Advent 2020 Has Been Revealed!

Tomorrow is December 1st. And that means it’s time for my annual Advent! This year’s theme is Santa’s from around the world! Some of these blokes are traditional Santas from different lands- just in different clothing. Some are substitutes for the Jolly Ol’ Fat Man. And a few aren’t Santas at all.

As in years past, I will gift you with a present on each day of Advent. Normally, it’s a video. This year, I am doing something different. 2020 has changed everything with a global pandemic. So why should my Advent be any different. With each Santa, I will post a cookie recipe from that nation. I hope that this global look at traditional gift givers will be educational, fun and possibly delicious as well.

Enjoy!

Walt Disney Uncle Scrooge

I found this 1979 collection of Uncle Scrooge stories at my favorite thrift shop right before the pandemic. I started reading it immediately but it wasn't until yesterday that I finished it. That's because of the inclusion of Uncle Scrooge's very first appearance titled 'Christmas On Bear Mountain.' As a major fan of holiday comics, I just couldn't pass up a chance to read that Christmas themed story during the holiday season. 

All of these stories were crafted by the legendary Carl Barks. With over a dozen stories, this fantastic treasury of Disney Duck stories reinvigorated my childhood love of Uncle Scrooge and the TV series Ducktales. (I was such a fan growing up, I once got to meet the animators for that show and I still have the sketch of McDuck one of them made for me!)

The biggest problem I had with these reprints were how small the panels were. Every one of them is roughly the size of a deluxe postage stamp. It does make for some migraine inducing reading. But I think if the size of the panels were any bigger, you wouldn't get as many tales as you do in this book. Magica de Spell, The Beagle Boys, and Flintheart Glomgold rear their ugly heads in this book. They are inspirations for Ducktales along with some legendary stories that also star Donald, Huey, Dewy and Louie with a return to McDuck's Scottish Highland roots, his Klondike gold mining days and much, much more.

Be sure not to overlook the introductory articles on Carl Barks as well as a near verbatim transcript of Scrooge's very first appearance in animated form. Both are fun looks at the early days of Uncle Scrooge. Though, I am not really sure whats going on with the photos in the Barks interview. There's tons of beautiful pics of a recent vacation of Barks and his wife. But they aren't in any of them. Odd.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Walt Disney Comics and Stories #546

This issue isn't 100% Thanksgiving. In fact, only one story takes place during the start of the holiday season. But considering how rare it is to find a Turkey Day story compared to a Christmas or a Halloween, I was thrilled none-the-less about this holiday feast for the brain and eyes.

In the main story, Donald and the rest of the men of Duckburg are challenged by Daisy and her women's club to be like the original pilgrims and Indians and forage for the materials of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The winner who provides the most food will get to have dinner with the feast's queen. Naturally, that'll be Daisy. Thus, it's Donald vs his scheming cousin Gladstone, who just manages to have the best of luck.

On hand for the rest of this special double-sized issue are several short stories starring a slew of Disney superstars including Lady and the Tramp's son Scamp, Winnie the Pooh and Walt Kelly's Gremlins. There's also a deluxe story starring Mickey and Goofy on the hunt for a rare stamp. Rounding things out is a rather unusual story. It stars Grandma Duck, Daisy and the dastardly Peg Leg Pete, who seems to have both limbs. But that's not the odd part. What is strange is that Jaq and Gus from Cinderella also star in this tale. So does that mean that the adventures of Donald's family take place at the same time as Cinderella? If so; why is Duckburg more technologically advanced than the realm of Prince Charming?

I really enjoyed this fun comic, even if only 10 pages (and the cover) were devoted to Thanksgiving. Okay, the holiday story was predictable. But I enjoyed reading it on the night of Thanksgiving. It was a nice opener to my 2020 holiday comic reading season.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Dennis The Menace: Bonus Magazine Series #188

I got a chance to shop at one of my favorite used books stores today. I hadn't been there since before the pandemic. So it was nice to have a little normalcy. Even it is was only for a brief appointment time. But while I was there, I found a bunch of dollar gems for my collection and this was one of them.

I loved reading Dennis the Menace comics when I was a kid. One of my favorite stories was about this coming eclipse and how Dennis learned from a teacher how to view the solar event with some cardboard contraption. I had always wondered how you put such a thing to practice and it wasn't until that total eclipse we had a few years ago that I finally figured it out. 

