fish.

Uncanny Tales (1952) 9

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the day a national holiday Oct. 3, 1963. He was convinced by Sarah Josepha Hale’s 17-year letter writing campaign. Harry S. Truman is credited as being the first president to pardon a turkey, but in reality, he received a complimentary one from the National Wild Turkey Federation and served it for dinner. President John F. Kennedy was the first president to let a turkey go free. Richard Nixon followed suite during his presidency while George H.W. Bush was the first to formalize a pardon.

And, that’s enough literary tryptophan.

Today’s four color offering is pre-Marvel Comic’s Atlas comic book Uncanny Tales issue nine. This pre-code horror title ran 56 issues. Twenty-eight of those were prior to the Comics Code stamp of approval. It began in 1952, but this particular issue is from 1953. It’s the fifth tale, The Executioner, that interests us. Notably, it is penned by Stan Lee and illustrated by Myton Fass.

Rather than spoil the surprise, let’s just leave it at that as a cautionary tale to all turkeys. Maybe hold off reading ’till after dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy National Cashew Day.

Saluations out of the way, why? Why a National Cashew Day?

Sadly, I can’t seem to find a good answer. I did learn that the cashew nut is harvested from the cashew tree. The tree itself originates in northeastern Brazil and can soar as high as 32 feet. The flowers are small, green at first, then turning a reddish color.

Other facts include the cashew tree has a fruit called the “cashew apple.” Latin Americans make a fruit drink from the thin-skinned apple.

Maybe a more interesting fact for those with nut allergies is, the cashew causes fewer allergic reactions than other nuts or peanuts. So, it’s got that going for it.

Although native to Brazil, the Portuguese took the cashew plant to Goa, India, between 1560 and 1565. From Goa, it spread throughout southeast Asia and into Africa.

Before you become too overwhelmed with cashew trivia, let’s move on to the book that represents the day: Joker issue three.

Joker (1975) 3

DC Comics published a solo Joker series from 1975 through 1976. The run lasted nine issues, each featuring the Clown Prince of Crime’s exploits. A 10th issue was released in 2019 with the Bronze Age Joker omnibus.

Denny O’Neil was the baby daddy who sheperded the series through its short run. Irv Novik handled pencling chores.

Our choice for the day is a love letter to Charles Schulz and his Peanuts strip. To protect the innocent (if anyone still gets that reference) O’Neil used the fictional Sandy Saturn as the mastermind behind the Charlie Brown newspaper strip clone Cashews.

Wow, that may be a bit of stretch – and, yes, I did remember that was the name of the fictional strip without looking it up – but, something has to spice up National Cashew Day.

Joker kidnaps Saturn and holds the artist for (insert Dr. Evil voice) $1,000,000.

All this and the Creeper, too.

Grab a handful of cashews and Joker issue three. After reviewing the book, I think I’m gonna re-read the series. It’s been a few years. Thanks cashews.

Loren Micheals and Stan Lee can stand proudly together as visionaries; one in television and one on the printed page.

They were allowed to do so literally(?) in the pages of Marvel Team-Up 74 when Spider-Man partnered with the original Not Ready for Primetime players of Saturday Night Live in 1978.

Celebrating SNL‘s 50th anniversary and Marvel’s tenure at the top of the box office charts over the past decade, it’s hard to believe both were renegades in their respective fields. Michaels was a pioneer in guerrilla television with a 90-minute, live show that first aired in 1975. Lee was as much a rebel with his talented band of bullpen buddies rewriting the comic book formula.

Marvel Team-Up 74

Blending fantasy with reality, Lee is the host of SNL the night Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson finally recieve tickets for a live taping. A USPS mishap has SNL cast member John Belushi crossing swords with the Silver Samurai while the remainder of the troupe: Dan Akroyd, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtain and Bill Murray join the fray.

And, Spider-Man makes an appearance as well.

Why are we discussing what should have been a train wreck of a Marvel Team-Up?

Firstly, it was anything but a train wreck. While not usually mentioned in Chris Claremont’s top 10 scripts, it is a time machine and a time capsule. Issue 74 captures Marvel at its most impropbable and SNL at the height of its brilliance with the original line up.

It is a fitting choice to represent today’s non holiday: World Television Day.

The United Nation’s general assembly inaugurated World Television Day in 1996 to recognize the sway Philo Taylor Farnsworth’s invention has held over the viewing masses.

Farnsworth invented the first electronic television in 1927 at the age of 21. It wasn’t until the 1950s televisions became a driving force in most American’s lives.

Celebrate with a binge watch of a favorite show or channel surfing, but – please, please – find a copy of Marvel Team-Up 74 and enjoy a past worth remembering.

Normally today has been reserved for National Dog Day on this page.

We’re gonna shake things up a bit this year and go with another day that shares this date: National Toilet Paper Day.

This underrated invention is taken for granted – until there is none and always at the most inconvenient of times. People have used many methods to clean themselves. The Romans used a sponge on a stick that they rinsed and left for the next person.

