Monday, December 21, 2020

Spaceman Discovers Christmas... Film at Eleven!


Spaceman Discovers Christmas... Film at Eleven!

Sorry, but there's no "film" and, unless you are reading this at precisely 1100 or 2300 hours (in the time zone of your choice), there's no "eleven" either!

But there IS this wonderful comic...


...Yes, we know that, in film, "Santa Claus Conquer[ed] the Martians" but, by and large, we don't necessarily associate Christmas with Martians.  Red SUIT, yes!  Red PLANET, no!  

But, since last year and my first reading of this utterly delightful comic, perhaps it's time I do. 

Just not THESE Martians!  



Nor this Martian, even though he brought Dino along for the ride!


And, definitely not these Martians!  


But a very special Martian, so modest is he that his own cover refers to him as "Spaceman"!


Despite being titled in such an awkwardly bland manner, and drawn almost equally so, "Spaceman Discovers Christmas" might just be the quintessential example of why you should never "judge a book by its cover"!  


...But, since it's also a book you're not likely to easily find, I'll just have to show you why!

First, however, we must thank our great friend Elaine for sending me a copy of this wonderful book - and then immediately apologize to her for taking a full year to write a review post on it!  

So, better late than never... And, as we used to say in the old "Paper Hard-Copy TIAH Days"...

THE ISSUE AT HAND IS: SPACEMAN DISCOVERS CHRISTMAS (1958)
Produced by Will Eisner's commercial studio, Promotional Publications, with art supervised by Will Eisner. 

Though you might momentarily wonder just how much "supervision" a great artist and graphic-storytelling visionary like Will Eisner, creator of such amazingly-ahead-of their-time images like this...


...might have put into such a generically-looking cover.  
 

But, those concerns quickly vanish, upon cracking said cover and seeing THIS!  

Now, THAT'S the Will Eisner *I* know!  

"One day in December, Tommy… and Susie were walking through the park near their house… when suddenly they heard a WHOOSH and a WHUMP! And down came a flying saucer right in front of them!"  

(WARNING: RHYME ALERT AHEAD!) 

And what to their wondering eyes should appear, but a "little green man" they would soon hold dear! 


J.B. Grook was his name, and from Mars he did hail. He was here on a mission, and he could not fail! 


"Mars Needs Women!", so a movie would say.  But what Mars REALLY needed was a NEW HOLIDAY! 

Which holiday to choose, and show Mars the way. The unanimous choice would be - Christmas Day!


Tommy and Susie show their Martian friend why.  O'er the next TEN PAGES, they convince the green guy!  











J.B. Grook returns home with a sure recommendation, that Christmas become Mars' next celebration! 

"Merry Christmas!" he said, as he vanished from sight.  The kids were quite certain, he'd have a good flight! 


Did it all really happen?  We never will know.  But Mars shined a bit brighter, on the calm Earthly snow!   


I hope you enjoyed my narration in verse, knowing it always could have been worse.  

But the comic itself is a joy to behold!  I'll read it each year, it'll never get old! 

On these Blog images, 'Tis certain you'll hover.  Here's one image more... It's the festive back cover!  


This post is over.  There is no more!  But, for this, we thank... our Ben Franklin Store! 

NON-RHYMING BONUS GCD LINK:  HERE is the index I created at GCD for Spaceman Discovers Christmas - sharing Elaine's gift with comic book fans and researchers everywhere!  


20 comments:

scarecrow33 said...

Much as it pains me to mess with perfection,
I feel duty bound to make one slight correction.
You write “…since it’s also a book you’re not likely to easily find”
Oh, Joe! This is pain you inflict on my mind!
One rule that applies to all sirs and all madams,
By all means split hairs, split rails, or split atoms,
Go right ahead, split whatever you need,
But please, please, I beg you this caution to heed—
Do not split infinitives! This I must say
Though it may for a moment look better that way,
But a “to” all alone with no verb by its side
Is like a groom who’s bereft of his bride.
Putting “easily” in between “to” and its “find”
Is not only in error, it’s also unkind,
For while adverbs to modify verbs are designed
They must be in proper positions aligned.
When a “to” ventures forth into print on the page
It must bring its verb like a horse pulls a stage.
Separation as this one can come at great cost
And the phrase’s whole meaning might risk getting lost
Most surely if more words should come on the scene
And thus cause the wedge to grow wider between
The “to” and the “find”—oh, it’s too much to bear!
Though of course, we all know, it’s but human to err,
Still, the maxim holds true like a time-trusted blurb—
Do not separate the word “to” from its verb!

