It feels like it’s been a long time coming this year, but finally the very best season of all has arrived. Welcome to Christmas 2023 on the OiNK Blog! So what have I in store for you this year?
This is the third festive period on the blog since its relaunch and I think this is the best selection of content yet. Obviously our main event will be the second annual for our title comic, The OiNK! Book 1989. Just like last year’s the review will be published on Christmas Day as a special treat for pig pals, from me to you. That memorable J.T. Dogg cover is only the tip of the trough in terms of the crackers inside, so I’m looking forward to digging in again after all this time.
We’ve also got the second parts of two of our annual read throughs, namely The Big Comic Book 1988 on 28th November and Knight Rider Annual #2 on 19th December. The former was my introduction to that lengthy series as a kid and the many characters it contained, however I never owned more than Michael and K.I.T.T.’s first book so the latter will be all new to me. Joining the souped up car is the souped up helicopter and another fave show of mine. We’ll be taking a deep dive into the Airwolf Annual 1986 on 16th December!
This was the only Airwolf annual produced and alongside it is the only book produced for another 80s TV series I have very fond memories of. Before dedicated children’s channels there were various Saturday morning magazine shows full of comedy, cartoons, games, celebrities and in the case of one of them a certain Frank Sidebottom! That was ITV’s No.73, of course. Who remembers this one? Did you know it had its own book in amongst the children’s annuals? Well you do now and it’ll be up for review on 9th December.
Last Christmas I very grateful received The Tom Patterson Collection, published by The Treasury of British Comics. It’s been a bit of a crazy year so it’s only now, almost a year later that I’ve finally been able to lie down in front of the (electric) fire with its crackling logs (supplied by my HomePod) and have a gut-busting laugh. Tom contributed to some early editions of OiNK, and Buster too of course, and you can check out a full review with hilarious highlights this Christmas on 12th December.
Our two current regular read throughs continue with the seventh and second issues of Dragon’s Claws and Death’s Head respectively, both on 3rd December. They may not have snowy logos and tales of goodwill inside but they’re always special. Over on the blog’s Instagram we’ll be reaching the end of a truly epic read through. After over seven years the journey through Marvel UK’s Transformers comes to an end with the final Transformers Annual on Christmas Day and then on 4th January (a couple of days before my tree comes back down again) we’ll bid farewell with the final issue itself, Transformers #332!
That’s not all. On the very first day of December I’ll be taking a look at all of the wonderful Christmas comics covers in my collection. Not only will we revisit the editions already reviewed, it’ll also include issues of The Real Ghostbusters not seen before on the blog, all of the Transformers Christmas covers from the last seven years, a Big Comic Fortnightly AND… two covers from a brand new read through that’ll begin in 2024, which I’ll be announcing for the first time!
Finally, how about a little retro videogaming? (Regular readers of the blog may know where I’m going with this.) The Jurassic Park GameBoy game was featured in that comic’s read through thanks to the best advertising tagline for a game ever and a competition page. Well, thanks to reading that comic again I wanted to track down the game (and a Nintendo GameBoy to play it on) and you can join me for a close look at it when we lose track of our days between Christmas and New Year.
Finally, I’ve also written a special five-part series for former Marvel UK editor John Freeman’s wonderful Down the Tubes comics news site, counting down my Top Five Classic Christmas Comics. From comics that remain favourites to this day, to those that bring back very happy memories and newly discovered tinselly treasures from doing this blog, you can check it out on Down the Tubes by clicking on the individual numbers in the countdown below.
No.5 – No.4 – No.3 – No.2 – No.1
So there we go, Christmas 2023 is here and I’m excited to share all of these with you. I’ve a wonderful feeling about this Christmas and I hope my enthusiasm and passion for it will come across in every word over the next six weeks. Wishing you all an equally fantastic holiday season and hopefully I’ll see you across the OiNK Blog‘s socials (Threads, Instagram and Facebook) so we can share in the festivities together. Merry Christmas you filthy animals.
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