Writers: Various Artists: Various Publisher: Moonstone
Moonstone’s eccentric collection of licensed properties come together for a Christmas anthology like no other. Each tale is a clever yuletide themed story with good artwork from all involved.
In the first story, Mike Bullock, Sylvester Szilagyi and Bob Pedroza take the reader on a ride through dangerous territory. The driver and passenger engage in a humorous double-act while a purple-clad friend makes certain their cargo arrives safely. Outstanding scenes of Phantom encounters mark this as an instant classic.
At the office Christmas party, Kolchak shares a chilling report that he's investigating, but when he gets back home, that story comes back to haunt him. The blackly humorous Xmas tale by Dave Ulanski puts a new spin on Santa and his helpers, and Kirk Jarvinen, Keith Williams and Ken Wolak ring out the spirit with a cigar smoking menace and slayer.
The Spider doesn’t sing carols on Xmas. He speaks a song of violence courtesy of writer Martin Powell. The Spider's in the middle of preventing a maniac from destroying New York, but he cannot fully slake his thirst because Nita Van Sloan is the monster’s captive. Tom Floyd's luscious artwork with period attentiveness accents the pulp imagination of Norvell Page, and the characters come alive vividly.
Joe Gentile orchestrates Sherlock Holmes into a strange case of a Christmas disappearance. The ratiocinator and trusty Watson are in good character and of good cheer. Lestrade enlivens the mystery with some wintery comedy, and the artwork by Zeu and Dave Bryant nicely imagines the traditional consulting detective with his aide-de-camp.
Mac Rauch and Ken Wolak cap off the book with Buckaroo Banzai and an alien-themed trip to Bethlehem that staunch religious nuts will find subversive and insulting. Naturally, I loved the story. With few pages, Rauch & Wolak recapture the Buckaroo magic, establishes new villains and new allies while keeping to the theme of Moonstone’s latest collaborative.
