The Adventures Of The Snow Man!

One of the more unusual things I've read this month is The Adventures of the Snow Man from Dark Horse. 

And the story has nothing to do with the more famous Frosty the Snowman first introduced to the world in 1950 by singers Gene Autry and Jimmy Durante. Nope, this Snow Man is a bad ass. 

This tiny little tale reads quickly and is the earliest Frank Frazetta story I've ever read. The great man concocted this when he was barely a teenager for his own amusement in the 1940's. The war was raging, and Japanese hatred was awash in the country, which accounts for the villains of his piece. The Snow Man is just as you see him and inexplicably so, a small figure who treads the white wastes of the Yukon, with his axe in hand looking for baddies and rounding them up. Apparently immune to the elements he proves to be a reliable hunter for the authorities. In this story made up of individual single images, the Snow Man hunts down some criminals and then turns his attention to Japanese spies who work for a mysterious figure called "Skull". 

This is raw stuff, produced from a booklet gifted to Frazetta's son. It's a rare insight into the energetic genesis of one of pop culture's greatest artists. 

The Snow Man finds his way into one actual comic book and that's Tally-Ho Comics #1, the only issue ever published. This story was produced in late 1944 with the assistance of veteran John Giunta, but once again Frazetta is involved in every page, learning his craft. Skull has become "Fang" in this second story. 

In this story we get some sense of what Snow Man is, as he rouses again to battle Fang. We learn how Fang left Desolation Island and came to the snowy wastes of the Arctic, and we learn how Snow Man rose up to fight him the very first time. This story then predates the original tale by Frazetta himself. So maybe Skull is just a relative of Fang's. 

You can read this story by checking out this snowy link.

There were apparently other Snow Man stories created as I've seen them for sale on various sites on the internet. One of the strangest creations of a man called Frazetta. 

Merry Christmas Everybody! 

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