The Great Big War on Christmas Design Drive of 2021 has arrived at drop #15 with And to All a Good Night.
Dr. Strangelove is, by far, one of my favourite films, and as soon as the idea occurred to me to replace Slim Pickens with Santa Claus on the bomb that is about to end humanity, I jumped at it. Initially, I was going to title it, Dr. Strangeklaus, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ho (or some variation on "Ho," like "Nog" or "Belly"), and I may still make a version with that tagline, but And to All a Good Night fit so the concept so perfectly that I went in that direction instead.
You will not be surprised to learn that this one required quite a bit of editing. Santa Claus is actually something of a Frankenclaus, as he is cobbled together from two images, one leg has been duplicated, and his hat replaced with Major Kong's hat in a still from the movie. In fact, of all the designs in the Drive so far, this one is the most questionable in terms of Intellectual Property. The head, right arm and both hands of Santa were lifted from a painting that is not in the Commons (strike 1) and everything else in the "bombsight" was lifted from the film (strike 2). Regarding the latter, I might argue that Strangelove has become such a cultural touchstone since it's release in 1964 that it has become fair game for this kind of thing. There is discussion online that perhaps the film has become Public Domain, but I'm not sure about that. Regarding the former, though - guilty! I really try to avoid this kind of thing, but finding a hatless Santa head at the right orientation was almost impossible. I will try to ameliorate my nagging conscience by providing a link to the artist's website. His name is Jack Sorenson, and he appears to be very competently filling a traditional Western niche; lots of old timey cowboys.
I include the still from the film in the above gallery to show the hat. I have no idea where the Santa came from, beyond what is probably a magazine ad in the 40s? 50s? Hard to say. The image was cropped that way, with no additional information.
You can find And to All a Good Night printed on a variety of clothing, electronic accessories and household items over at my Redbubble store. The green t-shirts in the gallery below were chosen to demonstrate how it looks on a non-black shirt (the Classic and Essential shirts are available on 16 and 17 different colours, respectively).
Below, you will find the previous 14 designs dropped thus far in the series. Normally, I would link each one to its blog post, but time is in short supply today. Instead, just go the War on Christmas page.