 I'm the comic weekly man, the jolly comic weekly man. And I'm here to read the funnies to you happy boys and honey. Yes, boys and girls, it's comic weekly time. And here I come right into your house to bring a little fun and happiness. Right out of the pages of Puck the Comic Weekly, straight into your living room, your friend the comic weekly man, the jolly comic weekly man. Hello, hello, hello. A little bit sunny. How are you today? I'm so excited because Christmas is here. Yes, Christmas is here, the best time of the year. Well, that's good. And no one has reason to be mad. Oh, that's true. Yes, it is. Well, let's wish everyone a merry Christmas. Yes, let's. All right. Merry Christmas, everyone. Merry Christmas. Puck the Comic Weekly. Very well, I'll read that in just a moment. But before I do, let's listen to this nice man. Now here we go with Puck the Comic Weekly. And on the first page, Hop along Cassidy. Magic words for the music, please. Very well, my lady. Six guns blazing as you thunders along. Give us music for Hop along. The Marshal, Hoppy and his pals have ridden to Pike's Landing to warn the citizens that the Indians are on the warpath. They trail Black John, who's been the ringleader of the troublemakers for so long, into town. The citizens get to work throwing up a barricade as the Marshal rides up and down, telling all new hands to come running up what the excitement's about. All party-headed this way, armed to the teeth with smuggle rifles, help throw up that barricade and manned gun positions. Meanwhile, first picture next row, Hoppy, California, and Lucky are going down to the waterfront at the Landing to Beaker's office to warn him to be on the lookout for Black John. As they near a pile of barrels, Hoppy suddenly makes a leap at them. Throws a gun and he thugs. He's knocked over with the barrels, he says. Next time you attempt to ambush, you better cut out cigarette smooths. The smoke gives you away. California snorts. These mavericks may have been posted here to keep us from finding Black John. Hoppy tells him, he'd hide him up California. I'll check on the freight office. And Hoppy walks over to Beaker's office and goes in, last picture, second row. He sees Beaker huddled before his safe. And he says, working late, aren't you, Mr. Beaker? Beaker, who's been hurriedly stuffing things into the safe, slammers. Well, I heard about the coming attack and I'm, well, I'm stowing away all valuable records to protect the boat company. First picture bottom row, Hoppy goes on. Yeah, maybe you also heard of Black John. He's been working for Kirby's bunch, helping to smuggle guns to Iron Claw's tribe. We chased Black John to this town. Well, I'm afraid there's no such person here. All right, I'll take your word for it. And Hoppy goes out. He tells Lucky in California, hey, Black John's in there, all right. Hey, you mean you saw him? And last picture, Hoppy answers. Oh, I didn't have to. There's blood on the ladder leading to the upstairs storeroom. I guess the Black John was in the storeroom. Yes, you bet it was. I wonder why he didn't knock that Mr. Beaker down and go up the steps after Black John. Well, Hoppy has his own reasons, so I'm afraid we'll have to be patient before he does that. Oh, next week do you think we'll see the Indians attack Pike's Landing? I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Now? Well, let's go over to the next page because you remember last week Bolton, the pirate, well, he escaped from King Agua and he's heard that the Dems are going to attack Val's homeland. That's exactly right. I wonder whether Bolton is going to warn Prince Val about this. Well, let's find out. So turn over the page to page three and here we go with Prince Valient in the days of King Arthur. Hecket, break it, Gray Malkin and Quince, music romantic for a fair, fair prince. Part of the North, Bolton, who has fled from the anger of King Agua, tackles a difficult problem. He alone knows of the coming invasion of Thule by the Danes. He realizes Val and King Agua must be warned, but he's angry because he was thrown in a dungeon by King Agua and revenge and loyalty battle in his simple heart. But loyalty wins. A messenger is sent to warn the King of coming danger. And last picture top row, Val with his friends, and last picture top row, Val with his father organizes the fighting men. Come demand the great fleet of ships gathering in the fjord and in no