Best of DC #22, March 1982; originally Sandman #7, February 1976 and Kamandi #61, November 1978 (Both unpublished)
Here is some big goofy fun from Jack Kirby (inks by Mike Royer) with a story involving the Sandman and… Santa Claus. (You can’t make this up.)
Even goofier than the actual narrative itself, however, is the fact this story fell victim to cancelation, not once, but twice, before finally seeing print nearly six years after it was completed.
Kirby’s Sandman series was cancelled after issue #6, although this story for issue #7 had already been completed. It sat in inventory for two years, until it was slotted to appear as a back-up in Kamandi #61, and then that comic, along with dozens of others fell victim to the “DC Implosion” and was cancelled as well.
It finally saw print in Best of DC #22, a digest-sized publication, that hit the stands shortly before Christmas 1981.
Which means… It did not actually appear in traditional color comic book format until DC collected it in 2011 in the Jack Kirby Omnibus — 35 years later!
