MICHAEL SWAN: THE HOLIDAZE - ONE PANEL AT A TIME >>>

No matter where you go each year around the holidays, the holiday spirit bombards you from all sides - comic book stores are no different. For years comic book writers and artists have deviated from the normal story lines to dedicate an issue or two to the holidays.

The first Christmas issue I ever bought happened to be the first issue of Uncanny X-Men I ever read as well. Issue 143, titled Demon, was released in 1981. It featured X-Men member, Kitty Pryde, alone in the Xavier mansion on Christmas Eve. Pryde battles a seemingly unstoppable demon that comes down the chimney. (On the back of the comic is a full-page ad for a set of 132 Roman soldiers for $2.98, a great stocking stuffer!)

Inside the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker and wife Mary Jane are evicted just in time for Christmas, but all's well by the end - Spider-Man even receives a little help from a sidewalk Santa who knocks the bad guy out cold. Nice.

Not to be left behind, Superman got into the gift giving in 2001. What does one superhero give to another on Christmas? You find all the answers here as Superman visits each member of the Justice League to give them a simple and sometimes funny gift. Each time Supes visits a new member of the JLA it is drawn by a different artist making it a holiday jam session.

This year's holiday comics have arrived at Comic Book Ink in Tacoma. CBI owner John Munn says he has plenty that will cause many comic fans' storage boxes to bulge fatter and fatter like Santa's belly-o-jelly.

"There are wonder holiday specific comics such as Bruce The Blue Spruce and It Ate Billy On Christmas," explains Munn. "Plus, just as Die Hard is a "Christmas movie," there are so many comic book stories that take place DURING Christmas."

Daily, through the end of the year, you can fill up a "short box" for $70 at Comic Book Ink. Munn is also running a Back Issue Blow Out Sale through December.

[Comic Book Ink, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, 1625 E. 72nd St., Tacoma, 253.761.4651]