Okay, not a Christmas comic book in that there is no Christmas cover, no Christmas stories. Just an original Denny O’Neil/Irv Novick Batman v. Joker tussle. The remainder are reprints dating back to Batman (1940) 16.

What makes this a Christmas comic book – to me – is the fact it was in my stocking Christmas the morning of 1974.

Yeah, I’m that old.

If you’ve read my earlier ramblings, you know my Mom had a routine. Christmas morning you hopped out of bed, brushed teeth and hair, donned suitable clothes and waited for everyone else to do the same. When Mom, Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Winterhalter were seated in the living room, I opened my stockings.

Stuffed among the Lifesaver Holiday box set, Crayola Crayons and miscellaneous merriment was Batman (1940) 260, one of the prized 100-page issues DC published at the time.

Other than the Christmas tabloids DC published under the Limited Collector’s Edition imprint (C-34 and C-43) this comic book is the one I remember most from my stockings. The jarring orange (or whatever color that is) cover with the Joker flipping his deck of cards showing the Caped Crusader in death throws at the reader. Riddler and Robin taunting Batman behind a cell door. Batman atop of giant glass bottle, muscles straining as he tries to free Robin from inside. Alfred and Catwoman’s heads barely rising above the cover bottom.

Batman (1940) 260

This One Will Kill You Batman! is the original story. DC’s hundred pagers followed a formula with the first story being an original one. The remaining tales were reprints from the Golden and Silver ages.

Fans know when a key villain appears, the issue is always better. Certainly no common crook could serve as felonious a foe as the Joker. Already the issue was better than most.

That was followed by Grade A Crimes!, originally published in May-April issue of Batman 16. Catwoman was featured in the following story, The Perfect Crime – Slightly Imperfect! from Batman 181 of June 1966. The Case Without a Crime! was pulled from Detective Comics 112 having first seen light June 1946. The Pearl of Peril! was courtesy of Batman 27, February-March 1945 and The Riddlers’ Prison-Puzzle Problem! rounded out the book. It was the most recent of the reprints having been published in Detective Comics a scant six years earlier.

I read the issue cover-to-cover several times during that Christmas break. The book stayed with me for years until it wasn’t with me. I forget what happened to it to be honest. It just was gone one day. The saddest part is I didn’t notice its passage.

Until one day.

One day I started buying Batman comic books again. Years after I’d first received the book. By that time I was an adult. As much of an adult as I will ever be at least.

Something jogged my memory. Maybe I saw a picture of it. Maybe another issue reminded me. Whatever the reason I realized the issue was gone.

Though I mourned the loss, it wasn’t a book I made a priority to replace. I spoke of it at times. One of those occasions was with a dear friend of mine, long since moved, who kept that discussion in mind.

That Christmas Batman 260 became a Christmas comic book again. In the hand-wrapped bundle of comic books he handed me was that issue. The same cover. The same promises of stories to come. The same book in every respect other than it had to be in better shape than my original. That issue had to have been dog eared and ratty from the repeated readings.

It didn’t matter.

Here was my beloved Batman 260. Once again in my hands. Ready to read. Again and again and again.

And, I have read it again and again and again. I’m far more respectful in my handlings now, but enjoy the book no less.

So, for everyone enjoying a comic book today, and those who aren’t, Merry Christmas.

Cheer up, Batman.

Artwork by The-Blackcat.

Settling into Christmas Eve with Marvel Team-Up (1972) #1. Pencils by Ross Andru and inks by Mike Esposito.

Four Color Comics (1942) 525 (aka Santa Claus Funnies 9)

Dell’s Santa Claus Funnies, circa 1953, is a classic example of Christmas Comic books.

Cover to cover, the book is filled with silly short stories featuring funny animals and visitors from the North Pole. Imagine a comic book with no ads. None. Just four color frolic.

“Santa Claus and the Cuckoo Bird” open as a no-named feathered friend from the south attempts to meet the Jolly One himself. With some inside help, the little cuckoo is able to hold court with Santa and explain his wish. The bird wants to provide a service to Santa and disprove the misconception all cuckoos are dumb.

