Have a Marvel-ous holiday

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I absolutely loved holiday issues of Marvel Comics when I was a kid.

So I thought that today, with eight days left until Christmas and an avalanche of work to do on my desk, I would take a bit of breather from the blog and give you some yuletide comics art, both new and old, to enjoy. Here, for instance, is the cover to ‘Marvel Adventures Spider-Man’ No. 46, which hit stands last week with a great cover by Skott Young:

And here are two especially merry (and menacing) mutant covers from the library. The Santa Claws cover from ‘Wolverine’ No. 49 is by Laurence Campbell from 2006 while Terry Austin drew the 1981 cover for ‘The Uncanny X-Men’ No. 143, a great issue that somehow manages to shoehorn both ‘Alien’ and ‘Home Alone’ into one plot. (It was also the final issue in John Bryne’s great run on the title.)

The always-helpful Jim McCann over at Marvel publicity sent me this fun image that combines the two variant covers for ‘Hulk’ No. 9, the issue that hits stands on Christmas Eve. The jolly green giant and his grumpy red doppelganger were drawn by Ed McGuinness.

I love the exasperated holiday spirit of the dinner-table scene in Frazer Irving’s cover to the 2007 Marvel Holiday Special. Way back in 1990, Bob Layton got his Grinch on and gave comics fans the memorable visual of old St. Nick trying to pop a cap in Iron Man. So why exactly do they call them funny books again?

More seasonal comics art to come in the next few days. Happy holidays!

-- Geoff Boucher

All images courtesy of Marvel Comics.