Elaine said...

I like this sort of Christmas story, where a person (or animal or alien or mythical creature) who comes from a zone where there is no Christmas tries to discover what Christmas is all about. For my initial comment I’m going to focus on content and compare the Spaceman story to two other Disney comics stories with the same plot conceit.

In Spaceman, the overall emphasis is on presents and decorations, with a chaser of people being happy and nice to each other. Given that the comic was a promotional giveaway for stores, it’s not surprising that the very first thing the children talk about is shopping! Not really likely to be at the top of a child’s list of the great things about Christmas, even if they do enjoy seeing all the toys and making their wish list. Then it’s outdoor, downtown decorations—again, related to commerce in a loose way. Then it’s Christmas Eve at home, focusing on decorating the Christmas tree (on Christmas Eve! Yes, that’s what my German-American parents did, but it’s not what my friends’ parents did, by and large!) and of course Presents. No stockings (we actually didn’t have stockings either…I don’t know what percentage of American families with children did Christmas stockings in the 1950’s), and rather surprisingly, not a word about Santa. The children are aware that the parents put the gifts under the tree, and there’s no anticipation of Santa bringing more. It’s less surprising that the only mention of church is the bells ringing on Christmas morning. Then the final piece of the meaning of Christmas is the way people in general are happy and kind. I like the inclusion of the carolers on that page. I also like Susie’s statement that “my mother says everybody should love everybody else, and at Christmas I guess everybody does, almost.” I like that “almost”!

Elaine said...

(part two)
The closest Disney parallel to this story is one of the stories from the newspaper daily comic strips that were reprinted in the hardcover Disney Christmas Classics. Frank Reilly’s “The Quest for Christmas” (1969) has Grumpy write to Santa saying, “Don’t bother to remember me this Christmas…I’m not in the mood…I’m feeling cranky and grouchy, and I just don’t have any Christmas spirit.” Then Grumpy discovers a cosmoship and a boy named “Who” from the planet Galaxia. Galaxia is a very advanced society, but “somewhere, somehow, we have lost Christmas!” Flashback to a couple of the planets he visited searching for Christmas (one demonstrating that eyelashes are a secondary sexual characteristic of Disney female aliens as well as Disney earthlings). Grumpy takes Who to three homes. Cinderella’s three fairy godmothers magic up a huge amount of sweet Christmas eatables for Who to take home. The dwarfs shower him with loads of precious jewels. Merlin is my favorite: he says “Christmas is not Christmas without Christmas music…carols and jingles…and hymns and psalms.” This being 1969, Merlin does not give Who an mp3 player, but piles of sheet music and books of printed songs. Not entirely clear what use musical notation would be in an alien culture without someone to interpret it! Plus, he gives Who a live evergreen, which he guarantees will “grow in your land.” When folks carry all this stuff to Who’s parking place, he and the cosmoship are gone…but it turns out he just went home to get a bigger cosmoship to fit everything in. And he has brought gifts for them—“a real live star for everyone in the forest”—because he’s learned that “Christmas is giving as well as getting.” So, in comparison to Spaceman: the emphasis is on gifts, but they are not gifts bought in a store—they are magicked up or dug from the mine. And while the “True Meaning of Christmas” in Spaceman is people being generally happy and kind to each other, here the TMC is “giving as well as getting.” A little narrower than Spaceman’s moral, though, again, I do like Merlin’s recognition of the absolute necessity of Christmas music.

