Growing up, the holiday season was a time to look forward to for all of the obvious reasons.  Receiving gifts was a huge part of childhood, all the decorations, visiting Santa, and spending time with extended family was something to look forward to.  Another big thing were all of the holiday specials on television.  When I grew up, especially in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, you didn’t get but one chance to see these shows each year.  It might seem impossible to people even a little younger than me, but there was no DVR, and I didn’t have a VCR until 1983, so I had to check my TV GUIDE and get my arse in front of the television at the appropriate time.  If you missed your favorite there simply wasn’t a second chance!

This contest has ended. The winner is Jill R. of Pennsville, NJ.

Lara Croft returns, desperate for answers -- and seeking a hidden truth. After uncovering an ancient mystery, Lara must explore the most treacherous and remote regions of Siberia to find the secret of immortality before a ruthless organization known as Trinity. Lara must use her wits and survival skills, form new alliances, and ultimately embrace her destiny as the Tomb Raider.

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Comics shipping this week

Cheap Pops - December 6, 2015
by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!
- State of the WWE
- Complete Listing of matches and segments for Best of NXT Vol. 1
- WWE Network adds more classic wrestling
- NXT Results

State of the WWE

by Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

Red Wolf #1

Written by: Nathan Edmondson
Pencilled by: Dalibur Talajic
Inked by: Jose Marzan, Jr
Colored by: Miroslac Mrva
Lettered by: VC’s Cory Petit

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Doctor Who Series 9 - Episode 12 – Hell Bent

• Writer:   Steven Moffat
• Director: Rachel Talalay

Cast:

Singer-songwriter Johnny Beauford is known for his distinctive Americana style, soaring vocals, and narrative lyrics. He employs a sense of spontaneity on his new sophomore set, A Pig Eating Past Love.

Beauford has made considerable waves in the Americana and local Texas music scene both as a solo artist and as part of bands the Jack Kerowax and bravo, max!

The seven-song EP was recorded in large part as a one-man process (with help on a few tracks from friends), resulting in a lo-fi sound and “interesting rhythm concepts” that fans of Beauford’s first solo work will recognize and appreciate. “Think Bon Iver’s debut For Emma, Forever Ago, performing most of the parts for each song on his own,” says Beauford. “But instead of a cabin in the woods of Wisconsin, I used a studio apartment in the big city of Dallas.”

This contest has ended.

I might not be a big fan o f clowns, but I’m a huge fan of clowning around. Sing a song, tell a joke, perform a little stunt or better still, a little magic, and bring a smile or even a laugh from the grumpiest of Scrooges—that’s what the holidays are all about, right? CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE, a kind of circus/variety show hybrid with a wonderfully low creepy clown threshold (none!),brought, smiles, laughs, cheers, gasps of awe, appreciative whistles and tons of applause from the Fox Theatre audience in St. Louis on December 4, 2015. Like most of the audience I had to deal with a variety of community holiday events, the typical Friday night traffic, and traffic jams that had some highway commuters parked for more than a mile. I’d imagine more than a few of us arrived feeling mighty grumpy, but I’m quite positive we all went home very happy.

I was a Patty Smyth fan back in the days when she sang such hits as “The Warrior” and “Good Bye To You” with her band Scandal. She was not only beautiful but she also had a way of picking songs that showcased her talents, and a voice that put right up there with Pat Benatar in my book.

After Scandal broke up, I lost touch with what Patty was doing. I knew she married John McEnroe later on, but I lost touch with her musically. I recently discovered that I must have been living in somewhat of a musical shell, because I found out she has written and sung songs that have garnered her Grammy and Academy award nominations.

A short time ago Patty recorded a Christmas album, COME ON DECEMBER, on Parallel 22 Records.

I absolutely love that Dynamite snatched up the name SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT. Dynamite has been making a lot of cool moves over the last few years, bringing in big name talent and letting them loose on a variety of genres.  The name SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT has a reputation in the comic industry because of how much damage Dr. Fredric Wertham's book did to the industry back in the 1950's.  SEDUCATION OF THE INNOCENT basically casted the vast comic industry to shrink down to "superhero" and niche books.  Companies like IDW, Dynamite, Dark Horse, and Image have been making huge strides in expanding the industry again.  I can't but see Dynamite repurposing the title SEDUCATION OF THE INNOCENT as the perfect example of "taking it back."

The introduction of Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Vandal Savage to the DCCW Universe (as well as the introduction of the upcoming LEGENDS OF TOMORROW series) continues with the second part of the ARROW/THE FLASH crossover, which began here.

The episode opens with a flashback to ancient Egypt, where we learn that meteors have been falling with regularity, striking the kingdom. Prince Khufu brings offerings to Horus, but the priestess, Shayara (I know, they're going with Chay-Ara here, but I still miss my Thanagarian Shayara), says the offerings are meager. What we learn shortly after is that Khufu and Shayara are lovers, and Vandal Savage becomes aware of this.

Here at Critical Blast, it's important that we offer ways to assist our community of fans. With the new Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer having been released, I'm here to offer sage advice to those who have nothing but contempt for movies made by Warner Bros., Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. movies by Zack Snyder.

Step 1: Be sure to check your Marvel fandom. If it's not at peak level, you may have trouble noticing the lack of your favorite characters.

Step 2: Watch a lot of cartoons before viewing. This will assist in helping your eyes contrast how 'dark' the movie will be.

Welcome to the DCCW Universe, Hawkgirl!

If you've already seen Will Ferrell's ELF, then you will notice very quickly that ELF: BUDDY'S CHRISTMAS MUSICAL is the condensed version of the same story, squeezed into a lesser running time by eliminating extraneous characters like Bob Newhart's Papa Elf and merging other characters into single ones, as is the case with Mr. Greenway, who is the publisher but with the characteristics of Peter Dinklage's author character.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does make the grown-up viewer walking away feeling as though they were given less than expected.

It is sort of strange for a comic series to celebrate it’s 46th anniversary, but that seems to be exactly what Dynamite did here for Vampirella #1969. They got an all star list of writers and artists to put together some Vampirella stories covering a wide span of her history.  I am a pretty new arrival to Vampirella. She first came to my attention with Nancy Collins terrific run.  I have read some of Dynamite’s terrific Vampirella Archives which collect her older series, so I did have some background when I started this book.

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Comics shipping this week

Perhaps the most frightening book you'll read this year is Rodman Philbrick's YA novel THE BIG DARK.

Imagine the worst power outage you can think of. Now add to this the fact that the power is just not out, but that the very basics of producing electricity have been stripped away -- no batteries, no generators, no hand-crank flashlights. Every modern mode of transportation, communication and commerce are simply gone.

Doctor Who Series 9 - Episode 11 – Heaven Sent

Writer: Steven Moffat

Director: Rachel Talalay

Cast:

Doctor Who Series 9 - Episode 10 – Face The Raven

Writer: Sarah Dollard

Director: Justin Molotnikov

Cast:

The Rolling Stones Limited Edition Clear Vinyl + Album Art Lithographs.

Normally in reviews such as these I list the email and phone numbers to order the item(s) being reviewed at the end of the review.

Well I’m not doing that here. These collectibles are so beautiful, so well made, and so you-need-to-have-one-of-these, that even at $199.00 they are such a value for what you receive. And because they are limited to only 2,500 worldwide each, I’m afraid that if you wait till the end you might miss out on any remaining. Remember you’re not only going to get the limited edition lithograph, you’re going to get the matching limited edition vinyl album on clear vinyl as well, for the same very reasonable price!

You can come back and finishing reading the review after you have secured yours.