Spirits.


Other than Halloween, late December is probably the time of year most populated, in the popular imagination, with spirits (I'm talking here in the West, at least). And although it's supposed to be all sweetness and light, there definitely is an undercurrent of spooky, a chill in the air that isn't just due to the wintery weather (nor even the nightmarish voyeurism of elves on shelves, which is a whole other kind of creepy).

I first realized this when reading Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," that overused but still amazing story of the ghosts (and spirits, the two being slightly different) visiting an unrepentant and greedy old man. Sanitized though it was for primary school consumption, it still lent Christmas a bit of Halloween, which, to my odd little self, I thought it needed. (For that matter, my favorite actual carol is "Carol of the Bells," particularly any sort of dark or metal version; it seems much more haunting than all the happy happy joy joy of jingling bells and bellies full of jelly.)

In this issue, then, our attempt at Christmas spirit is a bit more ... dark. And yet light. Or at least hopeful. Sometimes.

Rather than list everything in the issue (which I suspect is more succinctly done in the table of contents), I'd just like to say thanks to Jesper Nordqvist, whose ongoing webcomic concludes (or comes to an end) in this issue. We first started printing Mondo Mecho during the first run of the magazine in the early 2ks, and he was kind enough to let us continue to print it in our new incarnation. We'll miss the cyberpunk adventures of Jemma and Gehenna, and we wish them well. And in the new year we'll have new graphic narratives to show you all (although there are definitely slots still open, so if you have a short or long webcomic you'd like to submit, please do!).

I wish you all a hauntingly good holiday season, and we'll see you again in 2k23!

Jeff Georgeson
Managing Editor
Penumbric