Merry Christmas from Jack Davis

If you ever wondered what original Christmas card art by Mad legend Jack Davis looks like, today is your lucky day.

Jack Davis
AbeBooks listing accessed November 15, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Original-Comical-Drawing-Santa-Claus-Signed/32343172430/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

Jack Davis
AbeBooks item description

05158

Chuck Jones: Deck the Halls With Boston Charlie

The original artwork for Chuck Jones's 1976 Warner Brothers Christmas card was sold on October 20 by Heritage Auctions.

Chuck Jones's signature

"Deck The Halls With Boston Charlie" is a decidedly lame take on Walt Kelly's brilliant "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie" carol from his Pogo comic strip, as it reverts back in part to the correct lyrics we all know. Nevertheless, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are in fine form at the piano, or at least Bugs is, in their musical roles from "Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals," a 1976 TV special featuring the music of Camille Saint-Saëns.

Songs of the Pogo is a songbook and album (1956) which includes the number "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie." The classic Christmas carol amended with wildly inventive lyrics returned to the strip in different versions over the years.

Chuck Jones
Heritage Auctions listing of October 20, 2025

https://comics.ha.com/itm/animation-art/illustration/original-bugs-bunny-and-daffy-duck-christmas-card-artwork-by-chuck-jones-warner-bros-1976-this-superb-original-il/a/7403-19393.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-MyTrackedLots-101116

Chuck Jones
Heritage Auctions item description

Hammer price

https://www.musicfestnews.com/2024/12/walt-kelly-pogo-deck-us-all-with-boston-charlie/

"Deck Us All With Boston Charley"

"Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals" (1976)

05156

Old-Fashioned Christmas Greetings from John Held, Jr.

Many readers back in the 1920s or early '30s were familiar with the Jazz Age illustrations of John Held, Jr. Often they depicted flappers and the men who loved them tearing up the dance floor. Those readers also would have been similarly familiar with Held's woodblock print style, which gently poked fun at the staid ways of their 19th century forebears, that is to say, the previous generations. 

A 1931 page from Liberty magazine, via Rob Stolzer on Comic Art Fans, shows how deftly Held utilized these two very different and very wonderful styles to great effect:

Music Hath Charms
John Held, Jr.
Liberty, October 17, 1931

Scan by Rob Stolzer

https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1667682

All of which is meant to serve as a preamble to a vintage Christmas card that turned up on eBay in Held's retro, woodcut style. It is time to gather round the punch bowl, ladies and gentlemen, and to celebrate the season. Let us offer Christmas greetings by raising a glass to all those present, and to that antiquated yet somehow forever-young style of Held's that today recalls our grandparents's grandparents. He frequently signed such art as if it were "engraved," or in this case just "Eng." Cheers!

John Held, Jr.
eBay listing accessed October 25, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/317423754615?_skw=john+held+jr&itmmeta=01K8DZNANNFRWH7QFFXNE3YPGX&hash=item49e7ee1d77:g:LLoAAeSwmENo7-Ry&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8IUNi59bckQcV2ImusJGAkGsA7vEDri1BBGgDcublvwsgqcDIcr3o1%2FlUFSjn0zl5PoF%2FJZMJmQogW2Fo8EuhoQ8l4K%2FNZ%2BtmPkNEhvrBfxsptOO950RB

UcKS%2BDwvKIHbgmChoNYGKZ8jC1n6%2BNu79MDzReMHDzO0rfjJvwOdNQW%2Bf3Si2m2IcbOOCOv19t78QGTD0pQr91E1XmrNZsfZ7Aywbf3jQTp64auKeLRHkhDo%2Bm0OWMyXSESujZMJaTcepkPFdHowqYEo%2BEnax%2FKYecguvccShOfgor3fkuafhbVfuz9Tz3FWEHseBXxEFjcMcA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4Kr1b_DZg

John Held, Jr.
eBay item description

The card is as yet unsold, but its price is very slowly coming down.

Note:  My several posts depicting Christmas card art by John Held, Jr., in this "engraved" woodcut style may be seen here.

05152

Otto Soglow:: A 1951 Little King Christmas Card

The Little King appears on a 1951 Christmas card designed by his creator Otto Soglow and published by his syndicate King Features. The monarch is shown carrying a Christmas tree home through the snow, as kings are wont to do. The vintage card opens to reveal how the Little King trimmed the tree and gave it pride of place.

