The new Thunderbolts? No, wait, wrong Moonstone.
Moonstone Holiday Super Spectacular
Moonstone (2007)
SELECTED COVER ART: Michael Stribling
The Phantom: “Silent Knight”
WRITER: Mike Bullock
ARTIST: Silvestre Szilagyi
COLORIST: Bob Pedroza
LETTERER: Bernie Lee
Kolchak: The Night Stalker: “A Christmas Story”
WRITER: Dave Ulanski
PENCILER: Kirk Jarvinen
INKER: Keith Williams
COLORIST: Ken Wolak
LETTERER: Bill Halliar
The Spider: “City Of Bleeding Snow”
STORY: Martin Powell
ART/COLOR/LETTERER: Tom Floyd
Sherlock Holmes: “Holmes For The Holidays
WRITER: Joe Gentile
ARTIST: Zeu
COLORIST: Dave Bryant
LETTERER: Terri Boyle
Buckaroo Banzai: “Christmas Corral”
WRITER: Mac Rauch
ARTIST/COLORIST: Ken Wolak
LETTERER: Terri Boyle
I know it’s not Christmas when I’m doing this review but this is when it came up in my collection. It’s an anthology of five titles Moonstone Publishing was putting out at the time set around the holidays. Let’s go through this quickly.
The Phantom: Two arguing delivery men have a special cargo to get to a relief camp but slavers, rebels, and other threats stand in their way. The Phantom has to make sure that cargo gets through. The kids in that camp deserve their Christmas presents after all. One of the delivery men is so annoying that he kind of damages the story but it’s a fair read.
Kolchak The Night Stalker: Based on the old TV series about a reporter who gets caught up in cases of the supernatural plus a few references to A Christmas Story but the focus is on a murder who bites his victims. It turns out to be an elf (in this continuity when an elf gets a taste of human blood it turns cannibal) and Kolchak has to team with Santa to stop him. I know somebody is going to find this fun but that’s not my idea of Christmas spirit. But I write a minicomic for kids about an elf superhero who saves Christmas. I’m not the target audience here.
The Spider: I only know the pulp hero from stories I’ve seen in this and other Moonstone collections. It’s kind of twisted. The “Snow Man” is dying and decides to spread the decay around and the Spider has to stop him. Not a bad story but nothing really Christmas here. Not really my taste.
Sherlock Holmes: A man has gone missing in the storm and Holmes and Watson have been recruited by his wife to find him. Honestly it was kind of disappointing. It’s only Christmas because the man was trying to get a Christmas present for her, and there’s no mystery to solve for the readers. The art is really good though.
Buckaroo Banzai: Yes, Moonstone had a comic series based on the cult movie. And like the last time I tried to watch the movie I’m not sure what’s going on. Aliens from another dimension have come to worship Jesus, which they mistake for Santa (or anyone wearing a Santa suit, he’s busy killing cannibal elves remember). But then they’re attacked by some group and there’s a lot of mistrust and dead aliens and yeah I was never able to follow one of these stories.
Overall it isn’t bad but a lot of these stories aren’t to my tastes and I don’t really get the Christmas spirit from it. Worth a look though if only to see what Moonstone was offering back then.
