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]

MICHAEL SWAN: MONDAY, DEC. 21, 2009 >>>

1. The Mandolin Café hosts a Winter Solstice Celebration featuring Too Many Cooks with Steve Stefanowicz beginning at 7 p.m.

2. Tim Kapler's Incomplete show hangs on the walls of The Swiss.

3. Bundle up and stroll Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium as it comes aglow with more than a half-million lights during Zoolights from 5-9 p.m.

4. The ringing backup music has been replaced with a real band; and the cheesy video is gone, because you are the show now, baby, during Rockaraoke beginning at 9 p.m. inside Jazzbones.

5. The Mix hosts Drag Bingo beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

MICHAEL SWAN: SATURDAY, DEC. 19, 2009 >>>

1. The Folksingers In Hell perform at 3 p.m. inside Funkoma Vintage along Tacoma's Antique Row.

2. Santa Runs Tacoma - featuring Frosty's 5K Run/Walk, The Grinch 10K Relay and Tiny Tim's 1K Kids Run - begins at 9 a.m. on Dock Street.

3. The Grand Cinema screens The Polar Express at 10:30 a.m. for free. Nice.

4. Indiana University's Straight No Chaser are neither strait-laced nor straight-faced; they are 10 unadulterated human voices with a sense of humor hitting the Rialto stage at 7:30 p.m.

5. Tempest Lounge resident DJs Mr. Clean, Dab, Big Chuck and guests present "House Blend" for free beginning at 9:30 p.m.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

WEEKLY VOLCANO: WEEKLY VOLCANO FLICKR GROUP >>>

Wild Celtic Rose posted a couple photos from her Saturday holiday light tour through Tacoma on our Flickr Group site. Click here to see her full tour.

LINK: Weekly Volcano’s Flickr Group

LINK: wildcelticrose's photostream

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY: WHAT YOUR FAVORITE BANDS AND VENUES REALLY WANT THIS YEAR >>>

Come Christmas Day, you needn't get me any presents; all I ask is your presence. (Lie.)

You should direct your attention, instead, to the people who spend all year giving us the gift of music. I speak, of course, of Tacoma's bands and venues - the lifeblood of this town. I've asked several of Tacoma's most prominent faces what they'd put on their wish list, and you'd better listen up.

You might think that showing up at their shows and supporting them would be good enough, but no:

The Nightgowns

Kicking off the largely materialistic requests are the Nightgowns. Laid-back as always, they merely ask for gift certificates to Da Relm, which they deem the "best store at the Tacoma Mall".

Now, gift certificates tend to be looked down upon because, as we all know, it's the thought and effort that goes into the gift that matters. But I let it slide in this case, because venturing into the godforsaken mall to get this gift certificate is effort enough, in my book.

The Drug Purse

The Drug Purse, when asked what the want for Christmas, rattle off an insane list of demands that would make any hostage-taker green with envy. Get a pen and take this down:

Cory Thomas wants his "suboxone prescription refilled and the Insane Clown Posse box-set on VHS".

Tarek Wegner says, "I want the beluga whales at the Point Defiance Zoo to be freed into my love zone. Those things are totally ride-able. Green transportation! I also couldn't complain if I inherited some black licorice filled with Dramamine chewables".

Josh Vega just wants someone to press the record they're currently mixing and give it distribution.

But by the time the talking stick gets passed to bandleader Jason Freet, he tells me they've changed their minds. All they want for Christmas is the latest Danielle Steel novel.

Girl Trouble

If any band is deserving of our lavish showering of gifts and adoration, it's Girl Trouble. Kahuna wants a new fender amp; Bon Von Wheelie wants to complete her (impossibly cool) Scopitone collection; K.P. Kendall wants the Full House DVD box-set, presumably so that he won't waste another minute on his crying; and Dale Phillips wants his stolen equipment back and "ten minutes alone with the guy who stole it".

Now that's Christmas spirit I can get behind.

Collectively, they'd appreciate it if you would buy them a new touring van, as it appears their 1974 model is full of mold. Now's not the time to be pinching pennies, possibly stingy reader. Buy Girl Trouble a van.

Jazzbones

Jazzbones would "like to have a show with Girl Trouble in 2010".

You know what: Who wouldnÃ't? Completely doable, I would imagine. Get on that, Jazzbones and Girl Trouble. Let's make some magic happen!

Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen proclaims, "All we want for Christmas is Downtown Tacoma!"

I think I can speak on behalf of the Weekly Volcano when I say that we want nothing more than for Hell's Kitchen to fucking conquer downtown at their new digs on Pacific Avenue.

