Tom Wilson's A Ziggy Christmas: A Fairly Bland But Heartwarming Book

Tom Wilson’s Ziggy cartoons, usually single-panel and focusing on the lovable blob of a title character and his many animal friends, have been spreading gentle cheer for several decades. While I find the cartoon rather similar to Family Circus in that it is much more likely to make me smile than laugh, Ziggy does occasionally come up with a zinger as he comments on the excesses of modern society. His cheerful disposition in the face of disappointments makes him an appealing character and a fun throwback to the 1970s; he debuted in 1969 and seems to fit very nicely into the decade that followed.

A Ziggy Christmas is a cute little gift book of about 40 pages. It bears a strong resemblance to A Charlie Brown Christmas as Ziggy is disgusted with all of the materialism he sees surrounding the holiday and one of his rebellious gestures is buying a tiny tree that’s a dead ringer for the one Charlie Brown selects. The book is not exactly a series of unrelated strips, but it doesn’t have much of a plot either. It’s more of a general theme of yearning for a simpler celebration.

The book, published in 1980, is fairly colorful but not as much as it could be. The front cover, featuring Ziggy and his furry and feathery friends decorating a glowing tree out in the forest, is the most detailed part of the book. It’s only on the covers that Ziggy is flesh-toned; throughout the book, he’s the same color as the white backdrop. Just a black outline occasionally wearing a red and green scarf, he is at least a bit more colorful than the rest of the people populating the book. With the exception of a couple of guys in Santa suits, everyone we see is black and white, and the only color on them is the wrapping paper on the presents they carry.

Still, the book contains a fair bit of color, mostly in Christmas-related items. The trees at the lot are varying shades of green, the Santa suits are bright red, the tangled mess of lights in his living room is red, green, blue and yellow… Every page includes some type of element making it look more festive. At times Ziggy comes across as frustrated, but he always bounces back from being let down. What’s more, when he sees someone else in distress, he always sets aside his own problems to help.

As is typical with Ziggy, most of the book is more feel-good than genuinely funny, but it has its moments. For instance, there’s the rather amusing observation that “sending Christmas cards is an old tradition… that comes from the ancient custom of not sending presents!” I also love the strip – one of only two in a book full of panels – in which Ziggy painstakingly wraps a box containing a toaster, only to discover that his dog was in the box when he wrapped it.

Ziggy is an upbeat fella who just won’t let life depress him for long. While A Ziggy Christmas isn’t particularly strong in the story department, it has a lot of heart, and it would make a wonderful gift for a friend who is feeling just a little downcast at Christmastime.