Anyway, back to this issue. There were 3 stories in this comic. The first story had Dennis learning all about horse racing and then dreaming that he was a jockey. The last story has Dennis going camping with his Dad and getting lost in the process. Both had slightly predictable endings. But they had that charm I remembered so well from those comics I read as a tyke. 

The middle story was a pre-holiday surprise. It involves the Little Match Girl, from that tragic Christmas story, getting a lesson from Dennis about fire safety. Thanks to the inclusion of Aladdin, his magic lamp and it's genie, this version of the holiday horror tale doesn't end tragically. Since it's a pretty far out adventure, I am wondering if Dennis dreamed up this story as well.

This was a charming time capsule for only a buck. Sure, it wasn't in mint condition. But for being over 40 years old, my copy was in pretty decent shape. And that's how I feel about the story and art. For being a kids comic from when I was just 2 years of age, it has aged decently.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Bizarro Comics

Bizarro Comics is a rather odd collection of stories written and illustrated by a star-studded cast from the realm of Indy comics. It's book-ended by a Mr. Mxyzptlk/Bizarro yarn that's straight out of Chuck Jones' Looney Tunes!

An alien conqueror arrives in the 5th Dimension with the intent of adding it to his domain. But this despot wants to be fair. He's willing to play a series of games (best out of 5) for the plain of existence. 

With Mxy appointed as the de facto ruler of the 5th Dimension, it's the imp's role to win those games. But when he's caught cheating, Mxyzptlk must appoint a substitute champion. Naturally, he wants Superman to win the games for him. But what version? Faced with the Golden Age Man of Steel, that time the Man from Tomorrow's head was replaced with an ants, and that ill-fated electric Superman from the 90s, Mr. Mxyxptlk stumbles upon Bizarro! 

Not the Superman he was hoping for, a technicality makes Bizarro the champion of the 5th Dimension. And that's where the craziness really begins. 

Sidekicks, giant apes, teen angst and an apocalyptic concert for the ages, there was a wide assortment of stories in this book. But what really was the selling point for me was the inclusion of the Letitia Lerner: Superman's Babysitter story that resulted in the recall and ban of the Elseworlds 80-Page Giant. 

That legendary comic has now since been re-released (and I own a copy) but it was a while before I finally got around to reading. Actually, No! That's not true. This is a re-read. But other than that Elseworlds tale, I just don't remember this book at all. Now that I think about it, I must have checked this out from the library and then later found a really cheap copy. 

Yeah. That's what I did!

Was it worth a second chance? Yeah. For the most part. Some of those stories were truly weird. But I enjoyed the chance to substitute some 2020 insanity for some good ol' fashioned DC Comics lunacy. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. 

Showcase Presents World's Finest Volume 2

The first volume to collect the Superman/Batman team-ups from the pages of World's Finest had many flaws. Silly plots that repeated frequently. A pesky Lois Lane trying to determine if Clark Kent really is Superman. Aliens. My god, the aliens! Those blemishes, I could overlook. But the one thing I couldn't forgive was that there weren't any Jimmy Olsen stories in that collection!

Volume 2 starts to dip it's toe into the various Robin & Jimmy Olsen Vs. Superman/Batman stories. We only get 2 or 3 such tales. But it's better than nothing!

The inclusion of Jimmy Olsen added a level of complexity to the World's Finest universe. Before the inclusion of Superman's Pal, the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader would often pass Robin off like a child visiting divorced relatives seemingly every other issue. The Boy Wonder ended up being a major third wheel. Now with Jimmy Olsen, it's like Robin's got a playmate. 

Sadly, my volume ended. But there's a volume 3 and 4. Yes, both are OOP. But I am on the hunt. There's so many great adventures awaiting me. Plus, we start to curve away from the various alien invader capers which work fine for Superman. But Batman just seems out of his element in those sci-fi romps.

Tons of fun that promises to get even better!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Doomed and the Damned #1

I am a huge fan of crossovers. My collection is full of titles that generally pits a well known superhero like Spider-Man or Batman with an assortment of pals ranging from A-list allies such as The Human Torch to B-listers such as Plastic Man to never-rans like the one-time Avenge,r Jack of Hearts. It was always a treat when a villain was paired up with a do-gooder, as those tales were often unpredictable. 

This year, DC Comics gave us 2 Halloween themed specials. I never got around to the Swamp Thing book. (I guess I have that to look forward to next year.) But I could not wait to get my hands on The Doomed and the Damned. 