Early American settlers used whatever was handy; leaves, grass, corn cobs, fruit skins, seashells, stone, sand and water were the most common depending on location and social customs.

China first mass produced toilet paper in the 14^th century.

Americans can rejoice and celebrate 1857, the year toilet paper first hit store shelves in the new country. It was sold on the roll in 1871. Leave it to the Germans to improve upon the product by adding perforations to the roll allowing for squares.

It wasn’t until 1883 that Seth Wheeler patented rolled toilet paper and toilet paper dispensers.

To liven the invention colors were added in the 1960s. Those lasted till the turn of the millennium when basic white has become the norm again. The last colored toilet paper was manufactured in 2004 by Scott.

This non-holiday is very important to the United States, as we use more toilet paper than any other country in the world. America is also, surprise, surprise, the leading exporter of the product.

A whopping 75-percent of the world doesn’t use toilet paper. Many other countries have moved onto the bidet.

Rather than having a spokesman for the day, we’re using toilet paper itself. Or, a specific roll.

As Marvel Comics pushed through the end of the 1970s and sluggish sales, merchandising continued to prove an important source of revenue. One of those licenses was snapped up by Oh! Dawn Inc. of New York. Their offering to the comic book collecting world?

The Incredible Hulk and Amazing Spider-Man Toilet Paper with an original story: The Gamma Gambit. The quality tissue provided 40.65-square feet of two-ply; 325-facial quality sheets.

The Gamma Gambit, as written by Jim Salicrup and illustrated by Michael Higgins, is told over eight sheets and repeated until roll’s end.

The jokes tell themselves, so why belabor the point?

If interested, try an online selling site to purchase this on the secondary market. It’s worth picking up for the novelty alone. Just make sure to put it under some mylar with a sign that reads: Do Not Break, Even in an Emergency.

Welcome to December and the Christmas rush.

Well, the Christmas rush has already begun, but this is as good a day as any to celebrate, commiserate and/or commemorate the buying season.

Who better to greet the season than some old friends from the Bronze Age, Cain, Able and Eve?

By issue 10, the triumvirate of terror had been hosting the humor/horror anthology nearly two years. It would also mark the final issue sans advertisements.

For the uninitiated, Cain, Able and Eve are raconteurs plying their skills on any who will listen – and, even more so on those who won’t.

This time, the three have stolen away in Santa’s sleigh as he makes his Christmas Eve journey. When the finally reveal themselves – and intent – Santa is less than gracious, but hears their stories anyway.

Plop! (1973) 10

Not that he has much choice.

Cain opens the trio of tales with androclutz and the Lion.

1. Nelson Bridwell and Joe Orlando take much liberty with The Lion and the Thorn fable all while David Maniak illustrates.

“Androklutz is the nicest kid on the block,” so say Bridwell and Orlando. The protagonist would stop at nothing to champion what he felt was right. From risking his life to save drowning persons to pulling an annoying thorn from a strange lion’s paw.

No matter the deed, small or big, Androklutz always learned no good deed goes unpunished. Even unto death.

Eve tortures Santa next with …A Change of Diet!!

Creator and friend learn that pets will bite the hand that feeds them.

Able is the final tale teller with The Secret Origin of Grooble Man.

Steve Skeates and Sergio Aragones serve up John Jacobson’s story of word power. The four-page account is as long as it needs to be as good intentions are dashed with one utterance.

Each recital is interspersed with one- and two-page joke panels while the stories are bookended with Sergio Aragones art and wit. All are tied up with the South American showman’s usual disposal of the hosts as they lament the lack of appreciation for their craft and themselves.

For a more detailed history of Plop!, please refer to our earlier offering for Easter with issue five.

Marvel’s Hulk began as a grey monster, turned green, went grey and settled back into his green motif. He has been simple minded, brilliant, a gangster and many other things, but in 2020 he became a cosplayer.

Hulk’s horror homage was N’Kantu, the Living Mummy for Marvel’s 2020 series of variant Halloween covers.

IMMORTAL HULK (2017) 38 variant cover by Del Mundo

Plumbing the depths of the monster pantheon Marvel had Dracula, a werewolf and the Frankenstein monster filling comic pages in the early 1970s; all that remained to resurrect was a mummy.

Beginning in Supernatural Thrillers (1972) issue five, Steve Gerber and Rich Buckler unleashed the 3,000-year-old living mummy, N’Kantu.

Initially intended as a one-and-done, N’Kantu’s story proved popular enough to return in Supernatural Thrillers seven. From there, it ran till issue 15 when the title was cancelled.

N’Kantu was laid to rest until 1983 when he joined Ben Grimm in the Thing’s team-up title Marvel Two-in-One issue 95.

Since then, N’Kantu has been silent on the comic book front, but has earned appearances on The Super Hero Squad, This Man-Thing, This Monster!

