Xmas Message

XmasComiX!

(Covers for all stories this weekend can be found in the Xmas Cover Collections posted)

A Message To Santa from Four Color Comics #666 (1955)

Xmas Presence

There's a better than fair chance that i'm not here currently - holed up in the deep parts of the cave more likely, but Christmas is definitely upon us. However, if i'm in hiding, worry not - I've got you Covered (part the first) -

The queue is loaded to drop Xmas comics & cartoons throughout the next 3 days.
Whenever you're bored, avoiding relations, or waiting for the drinks to heat or pie to cool - drop on by and there's a fair chance something new has popped up in the past few hours, even if i've yet to return.

covers from - they're covers! They tell you where they're from. (1883-1997)

FF&G #23 (Puzzle Free)

It would have scanned better on 3 lines, but i can't insert breaks into the subject line.
Ah, well...

You've got all weekend to go watch Friday Night Fights and Vote for the Winner. Here and now, we're hiding out once again for

With all the holiday pressures, i suspect we could all use a light and fun edition this week. (I certainly can. I only realized what day it was half an hour ago, my time. Kind of spaced days all week - not good for my meds.)
So, no puzzles, quizzes or conundrums today. Just some 1960s Batman fun & games - 3 of them, in fact: Bat-Track, Trapped By The Penguin and Batman's Crime Patrol. (For extra fun, in Crime Patrol, one team plays for Batman, the other for Joker.)

Our games come from 1966's Batman Giant Games Book:

Kind of strange showing that sort of thing up front, but there's no solutions to be found there-in - only games and the story of The Doomstown Menace (a Batman text adventure). Let me point out that this wasn't just your typical fun & games comic. Bot the outer cover and the centerfold were printed on cardboard stock to provide actual playable pieces when cut out by the readers. (Oh, the horror!) They even went a step further, making sure you're covered even if you don't have a 6-sided die to roll at home:

(That parenthetical "do this twice" isn't an actual instruction, it's my inner alt-write urge to correct the common error - dice is plural, die is singular)

Also provided, of course, are playing pieces and cards you'll need to play the games:

And here are our rules and game boards:

(I tried to keep the boards fairly big in case anyone actually was going to print & play)

To wrap things up, in addition to the story and two more games, the book also gives us a couple classic portraits of the Dynamic Duo:

the works from the Batman Giant Games Book (1966)

An Introduction

Once upon a time there was a personal project entitled Mad Science! with Dr. Nick.

Playing with a more cartoony style,  Dr. Nick was an alternate history version of Nicola Tesla, backed up by a steampunk cyborg Teddy Roosevelt, a descendant of Judge Dee, a mythic assassin, an automaton, an international woman of mystery, and ... something else.

While creating the cast, i had fairly clear visions of most, though one was always changing, and another on partly existed. Lady Sommerset, however, eluded me. She needed to be special. I needed to cast a woman who both exuded pure sex and looked like she could provide an intellectual match for Tesla and his team (before joining them as the above mentioned "woman of mystery")
I found the perfect choice, pre-loaded with irony.

Here's a quick peek at her introduction in the comic, when hired by Edison for his evil plot...

Of course, the style adopted for this series does Ramona Sommerset no justice.

But, it does serve as another circumlocutory approach to introducing a new recurring feature with a personal touch. Anna and the Kid's concerted efforts have finally convinced me to start showcasing Personifications Of Beauty. (POB? Nope. I don't think so)
A Pulchritudinous Presentation. (No. Just No.)
A...

I need a name. Names can be significant.
In today's case, the name brings that "pre-loaded irony" to which i referred. When seeking the perfect foil for my alternate Tesla, i found her in Marconi.

May we present the Venezuelan/Italian beauty of Carolina Marconi:

Ahh...
An Exquisite Exhibition. (Nope, that's not it)

Actually, i'm favouring Dibellean Depictions or something along that lines currently.
Dreams Of Dibella?  
Dibellan Delights?

For those of you who don't spend time in Tamriel, Dibella is the goddess of Love & Beauty in the Elder Scrolls games, the 5th of which is the insanely popular Skyrim. I spend a lot of time there, though it changes all the time. (Magnificent mods)

pages from Mad Science with Dr. Nick! (2013), Carolina Marconi from a benevolent deity.

The Mystery Solved!

Since the US election campaign of 2016, the world has been asking itself one question...  What the actual fuck was that guy thinking?
Does he not own mirrors? (I could see a flat screen display with image correction software replacing his mirrors) Or are his mirrors all color skewed with gold plated so he'll look "classy" in reflection?
What was going on here...

Finally, the answer has been found.

When bumbling businessman Arthur Carlson found himself trapped as a candidate in an election he no longer wanted to win, this is how he appeared on television for the debate:

TV based decision making - of course! It was all a desperate ploy to lose the election inspired by the WKRP In Cincinnati episode, Carlson For President (S02E06). I'm sure it seemed like it would work - it worked on TV.
Matt & Trey may have called this one correctly.

SO much makes more sense now...

Gordon Jump as Arthur Carlson from WKRP In Cincinnati (1979)