This volume features 10 spine-tingling tales featuring some unbelievable team-ups. Green Lantern learns a lesson in facing personal demons when the rhyming Etrigan appears looking for the same criminal. Man-Bat and Madame Xanadu investigate a literal ghost story with a twist. The Frankenstein/Aquaman trip to the Moon was far-out and I enjoyed the Superman/Swamp Thing mystery but that one seemed to leave out some important details that left me wondering who really was the narrator of that tale…

The final story had the despot of Apokolips, Darkseid seeking solace in a Gotham City speakeasy only to be shamed by some social justice warriors into a drinking contest with some guy named Baytor. It’s needless to ask just what Darkseid is doing in a bar in Batman’s back yard. This story was insane. I liked it. But I was also surprised that it saw print. 

The tale was written by Garth Ennis, whom has become the target of a number of sexual harassment accusations from young women who sought the Preacher creator as a mentor and might have gotten hit on in return. Truly, I am shocked that there was not a fire storm of protests from the social media populace demanding the removal of the Ennis story from this collection. Especially since Ennis skewers the SJWs in their over-the-top needling of Darkseid. 

I felt that the Batman story wasn’t a true team-up. He helps an orphan boy who believes that his brother was kidnapped by a demon hiding in the orphanages’ lavatory. Then there’s the Wonder Woman adventure with Raven. The implications of that story. Was it canon? Because if so, Princess Diana is going to have a DEVIL of a time in future issues of Wonder Woman and probably even Justice League Dark. 

I was really confused by the semantics of the last story. It was written fairly well in terms of the plot. But I guess I am just too old nowadays to understand the nomenclature of gender/ non gender pronouns without a road map. 

The characters of Klarion the Witch Boy and his adversary Beast Boy keep referring to Klarion's cat Teekl as 'they'. And I kept thinking that I was missing something because only 1 character had kidnapped the Teen Titan Raven. Being a magical creature, I was thinking maybe Teekl is actually two characters fused together. Plus in previous stories, the cat has always been referred to as a boy. But that's apparently not the case in 2020 comics.

It seems that Kirby originally made Teekl a girl. But sometime in the 90s, Grant Morrison changed Teekl over to being a male. I'm guessing that writer of this story decided to end the confusion once and for all using the non-binary they/them to describe Teekl.

I support those wanting to use non-binary pronouns instead of he/she. But I also support good grammar. I was always taught that THEY was plural, meaning more than one. I know that I will never have the impact to change this. But I think to avoid confusion, those who are non-binary might consider the use of THY or THOU. Using THEM is okay as it can be grammatically correct for the most part. But using THEY for just 1 person doesn't sound right in terms of syntax. But maybe that's just me getting old…

Despite feeling (and possibly showing) my age, I enjoyed this book. It’s been a couple of days since I read this book to now writing up my review. And it’s probably best I did as I feel that my rating on this book has improved over time. (Except with that Wonder Woman story. That just really feels unforgivable in so many ways.) 

A chilling collection of classic crossovers with modern day advancements. They may not all make sense to me, a traditionalist comic book collector in his 40s, but they made for a fun read this pandemic ridden Halloween season.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Halloween Eve One-Shot

Eve is a aspiring fashionista who hates Halloween. Unfortunately, Eve happens to work at a costume shop and it's the night before Halloween. Forced by her boss to dress up on All Hallow's Eve, the shop clerk is just not in a good mood. Especially when her attitude gets earns her an overtime shift cleaning up the destruction left in the wake of a horde of last-minute costume hunters. 

Waking late into the night, Eve takes her frustrations out on the store mannequins. But when a mask talks back to the young lady, Eve finds herself falling down a spiraling well all the way to Halloween Land!

It took me until the last page of the story that I figured out that this story was a retelling of the Wizard of Oz. All the characters Eve meets in Halloweenland are the people she works with. I kinda figured out that the champion of the mystical land Eve visits was the guy who sorta has an crush on her. But I didn't realize that the pumpkin, knight and devil were her fellow colleagues. 

Once I had that a-ha moment, I kinda dug this story more. But it did take me a while to figure out that puzzle. I really should have figured that out from this one-shot's cover. But I didn't. How dumb am I?

That ending was really quite good. The art got even more better. Those last couple of panels of Eve by artist Amy Reeder Hadley. Wow. Truly, very stunning. 

A holiday dollar bin find that was a treat, not a trick. Unfortunately, it was a tiny bit over my head.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.