Happy Holiday Party week, Comic Shop Friends! John’s getting Christmas all over the store as I write this week’s email, and we’re getting things ready for everything coming up!

Starting Wednesday the 13th through our Holiday Party on Saturday the 16th, the Art Show submissions will be on display in the foyer, and you can start to purchase raffle tickets on Wednesday. We’ll draw the winners at 10:30pm during the Holiday Party. Tickets are 1 for $1, or 6 for $5, and all proceeds go to the Cleveland Food Bank!

There are so many great covers this year (I’ve already got my eye on a few), and once again we’ve run out of room on the display walls, so there will be a binder with even more art!

We will also be raffling off this painting of the Superman House done by Jeff Suntala. After the raffle for the covers is finished, we’ll throw all the tickets together and pull a winner from those that are present. Thank you to Jeff for donating this!

We also have a couple of artists who donated their original art to be raffled off with their covers, Bob Peck’s is pictured above.

Our Holiday Party is this Saturday the 16th from 8pm to 11pm! You can take 50% off one item during that time. Yes, that includes wall books! And the Sandman Masterpiece Edition Helm!

Get one before Winson does. He’s been eyeing it.

Also, starting the 13th, and running through Sunday the 24th, is our Holiday Sale! All back issues, except wall books, are 50% off! All action figures and statues are 20% off! Grab a gift for your friends, family, or yourself!

We always have shop t-shirts, gift certificates, and Winston stickers if you need to stuff any stockings!

MARVEL COMICS

It’s time to face the music in the new Spider-Gwen mini-series from writer Melissa Flores and artist Enid Balam! Gwen feels a little lost in her Earth’s New York, trying to balance her heroics with her friends and band. Em Jay is tired of Ghost-Spider getting in the way of The Mary Janes, and after they lose their gig at the Freak-Out, Gwen’s not sure her bandmates want her around. Things may be looking up though, when Dazzler and the Uncut Gems book the Mary Janes as the opener on a four-city tour! But when Dazzler is attacked during the first show, Gwen’s web-slinging comes in handy, and now her skills as a drummer and a crime-fighter are headlining!

Writer Erica Schultz and artist Sergio Davila bring the Heat to Hell’s Kitchen! Recruited by Spider-Man to join the Gang War fight, Elektra heads out on her own to stop the corrupt cop gang, the Heat, from taking over Hell’s Kitchen. But Daredevil doesn’t count on a new deadly assassin showing up. Who is this woman, and is she working alone, or with the gang? And who is supplying the Heat with new weapons? So many questions!

DC COMICS

From the DC Vault, reconstructed from artist Jim Aparo’s alternate art boards, it’s a faux-simile of Batman #428 where Robin Lives! 35 years ago, fans chose Jason Todd’s fate, but what if one of the darkest hours in Batman’s career never happened? This re-edited version turns a tragedy into a triumph, and includes the ads from the original 1988 version, plus a rewritten letters column!

A Mite-y Menagerie of Merry Mayhem! It’s DC’s Holiday Special with eight takes on classic stories! Raven Home Alone-s some intruders while the rest of the Teen Titans are at a party in “At Home Alone in Titans Tower” by Zipporah Smith and Logan Faerber. Harley Quinn and Amethyst are trading places in “The Princess Switch” by Rob Levin and Bob Quinn. Lex Luthor gets Scrooged with Deadman and The Spectre in “Lex-tacular Christmas Carol” by Ethan Sacks and Soo Lee.  “Riddler on the Roof” by Natalie Abrams and Marcus “Mas” Smith has Batwoman solving Riddler’s eight Hanukkah riddles. Booster Gold becomes Santa in “The Santa Copies” from Jillian Grant and Rebekah Isaacs. Superman acts as a guardian angel in “Streaks in the Sky” from Michael W. Conrad and Gavin Guidry. In “It’s a Bunkerful Life” by Josh Trujillo and Andrew Drilon, we see a world without Bunker. And of course, Bat-Mite shows up in “Wonderful Toys” from Sholly Fisch and Juan Bobillo!

SMALL PRESS

We had a few weeks recently with not a lot of small press recs, but this week is packed with some good horror to keep the Christmas tradition of ghost stories alive! And an honorable mention for a couple of crime capers: Underheist from Maria and David Lapham, about a gambling addict who learns of a heist involving a subway tunnel system, with a supernatural twist; and Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s new series, Masterpiece, about the daughter of two master criminals who gets pulled into a revenge plot from a billionaire, who was the couple’s last target.

Have you seen the 1994 classic Mosquito starring Gunnar Hansen? I have! And if that wasn’t enough killer mosquitos for you, pick up Skeeters from writers Bob Frantz and Kevin Cuffe, and artist Kelly Williams. When extraterrestrial mosquitos invade a small beach town, only a frustrated sheriff and two exterminators can stop the deadly blood-suckers! It feels just like a low-budget b-movie, in the best way!

Get creepy this Christmas with Cullen Bunn and Jesus Hervas! Dr. Carrie Reynolds is a trauma surgeon, her daughter, Heather, is a recovering plastic surgery addict who suddenly disappeared. Heather has now mysteriously reappeared, with her vocal cords removed, and almost catatonic. She is the latest victim of bizarre and cruel serial surgical attacks. Detective Vic Hudgens is off the case, but is still investigating and teams up with Dr. Reynolds to stop the murderous underground surgeons.

Scout Comics has a new one-shot from writer Evan K. Pozios and artist Stefano Cardoselli, Blood Run! Like Death Race? You’ll love this! (I did!) Blood! Guts! Death! Kitties! Welcome to The Boneyard, a racetrack from Hell with no rules. Who will survive? Who cares, the carnage is the whole point!

Sabrina Spellman celebrates the Winter Solstice in this special one-shot! In “The Longest Night”, written by Kelly Thompson with art by Andy Fish, Sabrina and her magic school friends have to save a friend trapped by a dark beast, and the timing is everything. Danielle Paige and Veronica Johnson tell a tale of young Zelda and Hilda in “A Very Spellman Solstice”, where the two sisters go to a school dance, and are cursed by one of the ghosts of Solstice past. All ages friendly!