Saturday, December 21, 2013

Hidden Gems: Sandman saves Christmas in “The Seal Men’s War on Santa Claus” (DC, 1982)


I've got a Santa Claus-sized Hidden Gem for you this Christmas, and it's penciled by none other than the King of Comics himself...Jack Kirby! Originally created as a feature in Sandman #7, “The Seal Men’s War on Santa Claus” never saw the light of day in the original Sandman series due to the title's cancellation, but eventually appeared in Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #22 five years later.

And what we have here is one of the best Christmas-themed stories I've ever read. It all starts with a kid named Jed, who is trying to raise money for the local Christmas Fund. When Jed visits old rich guy Uncle Titus, a bet is made that if Jed can prove Santa Claus exists, Titus will donate one million dollars to the fund.

What Titus doesn't know is that Jed somehow has special ties to the Sandman, and by blowing a secret whistle he can summon the superhero for help in finding Santa. Together they both take a ride over to Santa's Workshop through the Dream Stream, Sandman's inter-dimensional traveling machine, but they arrive to find out that Santa has been kidnapped by a bunch of pissed off Seal men. Apparently the Seal men didn't get the gifts they had asked for, just a bunch of scuba diving gear instead...so they kidnapped Claus.

Meanwhile, Uncle Titus' nephew Rodney decides to follow Jed after hearing the bet, and as the man to inherit Titus' wealth, wants to make sure that Santa is never found. This lead's him into finding the secret whistle, and a near fatal encounter within the Dream Stream. The story ends with an awesome battle between Sandman, the Seal Men and Rodney that you just have to read to believe. It's the kind of hokey, campy story that will stick with you for a good while.

So here it is in it's 18-page entirety. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!


14 comments:

  1. Great post! I have never read this Kirby story but I'll definitely try to find it. By the way, I just read your post about Peter Milligan and it was great. You seem to be a bit of an expert in British writers. Anyway, I also wrote about Milligan & McCarthy in my blog (wich I encourage you to visit):

    www.artbyarion.blogspot.com

    I hope you enjoy my review, and please feel free to leave me a comment over there or add yourself as a follower (or both), and I promise I'll reciprocate.

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  9. I love this story, and rarely has a story struggled so hard to be published.
    As you said, first it was to be published in SANDMAN 7 in 1975 (which series was cancelled before the last issue was published.)
    Then it was slated to run in KAMANDI 61 in Oct 1978 (which series was cancelled before it was published, and it finally saw print in black and white Xerox form in less than 100 copies, in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE, published by DC only for copyright reasons).
    Then it finally saw print in BEST OF DC DIGEST 22, cover-dated Mar 1982.

    Since then it has also been reprinted in THE JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS, Vol 2 hardcover (May 2013).

    And again in DC UNIVERSE: THE BRONZE AGE OMNIBUS (July 2019).

    But even in those editions, each is probably only printed in 5,000 copies each, or less. So it's still a rare treasure. Thank you for printing it. For me it was worth the wait, a fun, quirky story, absurdly, wonderfully Kirby. On a par with BIZARRE ADVENTURES 34, the COMICO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, and GUMBY'S WINTER FUN SPECIAL.

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