time at all the ships are prepared and ready for war. King Agua will command the center. Prince Val will lead the right wing. But who will captain the right wing? Always, Bolter had been the leader of the right wing. But Bolter is far to the north where he has fled after his escape. What to do? And then Nalita comes forward with a scheme. She suggests that little Prince Arne, the two-year-old baby boy, be appointed captain of the right wing in Bolter's place. Because she says, where Arne goes, there goes Tillicombe who Bolter loves. And if Tillicombe is there, Bolter is sure to come. First picture bottom row before the fleet sails. A consul is called and the captain's listening surprise as King Agua gives the order of battle. I command the center. My son, Prince Valient, the left wing. And then pointing to the little two-year-old boy wearing sword and shield, he says. And my grandson, Prince Arne, the right. At last picture, a day later, Bolter hears the news and is full of bitterness. For his place, his battle station has been given to a mere child. What an insult. Why, he, the roughest of all sea captains, finds out that Val and his father think his place can be taken by a little child. That's why he's angry. Oh, I see. But that was just a trick. They're hoping he'll get so mad that when he hears this, he'll come back to show them that they can't do without him. Oh, you win? Yes. Yes, and when he hears Tillicombe will be there, I'll bet you he'll come back, I'll bet you. Well, we'll find out about that next week. Now? Well, now, too. Why, we certainly can do, Donald Duck. So let's go over the page, past page four, over another page, past Perry Mason and the Lone Ranger. Here on page six is Donald Duck. So here we go with Donald Duck and say the magic words with me. Squee-jump, squee-jump, squee-jump, squee-jump, squee-jump, squee-jump. Let's have music to fit a quack-quack. Daisy, Donald's girlfriend, is home in bed sick. The phone rings. She sits up and says, Hello? Oh, yes, yes. I feel awful. Flugh or something. What? What? Oh, no, no, not today. What? In 10 minutes! And the click on the other end of the line tells her that the party is hung up. A second later, Daisy's in the bathtub. A little later, first picture bottom row, she's at her dressing table, painting her fingernails. A little later, she's powdering her nose, putting on lipstick, fixing her eyebrows. And then she's slipping into a very pretty nightgown, squirting herself with perfume. And then slips back into bed again. Pulls the covers over her. And then she hears. The door opens last picture. And in walks Donald with a bouquet of flowers. He stops beside her bed and looks at her. And when he sees Daisy looking precious at Daisy, Donald exclaims, how do you do it? Sick, but still beautiful. If he knew how much trouble she went to to get beautiful, he'd be surprised. You bet he'd be surprised. Yeah, I saw that, Daisy. Even though she's sick, she wasn't too sick to make herself pretty. Well, she should. After all, she's his girlfriend. And she's afraid she might lose him if he saw her unpretty. Well, if he... But do you think she should take a chance? Well, no. No, I don't think she should take a chance. No, neither do you. Now, I know who you are. That's right, Uncle Rimmer. I certainly will if you'll turn over to the last page of the first section. All right, section. And there he is, Uncle Rimmer's in his tales of Brer Rabbit. Say the magic words with me. Hippity hoppity make it a habit to give us music for old Brer Rabbit. Uncle Rimmer says, Brer Fox is all the time thinking about Brer Rabbit, till something better comes along. Yes, in this day's no different. Brer Rabbit peeks out his window and sees Brer Fox hiding behind a tree. Brer Rabbit says, Well, Brer Fox has been laying for me all morning. It's about time I was getting rid of him. So he opens the window and stands behind the safe where he keeps his valuables and says loud enough for Brer Fox to hear. Now that I have put all my gold in one big ball, I expect I better take it down to the bank for safe keeping. Brer Fox exclaims, Gold! Hmm. So he sticks his head up out of the bushes, looks through the window and sees Brer Rabbit open his safe, glass picture top roll. He sees him take out a big gold ball. And then he sees Brer Rabbit practically break his back trying to lift the gold ball because it's so heavy. And he hears Brer Rabbit saying, Oh, I'll be glad when I get this gold to the bank. And Brer Fox says to himself, Yeah, then you ain't gonna be glad. And he watches as Brer Rabbit staggers to the door, down the steps and down the path. First picture bottom roll, he sees Brer Rabbit coming toward the tree where he's hiding, still carrying the gold ball. And he hears Brer Rabbit saying, Hey, this gold ball is getting heavier by the minute. Then Brer Fox pops out from behind the bushes and says, Well, I'll relieve you with that weight right now. Let go of that gold ball. Brer Rabbit pauses into the air. It up, up it goes. Third picture bottom roll. Brer Fox exclaims, Hey, hey, what, what's this? And Brer Rabbit says, The price of gold is going up. And as the gold ball sails through the air, Brer Fox chases off after it. And Brer Rabbit saunters down the road. Last picture saying, I knew that gold balloon would come in handy someday. And Uncle Rima says, A greedy man is always too willing to settle for something better. Isn't that a good joke on Brer Fox? Yes, Brer Rabbit found a good way to get Brer Fox away from the bushes so he could go off to town and enjoy himself. Yes. Well, he'll be running for quite a while anyway. Now. Oh, not that. And I'll read that in just a moment. The first hears that nice man again with something interesting to say. Now here we go again with Puck the Comic Weekly and on the first page of the second section, Blondie and Dagwood. Magic words for the music, please. Very well, my lady. Rima food, Rima fun, Zim Zim Zombie, conjure me music for Dagwood and Blondie. Blondie! Blondie tells Dagwood, Dagwood, you have to get rid of that mouse. It kept me awake again all last night. Dagwood throws down his newspaper, goes out into the other room, walks over to Daisy and her pups and smiles at him. Fine thing! Six big healthy dogs around here and you can't even catch one little bitty mouse. As tears of shame run out of the dog's eyes, Dagwood roars last picture top row. What we need around this house is a good old-fashioned cat. Well, everybody starts looking for cats. Alexander reports first picture next row. Alvin loaned me his cat for the night. Cookie reports. I found these two strays in the alley. Dagwood gets one from a neighbor. Oh, Esmeralda's a wonderful mouse at Dagwood. Last picture, second row, three neighbor kids bring cats to the Bumstead house. Oh, Mr. Bumstead, we heard you want to borrow some cats. That night, first picture, third row, as Dagwood prepares for bed, he says to Blondie, well, it's gonna be a different story around here now. That mouse isn't gonna keep us awake any more. In the middle of the night, the dogs come down the stairs. They see the cats lounging around. The dogs are very jealous, go, and the cats who don't like their tone of voice go. One of the dogs walks up to one of the cats and he says, which means I dare you to knock this flee off my shoulder. And the cat answers, and the last picture, third row, the dogs go after the cats. The cats go after the dogs and they all dash up the stairs making a terrific racket into Dagwood and Blondie's room they go across the bed and around the room. A little later, in the middle of the night, Dagwood with a coat and hat over his bathrobe and his arms full of cats walks down the street. He knocks at a door. When it's open, he hands one of the cats to a lady saying, I'm returning your cat, Mrs. Ribney. Thank you. And she snorts at two o'clock in the morning. An hour later, Dagwood is back in bed again. He's just dropped off to sleep. When Blondie sits up, shakes him and says, Dagwood, I hear that mouse again. I hear that mouse again. I hear that mouse again. Yes, poor Dagwood. He has a terrible time solving his problems. Yes, poor Dagwood. Well, I'll look underneath Dagwood and Blondie. Yes, who's always so sad around the train that was captured by the Crocs. Yes, they uncoupled the engine, laid down a spur track, and then made off with a whole train while Roy and Dolfel, who were tied up, watched. Well, I'll look. Well, let's find out right now. So here we go with Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys. Ah, yippee-yoh. Now here we go with Roy and Trigger. Ah, yippee-yoh. Dolfel says, ain't it awful, Roy, to humbrey steal a whole cattle train for a ride? And leave a snubbed-off like jugheads? Roy replies, I don't give up yet, Dolfel. The engineer got blown off the train. Looks like he might only be stunned. At that moment, the engineer slowly sits up, holds his aching head. Roy calls to him. Hey, over here! The engineer gets to his feet and recognizes Dolfel and Roy's the guards on the train. In a moment, he's untied them. And in another moment, Roy and Dolfel are on their horses, heading down the road, the last picture-top row, trying to catch up with the cattle thieves. They gallop along the tracks to find out where the siding leads to. Meanwhile, in the first picture-bottom row, the cattle rustlers, led by Dude, have rolled the train to a point by the river's edge where they unload the cattle and drive them down to the river and onto the flatboat. And Dude shouts, Hold on those critters on the flatboat! I want no trace left of steers or cars after this last haul! Last picture, Roy and Dolfel hear the falling cattle. They take a shortcut through the shrubbery and come out at a point overlooking the landing where the cattle thieves are. They see the cattle loaded onto a flatboat and at that moment see the box-cars of the train being rolled back and pushed into the river. Roy exclaims, Well, as your answer, Dolfel, that's how the cattle and cars vanish into thin air. And Dolfel exclaims, Jumping catfish! Neatest rustling trick I ever saw! I'm stealing things so you won't see the evidence. Yes, no one will ever know what has happened. Because the cattle will go down the river on a boat and disappear and the box-cars will disappear underneath the water. Yes. Well, you'll need to be smarter because there's a lot of rustlers there and there's only Roy and Dolfel Hawkins. I wonder how he will do it. Well, that's something we'll find out next week. Now, let's go over the page. All right, Gordon. Yes, and remember, Flash Gordon is on the planet Mars where he's been captured by the Queen Menta. That Queen... I wonder what she's going to do to Flash and Dale and that nice man Link. Well, let's read right now and find out. Here we go with Flash Gordon. A rig-a-dig-a-doon-doon-sash-com-a-tash. Let's have music for heroic flash. Queen Menta has plans to capture the earth. Her scientists have developed a new secret weapon called the Melt Ray. Today, Menta has decided to find out how effective it is. Last picture, top row, Menta has brought Flash, Dale and the others to the great hall of the prison. There, a cage is opened and an armored animal called a horofang is freed and stalks toward them. First picture, bottom row, is a snarling beast pranks forward a technician throws a switch. There's a blinding flash and the horofang disappears before their eyes. Menta turns to Flash and Dale and tells them that they saw what the Melt Ray did to the vicious animal. She says now she wants to learn whether it's effective against earthlings and promises them that if one of them volunteers for the test and survives, all will go free. Last picture, Link volunteers. Flash tells him quietly, no, Link, I'm in command. I'll make the test. I used to let her try that thing out on him. I think I wish Menta Zippered had an iron flash. I feel the same way about it, but maybe Flash has a scheme in mind whereby he hopes to outsmart the Queen. I wish he tried to find another way to try to pull it. Don't worry too much about it because remember Flash has gotten out of difficult spots before. Next week, maybe we'll find out he'll get out of this one too. I can hardly wait. Let's help you wait by turning over to the very last page and Dick's adventure. Oh yes, because Dick is on his way to the wilderness Yes, they're under orders of the President of the United States to make a trip to the Northwest in the early, early days of this country. Yes, and a foreigner last week who was a man from a different country tried to offer Dick some money to become a trader, but Dick wouldn't do it. No, sir, re. But they know now, though, that they have enemies who are going to cause them trouble on this expedition. Let's read now and find out what happened. All right, here we go with Dick's adventures and say the magic words with me. Let's have music for adventurous Dick. It's the 4th of July, the year 1804. For two months now, Lewis and Clark's expedition has been working its way up the mighty Missouri River, which is in the middle of the United States. Being the 4th of July, the men want to celebrate by having a great banquet. So that night, after the boat's anchored, Dick slips off into the woods by himself with his long