12/13: Mall I Want for Christmas...
12/14: 'Tis the season, ya'll.
December 13, 1993: Nearly four months since the last strip, Monster and friends are in the middle of the Christmas shopping season at the Westfield Mega-Plaza. If the Plaza had a real-life analog, it would have been Orange County's Main Place shopping center, Santa Ana, CA. The name "Westfield" was conjured subconsciously, because Main Place is actually a Westfield shopping mall, and all names in TAGS were been changed to avoid tradmark issues. I must have thought at the time that "Westcoast" sounded too much like an actual place.
Here Barron (Teddy bear) can't wait for the spending frenzy, and Nick (striped skunk) is on the hunt for a parking space. Monster plays the part of the questioning novice, the better for exposition. The first panel of three car lanes of night time traffic is a bit unclear, not the best establishing shot.
December 14, 1993: Santa Claus country-line dancing is better left to the imgination I think.
In the bottom left corner of panel one, is the head of an excited child pointing to the right - see it now? There's an eye, a gloved pointing hand, a... uh.. parasitic bubble on the side of her head? Never mind - Hey, look it's Saint Nick!
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That's appearances 5 & 6 for Barron. Barron's character is much the same as those of Shermy and Violet in the Peanuts Christmas specials, a kid there to offer a point of view different than the main player (say Monster), but otherwise has no distinguishing personality. Still, with the fluff in his noggin, he's pretty up beat most of the time.
For Nick that's appearance 4 & 5 not including off-stage mentions.
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