Ben Grimm is the star of this Christmas tale as he takes leave of Marvel’s first family for a holiday outing to haunt his former neighborhood to help an old friend.

Dr. Doom appears long enough to justify his spot on the cover and Stan Lee dusts off an old soap box and trims it in Christmas colors as 1991 passes to history.

The heavily Pogo inspired Bone teamed with former Hero magazine, one of the early 1990s monthly price guides, for the three-page “Happy Winter Solstice!” short. Bone and company celebrate Christmas in their own fashion with Thorn and Grandma while spreading a little holiday cheer to the, “stupid, stupid rat creatures.”

Also included is a pin up and interview with creator Jeff Smith.

Klaatu barada nicto replace Merry Christmas at S’Mart during this 2009 holiday special.

Hide the kids and minorities as Ash Williams mixes his wisdom taking on Deadites, good girl art and the seasonal rush of last-minute shoppers with only a chainsaw to save the world.

Great cover, but misleading.

While I love the issue, Impulse 34 does not contain a Christmas story. Don’t let that deter you from picking this and the following issue outta the back issues for a good read.

Who am I kidding? Pull the trigger and pick up the whole run. You just have to wait till issue 45 for a Christmas story.

There’s enough fire and brimstone to make a Southern Baptist preacher proud, though John Ostrander deals with the issues without a pulpit.

Spectre 26 meets all the requirements for Christmas clichés, but is still a good read.

Creepy (1964) 86

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.

Not much Christmas in this issue. Daredevil drops the holiday name a few times, he and Black Widow use a string of wreaths for a balancing act and that’s about it.

Most of the issue is spent with DD taking inventory of his life, relationships and finally trading blows with the Beetle only to have the issue end with a continuation in Marvel Two-In-One 3.

Overall, unless you have some history with Daredevil during this era don’t bother with this one.

Tarzan (1972) 207

Hard to imagine, but there’s Christmas even in the steamiest, darkest regions of the world as evidenced in Tarzan 207; DC’s first installment chronicling the adventures the jungle lord.

Taking its numbering from where Gold Key left off, DC Comics, then still National Periodicals, handed writing chores to Joe Kubert allowing him to retell the origin of Tarzan.

A brief interlude between the main stories included a short bio of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burrows and a story about Tarzan’s first Christmas. The holiday tale is more prose and illustrations – like an abbreviated Big Little Book – that first appeared in Sunday newspaper strips Dec. 27, 1931 illustrated by Hal Foster.

Marv Wolfman warped up the book with a second of Burrow’s most famous creations, John Carter of Mars.

Nancy Collins serves up the legend of Papa Noel for the French descendants of the original River Parishes of Louisiana as Christmas fair.

For those with deep roots Joyeux Noel” and “Frohliche Weihnacten.”

Swamp Thing (1985) 115

Teen Titans (1966) 13

This is one I’ve been waiting to add; a personal favorite of mine since I first read it way back in Christmas of 1973 in the first DC Limited Collector’s Edition (C-34) Christmas With the Super Heroes.

Following the Summer of Love counter culture was becoming mainstream and everyone was jumping on the band wagon. Though watered down, Teen Titans 13 attempts to capture the flavor as Mod became part of the English language. Writer Bob Haney beat readers over their collective heads with the vernacular as Robin, Auqalad, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash flung slang throughout the issue. Artist Nick Cardy proved to be ahead of the advertising curve with product placement as prevalent as porn on the Internet.

This is just a fun read and peek at the times.