3 Classic Christmas Comics

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Posted 2024-12-02 by Jennifer Muirhead ⇒ follow

1. Archie's Christmas Love In

Book cover. Fair use.

Archie's Christmas Love In is issue 478 of Archie Giant Series Magazine, and was published in 1979. Despite the suggestive title, this comic contains nothing even as racy as a peck on the cheek for Archie, which is frankly not surprising given his behaviour. In this issue, his gift to Betty is a box of cookies that he proceeds to eat himself in front of her. However, he also helps Veronica carry her Christmas shopping and forces his boss to make a large donation to charity.

There are also lots of vintage ads urging readers to join the Columbia Record Club, sign up for Charles Atlas' fitness program and purchase a T-shirt with a giant photo of David Cassidy, so that's fun.

This one's strictly for Archie fans, but it is definitely Christmassy.

2. A Garfield Christmas

Book cover. Fair use.

A Garfield Christmas was created by Jim Davis and first published in 1984. It's classic Garfield although with a bit more of a continuous storyline than you usually get in the comic strips. In this book, John takes Garfield and Odie home to the farm where he grew up to spend Christmas with his family.

From A Garfield Christmas

John's grandma, with her fondness for cats and insanely spicy food, is good value.

Not cool, John's dad.

For the most part, this book is timeless, although there was one joke about domestic violence that has definitely aged badly. Overall though, A Garfield Christmas is a warm, fuzzy holiday read.

3. A DC Universe Christmas

Book cover. Fair use.

A DC Universe Christmas, published in 2000, is a compilation of Christmas-themed comics set in the DC Universe published over the course of more than 50 years. The oldest story in the collection is from 1938, and the newest is from 1997. Covering such a huge span of time it's not surprising that it contained a couple of comics I had read before, like Christmas with the Superheroes 1988 ). However, there were a fair few that were still new to me.

Wonder Woman speaks tree language, because of course she does.

Highlights included a Wonder Woman comic told from the perspective of a fir tree (yes, really), Superman travelling to the year 2979 only to continue being melodramatic, and a story about the Flash using his powers to do some last-minute Christmas shopping.