Okay, a little late with the St. Patty’s Day offering, but never one to disappoint Four Color Holidays brings readers a special from 2013.

Dr. Sela Mathers, Doctor/Professor of Literature – with a minor in fairy tale fantasies come to life – decides on a girl’s night out – alone.

The dark and stormy night leads her to a pub where she finds herself the attention of three strangers all with stories to tell. One drink leads to another as do the tales, “Candy from a Baby,” “Marriages of Jenna Normandy” and “The Will.” As she was drawn to the pub, the story tellers are drawn to Mathers.

By the fourth Irish Whisky Mathers realizes the coincidences are more than that and really the work of a Leprechaun, though the real villain of the story is revealed as greed.

I’ve always been leery of the title based on the cheesecake covers, feeling Grimm Fairy Tales was more sex than substance. However, if this is any indication of the interior work, I may rethink reading these. Deep down Grimm Fairy tales has one of DC’s “House” book anthology feels with a dash of X-Files.

Having inspired the Star Wars universe, Flash Gordon took to the space ways for the 2014 holidays to inspire Christmas on the planet Arboria in the first of three short stories.

Flash tells of the traditional trappings celebrated on Earth while the natives contrast with those of Arboria’s Khris-Mass. Myth and nature meet to create a memorable merging of both holidays as Arboria’s youth tout the feats of Jungle Jim, possibly an amalgam of Santa and Tarzan?

Stories return to Earth with Juhrg the Beast-Man finding salvation from his solitude in Wonders and Salvations. Practitioners of the Jewish faith find they are still persecuted in the future, but a child leads his family from the darkness of ignorance.

Finally, Dale Arden revisits previous New Year’s eves before her excursion to space learning from the past to help the present in Resolutions.

Cheer up, Batman.

Artwork by The-Blackcat.

Batman 239

Still one of the best Batman Christmas stories ever written Silent Night, Deadly Night is courtesy of Denny O’Neil with a cover from Neal Adams and interior art by Irv Novick.

O’Neil was responsible for putting a little reality back in the world of Gotham. After comic books were neutered by the Comics Code Authority, Batman limped through the 1950s solving crimes with backdrops of oversized everyday items, fighting aliens (not the green card kind) and enjoying a revival of sorts via his questionable celebrity garnered from his weekly twice prime-time appearance in “living color.”

As dusk was allowed to settle on Batman again, the full nightfall was just outside the Batcave as, most notably, O’Neil, Adams and Novick moved the Caped Crusader into the shadows.

Issue 239 is the first Christmas issue for Batman in decades and he makes full use of the holiday stopping a down-on-his-luck uncle from making the worst mistake of his life.

Fans were treated to a flashback in Batman’s career with a reprint of issue 15, The Loneliest Men in the World, which has already been discussed on the web site.

For many Christmas is not the happiest time of the year as the incomparable Alex Ross depicts in what could be one of the saddest illustrations of Batman I’ve ever seen.
The only thing that could make this scene sorrier is if Ross had used the Detroit-era Justice League.

Looking In

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 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.

You know you were loved if you woke Christmas morning to find presents nestled in superhero wrapping paper back in the day.

Not sure when this roll hit store shelves, but it was before the dollar stores of today when consumers can fly their geek flags on the cheap.

If Mental Floss is to be believed, the colorful covering we take for granted today celebrated its centennial in 2017.

Hero Holidays

The Japanese and Koreans were ahead of the curve using colored cloth for wrapping purposes at least by the 1700s though some records date the tradition around the first century. A functional manila paper was in fashion by the Victorian era though the well-to-do used a more colorful tissue paper.

This was the norm until 1917 when brothers Joyce and Rollie Hall ran out and substituted with a more substantial, higher grade of paper in their stationary store. It cost a whopping $.10 a sheet and promptly sold out.

As did the next offering. And, the next. And, the next.

By 1919 the brothers believed their find was not a fad and began marketing on a larger scale basis creating a tradition we use today.

Most know their brand by the name Hallmark.

Darwyn Cooke turned in what has become a festive favorite for Christmas 2003.

Under the appropriately named Tangled Web imprint, Spider-Man shares the title with no less than the Fantastic Four and Medusa and Crystal from the Inhumans.

Spider-Man’s Tangled Web 21

When a snowstorm shuts the city down on Christmas Eve, Spidey indulges in a seasonal sulk when Mary Jane is stranded in Philadelphia. Rescuing a busload of orphans alleviates some of the self-pity.

J. Jonah Jameson is none too thrilled to learn Peter Parker has spent the Bugle’s money on Spider-Man action figures and even less so when he learned his freelance photographer had forgotten the gift for Jameson’s wife.

In the meantime, Sue Storm, Jane VanDyne and Crystal’s shopping trip is interrupted by a robbery at Macey’s. Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four appear for a confusing slugfest culminating in a happy ending for all but the Puppet Master who masterminded the crime.

Cooke is best known for deconstructing the comic books he grew up with including the bridge between the Golden and Silver Age of comics, New Frontier, in 2004.