You might not have enough holiday-themed comics to work yourself up an annual tradition binge – a 12-days of four color, or a comic for each of the eight nights of Hanukkah, or even a Christmas Eve pile to work through – but everyone almost certainly should. Imagine a world where everyone could add such a tradition to their yearly viewings of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Home Alone, and whichever of the various Christmas Carols to which your household subscribes (my partner is a Muppets and I’m a Mickey Mouse, so we get dueling Scrooges – if we’re not in the mood for Scrooged).
The truth is that not a lot of holiday comics are noteworthy enough to be included in such a tradition because they are so very often forgettable; I cannot tell you a single detail of the Generation X Holiday Special from 1998, and I read it (out of season) this very year.
Conversely, the two stories in this year’s Creepshow Holiday Special are impactful, if only because the application of the schlock twist is rare in holiday-themed fare. It isn’t often that Christmas tales invoke a dismemberment motif. The first story, “Christmas Man”, invents a festive and hungry monster, while the second, “Package Thieves”, strikes at a very modern crime spree. They are compellingly rendered (a cartoon zeal by Jonathan Wayshak, a scratchy humanity by Letizia Cadonici). But they aren’t exactly memorable.
The Creepshow franchise has been reveling in the classic EC Comics tradition since its King and Romero-crafted debut nearly half a century ago, to varying degrees of success; I feel like it’s unlikely that many will remember most stories from recent issues past their initial reading. This isn’t because they’re not good comics – there is almost always a radiant gem or two an issue – but because there is no inborn draw to revisit the series. They haven’t been canonized and studied, as have their Tales from the Crypt inspiration, there are no characters made memorable by Stephen King cameos, and without a cohesive tone or theme, it’s hard to remember what stories happened where.
The Creepshow Holiday Special benefits from its seasonal framing, then; while the stories might not linger in your memory otherwise, there are reminders everywhere you look. The houses in your neighborhood are festooned in brilliant lights, after all, and Christmas trees are public fixtures. Packages are piling up on porches (better watch out).
What’s more, these reminders will occur every single year.
Like so many other bits of holiday-themed media, the Creepshow Holiday Special is bolstered by the merits of the season rather than its own. I doubt that I’d recommend it offhand, except that it might be the seed from which your new four-color tradition grows – stories made memorable by association, by concurrent visits, a part of a larger tapestry of seasonal cheer. I’d say give it a go.
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