Creators Pick Their Favourite Christmas Comics

Christmas Spirit

This Christmas, we thought we would do something new for us. We asked a few prominent comic creators to give us their favourite Christmas comic tales and here’s a a few choices with the Tripwire team throwing in some as well…

Paul Neal (contributing writer, Tripwire, Shift Magazine)

The Batman Adventures Holiday Special 1 (1994)
I adore this comic and yet I currently do not own a copy. I have purchased several copies over the years and given them as presents during the festive season. I was captivated by all the various iterations of The Batman Animated series Paul Dini masterminded and so I also loved the comic series.

This issue is a breath of gleefully dark Gotham style festive fresh air. Who couldn’t love a Christmas story featuring Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy titled “The Harley and The Ivy”? Their nefarious scheme on this occasion? Simply to drug Bruce Wayne with lipstick to take the two ladies out on an expensive Christmas shopping trip. Ultimately justice prevails, but Harley gets the only present she truly desired. You’ll have to buy a copy to find out what it was.

The highlight, as the cover suggests, is the Mister Freeze story. Batman tracks down the compliant villain after escaping Arkham standing by his wife’s graveside. His simple desire was to create a snowstorm in his lover’s memory before willingly returning to captivity.

As a piece of trivia, unusually all the stories were created by directors and storyboard artists of the animated series.

Gregory Wright (American comic book editor, writer, and colorist, Spider-Man, the Defenders, the Fantastic Four, Deathlok and Silver Sable (Marvel) and Superman and Batman (DC)).

Batman 219

My all-time favourite Christmas comic, or rather story, is from Batman 219.  “The Silent Night of the Batman” by Mike Friedrich, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. It has some of the finest work by Adams, and a powerfully told story of how the holiday season of miracles can transform a crime ridden city into one of peace. Batman spends the entire night singing Christmas Carols with Commissioner Gordon. Meanwhile, the denizens of Gotham City manage to see the good in each other as one terrible incident after another is avoided. This is very early Neal Adams artwork, but it has some of the most memorable Batman art ever. His full body shot of Batman using his cape to wipe his eyes after seeing a “ghost” has stuck in my mind since the day I first saw it. It’s another story that proves what a monumental talent Neal Adams brought to every story he illustrated.

John McCrea (artist, Hitman (DC), The Demon (DC), The Boys (Dynamite))

Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-bag 

This was the first ever Treasury Edition that I owned- I think it was bought for me as a Christmas present. The top Marvel heroes leaping forward through a holly wreath. This is Buscema and Sinnott, though I think Romita may have tinkered with a few faces, notably the Hulk, maybe Cap… I loved the idea of the back cover literally having the back view of this scene, and it gives us a great view of America’s ass! I think the drawing on the back cover is superior to the front, such a tricky shot to pull off. Of course, Buscema handles it no problem, as he was a genius.

Inside the book, my favourite story was the Spidey/Torch team up, featuring the Sandman. This story puzzled me on two fronts, the first being that I didn’t recognise the Sandman’s costume. This was his funky Herb Trimpe design and, as was the way, I had not seen the story where it was introduced yet. The other thing was the woman that Spidey and the Torch rescued- she seemed to be more of a character than most other one of appearances in comics- she interacted with them on their level- however this was the first appearance of Misty Knight, whether this was a retrofit by Claremont, I do not know. I also enjoyed this Christmas story because a) it started on a beach(!) and (b) we saw a more human side to the Sandman.

The Black Widow story is also a Christmas theme, though if I recall rightly, it’s a bit of a downer ending… but with beautiful Gene Colan art. As always, any comic related presents at Christmas were always my favourite, and for 8-year-old John, this year was a doozy!

Dan Brereton (writer-artist, Nocturnals, Batman: Thrillkiller, Legends Of The Worlds Finest)

Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-bag 

November 1975. I was 9, and received a brand-new copy of Marvel’s first Holiday Grab Bag Treasury Edition. It has a fantastic cover -and back cover- along with a great drawing of the Thing as Santa Claus – with re-printed stories that I mostly forget, except for one: “…And To All A Good Night”, a Black Widow story written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gene Colan. Aside from the amazing pencils by Gene,( who I would soon worship as a comic book hero and come to know later in life as a friend) The story is very powerful, and though it’s not particularly about Christmas specifically, it has a Christmas spirit. Black Widow’s partner, Ivan, prevents a desperate teenage runaway from jumping off a bridge – and the teen later sacrifices himself to save the Black Widow. It truly affected me, partly because it was not the kind of story most nine-year-olds were exposed to, but because it really spelled out what was so special about superheroes or heroic people in general, and why I gravitated to them- a hero puts himself on the line for people simply because it’s the right thing to do. I don’t think I ever told my parents what it meant to me, but I think they understand now.”

Nick Percival (artist, Dark Judges,2000AD)

X-Men 143

This X-Men issue is a favourite of mine, mainly because it reminds me so much of my comic collecting days as s kid and while not a typical Christmas story, still has a nice little festive feel to it.

It was also artist John Byrne’s final issue on the title. I was huge Byrne fan back in the day (still love his work), so this issue was also a bittersweet moment – fantastic art (with the great Terry Austin on inks) and Chris Claremont on scripting duties.

The X-Men are all out on Christmas Eve, leaving only Kitty Pryde in the X-Men mansion all alone. What follows is an obvious riff on the film, ‘Alien’ as Kitty is attacked by a N’garai demon (that looks pretty much like a Poundland Giger Xenomorph). Trying to survive, Kitty lures the creature into the Danger Room but it still manages to break out and continue to hunt her. Finally, she traps the creature in the Hanger and fries the demon using the X-Men’s jet, the Blackbird’s afterburners.

Job done and Kitty saves the day – It’s set at Xmas and even has a Christmas tree on the cover and it’s an issue I remember fondly. Yeah, not very festive but a fun, one-off tale that ticked all the right boxes for an entertaining comic book romp – You can’t say fairer that that!

Scott Braden (contributing editor, Tripwire, co-creator, Kent Menace)

DC Special Series#21

Super-Star Holiday Special Spring 1980 Dollar Comic format; features Legion of Super-Heroes, “Star Light, Star Bright… Farthest Star I See Tonight!”

“Thanks to the teaming of Paul Levitz and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, this holiday tale featuring our future’s greatest hope and its lauded members’ varying celebrations of the Yuletide Season was, in my 10-year-old mind, cinematic before Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch turned that storytelling type on its head decades later. Plus, we find out that Colossal Boy is Jewish. How cool is that?”

Joel Meadows (editor-in-chief, Tripwire, co-creator, Sherlock Holmes And The Empire Builders)

Daredevil 229

Frank Miller & David Mazzuchelli

Part of Daredevil’s Born Again epic, this story is all about redemption with Matt Murdock finding his life destroyed by his greatest adversary, the Kingpin. Miller and Mazzuchelli are a magnificent creative team and Born Again is still one of the finest superhero tales ever. It’s not exactly a traditional Christmas tale but this does take place during the holiday season so I think it counts.

Walt Simonson/ Louise Simonson (writer-artist (Thor, Manhunter, Fantastic Four, Ragnarok)/ writer-editor (X-Factor, Man Of Steel))

My Favourite Christmas comic – probably Barks’ A Christmas for Shacktown with Donald, the nephews, Gladstone Gander, and Uncle Scrooge. Weezie says her favourite is a story I wrote for Marvel Holiday Special 1 called Christmas Coda, penciled by Art Adams and inked by Allen Milgrom. I had the temerity to write a sequel to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.