I agree with everything you said, Malcolm, but I'd like to add another Christmas favorite by Don McGregor --"The Night the Snow Spilled Blood."  I've often cited this story, which originally ran in Eerie #38 as a long-time favorite of mine.  I was probably 14 or 15 when I first read it, and I enjoyed it so much at the time that I ran across the street to my childhood friend (and now writer of NANCY DREW for Papercutz, and several brilliant YA books) Stefan Petrucha to show him this amazing story by Don McGregor and Tom Sutton.  All these years later, it still holds up as a classic tale.

 

In a scene, written many years before the famous Big Mac chat between hitmen Samuel Jackson and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, Don's tale features a great conversation between his two detective characters regarding the Charlie Brown Christmas special. 

 

Dark Horse will probably reprint this story in a few years as part of their deluxe Creepy and Eerie hardcover collections, but if you can find Eerie #38 for a decent price, I strongly suggest picking it up and checking out "The Night the Snow Spilled Blood" for yourself.

 

Happy Holidays,

 

Jim

 

 

As the holiday season starts to fill the air, there are always moments in literature, captured instants of the poignancy of being alive together in the world, that I find myself revisiting. The holidays have always been about stories for me, and you have touched me in many ways across the years, Don. There is the moving father and daughter reality of your time with Lauren and the Christmas tree you couldn’t afford, and there is also the moment that you made real with your characters, Bob Rainier and Ruth Hamilton.  When I first read (almost three decades ago, now) the epilogue of “Detectives Inc., A Remembrance of Threatening Green”, I remember how touched I was by this depiction of friendship. There was no clichéd semi-romantic ending to this story…instead there was this one page, of two people who had come close to each other through traumatic events and become friends, talking at Christmastime. It is so rare in stories of our time to see friendship between men and women; to see the ways that we can be there for each other, not as a couple, but as caring individuals, who somehow in the wrack and ruin of troubles and loss come together to help one another across a hard time. Even if the nuances of that helping are so subtle that they can't even clearly be grasped.      All these years later that page with Bob and Ruth is a gift in my life, ending a powerful story, but standing in its own right as a  testament to the power of men and women to be friends…to touch some subtle place inside that helps us bridge a frightening gap in our lives, knowing that someone else has been there too.      Merry Christmas Don, and thank you. best always, Malcolm