In both cases, the visitor from space is marked as male, just because that was the constant default setting. You’d only have a character be female if she had to do girl stuff. Normal generic activity would be done by a male character.

Elaine said...

(part three)

The other story I want to use for comparison is “Room at the Palace” by Trina Robbins/Bill Fugate, Little Mermaid 6 (1995). Here it’s Ariel who wants to find out about Christmas, which fits with her desire to understand how humans live. She decorates a coral tree (lovely splash panel *and* cover showing this) and then swims to the shore to learn more. She observes a family with a decorated tree and homemade gifts for the children, and then sees how they welcome in a group of carolers and offer them hospitality. Meanwhile, the other plotline back home involves food and a few objects disappearing from the palace. Flounder and Ariel follow a young merman who has a sack of food, and it turns out he’s taking it to a bunch of parentless merchildren he’s taking care of. He had intended to ask Triton to take them in, but at the outset of the story he misinterpreted Triton’s griping about how “there’s no room at the palace” because the princesses were leaving their stuff all over the place. Ariel takes them all back to the palace, where there’s food, gifts for all the kids repurposed from the too-special-to-throw-away stuff that Ariel was supposed to tidy up, and a warm welcome for one and all in a full-page splash panel of a heartwarming under-the-sea Christmas tableau, with the decorated coral tree in the background. So all three elements of Christmas are present: a decorated tree, presents for children *and* hospitality (both food and a place to stay) offered to those who need it. This story is on my Christmas rotation, and of the various comics I’ve seen with this plotline of the outsider discovering the meaning of Christmas, this identification of the TMC is my favorite.

Sérgio Gonçalves said...

A charming, brilliantly conceived tale. What a fascinating idea: explaining to an extraterrestrial what Christmas is, and what makes Christmas so great. What a fine tribute to the most wonderful time of the year. Thanks so much for sharing it! And thank you, Elaine, for introducing it to Joe!

I'm left wondering, though: is decorating a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve something most people do? In my family, the tradition is to do so in early December, if we're going to do it. By Christmas Eve, it just seems too late to me. On the other hand, technically, it does make more sense to do so on Christmas Eve, since that is the day the Christmas season starts, technically. The period from the day after Thanksgiving thru Christmas Eve, which nowadays is often referred to as part of the Christmas season, is technically Advent, not Christmas. I'm dwelling on this because trimming the tree on Christmas Eve seems like a common trope in classic specials, like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and, dare I say it, "Spaceman Discovers Christmas." Is this something that used to be the common practice but no longer is, or would you say it's still the common practice?

Also, I have to ask: Is that really Dino on that "My Favorite Martian" cover?

Joe Torcivia said...

WOW! Apparently, Spaceman did not only “discover Christmas” but he discovered COMMENTS as well! …Or, at least, *I* did when looking-in a bit later in the day! Let’s get to them…

Joe Torcivia said...

Scarecrow:

It is with great humility, over my poetic and grammatic misdeed, that I turn my response to you over to “Peg Leg (Poetic) Pete”… mainly because he forced me to!

I’m stealin’ th’ rhyme from yer correction,
‘Cause I wants fer me too, some o’ dat wordy perfection!

Ya couldn’t do better, ya poetic big lug,
If ya wuz helped by dat li’l guy, Bucky th’ Bug!

If ya think it’s bad, that a
in-finny-tive’s split,
Watch yer nose, once ol’ Pete starts to hit!

Th’ thing ta do, accordin’ ta my sense,
Is just ta plead, Poetic License!
Har! Har!

Seriously… GREAT CREATIVITY! LOVE IT!

Joe Torcivia said...

Elaine:

Magnificent analysis – worthy of a Blog of your own! …But, I’m glad you put it here… Hee-Hee!

Thinking about it, many, many (if not most) Christmas stories – especially if ostensibly aimed at the younger set – fall into three main categories… “Outsider discovers, or learns about, Christmas”, “Starring character somehow saves Christmas”, or “A good-natured, panicked, or foolish Christmas mix-up, or misunderstanding”! It’s fertile, but well-plowed, ground. Sure, there are many exceptions but, to me, those are the “Big Three”!

