With the holiday season creeping up earlier and earlier every year, I would understand if you're already Christmased/Hanukkahed/Kwanzaad/Solsticed out. But Shane Prigmore, a story artist and visual development artist on Rise of the Guardians, rescues us from the usual holiday fare, not just with his storyboard featuring Jack Frost and a swashbuckling Santa Claus, but also with his illustrative tributes to the non-December holidays.

J.R.R. Tolkien first discovered Pauline Baynes, one of his favorite illustrators, after she sent some of her clever reinterpretations of marginalia from the Luttrell Psalter, a medieval illuminated manuscript. So charmed was Tolkien by Baynes' goof on medieval art that he requested Baynes as the replacement illustrator on his fable Farmer Giles of Ham, and she went on to illustrate many scenes from Middle Earth.

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great images on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we've created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it's new, some of it's old, some of it's created by working professionals, some of it's created by future stars, some of it's created by talented fans, and some of it's endearingly silly. All of it's awesome.

The Beartato Tot Squishable Mini-Plush
Available From: TopatoCo
Price: $19.00

Let's face it, every now and then we all need a hug. And what better to hug than a rotund (and accurate) real-life version of Beartato, the star of Anthony Clark's Nedroid comic? Just look at him! Those stubby little arms were made for stubby little hugs!

If the sight of the Star Trek Into Darkness trailer has left you feeling as if you can't wait until May to find out more about the mysterious John Harrison and the threat he poses to the Federation, don't worry; the story actually gets started next month as IDW launches Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness, an official prologue to the new movie.

If the fourth live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie -- which would have potentially been subtitled either "The Next Mutation" or, apparently, "The Foot Walks Again" -- had gone ahead, the world could have met Evil April, Super Shredder and a fifth Turtle named after Jack Kirby. Now, we get to see what those characters might have looked like, as Kevin Eastman's concept art for the project has shown up at auction online, giving the world a chance to meet the Cyber Foot and other wild creations for the first time. Click through to see what we missed out on.

The CW's new superhero series Arrow re-imagines Green Arrow for a TV audience as a tough, often ruthless vigilante bent on setting things right in his home of Starling City by punishing the wicked. ComicsAlliance's Matt Wilson will be following along all season to see how he fares.

This week, an even more dangerous copycat vigilante is arrowing all over town, Ollie tries to get into the Christmas spirit and the Moira/Steele relationship goes to astonishingly weird places.

If Susan Strong turns your heart on, Zack Giallongo's Adventure Time #11 backup will likely prove worth the issue's physical/digital cover price alone. Joining the main story by Ryan North, Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb, Giallongo's "The Meaning of Bravery" turns the book's attention on the super buff subterranean maybe-human known as Susan as her naivety about the wider world gets exploited by a sinister force. There's a good heart inside her cat bonnet-ed body, though, meaning readers can probably count on Susan doing the right thing before the story wraps... right?

Over a lifetime of reading comics, Senior Writer Chris Sims has developed an inexhaustible arsenal of facts and opinions. That's why, each and every week, we turn to you to put his comics culture knowledge to the test as he responds to your reader questions!



Q: Why does everyone hate the "Christmas with the Joker" episode of Batman: The Animated Series? -- @tekende

A: You know, I'm not sure everyone does hate "Christmas with the Joker." I certainly don't, but then again, I can't really say that I like it a whole lot either. It's definitely one of those episodes that pops into mind whenever I start thinking of the worst episodes of the series, although it misses out on being the actual worst by a long shot. But that said, I don't quite know the reason why.

Clearly, a rewatch is in order.

Fans of Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice: Invasion! can officially resume setting their DVRs/alarm clocks. Cartoon Network's DC Nation programming block will return at 10 a.m. ET/PT on Saturday, January 5 after a nearly three month hiatus that hit unexpectedly back in October. In addition to the usual dose of original animated shorts, the block will presumably host the GL episode, "Steam Lantern," along with the YJ episode, "Before the Dawn."

On sale now from Dark Horse is Hellboy in Hell #1, a comic that marks not just a new creative achievement in the already superlative oeuvre of cartoonist Mike Mignola and a return to drawing the main Hellboy story after several years away, but also the beginning of a new and carefully considered phase of his professional career. The story finds Mignola's popular red-skinned hero from the infernal realm come to the end of a corporeal existence that's included achievements as the world's best paranormal investigator, an introspective wanderer and a champion of destiny, and take the first steps into a world that Mignola's meticulously designed to serve as Hellboy's home for the foreseeable future. But as Mignola told ComicsAlliance in this candid interview conducted in advance of his signing and exhibition at Things From Another World in Portland, Orgegon this weekend, Hell is where the artist himself will be happy to work until the day he can no longer make comics.

SPOILER WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury.

Animation: Studio Ghibli has revealed posters for its next two animated feature films, Kaze Tachinu and Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, both set for release in Japan this summer. [Crunchyroll]