These bands and venues and many others, of course are unequivocally the backbone of Tacoma. They built our music scene from scratch, reenergized it when the times were tough, and generally made this town a cool place to be. Don't you think they deserve their drugs, dorky clothes vouchers, and ICP videotapes? Open your heart, and give a little this holiday season. Show them your appreciation in that monetary kind of way that really shows you care. It's the least you could do.

MICHAEL SWAN: MONDAY, DEC. 14, 2009 >>>

1. The Graphic Novel Book Club discusses A Contract with God by Will Eisner at 7 p.m. inside the Tentwentytwo Lounge on Hilltop Tacoma.

2. Tim Kapler's works on display at The Swiss has an intensity and inventiveness that have much to be admired.

3. The Gig Harbor community comes together at Skansie Brothers Park for Hark The Harbor Community Caroling at 7 p.m.

4. Al Earick Band performs at 8 p.m. inside The Swiss.

5. Every Monday night at 9 p.m. inside Jazzbones you can sing on the stage with a live band before a live, dancing audience - talent or not - during Rockaraoke.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

SUZY STUMP: DON'T ENJOY GETTING MALLED? >>>

You donââ?¬â?¢t need a Cinnabon to have a positive shopping experience. Consider an alternative, if you will. Saturday, inside the Capitol Theater, Duck The Malls arts and crafts sale will be a gathering place for Olympia punks, hippies, hipsters, youngsters, oldsters, artists, Weekly Volcano-sters, crafters and folks of all kinds as an antidote to everything thatââ?¬â?¢s wrong with the hectic, antiseptic, fluorescent-lighted mall. 

More than 40 of Oly's finest artisans have worked all year to present you with artistic gifts for the holidays: paintings, lamps, hats, purses, dolls, musical instruments, pottery, fused glass and more.
 
There is no admission. Baked goods will be sold, and the movie theater concession will be open also. The Olympia Film Society will be on hand to give details on its membership.

The event also raises money for the Olympia Film Society.

Check it.

[Capitol Theater, Saturday, Dec. 12, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., no cover, 206 E. Fifth Ave., Olympia, 360.754.6670]

MICHAEL SWAN: TUESDAY, DEC. 8, 2009 >>>

1. Zoolights features more than a half-million lights - including the massive flame tree - from 5-9 p.m. at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.

2. Classical Tuesdays in Old Town presents TangoHeart Quartet, plus wine and empanadas, at 7 p.m. inside Connelly Law Offices.

3. Randal Platt's Book Launch Party for Hellie Jondoe begins at 7 p.m. inside the Mandolin Café.

4. Tacoma Community College's Joy & Laughter Concert featuring the TCC Singers, TCC Voices, TCC Gospel Choir and improv from Taproot Theater begins at 7 p.m.

5. Mary Win and Daniel Adams perform alternative folk rock at 8 p.m. inside the Northern Pacific Coffee Company.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

MICHAEL SWAN: WEDNESDAY, DEC. 2, 2007 >>>

1. Robert Horner, David Curry, Antonio Edwards, Lawrence Houston, Thorax Toole, Elliot Trotter, Madera Architectural Elements, Kate Burnham and Albert Desantis will each show 20 slides (20 seconds each) on the theme "Working" during Tacoma's Pechu Kucha Vol. 003 at 5:30 p.m. inside The Hub's Gallery.

2. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in partnership with Tacoma Art Museum present the South Sound Gingerbread Village Dec. 2-13 created by local designers, students, and artists from Affairs Chocolate & Desserts, BCRA, Bellarmine Preparatory School, Jonz Catering, Korsmo Construction, Paprika Catering, and local tile artist Claudia Reidener.

3. Sandpiper Gallery opens Unusual Adorments, unusual jewelry by Candyce Anderson, Kevan Atteberry, Lynn Di Nino, Di Morgan-Graves and Elayne Vogel, today with an artist reception from 5-7 p.m.

4. The Washington Center's 21st Century Masters Series features violinist Bella Hristova at 7:30 p.m.

5. Boris Budd & The Waterboarders will be inside Jazzbones at 8:30 p.m.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

WEEKLY VOLCANO: BECAUSE "SERIES" IS OUR MIDDLE NAME >>>

The holiday season has hit the South Puget Sound. Stores are stocked, the tree in front of the Pantages is lit, and you're getting your über-wholesome, sweater-clad Johnny Mathis on - right? And while you're making your wish list, we will visit South Sound stores for a reason other than shopping - the windows.

We'll post a window daily through Christmas to give you a quick jolt of holiday spirit. Ho, ho, ho!

On the first day of Christmas we drove by: Posh Home