As I previously discussed on my treasury comics.com "lost treasuries" page, it's safe to say that this Rudolph digest was originally meant to be a treasury/tabloid comic--first, Rudolph was as popular as Superman and Batman, in terms of being the star of his own treasuries. Second, this book features several pages of puzzles and games, a regular feature with the treasury books but pretty much unheard of with the digests.
This book features reprints of the great Sheldon Mayer's Rudolph comic, with these stories: "Christmas Magic", "The Land Behind the Sky-Holes", "Will A Stitch In Time Save Christmas?", and "The Secret of the Lucky Dragon's Egg."
Like the Super Friends digest, this makes an ideal book for little kids who are just getting into comics. Nice stories, nice art, and at a hundred pages, a whole lot of it!
4 comments:
Actually, if you don't mind the pedantry, a close look at DC's Rudolph comics will show that Rudolph was copyrightable (or trademarkable), and DC's comics, both the regular comics in the 1950s and the later tabloid and digest books, were done under license from the owner. I'm pretty sure the character still isn't public domain.
I do love those Rudolph comics, though.
MIND the pedantry, I ENCOURAGE it! i love minituae like that.
i figured DC could--and did--copyright their particular version of Rudolph, but i had no idea that the character itself is copyrighted!
I think Rudolph copyright is fairly well enforced. In the last 10 years the copyright/trademark holders wised up and worked out the rights with the owners of the Rankin/Bass specials to finally put merchandise out of the REAL Rudolph. At least real to the vast majority of people. Before that there were lots of random Rudolph merch that looked boot-legged since it wasn't the Rankin/Bass Rudy.
And odd aside; I have a miniature book designed to be a Christmas ornamament that reprints part of a DC Rudolph comic. It even says it was printed with DC's permission! I got it at a Carolina Pottery store in the 90s.
Chris
At the time of DC's Rudolph books, the character was owned by Montgomery Ward, the dept. store. When Ward's went bankrupt backin the late 80's/early 90's(?), Golden Books purchased the rights. I'm not sure who owns it now.
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