Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! That's what Christmas is all about to good little Stimpy J. Cat. And getting Toys! Well, at least that's what arguably lovable Ren Hoek thinks.
This special from 1994 is a compilation of 2 holiday-themed comics from the Marvel series based on the classic kids cartoon plus some all new material. The first half of the special involves Mr. Yak flipping channels and being inundated with dozens of horrible Christmas specials. Then Ren must earn money in order to buy Stimpy a legendary Log (It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.) after he discovers that Stimpy used his life savings to buy his chihuahua friend a Christmas gift.
Then it's back to some more of those weird holiday specials. I say they're weird because most of them involve characters dressed up as walruses. This is some sort of secret shame to dress as such and to my honest recollection, I have no memory of this running gag. But I can tell you it gets old real quick.
Lastly, Ren seeks revenge on Ol St. Nick after Stimpy gets a ton of presents for being good and the puppy has wound up on the naughty list. Kris Kringle will learn his lesson though as Ren's found enough incriminating evidence to put him permanently back on the good list while being able to earn some dough blackmailing characters such as Powdered Toast Man.
I rather liked this holiday special. I've read the second story involving Ren blackmailing Santa before. Thankfully, it was the only thing I had read before. Plus, there was more stuff in the issue I had read previously, like an 'Ask Dr. Stupid' segment and some fake commercials. I'm assuming that there is some unused material in the other issue from which in this book was culled. So, that issue is still on my wish list. Plus as I mentioned before, there is some all-new material in this book along with the reprints.
I love Ren & Stimpy. It was a treat to watch growing up in the 90s with my kid sister and getting to revisit this world once again through this holiday special has me wanting to do two things really bad- 1) get all of the books in the Marvel regular series and 2) watch some Ren & Stimpy!
It's a little gross, a little corny, and totally weird, but I love it and it's worth consuming.
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
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