Holiday Specials 2026: Our Top 10, and the Monday Each One Closes

The first holiday comics close for ordering this Monday, October 26. FOC, the last day a shop can order a book, falls on a Monday, and this year's holiday books are spread over five of them, from October 26 to November 23.

We count 23 holiday books on the FOC list: one-shots, annuals, anthologies and regular series that take an issue off for the holidays. Here are our top 10, picked for who made them and what's new or coming back, each with the Monday it closes.

1. Hitman: It Was the Nineties Special #1 (DC, $5.99, Ennis/McCrea, FOC Mon 11/9, out 12/9). Garth Ennis and John McCrea are back with Tommy Monaghan, 25 years after the original Hitman series ended with #60. It's 48 pages and two Christmas stories: Tommy hunts for a star to put on top of a tree while every killer with a grudge chases the price on his head, and Baytor works the bar in the backup. McCrea has Cover A, with variants by Amanda Conner, Declan Shalvey and a Gerardo Zaffino foil.

2. The Joker's Christmas Carol #1 (DC, $7.99, Dini/Altieri, FOC Mon 11/2, out 12/2). Paul Dini reunites with Kevin Altieri, one of the directors on Batman: The Animated Series, for 64 pages of A Christmas Carol with the Joker in the Scrooge part: Christmas Eve, three ghosts. Altieri draws it and has Cover A. Dustin Nguyen and Ty Templeton have the variants.

3. DC's Naughty List #1 (DC, $9.99, anthology, FOC Mon 10/26, out 11/25). The first of our ten to close. DC's 80-page holiday anthology is back after DC's Batman Smells, Robin Laid an Egg in 2024 and DC's I Saw Ma Hunkel Kissing Santa Claus last year, and this one is all villains: Poison Ivy, Livewire, Catman, Mr. Freeze and more. Writers include Alex Segura, Alyssa Wong and Murewa Ayodele. Ethan Young has Cover A, and Nathan Szerdy's Cover C is a homage to Sensation Comics #38 from 1944.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Holiday Special (IDW, $5.99, Allor/Balám, FOC Mon 10/26, out 12/9). Also closes Monday. It picks up after "The City That Never Dies" in the main series: Tang Shen tries to get the Hamato Clan, their allies and a few of their enemies around one holiday table. Forty pages by Paul Allor and Enid Balám, who has Cover A, with variants by David Lafuente and Will Robson, a 1:10 by Jon Lankry and a 1:25 by Chalky Wong.

5. I Saw Spawn (A Twisted Christmas Tale) #2 (of 2) (Image, $5.99, Killian and Sanders/Hristov, FOC Mon 11/9, out 12/9). The finale of the second Spawn Christmas miniseries in two years, after last year's I Saw Santa. On Christmas Eve a serial killer's soul takes over Santa and turns him into Santa Claws, out to kill the nice kids, and Spawn, who has never been on the nice list, is the holiday's last hope. It runs 48 pages, and #1 comes out November 11. Rob "Sketchcraft" Duenas has Cover A.

6. Punisher #12 (Marvel, $4.99, Percy/Shalvey, FOC Mon 11/16, out 12/23). A silent issue. A blizzard buries New York, and Declan Shalvey draws Benjamin Percy's holiday story with no dialogue, with Frank in a new all-white suit and black skull that Shalvey designed. David Marquez has Cover A and Shalvey has a variant.

7. We Bare Bears Christmas Special #1 (Dynamite, $5.99, Ganucheau/Cangialosi, Porcu and Lauro, FOC Mon 11/16, out 12/16). The first comic book for the Cartoon Network show. Paulina Ganucheau writes three holiday stories for Grizzly, Panda and Ice Bear across 48 pages and has Cover A. Two of the covers are styled as wrapping paper and a greeting card.

8. Marvel Winter Break Special 2026 #1 (Marvel, $5.99, North and Strain/various, FOC Mon 11/16, out 12/30). Marvel's New Year's book, back for its second year. Ryan North and Christina Strain write two short stories, one of them Wolverine setting up an Avengers vs. X-Men hockey game, plus pinups, with art by Javier Garrón, Pete Woods, Lucas Werneck and others. David Nakayama has Cover A, with variants by Russell Dauterman and Nick Bradshaw.

