Hello Comic Shop Friends! Here are the details for what’s happening in the shop in December, and some new comics you should pick up to read as you stay warm and cozy at home!

Submissions are coming in! I’m working on two of my three ideas and hopefully can get them done this weekend, since covers are due back by 5pm on Sunday the 14th!

There’s still time to do one, so stop in and pick up a blank cover. This year’s theme is “Superheroes in Cleveland” and you can interpret that however you like.

We will have the art displayed starting Wednesday the 17th through Saturday the 20th, when we’ll pick the basket raffle winners!

Every single dollar raised goes directly to the Cleveland Food Bank! Tickets are $1 for one, or six for $5! We do a basket raffle system, so each cover will have a number, and a corresponding bag with that number. Just put your tickets into the numbers you’d like to try to win!

The Cleveland Food Bank has the ability to turn one dollar into three meals, so each and every dollar donated makes a difference! The more covers that are donated and displayed, the more money we can raise for them! Help us beat last year’s total, and help our community!

Our annual Holiday Party is 8pm on Saturday the 20th! In addition to the Art Show to benefit the Cleveland Food Bank, you can also take 50% off one item during the party! Grab that omnibus or collection you’ve had your eye on! Pick up one of the Bowen statues!

We will start to draw winners for the basket raffle at 10:30 pm, but you do not need to be present to win, but if you are, you can take your cover home with you that night!

And in addition to that, we will have 50% off all back issues starting on the 17th and going through Christmas Eve, the 24th. That’s one full week of back issue discounts! Including the wall!

MARVEL COMICS

Is this the end of the 2099 universe? One future ends… another begins! Abyssyus, the fusion of Galactus and Knull, is descending upon world after world. The Devourer in Black consumes all, earth, body, and soul. When Mephisto learns that’s why no souls from the destroyed planet of Ioda have made their way to him, he proposes a challenge for the survival of 2099. Mephisto will choose an army from his domain, while Abyssyus may choose his own army from the multiverse, and whoever wins will decide the fate of this universe. Now the heroes of 2099, Spider-Man, Nova, Red Hulk, Blade, Spider-Woman, and more, are forced into a battle with a legion from beyond – Age of Apocalypse Wolverine, Claremont/Byrne Cyclops and Marvel Girl, House of M Scarlet Witch, and more! Hero against hero in a no-holds-barred war against extinction! Marvel’s past and future collide in Steve Orlando and Ibraim Roberson’s mini-series!

Yes, Marvel is doing a second print of issue #1 of Infernal Hulk! Ask for it! I’m happy we sold out of #1, and issue #2 got here quick, so here’s my recommendation (again) to read all of Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s Incredible Hulk run that precedes this series. Ask Santa for the trades for Christmas!

“This is not the Hulk you’ve known. He’s coming for… everything.” Hulk fights an ancient monster of the deep! From the inside! Ngathiil the Endless does not believe Infernal Hulk to be the strongest. Ngathiil does not believe Infernal Hulk can rule in place of the Mother of Horrors. Ngathill is about to learn the hard way that Hulk is the strongest there is. And if Bruce Banner is even still alive, where is he? He may be the only one who can stop Hulk’s monster-raising madness! Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, with art by Nic Klein and Kev Walker.

Need more Hulk? Pick up the facsimile of Fantastic Four #12! “You are about to witness, in vivid detail, all the spellbinding events which will lead up to the explosive moment when the Fantastic Four will meet… the Incredible Hulk!” General Ross enlists the help of the Fantastic Four to stop a rampaging Hulk, and Reed’s updated Fantasticar might help them. Witness the beginning of the Hulk and the Thing’s rivalry!

DC COMICS

Round Two! Aquaman vs. Hawkman! All fight month continues in Aquaman #12, as friends become foes in a battle with cataclysmic consequences! Written by Jeremy Adams, with art by John Timms, this is an all-fight issue! You don’t need to have read any of the current Aquaman series, because it jumps right into a three-round battle between water and air! I’m not going to tell you more, because I don’t want to ruin the fight, but it’s a great issue of Aquaman!

