{"id":2128,"date":"2024-12-25T11:11:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T16:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/?p=2128"},"modified":"2025-12-25T09:48:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:48:51","slug":"unbagging-ambush-bug-stocking-stuffer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/2024\/12\/25\/unbagging-ambush-bug-stocking-stuffer\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbagging Ambush Bug: Stocking Stuffer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ambush Bug: Stocking Stuffer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

#1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Release: Nov 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cover: Jan 1986<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Creators<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Writer<\/td>Keith Giffen, Ernie Col\u00f3n, Robert Loren Fleming<\/td><\/tr>
Artist<\/td>Ernie Col\u00f3n, Jim Valentino<\/td><\/tr>
Cover Penciller<\/td>Keith Giffen<\/td><\/tr>
Cover Inker<\/td>Bob Oksner<\/td><\/tr>
Penciller<\/td>Keith Giffen<\/td><\/tr>
Inker<\/td>Bob Oksner<\/td><\/tr>
Colorist<\/td>Anthony Tollin<\/td><\/tr>
Letterer<\/td>John Costanza<\/td><\/tr>
Editor<\/td>Julius Schwartz<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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George Lucas was once told that there were no sounds in airless space. He didn’t believe it. Today George Lucas is a millionaire.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If I had such a thing as foresight I would have written this a few days ago, but the fact is I didn’t actually think about this issue until today and so I’m spending my Christmas writing an unbagging about a Christmas-themed comic from almost 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it’s not as if I had anything better to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those of you who read an early Unbagging<\/a> featuring him are familiar with one Irwin Schwab AKA Ambush Bug, but for those of you who didn’t read it, he started out as a teleporting villain in an issue of DC Comics Presents, then became something of a comedic foil to Superman, and then just graduated to being a wacky, fourth-wall-breaking agent of chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time this special hit the stands, Ambush Bug had starred in his own mini-series, one in which he’d gained and then lost a kid sidekick, a lifeless doll he dubbed Cheeks the Toy Wonder. In the end, Cheeks made the ultimate sacrifice, “dying” while staying behind to defuse a bomb…which he couldn’t actually do, what with being an inanimate object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when we last checked in with A. Bug he was trying to learn to move on from the loss of his son\/sidekick, and in this special we find him deciding to hit the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, while that’s what’s actually happening visually, in the captions we’re treated to the memoirs of a Vietnam vet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like a certain animated rabbit to whom he owes a great deal of inspiration, the Bug took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up at a place that is decidedly not Pismo Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he’s trying to get his bearings he has an encounter with Hukka, an alien creature from Atari Force<\/a><\/em>, which causes him to panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From there, the action and narration begin to match up a bit more and the holiday special becomes a war comic, more Hukkas appear, and Ambush Bug is about to become the ambushee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is, of course, until the people making the comic change their minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That Green Lantern<\/em> cover is indeed memorable.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ambush Bug then shows up and plants a flag on planet Hukka, leading to a Hukka-shattering kaboom…or at least a pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mistreatment of Hukka does not, however, go unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The gang then proceeds to completely ignore this threat, disparaging poor Hukka even further before pulling an Uno Reverse card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eventually, they move on and begin telling the actual story of the special – to the extent there is one – which focuses on the return of Cheeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambush Bug keeps having flashbacks to the heroic death of Cheeks, each one different and bearing no resemblance to what actually happened, but unbeknownst to ol’ Buggy, Cheeks is alive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except it isn’t the lovable, immobile Cheeks we knew and Ambush Bug loved. Cheeks is now a zombie with an insatiable need to eat the flesh of other toys. And this at Christmas!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambush Bug had discovered this when he visited Cheek’s grave and found it empty, and upon returning home finding a note telling a note saying, “Stop me before I eat again.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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