Anyway, back to Superswine, the character was published by Fantagraphic and from what I gathered reading this special, he appeared in the funny animals anthology 'Critters.' The series featured some of the biggest names in the industry during the 80s including Alan Moore, Stan Sakai, and Cerebus the Aardvark's Dave Sim, who also created, wrote and drew Superswine and this Christmas issue.
Christmas with Superswine isn't for kids. The book starts off friendly enough with a parody of ' The Night Before Christmas." But referencing Santa as a drunkard, dope fiend, and slob, plus numerous swears in the back-up features clearly moves this book from all ages to teen plus (generally ages older than 12.) The short stories in the back were all Christmas themed and they had some laughs and very good art. It was just a little too edgy and controversial for my tastes. If Archie Bunker was ever turned into an animated superhero pig, this would be what I'd envision his Christmases to be like.
One this book did have going for it was the ads promoting the sister comic 'Critters.' I'm very interested in getting my hands on it as it has some early Yosagi Yojimbo tales, as well as an arch-type character based on the intergalactic rabbit Bucky O'Hare in them. Also, there was an advertisement for a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund comic called 'True North' that I am interested in getting my hands on. I'm a huge supporter of the CBLDF and while I know that my purchasing of a back issue of it wouldn't benefit the cause right now, I think it would be an interesting time capsule into the censorship issues of comics in the late 1980s.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
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