9. Startling Tales of Santa Claus 2026 Annual (Image, $9.99, Cereno/various, FOC Mon 11/9, out 12/2). Benito Cereno's Santa book is back for a second year: 80 pages, no ads, every story written by Cereno. Santa fights Dracula, and there are origin stories for Saint Nicholas and the Krampus. Seakae has Cover A, with a 1:25 by Lee Gatlin and a 1:50 by Nate Bellegarde.

10. Shiver SuspenStories 3 #1 (Oni Press / EC Comics, $8.99, anthology, FOC Mon 11/2, out 12/9). EC's holiday horror one-shot, three years running. 56 pages with stories by John Arcudi, Sarah Gailey, David Lapham, Ryan Kelly and more, plus a restored EC classic. Dustin Weaver has Cover A. The ratio covers are Shawn McManus's EC homage at 1:10, a Steve Lieber black-and-white edition at 1:20 and Rian Hughes at 1:50.

Lobo #10 (DC, $3.99, FOC Mon 11/16). A Christmas special in the middle of The Last Death of Lobo, written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jim Mahfood. Lobo has done this before: the Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant and Simon Bisley came out in 1991.

Gargoyles Winter Special 2026 #1 (Dynamite, $5.99, FOC Mon 11/9). Year three for this one. Greg Weisman, one of the creators of the 1994 Disney show, writes it with Nate Cosby: Bronx and Lance, the bull terrier who first showed up in the 2024 special, stay up through the longest night of the year to protect the clan. 48 pages, with Stephen Byrne on Cover A.

Dread the Halls 2026 (Image, $6.99, FOC Mon 11/9). The third year of this holiday horror anthology, with stories by Chris Ryall and Jordan Hart and Joe Jusko covers at 1:25 and 1:100.

Thor #804 (Marvel, $4.99, FOC Mon 11/9). Al Ewing and Pasqual Ferry give the Quest for Thor a holiday chapter: Sigurd Jarlson hunts a murderous elf, and a much jollier one pays him a visit. Alex Ross has Cover A.

Naughty List #1 (of 4) (Invader Comics, $5.99, FOC Mon 11/2). A new small-press holiday horror series by Shawn Lewis and Ben Perkins. Santa gets the blame for a North Pole massacre, is locked in an asylum for mythological figures, and is the only one who can hunt down the holiday icons who break out.

2000 AD Prog 2513 (Rebellion, $16.99, FOC Mon 10/26). 2000 AD's yearly Christmas prog, about 100 pages, with Judge Dredd, Durham Red and Fall of Deadworld.

Monday, October 26: DC's Naughty List #1 (DC); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Holiday Special (IDW); 2000 AD Prog 2513 (Rebellion).

Monday, November 2: The Joker's Christmas Carol #1 (DC); Shiver SuspenStories 3 #1 (Oni Press); Christmas Darkness #1 (BOOM!); Naughty List #1 (Invader Comics); Donald Duck Legacy #392: The Three Caballeros' Christmas Quest (Fantagraphics).

Monday, November 9: Hitman: It Was the Nineties Special #1 (DC); Gargoyles Winter Special 2026 #1 (Dynamite); Vampirella Helliday Special 2026 #1 (Dynamite); Startling Tales of Santa Claus 2026 Annual (Image); Dread the Halls 2026 (Image); I Saw Spawn (A Twisted Christmas Tale) #2 (Image); Thor #804 (Marvel).

Monday, November 16: Punisher #12 (Marvel); Marvel Winter Break Special 2026 #1 (Marvel); We Bare Bears Christmas Special #1 (Dynamite); Lobo #10 (DC); Superman Unlimited #20 (DC); Hello Darkness #28 (BOOM!); Scary Christmas: Big Nasty Surprise #1 (American Mythology).

Monday, November 23: Red Sonja: Solstice Special #1 (Dynamite).

One more comes later: Usagi Yojimbo Winter Special (Dark Horse) closes December 7 and comes out in January.

Every book above is on our FOC list under the Monday it closes. Founding testers add books to their pull box right from the list. Not a tester yet? Click over to the Founding Testers page, sign in with a free Hero account, and join the waitlist. We'll email you when your spot opens.

More guides like this: reading orders, launch guides and top 10s, built from the FOC list. Collector Guides →

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