I generally try to keep my celebrations pretty quiet, but sharp-eyed ISB readers may have noticed a few vague references over the past few weeks to Christmas, my favorite holiday.

Yes, Christmas! A time for family and togetherness, but far more importantly, a time for presents. And I’ve got to say, I made out pretty well this year. In addition to the truly amazing t-shirt that Euge gave me as part of our live-on-Ajax gift exchange…

…I also managed to score a nice version of RoboCop from Rachelle, some great presents from readers–including an action figure of Dr. Rockzo: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Clown from Charlie Oliver–and a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which is an amazingly fun reminder that I used to be really good at video games.

I also got a surprise from the creators of El Gorgo, Mike McGee and Tamas Jakab: The complete Bronze Age Betty and Veronica in PDF on DVD. It’s every issue from 197- to 1979, and it’s from the same people who did the Complete Collection for the Marvel books. If only I’d had this back when I was putting together the Common People post…

…things would’ve been so much easier.

Incidentally, the panel above is Ronnie doing an impression of Virginia Cleary, a little known Riverdale resident who is so sexy that her walk is always accompanied by the sounds of Frosty the Snowman:

The standout gift, however, is the one I got way early from Kevin Church: A Batman storybook:

But not just any Batman storybook, as I found out when I popped it open to the title page. This is the story of a very special team-up:

That’s right: A story where I help Batman solve not just a case of a stolen robot, but the case of the stolen robot. It’s one of those books where you put in a kid’s name and a little information about them and it plugs them into the story, but man, for something based on a form, they got my voice down pat:

It arrived so early that it was a complete surprise, and as it ends with me and Batman becoming best friends, it’s basically the best thing ever.

As for gifts that can’t be bought in a store, I got a great one of those too: A piece of art from Smithy based on the first issue of Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N.:

What is the true meaning of Christmas, if not Lars the Henchman stealing a super-spy’s lacy underthings?

As for the presents I gave, well, Kevin and Dave Lartigue have put theirs up for all to see, but I was also part of doing something nice for Love and Capes creator Thom Zahler that was whole lot of fun to do.

I got a few other things (and I think there are still a few on the way), but at this point I’m just going on and on about presents I got, so I’ll just give one more thank you to everyone for giving me such a fun Christmas, and here’s hoping everyone out there got something nice too.

Last week, Yannick Belzil sent me a link to Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and Mitch Brian’s series writer’s bible for Batman: The Animated Series, and as the title of this post suggests, it was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I felt I had to bring it to your attention on ComicsAlliance with an in-depth look at what makes it so great!

It’s an incredible read, not just for seeing what it’s like to actually watch three dudes rebuild Batman from the ground up, but because it’s just loaded with Timm’s designs, including some incredible shots that look to be thrown in just to set the mood, like this one:

So give the article a read, and if you’ve got the chance, check out the actual 150-page PDF of the writer’s guide itself. It’s quicker than it sounds (lots of pictures) and well worth reading for any fan of the show.

This is the 1,000th post on The-ISB.com, and as such, I am celebrating in the only appropriate fashion:

Batman kicking a super-intelligent gorilla in the face.

Thanks, Phil. And if anyone’s wondering, of the last thousand, this is still my favorite.

*: If you count ISB Classic, it’s post #1,794 of the entire ISB.

–The Batman Adventures Holiday Special, 1995

–Super Friends #30, 1980

I love that Robin can see Professor Gorilla and be all “Yeah, that’s about right.”

Jiro Kuwata speaks truth to power.

–Super Friends #1, 1976