DC Valentine’s Day cards, circa 1980.

DC offered a varied selection of characters and situations for the 2010 Christmas special.

DCU Holiday Special (2010)

Featured characters include Anthro, Jonah Hex, Green Lantern, Superman, The Spectre and Legion of Super Heroes.

The stories stem from tolerance of holiday celebrations outside the standard Anglo-American, Judeo-Christian beliefs.

As a whole, the tales seem born as much from the transition DC was preparing for with Flashpoint that led to the New 52, while America was transitioning with a president still finding his footing.

The issue’s tagline read, “Six tales spanning, space, time and today’s top talent.” A little overreaching, but a worthwhile effort for $4.99. There have been better and there were worse.

The black and white cover variant reads, “They keep coming back…” Not sure if they mean the zombies or genre.

George A. Romero had no idea the forces he would unleash with his 1968-independent horror flick done on the cheap – $114,000. The cult classic would go on to earn 150 times its budget and was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Night of the Living Dead Holiday Special (2010)

Night of the Living Dead Holiday Special (b&w variant) (2010)

Night of the Living Dead spawned five direct films from 1978 to 2010, all directed by Romero with two remakes by other directors.

This holiday special uses the basic premise of Romero’s zombie paradigm and adds the Golden Age EC formula of death and revenge in the plot.

Night of the Living Dead Holiday Special is not for the kiddies. The violence is mild, but Mike Wolfer made sure there was lots of skin showing making this an R-rated feature.