There’s enough fire and brimstone to make a Southern Baptist preacher proud, though John Ostrander deals with the issues without a pulpit.

Spectre 26 meets all the requirements for Christmas clichés, but is still a good read.

Creepy (1964) 86

This ranks as one of the most original Christmas covers – ever.

Creepy magazine fell under the umbrella of Warren Publishing and was part of the fallout after Frederick Wertham’s crusade to abolish comic books from the American landscape. His meddling brought about a Congressional commission to study the impact of the four-color medium on the youth of the 1950s and the creation of the Comics Code Authority. The CCA proved a self-serving entity that made Pablum of the industry for decades to come.

Creepy became a safe haven for many in the comic book industry and launched the careers of those who continue to shape the field today.

This tome features Berni Wrightson, Carmine Infantion and Wally Wood – among others who shaped comic books – as it serves up six holiday horrors. Each story is a reminder of the former glory of Entertaining Comics (EC) and titles like Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt.

Not much Christmas in this issue. Daredevil drops the holiday name a few times, he and Black Widow use a string of wreaths for a balancing act and that’s about it.

Most of the issue is spent with DD taking inventory of his life, relationships and finally trading blows with the Beetle only to have the issue end with a continuation in Marvel Two-In-One 3.

Overall, unless you have some history with Daredevil during this era don’t bother with this one.

Tarzan (1972) 207

Hard to imagine, but there’s Christmas even in the steamiest, darkest regions of the world as evidenced in Tarzan 207; DC’s first installment chronicling the adventures the jungle lord.

Taking its numbering from where Gold Key left off, DC Comics, then still National Periodicals, handed writing chores to Joe Kubert allowing him to retell the origin of Tarzan.

A brief interlude between the main stories included a short bio of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burrows and a story about Tarzan’s first Christmas. The holiday tale is more prose and illustrations – like an abbreviated Big Little Book – that first appeared in Sunday newspaper strips Dec. 27, 1931 illustrated by Hal Foster.

Marv Wolfman warped up the book with a second of Burrow’s most famous creations, John Carter of Mars.

Nancy Collins serves up the legend of Papa Noel for the French descendants of the original River Parishes of Louisiana as Christmas fair.

For those with deep roots Joyeux Noel” and “Frohliche Weihnacten.”

Swamp Thing (1985) 115