1988: Comico Christmas Special

Comico Christmas Special (1988) by Douglas M. Wheeler and lots of others

This is a forty page special with five stories, all written by Douglas M. Wheeler, but drawn by all these people:

That’s a quite interesting selection of artists, isn’t it? I must confess that I’m not expecting much from this book, though — a collection of shorter pieces written by somebody who had previously only done some stories for Alien Encounters? About Christmas? Eeeh.

Ken Holewczynski! I know that name… did he do some issues of Mister X over at Vortex? I feel like I’ve read some books by him… Yes, that’s where I know him from.

Very stylish artwork; a kind of American ligne claire, right?

I didn’t know at all where this story was going — we’re in 1988, so I had expected some kind of deconstruction or something, but instead it’s a super straight forward story about learning the real meaning of Christmas: Fambly. It’s cute.

The Bernie Mireault-drawn story is funnier — it turns out that Santa is real! But in a science fictional way.

As you may be beginning to guess, all these stories are pretty high concept. The third one is also science fiction, and is about a dystopian future where Xmas celebrations are restricted to December (*gasp*). It’s a good concept, and Tim Sale’s artwork is solid, but it goes on for too long and runs out of steam. Unfortunately, it’s the longest piece in the book.

And then amidst all of these sci fi stories, we have a very simple story about a kid who has to shovel snow. That’s basically the entire story, so I’m guessing it’s autobiographical? I mean, it’s amusing, but it might have done with… something more.

Finally, we have a short piece drawn by Steve Rude and Al Williamson, and it’s about aliens discovering Santa. It’s totally fine.

So… that was a surprisingly straightforward Christmas book — it nails the atmosphere, really, with the mix of wistful bits and funny bits, and the artwork on four of the stories is outstanding. It’s a fun read.

I can’t really imagine it sold well, though? Anthologies seldom do. And it’s never been reprinted.

Amazing Heroes #158, page #85:

I’ve known Doug Wheeler for several
years (he used to buy comics at a shop)
I managed), so it’s a great pleasure for
me to be able to discuss his work in
the Comico Christmas Special. Doug
once told me that he prefers to work
in the short story medium as opposed
to the mega-opus mode favored by
most new writers, who apparently
believe their errors won’t be as
noticeable in a long piece. I believe
Alan Moore once said that new
writers should work in short stories
for a time to sharpen their skills before
moving onto more complex works,
and if that’s good enough for Mr.
Moore, that’s good enough for me.
Wheeler has been given the oppor-
tunity of a lifetime. How many relative
unknowns are allowed to work with
this caliber of artists (and the Dave
Stevens cover doesn’t hurt, either)?
For the most part, I’m pleased to say
the author acquits himself honorably.
As you might guess, all five stories in
the CCS deal with Christmas, most
directly but a couple very tangentially.
Doug has a gift for setting up quirky
situations, as is the case in “The
Stiflemix Diaries.” In it, he depicts a
world in which any reference to
Christmas is illegal from January 1st
through November 30th. Any infrac-
tion of the code results in “the
Grinches” goose-stepping an offender
off to some grisly fate (probably
they’re forced to listen to Andy
Williams Christmas albums until they
plotz). Now this doesn’t sound like
such a bad idea to me, but as Wheeler
observes, “As with all laws…there
are a few people who resist them,”
whether they’re worth resisting or not.
Stiflemix (great name!) is a bespec-
tacled little twerp who belongs to the
Noel Liberation Army, an organiz-
ation devoted to returning Christmas
to its usual year-’round commercializ-
ation. They salute each other by
clenching their fists and chanting,
“Ho ho ho.”
It’s a wonderfully goofy concept,
like something out of the sillier epi-
sodes of The Twilight Zone, but unfor-
tunately it doesn’t really conclude so
much as sputter out. Tim Sale should
be complimented for his fine pencils
and inks on the story.
In fact, everyone seems to have
devoted more than minimal effort for
the package. Bernie Mireault, easily
the most undernoticed artist in comics
today, provides brilliant pencils and
inks on “Too Many Santas.” Steve
Rude, Al Williamson, and Bret
Blevins bring a fine, soft-edged look
to “Traditions Everlasting.” The big-
gest surprise in the book is Bill
Willingham and Chris Warner’s art on
“One Winter Day,” a wonderful tale
about the trials and tribulations of
shovelling snow. I had no idea Wil-
lingham had such a gift for comedy.
Editors Diana Schutz and Michael
Eury should be noted for putting
together these teams, and Comico
should be congratulated for having the
guts to put out a book like this.
They’ve always excelled at specials,
items less daring publishers might not
consider (Gumby’s Summer Fun Spec-
ial and The Jam Color Special are
examples that come to mind). So give
yourself a nice Christmas present this
year: get the Comico Christmas Spec-
ial. Ho ho ho.
GRADE: NEAR MINT
— Jeff Lang

The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide #2, page #140:

COMICO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
Comico: One-shot 1988
Doug Wheeler supplies a selection of unashamedly
heartwarming offbeat stories with Christmas as the
uniting theme. Contributing artists Ken Holewczynski,
Bernie Mireault, Tim Sale, and the teams of Steve Rude
and Al Williamson, and Bill Willingham and Chris Warner,
all excel, and you’d have to be a humbug of enormous
proportions not to be charmed by this sentimental
selection.~FP
Recommended

Doug Wheeler would go on to write a run on Swamp Thing and Negative Burn.

Scarce #19, page #15:

Comico Christmas Special 1 :
Warner, Mireault, Rude, Williamson, Sale et Dave
Stevens (pour la couverture, faut pas trop en de-
mander !) réunis pour un numéro spécial (comme
l’indique le titre) pas génial mais à ne pas né-
gliger pour autant.

Not brilliant, but don’t overlook it either — I guess that’s the best summation, really.

Here’s somebody on the interwebs:

I love this little book (at 44 pages it’s actually not that little). It’s unique and it’s fun and it’s one of those hidden gems from the 1980s that makes you wonder, why it not in more demand. Well I for one have long forgotten about it and I bet I’ve thumbed past it in long boxes destined for the Bargain Bins without ever noticing.

And a comment:

I have to reread that book every year before Christmas.

And I guess it really didn’t sell well:

I was kinda riding shotgun on this book while Diana Schutz and Michael Eury were running the boards. As a marketing guy I asked Dave Stevens to do our cover. He begged me to do a different sort of cover image and that this one wouldn’t help sales one bit. As usual… he was right!

I didn’t even realise that it was a cover by Dave Stevens — it looks so Steve Rudish that I assumed that it was by him.

This is a rare Comico comic that goes for a more substantial price on ebay, so I guess that Dave Stevens cover worked after a while.