Not Teaching Comics: Those Holiday Blues

Hello everyone. Sorry updates have been sporadic of late… but here’s a little comic about Christmas.

I will be finishing up the Minneapolis comics sometime next week, promise!

Chalkboard Drawings: The “beginning to look a lot like X-mas” edition

I draw a picture of myself on my classroom’s chalkboard every day. I collect those pictures as camera phone photos and post them on Sundays. See the rest here.

Chalkboard Drawings: The “All Holiday” edition

I draw a picture of myself on my classroom’s chalkboard everyday. I collect those pictures as camera phone photos and post them on Sundays. See the rest here.

 

Thankfully, my laptop decided to comply, so I can present to you all a holiday themed week on my chalkboard. My choices were slightly upset by an unplanned snowday midweek, but you won’t hear me complaining.

Island of Misfit Toys: George Bailey (Exclusive Premiere, 1997)

The Christmas creep is fully in effect on the Island of Misfit Toys, as we’ll be looking at Exclusive Premiere’s It’s A Wonderful Life George Bailey action figure. Yes, you read that right. Some company made a Jimmy Stewart action figure in 1997.

Exclusive Premiere was a small toy company from the late 1990’s specializing in toys based on TV and film properties of yesteryear; movies like Casablanca and television shows like Happy Days, The Munsters, and The Honeymooners were all made into toys by EP. Further, these toys were made in a style that befit the nostalgic air of those properties. To wit, most of Exclusive Premiere’s output were 8 inch dolls with cloth outfits. These offerings are very similar to the Mego action figures that were very popular in the Seventies, although it’s clear that EP was a lot more exacting in their designs.

I bought this George Bailey toy at a small comic and toy convention in New York State for $3 dollars. I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it mixed in amongst the assorted garbage toys the vendor was selling. It’s so singularly strange. Yet… I must admit, I am the perfect buyer for this thing. I have a small collection of Christmas themed action figures that I decorate with every December and I love oddities born out of the 1980’s and 1990’s.

odds and ends: my christmas decorations, updated

Last year, I posted about my Christmas toy collection. That’s been a weirdly well-trafficked post, if all the WordPress site traffic things are to be believed. Seeing as that was popular, I thought I’d update a bit with some of my newer holiday acquisitions.

Two new guys on this shelf, which was last year just a catch-all for my Nightmare Before Christmas stuff.

I missed out on the first release of Frosty the Snowman figures from a couple of years ago. When I saw Forever Fun had rereleased Frosty, I snapped him up immediately. He’s a fairly good figure with some screen specific accessories. The hat is supposed to stick to Frosty’s head via a magnet, but it’s so weak I had to stick it on there with some FunTac.  Unfortunately they haven’t made a Professor Hinkle or Karen yet.

I’m dancing around the idea of starting to collect the toys made from Mickey’s Christmas Carol. It’s a cartoon I love but some of the pieces I’d need to round out a set are prohibitively expensive right now. I’ve only see Scrooge McDuck on eBay a handful of times and he always sells for a ridiculous amount of dough. I scooped up Goofy as Jacob Marley for a song though.

By that same token, there are MANY more Peanuts characters I could track down for my Charlie Brown Christmas display I’m going to draw the line with my final new acquisition.

No Peanuts display would be complete without Lucy Van Pelt. They’re all sort of crammed in there, but Lucy’s there in the back, manning her psychiatric booth. These toys are really wonderful. It’s a shame the company that makes them shifted formats a few years ago. They used to be about 6 inches tall, but now they’ve moved toward offerings around 4 inches.

I have to admit, of the five or six little collections I have going, finding new things for my Christmas display is one of the more fun ones of late.  It’s gotten to the point where I’ve gone against one of my old rules for buying these toys, whereby I’d only scoop them up after December 25th, when stores have crazy discounted them. The Toys r Us where I picked up Frosty at full price also had a couple of characters from the Frosty’s Winter Wonderland sequel, including Frosty’s wife Crystal and Frosty’s two kids. I may go back to TRU sometime after New Year’s and see if the rest of the snowman clan will be discounted.

pearce “family” holiday drawings: festivus 2012

My friend Joe and his wife Jody have a party every December themed toward the classic Seinfeld episode “The Strike” or more specifically, Frank Costanza’s made-up holiday Festivus. I volunteered my services in creating the unofficial invitation this year and I decided to keep in step with our Christmas card I had just recently drawn.

As it stands, I’m afraid this one came out quite a bit better! I mimicked the colors from the stage at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas and I think the softer pink and purple tones make the entire illustration more appealing.

pearce family holiday drawings: christmas 2012

Last year, we had a lot of fun making up our own Christmas cards for the family based on the movie A Christmas Story. We decided to do the same thing this year, but with different yuletide inspiration. I had “After Schulz” written at the bottom of the drawing but it was scissored off during the edit process. I hope the inspiration is plain to see.

odds and ends: my christmas decorations

Seeing as it’s the last Friday before Christmas, I thought I’d take the opportunity to share with you some of my holiday decorations.

Please note the possessive pronoun “my” in the last sentence. While the family has many nutcrackers and ornaments that are shared throughout the house, the decorations I’m going to show you are emphatically mine. Indeed, I am sure Ellen is more than happy to let me take full responsibility for the following. Most of them are Christmas themed action figures I’ve collected over the years. There seemed to be a moment in time in the early ’00’s when EVERY Christmas special ever created received a high-quality line of toys. This was probably not a great idea, as evidenced by my admission that almost all of these were picked up at some kind of After-Christmas closeout sale for 75% off.

At any rate, you’ll find my collection behind the cut. If you’re a fan of 30 year old men blathering on about action figures, you’re in for a treat. Please enjoy and have a happy holiday!