MERRY CHRISTMAS SLIPPERETTES!
I'll admit it's been the slowest year here (sorry, life stuff) but things will happen in 2020, I promise.
So lets kick off our annual Holiday Roundup with a trip to Beanotown with the Beano Christmas Special 2019.
Nice to see that year Minnie tied Father Christmas up is still canon.
The regular Beano had plenty of Christmas cheer too:
Lovely to get a bit of Hunt Emerson in there.
This year's Dandy Annual had the format of an old Cheeky annual in that followed the characters over the course of a year. Christmas sees Desperate Dan forced to play Santa which gave us a glimpse of some neglected past Dandy characters:
From the wholesome to the filthy with a Viz roundup from issue 291.
On to some festive cartoons from Private Eye, issue 1512.
American Mythology have been putting out reprints of classic licenced properties plus occasional new stories based on them (stick to the reprints, please!). They put out a reprint of Casper the Friendly Ghost stories as Casper's Classic Christmas #1, in which Casper meets a fake Santa who has taken over the North Pole and has to rescue the real one!
The My Little Pony Holiday Special 2019 introduced us the Equestria Hearthswarming equivalent of Krampus, Krumple Horn.
And on the evidence of this panel, quite possibly Mr Hanky, too.
Meanwhile Rarity discovers the true meaning of the season.
The Doctor, like Casper confronts a fake Santa in Titan's Doctor Who The Thirteenth Doctor Holiday Special #1-2.
And, like the ponies, the villain turns out to be Krumple Horn Krampus.
Krampus also turns up to administer his now traditional thrashing to Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose (#119).
That Jim Balent knows what he likes.
You be you, Jim. I'm not judging.
Another new tradition is the annual Klaus book by Grant Morrison Dan Mora and this year's (Klaus and the Life and Times of Joe Christmas) was a delightful series of 25 almost wordless two-page images impossible to summarise here.
DC's seasonal special was New Years Evil #1and less Christmassy than usual. It featured Toyman attacking with some 90s throwback action figures.
There's a Poison Ivy story set at New Year which I'm only including here because it featured Orca the Whale Woman.
I try to include any other holidays from other faiths/cultures but the only one I found this year was in a Wonder Woman story which features Ares lamenting the fact that Poseidonia has been forgotten. I don't think this was ever a real thing but let me know if I'm wrong.
Harley Quinn #68 had an adventure is a Christmas theme park.
And there was a welcome Umbrella Academy special about everyone's favourite time-travelling assassins in Hazel and Cha Cha Save Christmas.
Having only read Umbrella Academy for the first time this year this was a pleasant addition.
Lew Stringer gave us a Davros Christmas Carol in Doctor Who Magazine #546.
And 2000AD prog 2162 gave us Droid Christmas movies,
some seasonal Mega-City One carnage
and a (vampire's) kiss under the mistletoe for Durham Red.
And thus ends the decade. Onwards to the 2020s!
