Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Merry Christmas 1972

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Mike Peterson Published: December 25, 2016 1 minute 1 comment

Posting a tad late this morning because my Christmas present was sitting up until nearly midnight watching football with elder son, which postponed getting up in the morning but did suggest a date for this look back at Christmas Cartoons Past. So here is a substantial selection of comics from 1972, his first Christmas.

I'm not going to comment a whole lot because I chose a representative sample, not necessarily "the best." Some of these are quite good, some are not quite good. Mostly, it's a collection of memories.

But let's set the scene a little bit with this page of movie ads from the Gazette-Telegraph of Colorado Springs.

Speaking of not trying to sort the good ones from the not-so-good ones.

However, a lot of very familiar titles, perhaps because it was a hot time in the industry and perhaps because I was in a movie-going demographic at the time. Probably a bit of both.

In the real world, Vietnam was winding down, which was recognized by editorial cartoonists, most of whom use a soft, sentimental touch, though not Pat Oliphant because, well, because he was Pat Oliphant.

And I'd comment on how much we liked his work but I already promised not to do that sort of thing.

And speaking of Vietnam, I was surprised to see Sgt. Mike in a stateside paper. I thought he was only in Stars & Stripes, but here he is.

There were also some cartoons that, for some reason, were usually on the editorial page though they weren't particularly political.

Berry's World was one of those, and I don't know why I came across three different cartoons in three different papers, but one of them is copyright 1973 so maybe editors were looking at a batch and choosing one, rather than running the feature every day.

So, let's turn to the comics page:

(Alley Oop again — perhaps papers were given a choice, or may have skipped an edition other than Dec 25. Those marks in the right hand margin are called "gripper marks" and are caused by the gripper that pulls the paper taut as it goes through the press. They're a flaw, but one that is somewhat — not entirely — unavoidable.)

(Side Glances)

And, finally, proof that Santa exists!

I guess I can forgive the kid now for not remembering this play, though we did watch it together.