Every installment of I Love Ya But You’re Strange I spotlight strange but ultimately endearing comic stories. Here is the archive of all the installments of this feature. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have a suggestion for a future installment!

Today, we take a look at a delightfully bizarre Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story from 1959's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer #10 (back when DC Comics put out a new Rudolph comic book every year)

This story was PROBABLY written by Sy Reit and PROBABLY drawn by Rube Grossman. What's interesting is that DC had the license throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, in other words all before the Rankin/Bass TV Special gave us all sorts of new characters for the Rudolph supporting cast. The DC Comics had their own unique characters, primarily Rudolph's rival. J. Baddy Bear, his best friend, Grover Groundhog and his love interest, Trudy Deer.

Anyhow, this story opens up with an out there conceit, Rudolph wants to skip Christmas to be on television!

Yes, Grover, that's it, Santa MUST be jealous.

Rudolph gets some more pressure to go on the program...

But eventually he decides to stick by Santa. However, during the time that Santa believed Rudolph to have quit on him, Baddy Bear has swept in and taken Rudolph's place!

The only problem for Baddy is that he doesn't actually WANT to do this!

So he comes up with the brilliant plan of disguising himself as the Abominable Snowman and stealing the Christmas List!

Rudolph and Grover see him, but are too scared to stop him. Santa gives them some grief over it...

So Rudolph decides to bravely track the Snowman down, despite it being a seemingly super dangerous mission. In the end, he discovers that the Snowman is really Baddy and he gets the list back, but now they're both trapped in the middle of the North Atlantic!

But, of COURSE they landed on a submarine!

And OF COURSE Santa has a helicopter!

What an awesomely weird Christmas story!

Merry Christmas, everybody!