He also guested in two Ultimate Spider-Man episodes, Blade and The Howling Commandos. In Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., the Living Mummy guest starred in Hulking Commandos, Days of Future Smash, Part 3: Dracula and Planet Monster: Part 2.

The Mummy was introduced to mass audiences in 1932 during the Golden Age of monster movies under Universal’s imprint.

Boris Karloff appeared as Ardeth Bey/Imhotep/The Mummy. Others would portray the antagonist in subsequent non-direct sequels.

The Mummy’s Hand was released in 1940 starring Tom Tyler.

Lon Chaney, Jr., became the mummy in 1944’s The Mummy’s Ghost and The Mummy’s Curse.

Abbott and Costello met the Mummy in 1955 with Eddie Parker playing the title monster.

British Hammer Film Productions picked up the torch in 1959 with The Mummy. The Mummy’s Tomb followed in 1964, The Mummy’s Shroud in 1966, and Blood from The Mummy’s Tomb in 1971.

Universal tried to remake the series beginning in 1999 with The Mummy. A sequel, The Mummy Returns was released in 2001 and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in 2008.

Marvel’s stable of monster comic books rivaled that of its Distinguished Competition in the 1970s. Continuing the horror homage for October 2020, Marvel chose to remember its trepidatious tome Monsters Unleashed.

Captain Marvel (2018) 22 variant cover by Taurin Clarke

Captain Marvel was one of a continuing line of heroes sharing the same name. The original Captain was created C.C. Beck and Bill Parker in 1939 for Fawcett comic books.

Following a decade long court battle with National Periodicals (DC Comics), Fawcett cancelled the title. In the late 1960s, Marvel obtained the trademark with its first series.

Unlike Fawcett’s magical creation, Marvel’s was a military officer of the Kree Imperial Militia. His mission was to observe Earth and monitor its ability to develop technology for interstellar travel.

Mar-Vell would meet an untimely end in Marvel’s first graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel published in 1982. Mar-Vell would be diagnosed with incurable cancer as a result of exposure to toxic nerve gas.

Monica Rambeau was next to don the mantel. A New Orleans police lieutenant., she possessed the power to transform herself into any form of energy. She would later christen herself Spectrum.

The title was passed to Phyla-Vell in Captain Marvel (2003) issue five. She would later become the new Quasar and sacrifice herself for the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Khn’nr appeared in Civil War: The Return in 2007 as the new Captain. During the Secret Invasion, he was thought to be killed by invading Skrulls.

Noh-Varr used the name for a brief time before calling himself Marvel Boy.

The current Captain – as of this writing – is Carol Danvers. The former Ms. Marvel adopted the mantle in 2012.

Monsters Unleashed was published by Marvel Comics owned Magazine Management beginning in 1973. It would run 11 issues and one annual, lasting till 1975. The magazine was an anthology series of horror stories, some featuring Man-Thing, the Frankenstein monster and Wendigo.

A company-wide crossover titled Monsters Unleashed hit spin racks in 2017.

Of all the releases for Halloween season 2020, Captain America (2018) issue 24 seems tailer made for the variant covers.

Using the much-maligned Captain America story arc from issues 402 to 408, cover artist Mirka Andolfo gives readers a stylized commemoration of Cap’s bout with lycanthropy.

Writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Rik Levins sent Cap looking for the missing Colonel John Jameson. For the uninitiated, John Jameson – son of Daily Bugle owner J. Jonah Jameson – suffers from a similar disease becoming the Man-Wolf under the right conditions.

Captain America (2018) 24 Mirka Andolfo variant

During the investigation, Cap finds evidence of recent killings by a werewolf. Thoughts of Jameson’s earlier transformations raises alarm. Cap enlists the aid of fellow Avenger Dr. Druid to look into the latest murder.

Readers learn Dr. Nightshade is developing a wolf serum.

In the meantime, Wolverine has arrived in Starkesboro to fight off the town’s werewolf population. He is captured one of the plotters, Moonhunter, while fighting.

Dredmund, the Demon Druid, appeared, hypnotizing Logan and forcing him to battle Captain America. Cap is taken prisoner and infected with the wolf serum.

The Super Solider Serum that created Captain America keeps part of the wolf serum at bay. While gaining the appearance of a werewolf, Cap is able to retain his human will.

As related for our National Moon Day commemoration this year, Cap Wolf leads a rebellion with the other werewolves, leading into Marvel’s Infinity War story line.

The European legend of werewolves followed settlers to America and into modern culture courtesy of literature and movies.

Werewolf of London, 1935, was the first cinematic venture to feature lycanthropy on the big screen and to a major audience. It wasn’t until 1941 another werewolf would take to the movies, this one portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man.

Unlike Henry Hull, who starred in Werewolf of London, Chaney underwent the arduous make up by Jack Pierce to convey the true feeling of a werewolf. Hull’s was more of a shaggy London scientist with lamb chops.

Since then, werewolves have thrived in all forms of media, including comic books.