An Editor-In-Chief’s Christmas In Southern California

All love and respect to Dylan Thomas. Once the play on the title of his A Child’s Christmas in Wales was there, it became inescapable.

Indeed, the sense that things were better in a mythical “then” — as observed in Thomas’s tale — is something the season can inspire even in a good year. The frantic hustle-and-bustle that seems to arrive every December, even in laid back Southern California, is palpable. It is the rush one only senses with age and something a child is, thankfully, oblivious to as they envision the 2024 equivalent of sugar plums. But those us who are older and have a moment to contemplate the holidays, there is a way to recapture that sense of youth and joy even as the end of year seems to become more of a task.

Now, you might be expecting a pivot to things we usually talk about here at Comicon — comics, games, and toys — but I’m not. Instead, the best way to stay youthful in the face of the holiday juggernaut is via community. My Southern California end-of-year festivities are increasingly focused on the people who find the time to get together and, say, eat Chinese food and watch a cheesy movie. Yes, that might be a very specific example, but the point stands. A group of people who unite despite different geographic origins or family ties is of increasing importance and value as the years go by. So too is the community of writers and nerds you find working here at Comicon.com every day. Their passion for superheroes, horror comics, table top games, anime, film, cult classics, and more continues to inspire me as I read the articles (and sometimes correct spelling and format).

While that might seem like the pivot to the materialistic, I promise its not. For each person who writes here at Comicon, what they share is a love of something that is imbued with meaning because they choose for it to have meaning. And in a weary world forever trying to convince us that it is all meaningless, that small act of finding something to anticipate or cherish — even if it’s something as simple as a comic, game, or toy — is an act of of defiance against a long night. Not unlike stringing up lights every December to tell the darkening skies that the day will return.

Okay, maybe I’m getting a little maudlin here.

But reflection is the sort thing that can occur during the holiday as well and, if it isn’t obvious, I’m feeling a little introspective about what the team here at Comicon has built. So, I’d like to salute Olly MacNamee, Brendan M. Allen, Tony Thornley, Anton Kromoff, Scott Redmond, Rachel Bellwoar, Tom Smithyman, Tito James, Sage Ashford, Benjamin Hall, Frank Martin, Gary Catig, and contributors David Lewis, Anna Lindwasser, Alli Dempsey, Efrain Hermosillo, and Ben Martin for making this site a place I love to hang out at.

Also, I’d like to thank you, the readers, for checking in with us when you can. We promise to continue to be your non-stop comic convention online.

Oh, and incidentally — as The Doctor might say — happy holidays to all of you at home.