Oh, yes, there’s also “Someone wants to intentionally spoil Christmas and either gets his comeuppance, or gains the acceptance he secretly wanted all along – whether he knew it or not”! We have that trope to thank for Uncle Scrooge – as well as his Dickensian namesake,

To some of your specifics:
The "Spaceman" references to shopping, “outdoor, downtown decorations”, and such didn’t seem as overtly connected to the story being a retailer’s giveaway, when I first read it… but, yeah!

We didn’t *do* Christmas stockings, ya dern whippersnappers! If we *had* socks, we *wore* ‘em, ‘cause it was cold! …Okay, not exactly my “childhood truth”, but also not as far away from it as I would like it to be!

Another thing that I kinda noticed but didn’t really “get” last year, was the non-reference to Santa! His being on the cover may have muted that just a tad.

I think that the mention of church was probably off the table, even in the late 1950s – but if the emphasis is on happy people being nice to one another (if just for a few days), that’s still all right with me. Love that “almost”, too!

Grumpy seems an odd, but somehow inspired, choice to teach the meaning of Christmas! Then again, as in the Seven Dwarfs/Yellow Beak story (DELL FOUR COLOR #227, 1949), and in the great Dell Comic “Thumper Meets the Seven Dwarfs” (DELL FOUR COLOR #19, 1943), Grumpy, like the rest of the Dwarfs, save for Doc and Dopey, doesn’t get much of a chance to shine, so I’m glad he got it here!

Joe Torcivia said...

Oh, yes… If so many aliens – in all forms of entertainment - have an innate ability to speak English, why should they have any more difficulty with “reading music” than we would?

“…one demonstrating that eyelashes are a secondary sexual characteristic of Disney female aliens as well as Disney earthlings)”

Yes, indeed! Even if they only have ONE EYE, like Commander Iris-One!

The Little Mermaid story does seem to be a perfect example, of its “type” of story! Sounds very nicely done.

Joe Torcivia said...

Sergio:

We didn’t decorate our childhood (real live) tree on Christmas Eve – but that was just as much an outgrowth of my father working retail on Christmas Eve, and li’l me and li’l bro having to be in bed early.

Averi was decorating her (real live) Christmas Tree more than a week ago. As an adult, in other life situations, I also decorated an artificial Christmas Tree well in advance. So, I don’t think it’s a “real” widespread tradition to do so on Christmas Eve – but I certainly could be wrong, as Elaine points out.

No, that’s not REALLY Dino on that cover! But a whimsical creature resembling Dino, that appeared in the lead story.

But, adding to the impression that it could possibly be Dino was the fact that Pete Alvarado drew the “Dino figure” throughout that story – and the rest (non-cartoon humans) was drawn by Mike Arens. That Pete Alvarado was one of the regular artists on the concurrent Flintstones Gold Key comic, and probably cribbed the basic look of Dino for this story, also helps.

It was like the three “Mickey Mouse Super Secret Agent” comics, where Paul Murry drew Mickey and Goofy, and Dan Spiegle drew everything else in a more realistic style. Only “My Favorite Martian” did it first!

Elaine said...

On when to decorate the tree: My parents were ethnically German, and the German tradition was to decorate the tree on the night of Christmas Eve after the children were in bed so that it would be a glorious surprise for them on Christmas morning. Early on (for the older children, up until my very early childhood) my parents did that; later they decorated with us on Christmas Eve day. We kept the (real) tree up at least till Epiphany for the Twelve Days of Christmas. However, we were the exception among people we knew, who tended to decorate a couple of weeks before Christmas and take the tree down very shortly after Christmas Day. Real trees tend to stay fresh-looking for only a couple of weeks.

My childhood was early-to-mid-60's--since that time, artificial trees have become much more common, making it possible for people to decorate as early as they like and still have the tree looking nice at Christmas. Plus, the commercial pressure to push Christmas earlier and earlier has made the public and store decorations also creep earlier, encouraging people to decorate at home, say, the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year of course has its own unique character (!), and many people apparently decorated indoors earlier than usual because they felt a strong need for Christmas cheer.

