It's the season for giving. Hence, it s also the season for buying comics which are similarly seasonal. Startling Tales Of Santa #1 is Benito Cereno (Hector Plasm, Blood & Thunder) and his artist chums finding six ways to show how WEIRD St. Nick stuff is. There’s a mixture of humanity and folklore so berserk that I’m not sure whether Benito is making it up or not. Plus Santa kicking Lovecraftian ass. The star has to be the boy who poops seasonal treats when he’s beaten with sticks. Wow.
Dread the Halls 2025 #1 takes a similar large-anthology approach to Startling Tales, but digs in a different direction from the Santa-focus. Specifically, towards the graveyard, and when it s there, it keeps on digging until it has enough corpses for its evil purposes. Chris Ryall (Onyx) and Jordan Hart (The Cabinet) write four stories with distinctly different vibes. Seeing Luana Vecchio (Lovesick) illustrate a Hallmark-movie take on Midsommar was a special Christmas treat.
This may not be Christmas-y, but it sure is special. Giant Size Criminal #1 is a surprise direction for Sean and Ed, where Tracy Lawless panics when a skyscraper-sized pickpocket moves into the city. No, of course not. This is Criminal, one of the best comics of the last 20 years, and if you’ve been intrigued by the forthcoming Amazon series, this is designed to be your entry point to the original. I love it so much I even designed a small RPG for it. I don’t even know if I’m being paid.
But it s not just larger-than-usual specials this month – we have a similarly hefty 40 pages of Inferno Girl Red: Book Two, which continues to expand the Massive-Verse with Mat Groom (Spider-Verse vs Venomverse) and Erica D’Urso (Immortal Legend Batman) serving up looks and magical-superhero teen energy. It s my first time with Inferno Girl, and I could feel the Buffy-goes.high-tech-Henshin energy seething off it and the power of Friends To Lovers or Maybe The Other Way Around is strong.
Finally, Wrestle Heist has Kyle Starks (Peacemaker Tries Hard, Sexcastle, I Hate This Place) returning to writing and drawing, which is just a delight. I’m not a wrestling person (except for being told I look a bit like Claudio Castagnoli, presumably after a wasting disease) but I have a real weakness for all things ring-drama. And in this case, crime-drama, too, as a nice-guy-playing-heel decides he’s had enough and is going home with the big prize. Not Christmas-y at all, but a gift.
Kieron Gillen writes The Power Fantasy and DIE: Loaded.