Thanksgiving: a time for gratuitous gluttony, family feuding and Black Friday ads clogging newspapers, any form of digital media and television.

And, Deadpool.

At least for the 2017 kick off to the holiday season.

Rather than take traditional avenues, the marketing gurus at Disney chose to take a road less traveled by the normal Deadpool demographic. To tease the then six-month off sequel to the 2016 surprise blockbuster, a Norman Rockwellesque poster was featured in the 2017 holiday issue of Good Housekeeping.

Good Housekeeping Deadpool Holiday Variant

Deadpool Norman Rockwell

Deadpool grossed $363.1 million domestically and $783.1 million worldwide. All on an investment of $58 million. The sequel fared almost as well, grossing $734.2 million to date against the $110 budget.

His cover appearance in the venerable Hearst Corporation staple was explained in the following editorial:

“Deadpool’s persistence to be in Good Housekeeping was impressive – initially we had no idea who he was, let alone that he was a fan of the magazine,” says Jane Francisco, Editor in Chief, Good Housekeeping. “But after repeated attempts to ignore his… passion… we came to a compromise. He could appear in one issue, if he promised to stop leaving care packages at our editors’ homes and agreed to maintain a 50-foot distance from the Good Housekeeping offices and our staff.”

“After years of weekly emails and countless carrier pigeons, Good Housekeeping finally returned my calls,” says Deadpool. “And while it’s a dream come true, apparently we have vastly different opinions on the definition of a ‘holiday spread’…”

Click the “Read More” button for some of Deadpool’s Thanksgiving recipes – our apologies in advance for the bad puns and double entendres.

Golden Legacy Illustrated History Series issue 13 provided a pictorial biography entitled The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The man who dreamed of peace and equality was silenced with violence April 4, 1968, depriving generations of a voice resonating in reason. His accomplishments live on with a day, one of only four persons given a federal holiday, commemorated to honor his memory.

Golden Legacy has made the Illustrated Martin Luther King Jr. issue available to read online – via their website – in its entirety.

The usual Gang of Idiots celebrated the 1987 Christmas season in satirical style with three offerings: “Christmas Carols for the Dysfunctional Family” by Frank Jacobs and Tom Bunk; “Fearless Predictions for 1998” by Desmond Devlin and artist Paul Coker and the “Office Christmas Party Mistletoe Agreement” from writer Barry Liebmann and Marshall Vandruff.

Merry Christmas are the last words uttered by the Frankenstein monster’s new-found and short-lived friend as a Salvation Army Santa tinkled his bell. Doug Moench never told readers if she received her wings as the grenade exploded while she tried to save a faux president.

No Christmas cover or hint other than snow that this would dovetail into Christmas.

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.

Caught in a world he never made – and at Christmas time, too.

A morass, self-pitying Howard the Duck finds the true meaning of Christmas while trying to prove to a little girl Santa does indeed exist. All with some help from the jolly one himself and an elf.

That’s the simple run down, but with Howard it’s never as black and white as his magazine.

Howard had a brilliant run through his 33 regular issues, one annual, a Marvel Treasury Edition and even a slightly syndicated comic strip earning accolades under the mentor ship of Steve Gerber’s twisted take of late ‘70s America.

The satirical comic book came under new leadership when Gerber was relieved of duties due to creative issues and Bill Mantlo was installed for the nine-issue magazine run.

Mantlo handled the job as best he could, even casting Marvel’s mallard against the arctic background for this Christmas tale of civil war in the far north.

Not a standard Night Before Christmas by any means, but a unique look at the tail end of the 1970s, the Carter Administration, gas rationing and alternative fossil fuel resources.