Every year, this gift guide is offered as a shortcut to some of the best stuff out there. Maybe you want need helping pick out gifts or perhaps you want to give gift ideas to those who want to buy you something! I’m not here to judge.
This week is just part one – we’ll roll up our sleeves and really get into this next week!
Doctor Strange: A Decade of Dark Magic
by Stuart Moore
(part of the Marvel Age of Comics series)
I have been looking forward to this series new series ever since I heard favorite authors like Chris Ryall and Stuart Moore promoting their entries at San Diego Comic-Con. I just finished the Doctor Strange book, and was so impressed.
Stuart Moore is an accomplished writer and editor and we’ve all enjoyed his work for many years. He’s also not only well-versed in comic book history, but able to weave together real-world events in such a way that we can better understand everything that was going on the series.
Doctor Strange, unlike Marvel contemporaries like Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four, wasn’t a breakout hit. Moore helps the reader appreciate this and weaves together the tale of the character with that of the creators, starting with Stan Lee and Steve Ditko but continuing on to folks Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner.
I love comics history, but I feel Moore just gave me a masterclass in Greenwich Village history too. The key to understanding the character and series, I’ve come to believe, is to understand NYC, and the post-war population, during the doctor’s creation and his first decade of adventures.
Oh, and Moore is delightfully snarky too. Just when he’s making some important insight, he pulls the rug out from under the reader with a smirky side comment that both brings it all into better focus and makes you laugh out loud.
Highly Recommended.
Doctor Strange: A Decade of Dark Magic
by: Stuart Moore
Publisher : Bloomsbury Academic
Paperback : 256 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8765137543
Batman Returns: One Dark Christmas Eve: The Illustrated Holiday Classic Hardcover
By Ivan Cohen (author) and JJ Harrison (artist)
I think I’ve put this one into the spotlight in a past column, but it deserves another look as I just bought a couple of copies at Ollie’s, the discount store. What a delightful—and weird—book this is.
I am always loathe to (hesitant to?) trumpet the discounted treasures that one finds at a place like Ollie’s, fearing that it undermines the whole publishing industry. But I rationalize this by noting I buy more than enough stuff at full price.
Clearly, writer Ivan Cohen, writer of many Batman all-ages comics was having fun with this one. Harrison’s illustrations strike just the right chord too – they evoke the movie, but in many cases, it looks like it’s the comic book version of Batman that’s in the thick of it.
This lovely Insight Edition (I find most of their books to be excellent) celebrates the 30th (-ish) anniversary of a movie, Batman and Christmas. How can you go wrong for just $3.99?
Batman Returns: One Dark Christmas Eve: The Illustrated Holiday Classic Hardcover
by: Ivan Cohen and JJ Harrison
Publisher : Insight Editions
Print length : 32 pages
ISBN-10 : 1647227542
Next week : More from the Annual With Further Ado Gift Guide
Editor’s Note: This piece was delivered in time to hit the interwebs in its normal Wednesday slot. Due to time and technical constraints that are no fault of the author, we had to push back publishment by one day. However, we are happy to bring you the first installment of 2025 for the Annual WFA Gift Giving Guide on the first official shopping day of the holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving to all, and in the words of Wilma Flinstone and Betty Rubble, “Charge it!”
