Your Christmas Funnies, from Long Ago

We thought we might present a gallery of comic strips from long ago, on the subject of Christmas, starting with the great Little Nemo, from Winsor McCay, heralded most recently in the current (12/28) New Yorker.

Thing is, Little Nemo was very racist! Especially the Christmas comic strip.

Not maliciously racist, but condescendingly and affectionately racist. Maybe you know what we mean.

So we thought, well, maybe we can just cut the racist images out of the strip.

So we tried that, and the story didn’t make much sense anymore. And it could have created a cause celebre among McCay-fans, if that were ever noticed, our Bowdlerization of a classic old comic strip.

So then we thought, well, maybe just run the strip, and tell everyone in an editor’s note that we don’t approve of the racism, but please admire the artistry. That’s what they do with Astro Boy reprints.

But Astro Boy isn’t as racist as Little Nemo.

So then we thought, Don’t present a gallery of comic strips from long ago. Just publish a Christmas strip from the Yellow Kid/ Hogan’s Alley, the great work of art from the 19th century which may well have been the first comic strip ever.

So here it is. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas.