Christmas in July!

Some examples of the Snuffy Smith Christmas comic book they produce each year in Norway.  As you can see, in Norway the comic strip is titled Snofte Smith.  Every year, I create new cover art for each issue.

For many years, comics have been a very popular part of northern European life, especially during the Christmas season. The Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip is no exception.  In this area of the world, during the Christmas season, they produce a Christmas Book or Julehefte, as it is known.  The King Features Archivist wrote a great Comics Kingdom blog post featuring lots of examples of cover art about this tradition here.

The Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip is translated into many languages including Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.  Through King Features, it has been my honor to work with Egmont, the publisher in Norway, for many years on the Snofte Smith Christmas Comic Book.  Each book features reprints of Barney Google and Snuffy Smith Sunday comic strips from an earlier year, translated into Norwegian and newly re-colored.  I think they do a particularly wonderful job with the color!  It is very vibrant.  Each year they ask me to create new cover art for the book.  Although the comic book does not come out until close to Christmas, my deadline for the cover art is May 31st.

When I am coming up with ideas to submit to the editor at Egmont for consideration, I have to get in the Christmas mood.  So, even though it’s April or May, I listen to Christmas music or have old Christmas movies like “it’s A Wonderful Life” or “Miracle On 34th Street” playing in my studio to get the ideas flowing!  The life of a cartoonist!  Below are a couple of close-ups of some of the covers shown above:

2009 Snofte Smith Christmas Comic Book cover.

2012 Snofte Smith Christmas Comic Book cover.