Laurel and Hardy: Christmas Follies #1

Celebrate the holidays with those legends of the silver screen: Laurel & Hardy. 

Day 5 of my holiday comic book readings took me back to the golden age of Hollywood in a trio of Christmas stories. First, everything goes wrong for the guys as they attempt to deliver a Christmas tree to a family just in time for Santa to arrive. Then, Laurel & Hardy run afoul of a trio of street urchins as the best friends attempt to navigate jobs during the holidays. Lastly, Hardy is offered a sweet fee if he'll play emergency Santa for a department store.

All three stories were very good if not great. The first story was classic Laurel & Hardy in which the pair attempt to do menial labor in dangerously delightful ways. The middle yarn had a touch of O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi as both Stan and Oliver really want to buy their friend a gift; but they're both broke. The last story was more Three Stooges than Laurel & Hardy. It was a little too slapstick in just it didn't feel like something that would really happen to the guys. 

Plus, I didn't know that Hardy was married. Not in real life. I'm talking on screen.

Rounding out the book was a two-page script in which Laurel keeps interrupting Hardy as he attempts to read T'was The Night Before Christmas. I thought this was great. I'm just not used to Laurel being so verbose. I know he talks in the movies. But he tends to be more resolved. That's really not the case in the prose story. 

Overall, a fun read. When everything just seems to be falling apart right now, it was nice to have something that didn't trigger thoughts of racial injustice, homophobia or political strife. Just 2 guys trying to do right in the world during Christmastime. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars. 

Tis The Ugly Sweater Season! Advent 2021: Day 6

 Happy Day 6 of the 2021 Advent. Todays look at ugly holiday sweaters are for the birds and dogs and bears and all other assortment of animals! 

Have a look at this menagerie of zoo worthy ridiculous rompers!

A Fancy French Poodle for the Holidays! Oooh-La-La!

Such a beautiful sweater.

I couldn't resist this sweater of a chicken wearing an ugly sweater. 

You didn't think I was going to do a look at animal themed sweaters without including 1 cat did you?

This year stores like Chewy and Petsmart are selling ugly sweaters for your hamsters, guinea pigs and even lizards!

I hope you enjoyed this look at yule tide sweaters featuring the animal kingdom. But the fun's not over just yet. Here's a look at some adorable animals getting into some holiday hi-jinx. 

Enjoy!

The Simpsons Holiday Humdinger

Did you ever have a book that for one reason or another, you didn't read it because you thought you had already read it. Yet, it turns out that nope, you really hadn't?! Well, that's me and The Simpsons Holiday Humdinger.

Because of it's tabloid-size, I kept this book in another part of my collection where I keep books that I've read before. Recently, I've gone on a Simpsons Comics re-reading kick and as I am now into my holiday reads, I figured the time was right to re-read this book. Only, I haven't read this before. 

The Simpsons Holiday Humdinger is over 250 pages of the residents of Springfield celebrating the holidays. Which holidays you ask? Seemingly, all of them! We've got Grandpa getting confused and celebrating Christmas in July. Bart converts to Judaism in order to cash in on the 8 nights of presents found in Hanukkah. Doctor Hibbert explains the special meanings behind the 7 days of Kwanzaa. And then we've got lots of Christmas time fun what with Comic Book Guy marking up the prices of the ultra-hot Itchy & Scratchy interactive toys and Lisa & Bart crafting a new holiday special to replace the Happy Little Elves.

I've read the Bart Hanukkah story somewhere before. Either as part of one of Winter Wingdings annuals or maybe a reprint in the monthly series that ran for an impressive 250 issues. I'm thinking that this collection (along with Homer For The Holidays, which I know for sure that I have never read) are treasuries of old Simpsons comics. But there's also a lot of short 1-4 page gags that I'm really not sure about. The art for those look newer and there's never any sort of credits of the writing/drawing team like on the full-length stories. 

The Treehouse of Horror treasuries seem to be in this similar vein. They've got reprints along with all-new material. So I may need to get all of the Wingdings even if I do ever manage to get Homer For The Holidays. I guess I'm not really complaining. I don't ever seem to get upset if I buy reprints when it comes to my holiday books. 

Sadly, the holiday fun with Bart, Lisa and the rest was over too soon. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Hazel & Cha Cha Save Christmas: Tales From The Umbrella Academy

Hazel and Cha Cha- those scene-stealing psychotic hitmen employeed by the Temps Aeternalis, are the stars of this 2019 Christmas special. The two are assigned to take out a rogue time criminal who has mingled among the citizens of the City sometime in the mid-80s. At the same time, a young man is coming to terms with becoming an adult when he accidentally is let in on the true secret of Santa Claus: the jolly old fat man is really real!

Umbrella Academy creator Gerard Way pens this holiday tale. It's really not what I thought it was going to be. I've held onto this issue since is debuted 2 years ago and someone told me an overview of a plot in which Hazel and Cha Cha has to save (or maybe kill) the Baby Jesus from a rogue hitman. Is there another Umbrella Academy holiday book that I don't know about? I'm not sure. But this isn't what I was informed about previously. 

I've mixed feelings about this issue. The story seems to be all over the place. Maybe some of it is that it's probably been 10 years at least since I last read the first couple of Umbrella Academy series. But with a couple of characters looking just like each other. And the last page seemingly a little ambiguous. And the addition of a couple of random panels that just look random. Well, I think the Tommy Lee Edwards artwork maybe be a part of the blame.

