by Glen Weldon

The cover of the DC Universe Holiday Special.
DC Comics

They're back, in all their colorful, clickable, Christmasy glory:

Online comics-themed advent calendars.

We wrote about them last year, at which time we assigned each one a rating according to our own (it strikes us now) needlessly Byzantine system.

Now maybe it's just the three ghosts who kept haranguing us last night talking here, but the whole notion of assigning a grade to these projects, which are so clearly labors of love, now seems to us deeply ungenerous and not at all in keeping with the spirit of the season.

So here they are, presented without comment, four equally estimable ways to get your mouse stirring (geddit?) over images from classic kiddie Christmas tales and modern superhero comics alike.

We've said it before, we'll say it again: Nothing puts one in the holiday mood quite like seeing the pointy ears of Batman, dark remorseless avenger of evil, poking up through a Santa hat.

The Comics Should Be Good! 2009 Advent Calendar

The Polite Dissent 2009 Advent Calendar

The Yet Another Comics Blog 2009 Advent Calendar

Brendan McKillip's 2009 Advent Calendar

(Note: The above image by Dustin Nguyen, the cover of DC Comics' DCU 2009 Holiday Special comic, which you can preview here, seems destined for a future advent calendar.)