Originally I’d thought about putting together a “naughty or nice” list. However, in the spirit of the season (max out your credit cards or we’ll kill this economy!), I thought it would be more appropriate to spread a little cheer in our little corner of the pop-culture community‑ Hence, I’m sending the following:

• To Frank Miller: The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the movie Malcolm X, so he can understand that some people he admires might have a different perspective on the subject of Islam.

• To James Robinson: An extra 25,000 in sales for each issue of his Shade mini-series. This is a gorgeous, elegant comic, and I want it to stay alive long enough so I get to read the whole thing.

• To all the owners of comic book stores: A subscription to the New York Times Book Review. Please notice that there are a lot of books that sell millions of copies that are not limited to one genre or style. If you place orders with this in mind, you might actually be able to grow your audience and stay in business.

• To all the people who work at comic book stores: The thanks of a grateful nation of fans. We probably don’t tell you this enough, but we’d be lost without you. Sorry we’re so surly on Wednesdays.

• To Dan Didio and Axel Alonso: The complete works of Sue Grafton and Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander books so they can see how it’s possible to create exciting stories starring women in the lead roles that sell tens of millions of copies without the heroines having to display their giant breasts at all times – or ever.

• To Mike Richardson: First look at my graphic novel.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

Artwork © Hannibal King

New Pulp Author Martin Powell announced on his blog (http://martinpowell221bcom.blogspot.com/) that he is writing a graphic novel adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs The Cave Girl, in time for the original story’s 100^th anniversary. The Cave Girl graphic novel will be released in 2013 from Sequential Pulp Comics and Dark Horse Comics.

Artwork © Hannibal King

“I’m thrilled to be reunited with artist Hannibal King,” Powell said of the artist he worked with on The Phantom Unmasked and Tales of The Spider. “And, as you can see from these lovely illustrations of the prehistoric princess Nadara, the book will be gorgeous.”

The Cave Girl is authorized by ERB, Inc. Published by Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse Comics.

You can learn more about Sequential Pulp Comics at http://www.sequentialpulpcomics.com/
You can learn more about Dark Horse Comics at http://www.darkhorse.com/

Click on images for a larger view.

Artwork © Hannibal King

Artwork © Hannibal King

You might be chipper, content, full of good cheer – that is, you might a person who enjoys crowds and deadlines and the giving of gifts. This is your time and I say, blessings.

Or you might feel like you’re sucking a bare electric wire, stressed and frantic because your always busy life has become a nightmare of scurrying and doubt. (Will Granny like the pajamas? What to get for Aunt Bertha, a Scientologist who’s just declared herself to be a vegan? And nephew Horatio….doesn’t he already have every comic book ever published?)

One size never fits all, in holidaying as in everything else.

Well, which it is? Santa or Scrooge or the Grinch?

Let’s eliminate the Grinch from this discussion. Dr. Seuss was a national treasure, but – let’s face it – the Grinch is fantasy and was never intended to be anything else. And the jolly old elf? Okay, there’s a vaguely historical basis for him, but the guy in the red suit with the beard? Naw. Not for anyone older than eight.

Leaving us with Scrooge. Old Ebenezer is fiction (and was never intended to be anything else) but his is a fiction rooted in some truth. Haven’t we known a Scrooge or two? Haven’t we been a Scrooge? Show of hands, please.

I’ve just put mine down.

Oh, I can, and have, justified my Scrooge attacks with sweet reason. Isn’t Christmas really a pagan holiday, a celebration of the end of winter and the coming of spring, with its brightness and warmth? An occasion for rest and renewal? Perhaps a way to reassure ourselves that, despite the darkness, we will survive? And hasn’t it morphed into something the opposite of what it once was, a festival, not of light, but of greed and showing off for the neighbors? The season of frayed nerves and bereft bank accounts? Of terror at the arrival of the Master Card envelope?

Yeah, afraid so. But we Scrooges – in the hush of our chambers, at three in the morning, we know the real reason for our sourness, don’t we?

When one’s life is flaking apart, for whatever reason, displays of cheer and the sound of song exacerbate the anguish. So the churches and the bars and the AA meetings do brisk business on the holiest of eves, because a lot of lives are flaking. Remember Thoreau: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Amen, and Thoreau’s observation can be most painfully true on Christmas. So we’re not mad at the season, we Scrooges. We’re mad at ourselves for allowing our existence to become one of quiet desperation.

When the holiday is a deserted street and an empty bottle, what’s to celebrate?

We have to blame someone or some thing, and Christmas won’t argue with us.

Some of us Scrooges will awaken in the morning and, I don’t know… send a kid to buy a goose?

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases

This week the ESO Crew is back in the station as we travel to 221b Baker Street to discuss the world’s greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes. Our guests this week are Holmes Artist Mark Maddox, Holmes Author Bernadette Johnson, and Holmes Historian Tom Elmore. Also Bobby sits down with Pulp 2.0 Press publisher Bill Cunningham to discuss his upcoming Sherlock Holmes project, the return of Martin Powell and Seppo Makinen’s Scarlet in Gaslight graphic novel.

Join us for yet another episode of The Earth Station One Podcast we like to call: It’s Elementary, Dear Watson. The Game is Afoot!

You get all this and more at http://www.esopodcast.com/.

Direct link: http://erthstationone.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/earth-station-one-episode-91-its-elementary-dear-watson-the-game-is-afoot/

Download this podcast from Itunes or Subscribe to our RSS Feed at http://www.esopodcast.com/.

Next week, Earth Station One steps back inside the TARDIS to review the new Doctor Who Christmas Special as well as a roundtable discussion with some special guests about our favorite holiday-themed stories as we travel from 2011 to 2012.

And we would love to hear from you. What are your favorite holiday-themed stories? Leave us a comment at http://www.esopodcast.com/, at the ESO Facebook Group, email us at esopodcast@gmail.com, or call us at 404-963-9057 with your list. We might just read yours on the show.

The ESO Crew