Best of British: Christmas covers

Back in the mid-1960s to early 1970's one of the many things that heralded the coming of the Christmas holidays were the weekly British comics with their Christmas themes and snow ladened logos. As a child these were my favourite comics, it’s just a pity that the "traditional" British comic book has all but been assigned to the history books as they were great fun. Below are some of my favourite Christmas comic covers from a time that now seem long gone.

Above: One of my all time favourite British comic strip "Frankie Stein" by the legendary Ken Reid. This strip is form the 1964 Christmas issue of "Wham!".

I hope you all have a great Christmas and all the best for 2024.

The first Christmas: Mighty World of Marvel #13 - Stan Lee sounds off!

In the UK Christmas editions of most comics usually contained festive themed stories and a snow-covered logo, this wasn’t quite the case with the first Christmas edition of the “Mighty World of Marvel” #13 ( week ending 30 December 1972 - cover by Jim Starlin and Joe Sinnott) which was more muted with only the cover banner proclaiming that there was “a special bullpen Christmas greeting” inside. Regardless of the lack of a snow filled cover my 12-year-old self was pretty excited anticipating what the “special” greeting would be, perhaps a new weekly Marvel comic. Sadly, it wasn’t news of new comic, that would appear a few short months later instead the message was to inform readers that there was a 128 page "Marvel" annual on sale (which we were already aware of with it already being Christmas week).

On the plus side this issue did feature 2 nicely illustrated Christmas themed illos of the Human Torch and The Thing to accompany Stans message.

Above the 1972 " Marvel" annual (cover from Marvel Wiki). The above cover was based on a Jack Kirby panel from "Incredible Hulk" #2 and was painted by James E McConnell. Strangely, the annual not only contained tales of the Hulk, Spider-Man and the FF, who were all featured in the weekly MWOM comic, but it also featured Conan the Barbarian a character that had not yet been introduced to UK readers.

Favourite comics: The Christmas Spirit - Will Eisner

Continuing with the Christmas theme one of my favourite feastive comics is the above issue of the Spirit #12 (December 1975) by Wil Eisner. Published by Warren in the 1970’s this magazine reprinted Eisner’s classic newspaper strip from the 1940’s and ran for 16 (mostly) black and white issues before the title moved to Kitchen Sink. Up until I purchased this magazine (around 1980) from Arthur’s book stall in Glasgow, my knowledge of the Spirit was restricted to an illustration of the character from a half page advert that appeared in select DC comics in the early 1970’s for the “Menomonee Falls Gazette” - a weekly tabloid style paper featuring classic newspaper comic strips. The above tale "The Christmas Spirit” (originally published in December 1948) was one of 9 strips that featured in this issue and shows just how much of a master of the comic book form Will Eisner was – Enjoy.

The above half page advert for the "Menomonee Falls Gazette” appeared in DC titles around 1972/3.

Bring on the Christmas Back-Ups - Night of the Prowler - by Bernie Wrightson & Len Wein

Well its that time of the year again so what better way to kick-off the festive season than with a look at some of my favourite Christmas themed comics strips. This little 3 page gem comes from the talented duo of Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson from "House of Mystery" #191 (January 1971). “Night of the Prowler” was a pretty innocent, but fun tale written at a time that Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson were creating comic book magic with the Swamp Thing. Enjoy.

Above, the cover to "House of Mystery" #191 by Neal Adams.This issue features some nice art by Bill Draut, Tony DeZuniga and Sergio Aragones.