Also, I feel I must counter Scarecrow's complaint, as much as I admire its style. Most grammarians of English now agree that the proscription of the split infinitive in English was an invention of professional grammarians of English in an earlier century--possibly because they were enamored of Latin grammar...and in Latin you *can't* split infinitives. Or possibly it was an outgrowth of discussions about where to properly place adverbs in a sentence. This was a made-up rule, and there's plenty of evidence in the history of English usage that it's just fine to split an infinitive when that makes the sense clearer and the phrasing less awkward. (For an example of "awkward" try my earlier sentence this way: "where properly to place adverbs"!) So that rule has been dropped. Feel free to boldly go where countless English-speakers have gone before!

scarecrow33 said...

There are some marvelous splash panels here, including the downtown scene and the scene of the decorated Christmas tree. I note that in the latter scene the dad has changed his shirt from when he first walked in. Possibly that is more of a colorist's issue--a white shirt at that angle would dominate the scene, but a colored shirt in the top illustration would clash with the color of the overcoat. Still, it creates a bit of a disconnect. But that minor quibble aside, the content and tone of the story is so delightfully 50's that it conjures up the Christmas of the times very well.

Besides the Disney examples that Elaine gave, I can think of one Disney comic book that also has a similar theme, though not connected with Christmas. Instead, the story I have in mind indoctrinates alien minds to the concept of Disneyland! This is the Al Hubbard-drawn giveaway comic book for Richfield that features a pre-Jetsons futuristic space family and shows them savoring the delights of the Magic Kingdom while extolling the virtues of Richfield gasoline. Same type of story, but with a different purpose--although both this and the Spaceman story have a subtle message for the Cold War era, namely to exemplify the "virtuous and superior" American way of life, which was to serve as a beacon of light for the unfortunate folks who lived in any other part of the world. (Not my sentiments, but those of the Cold War.) Anyhow, this Richfield giveaway book has the same end result--the aliens are completely won over to the wonders of Disneyland (and by extension, of the United States).

While numerous movies, TV specials, and stories depict the decorating of the Christmas tree as a Christmas Eve activity, I have never known anyone in real life who waited until Christmas Eve to do so. The Ricardos and Mertzes decorated their tree on Christmas Eve, and the Stephens decorated theirs on the afternoon of the day before Christmas. The Flintstones decorated their tree on the morning of Christmas Eve, before Fred and Barney headed for work. Mickey Mouse decorated his on Christmas Eve (with help? from Goofy on at least one occasion), and Donald Duck also decorated on Christmas Eve.

As for my own family, we had an artificial tree that went up the Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving and rarely came down until the day after New Year's. Our friends' trees were generally up and decorated during the month of December. One family that we knew had a custom of removing one decoration per day during the twelve days after Christmas, and then taking the whole tree down on January 6th. My mother really wanted our tree to come down right after Christmas, but my father wanted to keep it until New Year, because that was how he did the year I was born--on New Year's Day. He always called that my first Christmas, even though I was born one week after.

Joe Torcivia said...

Elaine writes:

“Also, I feel I must counter Scarecrow's complaint, as much as I admire its style. Most grammarians of English now agree that the proscription of the split infinitive in English was an invention of professional grammarians of English in an earlier century--possibly because they were enamored of Latin grammar...and in Latin you *can't* split infinitives. Or possibly it was an outgrowth of discussions about where to properly place adverbs in a sentence. This was a made-up rule, and there's plenty of evidence in the history of English usage that it's just fine to split an infinitive when that makes the sense clearer and the phrasing less awkward. (For an example of ‘awkward’ try my earlier sentence this way: ‘where properly to place adverbs’!) So that rule has been dropped. Feel free to boldly go where countless English-speakers have gone before!”

Peg Leg (Poetic) Pete and I both thank you! …Though I’ve asked Pete not to offer his thanks in that… rather unique and personal rhyming style of his. Even the purveyors of limericks would blush at the thought!