The overall story is very good. But like I said, the artwork is inconsistent and the narrative is chaotic. It makes for a difficult read. I did love how some of the book ended. And I might love how it ended altogether. But like I said, I'm not sure if how I think the book ended is really how it ended.

I like Gerard Way. Great musician. Fairly decent storyteller. And an overall nice guy. I met him once being his personal security at a local comic con. But I don't think this holiday special was flawless. Sometimes Way's writing style gets a little too Grant Morrison-like for his own good and it doesn't always work. There's only one Grant Morrison and even a legend like him gets in a little too much over his head.

Really wondering why somebody told me this story involved the Baby Jesus though...

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

Tis The Ugly Sweater Season! Advent 2021: Day 5

If you are regular follower on my Advents, you'll know that Hanukkah is a big deal to me. I've had a fascination with the Jewish culture since I was a teen. I believe that the Reuben is the greatest sandwich ever to utilize pink hued dressing. And my wife is Jewish, too! 

In my household, instead of 8 nights of fun- we get 9!

I wasn't able to post on the first day of Hanukkah 2021 as it took place on November 28th. Too early for this year's Advent. So, I'll post tribute to the Chosen People on tonight, the last night of the Festival of Lights with 8 amazing Hanukkah themed ugly sweaters.

Matzoh are flat unleavened crackers. Grind them up, add a little chicken stock and egg and dip them in boiling broth and you've got matzoh ball soup. Yum!

Why wear an ugly Hanukkah sweater when you can decorate your own? (And then eat it, too!)

The first Hanukkah occurred in Jerusalem in 168 BC How dinosaurs found about it is beyond me.

Jewish comedian Howie Mandel shows his love for Challah, a braided yeast dough bread made with eggs. Makes a killer French toast.

I need one of these. It celebrates my Christian beliefs and my family's Jewish heritage. Plus, it's a cardigan and not a tight collar around my neck, which I loath.

Just about everyone who had to do a holiday show in elementary show knows the Dreidel Song. Essentially a top, playing dreidel is legalized gambling for Jewish kids. Only you wager chocolate coins, not cash.

As my Advent gift for tonight, enjoy this video from the gang at South Park as Kyle teaches Cartman how to play dreidel. Enjoy and Happy Hanukkah, everybody!

Merry Christmas-ukkah from your Jewish/Christian Madman friend!

The X-Files: X-Mas Special 2016

Day 3 of my 2021 holidays themed readings was a big dud. 

Mulder and Scully open the X-Files to the 3 spirits of Christmas in this fusion of A Christmas Carol and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It's Christmas Eve in the nation's capitol and the agents are formally invited to a Christmas pageant. Mulder decides to spend Christmas Eve in the office sulking over his long lost sister and gets visited by several spirits. Dana Scully attends the play, only to find herself and the rest of the guests suffering some sort of holiday mania. 

I'm not normally one who approves of replacing the Christ in Christmas with the letter X. But for this X-Files one-shot, I found it humorously appropriate. I also loved the main cover which depicts the Cigarette Smoking Man as Jacob Marley. Plus, we've got a healthy dose of Agent Skinner- arguably my favorite character of the show. And that's about all I enjoyed about this holiday special. Well, that and the fact that this is a Christmas comic book...

The writing was a mess. It's scripted by an unknown narrator that waxes poetic about Mulder and Scully in a very unpolished way. About half of the dialogue from Mulder doesn't sound like stuff Mulder would ever say. And I find it hard to believe that a skeptic such as Scully would really be such a closet fan of Christmas. 

I also think that the story is trying to do too much. If we had kept it like an X-Files Christmas Carol, that would have been fine. But adding in the whole mind control Christmas pageant angle to things was enough to over-tax the plot. 

I also feel that this issue was a missed opportunity. The X-Files is known for it's occasional foray into the absurd. Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose and Jose Chung's From Outer Space are two great episodes in which the agents experience paranormal activity that doesn't take itself as seriously as the overall conspiracy of a secret alien invasion of planet earth. I think this holiday special should have gone down that rabbit hole instead. 

Have Mulder and Scully tackle a case where they have to prove or disprove that the guy whose been arrested for climbing down somebody's chimney is really Santa or not. (Why are there reindeer on the roof?) That is the sort of X-File's Christmas I want to read. I would also approve of a story in which fruit cake is discovered to be a sort of MK-Ultra inclusion to the holidays. Though that Santa story would probably be the better idea.

Hey, Chris Carter! I'm available to write that if you and IDW Publishing want to follow up with a 2021 special!

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.

Tis The Ugly Sweater Season! Advent 2021: Day 4

It's December 4th. It reminds me a lot of Star Wars Day (May the 4th). To me Star Wars and the holidays are a perfect fit. My 2nd Christmas saw the Star Wars Holiday Special debut on TV. My 3rd through like 8th birthdays were filled with Star Wars presents from Santa. And up until I was in my 20s, the original trilogy always aired on TV on Christmas Day- so after presents I was always watching it.

So let's look at some Star Wars Themed Ugly Sweaters. 

May the Forth of December be With You!

The design of this one reminds me of Atari's Empire Strikes Back video game.

Chewbacca has a very special place in the heart of our family.

Wearing this sweater is sure to mess with the heads of some people.

Admit it- the scenes on Hoth technically make Empire a Christmas movie.

This sweater is absolutely beautiful.

This sweater is based on a 1980-81 holiday greeting card released by Skywalker Ranch.

AS for my Advent gift for you today we go from ugly Star Wars sweaters to ugly Star Wars vehicles. Hey- they can't all be as beautiful as an x-wing! Enjoy!