Culture

Nothing tops off a holiday like a nice slice of cheese. The Star Wars Holiday Special, in case you missed the briefing, aired for the first and only legitimate time on November 17, 1978. It was the very first filmed Star Wars spin-off and introduced to the Star Wars mythos Boba Fett, the planet of the Wookies, and Life Day. It also introduced to the Star Wars universe characters played by Art Carney, Harvey Korman and Beatrice Arthur -- all sitcom stars of the era. In case you haven't figured it out, it was a mystically horrific comedy/musical that was, if not the worst thing ever associated with Star Wars, then at least the most ludicrously inappropriate.

Cartoonist/writer/editor Dave Roman has created a Christmas Classic:

An EC classic by Johnny Craig for some holiday ho ho horror.

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From all of us to all of you -- the very happiest and safest of holidays.

Merry Christmas. I'll be watching some basketball today. The NBA has long tried to be to Christmas what the NFL is to Thanksgiving, and this year the league is even launching the season on Christmas. (If you don't know, don't ask. There was a work stoppage and it was ugly.) You may not realize it, but there's a smidgeon of crossover between comics and the NBA. Bill Jemas was fairly high up in the league offices YEARS before he joined Marvel. Remember the NBA Hoops trading cards that the league owned? That was Bill. Which led to Fleer. Which led to Marvel. Current Marvel EIC Axel Alonso has been speaking of basketball in his interviews of late. Marvel also did a neat cross-promotion with the NBA, ESPN and Wired last year, making up mock comic book covers merging Marvel characters with the various teams. Comics Alliance has an archive of it.

A group blog devoted to memories of the much missed publisher. Above, Jason T. Miles and Williams talk comics late into an SPX night while Tom Neely tries to sleep.

Those Taiwanese animators are at it again with a Christmas scandal...and wishes.

When Joe Simon passed away at the age of 98 last week, he left behind an impressive body of work. Although everyone knows he was the partner of Jack "King" Kirby, Simon and Kirby were partners in the truest sense -- collaborating freely on art and writing, with Simon mostly the editor and Kirby the art director. However, Simon was a prolific artist on his own. While he didn't have Kirby's command of sheer power and imagination, he did have a way with wiry, dynamic heroes. Heritage Auctions recently ran a cover tribute to Simon in their newsletter -- have a look:

Matthias Wivel is one of a trio of reviewers -- Domingos Isabelinho and Ng Suat Tong are the other two -- known for applying the most stringent possible personal standards to comics in their criticism. Thus, seeing Wivel come to the defense of HABIBI at The Hooded Utilitarian is a bit of a surprise -- but he makes a plausible point. Running down a host of critical beatdowns administered on that site over stereotypes and gender issues, he says that "parts of the comics intelligentsia seem to be developing an unhealthy obsession with ideological readings of comics."

We'll take this occasion of reprinting this year's Center for Cartoon Studies holiday card by Alexis Frederick-Frost to note that thanks to a 12 hour cable outage on my block I've had to repair to the local Not Starbucks for internet. Dear god, this place is a madhouse of men in business suits yapping about plans along with three plucky students from nearby Baruch who looked to have pitched a tent amid empty yogurt containers and one Unabomber type in the back corner typing on a seedy black netbook.

If you are like us, you are still grieving at the loss of Herman Cain from next year's presidential race. From his powerful hats, to his inspiring slogans -- "You need a job, right?" -- to his wondrous waffling that made every scandal a delight, Cain never failed to bring a smile to our lips, even in these grim times. And he justified that faith in his ability to make us laugh at our problems right up until the very end, topping it off with a quote with the Pokémon movie. But Herman is gone. Luckily, a new candidate for the Republican nomination has arisen who may just take his place, Marvin E. Quasniki, a humble turquoise farmer from Tonopah, Nevada who is running on a very catchy campaign motto that will soon be heard all over Fox News: "No more bullshit."