Fawcett’s Golden Age “X-Mas Comics” – Merry Christmas!

Like most people who celebrate Christmas, I prefer “Christmas” over the abbreviated “X-Mas”.  Nevertheless, Fawcett published some very cool Christmas themed comics in the Golden Age with the title, X-Mas Comics.  These comics featured stories with Fawcett’s stars, Captain Marvel, Bulletman, Spy Smasher, Ibis the Invincible and many others.  Of course, Santa was also featured prominently on most of these covers.

The series began in 1941 (#1) and the first issue was a whopping 324 pages!  It carried an equally impressive 50 cent price tag.  The contents are the same as Whiz Comics #21, Captain Marvel Adventures #3, Bulletman #2, Wow Comics #3 and Master Comics #18.

X-Mas Comics (1941)

The following year, Fawcett did not disappoint and produced another 324 page issue of X-Mas Comics (#2) with a 50 cent cover price.  This is my favorite cover of the series.  Captain Marvel, Bulletman, Spy Smasher and others were back for this issue.

X-Mas Comics (1942)

The first two issues of the series were the last of the war years.  I don’t know why Fawcett temporarily stopped publication of the title with the 1942 issue, but the title did not reappear until 1947.  It’s possible that the efforts to conserve paper during the war led Fawcett to stop publishing this title.  It’s also possible that the 50 cent cover price was simply too much.  In any event, Fawcett relaunched the series in 1947.  Unlike the previous two issues, this version was only 132 pages and featured Fawcett’s funny animal stars on the cover and in the stories.  This comic book was half the price of the previous issues.  This comic is numbered “7” (for calendar year 1947?) and issues three through six were never published between 1942 and 1947.

X-Mas Comics (1947)

After another year passed without an issue of X-Mas Comics, Fawcett brought back the series in 1949.  With this iteration of the title (which lasted until 1952), Fawcett again featured Captain Marvel and other Fawcett stars on the cover of each issue (the 1952 issue only featured Captain Marvel on the cover), including many of their western stars not featured in these comics before.  They also added a gimmick.  Each cover contained green or red felt covering Santa’s suit (1949 & 1951)), the Christmas Tree (1950) and the stocking (1952).  A very cool effect!  These comics were also smaller than the original two issues, and topped out at 196 pages.  The cover price was back to 50 cents.  Curiously, the 1949 issue is numbered “4” and the following issues are sequentially numbered through #7.  This fits with the total number of issues printed between 1941 and 1952, but does not explain the number “7” assigned to the 1947 comic.

Here are the cover for the final four issues of the series.

X-Mas Comics (1949)

X-Mas Comics (1950)

X-Mas Comics (1951)

X-Mas Comics (1952)

I hope you have enjoyed this look back at Fawcett’s X-Mas Comics series from the Golden Age of Comic Books.  Merry Christmas!