Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #22 - Mar. 1982

Quite possibly my favorite digest ever, this was another one I bought the forgotten-but-not-gone Voorhees News and Tobacco Shop. My Dad took me to get some comics, and when I saw all these heroes in one book I snapped it up. I mean, just look at this happy cover by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano--the season is so merry, even Batman is participating in the festivities!

The stories inside of course are all Christmas themed, most of them bona-fide classics: 
• "The Teen Titan's Swingin' Christmas Carol!" by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy 
• The Batman in "Merry Christmas" by Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick, and Giordano 
• "Freddy Freeman's Christmas" by ? (no credits on the story or on GCD!) 
• "A Christmas Peril" by Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson 
• The ultra-weird "The Seal-Men's War on Santa Claus!" starring that mid-70s 
• Sandman by Michael Fleisher, Jack Kirby, and Mike Royer 
• "Robin's Very White Christmas!"(must take place in Vermont or something) by Bob Rozakis, Jose Delbo and Vince Colletta 
• Finally, my favorite story of the book, the JLA in "The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!" by Len Wein, Dick Dillin, and Giordano

I distinctly remember opening up this book and seeing this story--not only was it a JLA tale I had never read(it first ran in JLA #110, published when I was just a wee lad), but it looked like some of JLAers actually(gulp!) died during the story! That was enough for me.

This is one of those classically-constructed tales where the excitement builds as it goes along, features some great characterization, and even a dollop of Significance, where the Jon Stewart Green Lantern finds a loophole in the rules concerning use of the GL power ring to build people some new homes for Christmas. All that, and Red Tornado gets a new costume as a Christmas present. A wonderfully fun, exciting story.

This digest has remained one of my all-time favorites, all these years later. If you like Christmas-themed comics, pick this one up!