“The Kindly Cobbler” proves good deeds not only go unpunished, but they are rewarded.

“Cottontail Christmas” offers a solution to welcoming to Santa in one page.

Only one spirit haunts “The End of the Christmas Ghost.” Humphrey the mouse seeks shelter from the winter storm. During his visit he’s able to save Sir George the ghost from his years of intangibility.

Not the Christmas comic book I’m used to, but it was nice to turn back time and remember when Christmas seemed to much simpler and less commercial.

Power Man’s favorite holiday catch-phrase. By Sanford Greene.

For many, the holidays are all about family – including extended Bat Family.  Artwork by olybear.

As America packed away its bicentennial banners and fervor, Marvel began packaging its third, and final, Holiday Grab-Bag. And, that’s what it was, a holiday-less hodge podge of reprints pulled from Avengers (1963) issue 58, Daredevil (1964) number 86, Marvel Team-Up 6 and Tales to Astonish (1959) 93.

Roger Stern was a lowly assistant editor in charge of choosing reprint material for Marvel’s stable of twice-told-tale books. He was tasked to fill the last of the holiday specials with suitable material. Having already used what little was available the previous two years, Stern was faced with a daunting task.

Marvel Treasury Edition 13

As Stern told Back Issue magazine, issue 85, Christmas in the Bronze Age, from 2015; he pulled the most tear jerking stories he could find to fill the book. Choices made, he found the book was still 10 pages short. Stern approached Editor Archie Goodwin who freed money for what Stern termed a “framing sequence” for the stories.

Fanboys were given the Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag Nov. 16, 1976, complete with a Gil Kane/Joe Sinnott cover featuring the Marvel mainstays. Stern penned the opening story, “Tis the Season,” showcasing the super heroes playing in the snow. Reprints included “…As Those Who Will Not See!” with Spider-Man and the Thing, “Even an Android Can Cry” featuring the Avengers, Hulk and Silver Surfer shared “He Who Strikes the Silver Surfer” and “Once Upon a Time – The Ox!” showcasing Daredevil and Black Widow.

This was the final Marvel holiday special until the 1990s. By then the House of Ideas would have a better catalog to choose from, even tossing in original material.

For me, nothing will ever beat the original specials from the 1970s. They were the perfect size to lie stomach down on the floor and marvel – pun intended – at the craftsmanship of those earlier Marvel Age stories.

It’s been about a year since I read Harley. Too much T&A and too little substance.

This being the Christmas season and this being a Christmas cover, I had to buy the issue. A little reluctantly. C’mon, four bucks is four bucks this time of year. Especially when I could pick up a vintage Spider-Man holiday comic book for three.

Anyway, when Paul Dini’s backups ended earlier this year, so did I.

But, it is that time of the year. The covers are great, so why not?

Not that the story is destined to be a classic, but that it really hit home.

Alert: there are spoilers contained in this review. Do not read any further if you don’t wanna know what happens.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled break down.

It’s the holidays. More importantly it’s Christmas. Harley has decked the halls, trimmed the tree and set the stage for a memorable time with her family. A family Sam Humphries has culled from those who weren’t cast for Christmas Vacation.

After ruining Christmas dinner, Harley’s carefully trimmed Tannenbaum and generally reeking havoc on the holiday, her mother reveals she’s battling cancer.

What hits home with me is how I spent the previous weekend at a funeral for a someone very dear to me who lost her mother. Cancer was a culprit, but so were other contributing factors. It’s strange how even the fantasy parts of our lives coincide with our real lives. Our escape hatches sometimes dovetail with our reality.

For those who have lost loved ones this time of year, may God’s grace be with you. Having lost my mother almost 20 years ago to cancer, my condolences to you and yours. It does get easier and those who have gone on before us would not want us to be sad at this time of year or any other. Their memories are legacies and the laughter and lessons imparted will guide us.

Deadpool lampoons a favorite holiday film.  Artwork by Marco D’Alfonso.