And, artificial trees (sort of “the frozen TV dinners of sixties Christmas decoration”) really did make it much easier to tree-trim in well in advance of Christmas Eve, as my family eventually did.

Joe Torcivia said...

Scarecrow, you write:

“Same type of story, but with a different purpose--although both this and the Spaceman story have a subtle message for the Cold War era, namely to exemplify the "virtuous and superior" American way of life, which was to serve as a beacon of light for the unfortunate folks who lived in any other part of the world. (Not my sentiments, but those of the Cold War.) Anyhow, this Richfield giveaway book has the same end result--the aliens are completely won over to the wonders of Disneyland (and by extension, of the United States).”

Gosh, I wonder what those aliens would think of the United States in 2020?!

Elaine’s family tradition notwithstanding, I’d say the depiction of decorating the Christmas tree as a Christmas Eve activity was, and remains today, largely a trope perpetuated by the various products of entertainment. It just makes for a better story flow if the “events of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day” surround, or directly follow, the trimming of the tree… rather than if said tree were fully decked-out just after Black Friday!

Elaine said...

Well, Christmas Eve tree decoration *was* the German tradition, not just my family tradition, and the Christmas tree itself came to English-speaking lands from Germany (most famously via Queen Victoria's German husband), so that might have initially been the way to do it. I have half a dozen books on the history of Christmas traditions, but I don't remember them discussing this issue of timing. In any case, Joe, you're of course right that in movies or TV programs or comic books there's a narrative advantage to placing the tree decoration immediately before the main event.

I agree with Scarecrow that the splash panel with the decorated tree is lovely. I think the artist did a fine job of depicting a tree that is both beautiful and believably home-decorated, with a great variety of ornaments. I like the mention/depiction of the honeycomb paper bells, as well as the mention of the bubble lights. We never had bubble lights, but I have friends my age who have serious bubble light nostalgia!

scarecrow33 said...

As for Elaine's correction of my correction--all I can say is, we can all breathe a sigh of relief! Now I don't have to beat myself up for the split infinitive that appeared in one of my printed articles about the Oz books. And Captain James T. Kirk can rest assured that he can continue "to boldly go where no man has gone before."

That rule was drummed into my head by teachers until it has become nearly an obsession. But you'll have to admit it provided some good rhymes!

Joe Torcivia said...

Elaine:

Of course, I should have said “Elaine’s family’s German tradition”, or something more accurate.

I never heard of “bubble lights” before this story, and can’t honestly say the story, as illustrated, did much to… er, “en-LIGHT-en” me! But that could be just another quirk of my childhood.

Joe Torcivia said...

Scarecrow:

You write: “That rule was drummed into my head by teachers until it has become nearly an obsession. But you'll have to admit it provided some good rhymes!”

The lessons learned from teachers at that stage of life are often among the longest-lasting! And, “good rhymes” it did provide! …As well as a few “not-so-good ones” from Pete!

The Society of the Rhyming Dove said...

A whole rhyming post, and rhyming comments, too?
Why, Joe, we're so glad that the spirit's found you!
We speak of the spirit of rhyming, of course -
Though the spirit of Christmas we'll also endorse
For it leads straight to carols, and carols, too, rhyme -
And we Doves just love rhyming at Christmastime!
And then there's The Night before Christmas - the poem -
Which does find its way into many a home,
Spreading more rhymes - a very good reason
For rhyming doves to wish all a great Christmas season!

Joe Torcivia said...

‘Tis the season of peace, joy, and love,
Wished to man, and wished to dove!

Or, as Peg Leg (Poetic) Pete would say,
In his singularly-special, and unique way…

No time fer skimpin’, or nickle-an’-dimin’
Put all yer good (or bad) wishes, inta yer rhymin’!
Har! Har!

Okay, Pete… You’ve had your say,
I wouldn’t deny you, on this special day.

Though you’re a villain, I do treat you kindly,
Especially so, when you stand right behind me!
Gulp!