Round three! It’s the Wonder Woman vs. Lobo one-shot! Two heavy hitters, literally, fight for their chance to move closer to the Heart of Apokolips, and closer to their chance to be the King Omega! Writer Joelle Jones does a great job of presenting a very evenly matched fight between the intergalactic bounty hunter and the chosen champion of Olympus with a different artist for each round! Jason Howard on round one, Cary Nord on round two, and Daniel Bayliss on round three! It’s a hard-hitting knockout, full of thwacking and slashing! Again, I’m not going to say much more because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s a fun fight, so pick it up!

First off, we WILL sell out of this issue. We don’t know if our restock order will be filled, but DC should do a second print, so if you miss getting issue #15, we can put you down for a reprint when that happens. And this is a great opportunity to remind you to add the titles you want to your pull list! Don’t miss out on the books you really want!

Scott Snyder reunites with artist Jock for the origin story of Absolute Joker! Alfred has been chasing this man for years. What he knows may not be the full truth of who Joseph Grimm V is, but the time has come for Alfred to reveal the history of the Grimm family and its secrets to Bruce. A man who doesn’t laugh. A family history of vaudeville, that expands into advances in entertainment. But what is the truth? Tricks, slight of hand, horrors hidden from the public. “Then forget what’s true, Pennyworth. Tell me what you believe.”

SMALL PRESS COMICS

As if the holidays weren’t horrific enough, EC’s Shiver SuspenStories makes a return for 2025! Four all-new creepy tales to stuff your stocking and chill you to the bone, but wait, what else has Santa brought? A reprint of a classic EC Comics story, “The Execution” by Johnny Craig published in Crime SuspenStories #12, restored back to its authentic original coloring!

This Hanukkah is different. Someone is giving Noah an extra gift on each of the “Eight Vengeful Nights”, and his bullies at school will learn their lesson… Written by Ben H. Winters, with art by Sami Kivela.

You’d better watch out! The “Mistletoe” Maniac is on the loose, and will kill any woman that denies him a kiss under the mistletoe. Or is this just a story undesirable men made up to coerce women? Find out in George Northy and Dan McDaid’s story!

Melissa Flores and Leomacs have a tale of a woman who “Ginger-Snapped” when her beautiful, intricate gingerbread mansion was destroyed. Revenge will be spicy and sweet as she gets her payback on those that caused it.

A mall Santa locked in overnight learns that Santa Claus isn’t the only one who checks who has been naughty or nice in “Red Season”, from David M. Booher and Lukas Ketner.

After the stunning events of Jason Aaron’s last issue of TMNT, the Turtles find themselves in a different New York, one that sees them as heroes! But as new threats vie for control, their newfound popularity may not last. After Xiang Fei Tong is murdered by a mysterious masked assassin calling themselves the Ujigami, the Ghost Boys fight for a new leader spreads into the city. When the Ninja Turtles learn that Stockman had ties to the Ghost Boys, meeting with Xiang Fei Tong regularly, the brothers get pulled into a conflict with both the Ghost Boys gang and the Ujigami. Written by Gene Luen Yang with art by Freddie E. Williams II, the TMNT are heading into a new direction in their lives, and someone from their past may be getting involved.

And we know you love those blind bags! Issue #13 has a blind bag variant at only $4.99! That’s cover price! It could include covers A – E, 1:25, 1:50, 1:75, 1:100 ratio variants, or 1:25, 1:100, 1:250 blind bag exclusive ratio variants!

Already optioned to be a film, Ordained is writer Robert Venditti and artist Trevor Hairsine’s new series following Father Royston Craig in a no-holds-barred action crime comic! Royston became a priest late in life, and his past stays separate from his daily life and duties at his St. Louis church. One of his regular duties is performing last rites at a local hospital, and today he’s called to perform them for Cormac Byrne. Byrne hasn’t been to church in decades, due to his life as the head of the Irish mafia. As Father Roy hears Byrne’s last confession, details of years-old crimes are revealed, details that Organized Crime Detective Madison Torres wants in order to take down Byrne’s organization. Craig is keeping those newly revealed secrets as he is bound to do, but when Byrne makes an almost miraculous recovery, his first order of business is to make sure his secrets remain secret. Royston Craig has secrets of his own, and his skills as a former Navy SEAL are about to become useful again. Byrne wants the priest dead, and now Craig is forced to fight to survive, but there’s one thing he has vowed not to do… kill. With vicious gangsters, corrupt cops, and inner demons coming after him, will he be able to hold to that vow?