Otto Soglow
eBay listing accessed December 10, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/156495847560?_skw=Little+King+Christmas+Card&itmmeta=01JESC2ABXHS00N63BE60G95KZ&hash=item246fe12088:g:gc4AAOSw4N1j0WIQ&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKlmbsokPDd8OUb4VoAgz7qjq8jaToPs4ngElbZs6dgBj%2BD89BqqRvseQIdRe%2BStRVSVNZFdFlHrDMfaP9dd9iCxCkzYy3XGh4U4JaCzlCLJK1o8vVKK

Wh4sav%2B0C7ORjyoaAog4agMAO17wUGtjlCFwQlPq4zoZTI2F5zu5xf%2F0xhWTdEtKat3CDJAHEZXL76tAD4pKpMOac7Q26yK7jfkuNtWmtGHNL1Mkl2w30PyrbnY%2BRWrRkpS%2F3CbNLXp%2Fq7kv81mKkDjAsFIkyeeDdeeUMhVZINy2B7O9IdMtBojrXA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4ymiaz2ZA

Otto Soglow
eBay item description

04821

Barney Tobey: Santa at Sea

A printed color Christmas card designed by cartoonist Barney Tobey gives us Santa Claus making a special delivery. He is rowing to a lighthouse on his own without a reindeer in sight. We see the beam catching him full on. The card, signed by its sender, has lost its envelope and bears no date.

Barney Tobey
eBay listing ended December 10, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/355256840415?hash=item52b6f530df:g:JJgAAOSwW8hlbQ8E&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwC7PRVQxYfHmD62qSynR9nDV9%2BxVP9J9KeBNUs3hq%2F33Z%2B%2Fjuf542X4XnpICYRAwcd1tz9NRPwNEbg6rGCYNJ%2FuxXNhD8hilwx7wPI9uUyl6WUa4sB

CpK8cEWJSbVMFN8ihhVRxgwcXwRBe7c%2Fc9zW%2FUDfHUjEch2xBh9Q3SV2IlvQcvZiduITU%2FCcfmxfPHHK9gtuLZEF0oNGK4Z7lJkJWGBhOPr3cYsGCzxGADDIPHMew2OLMQqDmer5k2Orn3w%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_7P3tuXYw

Barney Tobey
eBay item description

Barney Tobey
eBay bid history
One bidder places five early bids and a second bidder places five late bids. Now who do you suppose wins?

04813

Ronald Searle's 1971 Christmas Card

Miss Linda King of Swansea was mailed a Christmas card in late 1971 from Ronald and Monica Searle. It was sold on eBay in March of this year with the original mailing envelope for what I recall was a substantial sum. I seem to have neglected to record the actual sale amount, but I believe it was in the range of the starting bid. The eBay seller reported that the card is a "Ronald Searle original hand drawn pen/watercolour sketch/drawing hand made Christmas Card," then confused the matter by calling it "Possibly one of a kind." Possibly? Well, is it a hand drawn original or not?

After taking a close look at all the photos in the listing, I conclude that the card is printed, not hand drawn. The initials RS are printed too, but the French and British flags are colored by hand.

The trifold card

The trifold card

M and R, for Mô and Ronald

The cover shows a postmark of December 27.

My belief is that out-of-focus pictures add nothing to eBay listings. Or to blog posts.

Signatures of Mô and Ronald

The red braces are drawn by hand and annotated.

Mô writes in blue ink, Ronald in black.

Ronald Searle
eBay listing accessed March 12, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394508195030?hash=item5bda8554d6:g:iJ0AAOSwhq1kDJhm&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAwKGk48BxWXqpq%2Fyc4CXxj%2FkA66grX%2FQdXKVDvViKsrGz2wsd3IdXEeYpU5tX9f%2FGHAmfNVVSRTVLTwqMxMXmR%2FIKALH0vD9wlY5mcjF8N

ooDVJYO8niuYgvfxmZaqJbDo4TmdGplhnWTOVFqf9KqvJlKKQnVG4qz%2Bqt9SZ6D%2BLTgyyt09UGfOeeSxvMlsaxXnXv2eDmHM2y6EQZB4S50AwzXKNXbjXwh6Fn%2FAut0%2F%2FV3kAR8Zljt%2Bq027Pk9XFSnRA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8Li3o7bYQ

Note:  To correct the eBay listing, Searle's wife Mô was the former Monica Koenig. Sorry, Maureen.

For more on Ronald Searle's extraordinary Christmas cards, see Matt Jones's 2010 post here. As of this writing, the 1971 card is not included there.

Cartoonist's personal Christmas cards would make happy additions to this blog, especially if they are not already available online. Scans are welcome. Tricolor and Union Jack optional.

04522