“Just Batty Over You” plucked another five bucks outta fanboys pockets in 2015. In the Golden, Silver and Bronze ages those five bucks may have been the only money spent on anything Valentine’s Day-oriented for us, the comic book fans. With the wide reaching influence of silver screen appearances we, the lovers of print and picture, no longer need suffer in solitude.

Harley is one of the reasons for this. With her popularity throughout the various mediums, Harleen Frances Quinzel, PhD, was and, to an extent, is still hot. Hot as in dollars and cents. Men, women, boys and girls were throwing down money for pretty much anything she appeared in at the time. Any holiday gave the harlequin honey an excuse to appear in a special.

With skimpy attire and double entendre Valentine’s Day was a no brainer. But, with her and Mr. J’s relationship over, who to target? Why not dust off a notion from the animated series and target Gotham’s most eligible bachelor.

Harley robs from the rich to secure a date with Bruce Wayne who is pimping himself out in a charity auction. Harley has plenty of time to fantasize what her $1 million, $100 bid will buy her. Those dream sequences allowed guest writers and pencilers a chance to fill some blank pages.

Not a bad way to spend Valentine’s Day, but here’s hoping you spend it with someone even more special. Sorry Harley.

New York Jets 50th Super Bowl Anniversary Special

Marvel and the New York Jets revisted The Guarantee game in 2018 with this digital four parter commemorating the 50th anniversary of the AFC earning its spot among the NFC homeguard.

While not an official holiday, Super Sunday has become THE sports day in America. The day when millions sit down to a diet of hype and hyperbole served with fried food and drowned in liquid suger and carbs. It is a day of celebration, exasperation and fraternity. The culmination of a season’s worth of cheering and cursing.

All wrapped between mulit-million dollar advertisements watched by as many who watch for the game alone.

At Four Color Holidays we offer a link to the past to connect with the present. If you don’t know the story of the 1968 Jets, here it is. This is why Joe Namath has a gold jacket and a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This is when the NFL became the NFL we know today:  Jets 50th Anniversary 1968 Championship Team comic book.

Coming on the heels of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Alvin and His Pals Merry Christmas with Clyde Crashcup and Leonard offered 84 pages of solace.

Alvin and His Pals in Merry Christmas with Clyde Crashcup and Leonardo (1963)

Alvin, Theodore and Simon had reached celebrity a mere five years after their creation. Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., had initially created the animated, anthropomorphized-woodland creatures for a novelty album. Their success branched over into cartoons and other media.

Clyde Crashcup was created to compliment the Chipmunks on The Alvin Show. Crashcup would invent things that already existed. Leonardo was his silent – literally – partner.

Crashcup and aid would spell Alvin and his friends throughout the Christmas special. He and Leonardo even opened the book with “Clyde Crashcup Invents Snow.” The duo would tag-team with the Chipmunks for the remainder of the book alternating stories. The difference being Crashcup and Leonardo wove a related tale with each of their stories until they would finally meet up with Santa.

Alvin, Simon and Theodore appeared in vignettes either Christmas or winter related.

Also interspersed throughout are one-page prose stories and challenges for readers.

Not bad for a quarter.

As the first of February dawns cold and promising little, but more of the same to come, flower, greeting card and jewelry shops wait with baited breathe. February is the month for love. Valentine’s Day.

Zombies go with pretty much anything. Why not Valentine’s Day?

Much like George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Dan Mendoza uses the mall setting – to a lesser extent – to pontificate on American culture and Valentine’s Day itself.

The main thrust of the book is love (?) and loss.

Not much to say about the title. Not one I read, so no background to relate. Just a (moldy) cheesecake comic featuring a shapely zombie.

Sorry. You’ll hafta wait till Valentine’s Day for a better posting.