rifle. An hour after dawn, he drops a deer. Now he has the main course for their meal. On his way back toward the river and the boat, he passes through a melon patch. As he stops to pick melons for dessert, the last picture-second row he's surrounded by Indians who spring out of the bushes, arrows, and tomahawks in hand. However, a careful explanation from Dick soon convinces the Indians that he wishes to be friends. A little later, Lewis and Clark and their men come out of the river, loaded with bittles for a good feast. And last picture, the Indians and white men in the Missouri River wilderness celebrate the 4th of July with a hearty feast. So as I believe me, I'm glad he made friends with them. I hope so. So am I. Those diplomats that Dick met in Washington are up to no good. And I think we can look for trouble next week. Oh, I hope not too much. No, not too much. Now, look. I hope not too much. I hope not too much. I hope not too much. I hope not too much. I hope not too much. Now, look. Oh, yes. Here underneath Dick's adventures, here's Rusty Raleigh. And you remember last week, we found out something about those two Englishmen that came to the Miles farm. Yes, they were pretending to be wealthy men, but we learned that they were so poor that they had asked the boy, Pete, to give them a ride in his car. Yes, and now Rusty knows this, and maybe he'll tell Tex and Mr. Miles, and they'll find out that these fellows are not to be trusted. Well, let's read now and find out. Here we go with Rusty Raleigh. Gallop and run till the road is dusty. Give us music for his horse and Rusty. Pete is going to take Rusty for a ride in his car. They go to the garage last picture top row to get the car, but they find that Sir Percival's is parked in front of Pete's. Pete looks for the key so he can move Sir Percival's car so he can get his own. He turns to Rusty and says, hey, look at this, Rusty. A receipt from a car renting service right here in town. It fell out of the glove compartment when I got the key. Rusty exclaims, gee whiz, then this car doesn't belong to Sir Percival at all. Meanwhile, in Sir Percival's room, first picture bottom row, the man named Nabi is saying, well, how about it first? What's it going to be this time? One of your investment swingers? Why not get him to cash a rubber check and scram? Sir Percival replies, Not since Nabi. Miles is good for something big. I haven't made up my mind yet as to what it'll be. Besides, I'm enjoying my sojourn and these pleasant surroundings. Later in the barn, Tex, Pete, Rusty and the man named Nabi pretending to be Sir Percival's chauffeur are out at the barn. They see a car fall off. Rusty exclaims, hey, hey, look, Tex, a man with a big police. Gee whiz, a sort of a cop is with him. Tex looks and replies, hmm? Oh, well, well, well, that man in uniform is Danby. One of the guards at the bank in town. Hey, hello there, Danby. How are you, Tex? Hey, Danby, what are you doing here with the shooting iron on? The guard replies, Well, I got a valuable delivery to make to Mr. Miles, Tex. Something the bank was keeping in the vault. Is he at home? Well, yeah, sure. In the house. Go right up ahead. Thanks, Tex. The guard walks up to the house carrying the valise. Last picture, Rusty exclaims, Gee willikens, Tex, what could they have on that valise that they'd send an armed guard with? Well, you know, Mr. Miles, the chairman of the charity horse show, Rusty. I figure them fellows is carrying the awards. And one of them is a $5,000 gold cup. And as Naby overhears this, a crafty gleam comes in his eye. How about you? He's going to go and tell Sir Christopher about those valuable things, and I wouldn't be a best surprise if they tried to steal them from out of the safe. You know something? I wouldn't say that you're wrong about that. I hope not. I hope that they don't get Rusty or Pete into trouble. We'll find out about that next week. Now, that's all the time I have, but before I go, here's that nice fellow with some more interesting information. Well, honey and all you boys and girls, I gotta go now. Okay, that's a date. In a date with all you boys and girls, be sure to meet me with a little friend, Miss Honey, the comic weekly man. The jolly comic weekly man. I'll be back to read the funnies. Do you happy boys and honey? Don't forget, boys and girls, see you all next week. Your friend, the comic weekly man. The jolly comic weekly man.