Comic Review #74: Alf Holiday Special #1 (1989)

 

 

Holy moly catteroly! catteroly is not a word but is moly even a word? The English language is weird and I'm not a huge fan. Anyway I've already talked about Star Comics when I talked about Care Bears #1. Yes I bring you reviews of the comics you clearly want to talk about! Anyway Star Comics (Alf was a part of it even if it says Marvel up there in the corner. Don't ask me why.) was a part of Marvel Comics and had series for stuff like Alf and Heathcliff. I will get reviews for everything later. I swear I've talked about Alf comics before but a look over the Comic Reviews shows that I have not.

I swear I talked about Michael Gallagher but I guess I have not. He has worked on Mad magazine, Sonic the Hedgehog and apparently three years on Guardians of the Galaxy. That 90s comic that involves the Guardians characters that no one cares about, not the ones from the movie. He was also the nephew of George Gatley who created Heathcliff. If that's what got him the job at Marvel I don't know but he writes very silly but fun comics. Silly but fun is what Alf and Heathcliff are all about. Dave Manak the artist really doesn't have much information on him out there. He was born in the late 1950s and worked at like every company. The dude worked on Acclaim Comics. Who the fuck even worked at Acclaim Comics. I bet they were about as good as most of Acclaim games. The person with the longest career in the Alf comic was Marie Severin. She worked in comics from 1950 to the 1990s. At EC Comics and Marvel Comics. I love her goofy comic art so much. I need to talk about one of them. Sadly she passed away in 2018 at the age of 89.

There are several stories within this comic. More bang for your buck. Or two bucks and twenty five cents if you live in Canada. The first story is "Shop Till You Drop" A story that involves Alf under the guise of a toy called Phuzzy Phillip going to the Mall during Christmas for Christmas gifts. She AND Willie forgot the microscope Brian wanted. Alf just wants to see all the people of earth being insane and weird about this. Boy oh boy does he get that. He almost gets batteries put into him. That would have been painful and gross. Yeah some guy actually thinks hes a toy thats broken. He also yells at some customers and they go "Our daughter is too young for those kinda of talkin toys!" or something like that. I think this was my favorite story within the entire book. 

The next story is called "Snowman is an Island". The Tanners are all talking about how they would love a White Christmas so Alf uses his weird Melmac shit he has in his spaceship. This Balloon thing. Also science of the Melmacian kid I'm assuming to cause snow to fall. It goes way to far and what we get is a blizzard falling on everyone. So Alf has to get another weather changing balloon up there with the help of his space ships rockets. This is another fun story but I think it goes on a tad too long. It's not even that long either! I dunno.  The Third story, "The Return of Crazy Critter" is a story of Alf being a mascot for the local high school foot ball team. The Otters. I think that might be the only football team my sister would ever like. Well it's a story of him returning as Crazy Critter. The first story apparently happened all the way back in the second issue of the series. The next Holiday Special has another Crazy Critter story. So yeah Alf gets the crowd all riled up which helps the players. And he saves the day with a chilli dog created burp which causes the football to go over the goal. Yay Alf!

The next story is "The Gift of the Melmagi" which involves Alf telling the story of the Melmagi to the Tanners. The story involves a guy named Gordon and a woman named Rhonda. It has him sell his watch to get her a hairbrush and he thinks she sold her hair but she's become a saleslady. That's it. Clearly the least amusing story in the lot. Not a fan. We get a Melmacian version of 12 Days of Christmas. It's okay, if only for the corny joke of Geese a laying. They are laying bricks down. It made me laugh. I'm really lame. 23 Ski Dos and Don'ts is our fifth story. 12 Days of Melmac Christmas Whatever was some song parody. Not a story. Don't argue with me on this portnoyd. so 23 Ski Do's and Don'ts involves Alf thinking the Snowman they made yesterday has died and gives him a honest farewell with some Melmacian musical object. It causes an Avalanche and Alf has to become the Lone Shumranger to save the Tanners and the day! This was a fun story. It also mentioned that Alf somehow met the Tom Baker version of Dr. Who. Now that's wild stuff. I wonder if they ever did that story.

Our Final Story is "Alf Lang Syne" and it's about New Years Party the Tanners are going to hold. With their human friends, which means Alf can't go. Alf ends up in the garage and over the course of the party the entire Tanner family ends up out there. They end up celebrating the new Year with Alf after all. It's a simple little story, but all of these are. They were made for kids, little kids, yet Michael Gallagher makes them fun enough for sad weirdos in their thirties who still like Alf.  Dave Manak's silly yet fun art works very well. I'm interested in checking out more of his stuff. I might even check out those Acclaim Comics he did because what other blog is going to talk about Acclaim Comics?

FINAL VERDICT: If you enjoy Alf, you'll probably get a kick out of this comic. I did. I had a lot of fun. I think they go for the joke where they put the word Mel behind something else a bit much but it's got that goofy Alf charm down pat. You could see some of this stuff on the TV show but with maybe a few changes. I must warn you though, this comic shows Alf in a diaper and I don't know if anyone should see that. I'm not a fan of that. Anyway I'm sure I will talk about another Star Comic soon enough.