Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week Bennett rounds up what's going on the week before Christmas, including the Free Comic Book Day Gold titles, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, what Steve wants for Christmas, and the wrap-up of the MST3K Kickstarter.

I know I should have gotten used to this by now, but when I saw Entertainment Weekly's December 18-25, 2015 cover featuring the Best & Worst of 2015, I was still taken a little aback.  As I’ve said before (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--It's That Time Of Year Again"), historically (meaning, when I was young) Best and Worst lists usually appeared between Christmas and New Year's, giving us something to do during the long, dull slog between holidays when there was little or nothing to do.  Now like every other annual occasion, it's gotten pushed further and further back on the calendar; it's a little thing I like to call "celebration creep."

If you don’t believe me, May 7 is six months away but they’ve already announced the Gold Sponsor titles for Free Comic Book Day 2016 (see "FCBD 2016 Gold Sponsor Comics Announced").  As it most often is there aren't a lot of surprises in this year's selections, but there are a couple, primarily ROM: The Space Knight #0.  I myself could never quite get past his two-slice toaster shaped head, but I’m savvy enough to understand that the character is a nostalgic touchstone for fans of a certain age.

And you can add to those all of the millennials who'll also be wanting a copy, motivated mostly by a desire to check out this "legendary" character.  But that's going to put this one really over the top is the announcement that Paramount and Hasbro are developing a cinematic universe featuring him, M.A.S.K., Micronauts, G.I. Joe and Visionaries* (see "The '80s Toy Box Explodes Onscreen In Cross-Property Universe").  That’s what will make it the most likely to disappear first -- with copies undoubtedly showing up later on eBay.

One comic I'm definitely looking forward to in 2016 is Legends of Tomorrow.  I’ve never been a fan of the way DC has haphazardly put out new series and mini-series and new series which turn out to have been mini-series all along, the same way I’ve long been a proponent of the anthology series, a comic that mixes various genres.  Well Legends of Tomorrow, which of course has absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming CW superhero series, manages to turn a bunch of their previously announced miniseries into just such an anthology.

Here the anthology has been updated for the modern comic reader, meaning that instead of eight or twelve pages each feature is the equivalent length of a monthly comic.  And while $7.99 seems a lot to pay, even for 80 pages, it’s hard to argue with the quality of the contents: Metamorpho by Aaron Lopresti, Metal Men by Len Wein and Yildiray Cinar, and, especially, a new version of Sugar & Spike by Keith Giffen and Bilquis Evely in which the former baby talkers are now young adult detectives.

Finally, what does Steve want for Christmas?  That would be the Samsung Galaxy View.  Samsung is selling this tablet with an 18.4-inch (!) screen as primarily a portable touch screen TV, but I see it for what it actually is; the perfect device for reading digital comics.  Now I know that a lot of people, primarily the young, have no problem reading comics on the tiny screens of their phones, but I’m afraid that’s not the case for people of a certain age.  Now I can’t pretend to speak for an entire generation, but I can’t help but feel there’s a large number of people out there who would enjoy reading digital comics -- if the screen approximated the size of an actual comic book page.  I’ve graduated from the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen to a Galaxy Pro’s 12.2, and the difference in size made all the difference when it came to the comic reading experience.  So I can’t help but think the experience would be still better on the View.  Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to give it a test drive.

And finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Joel Hodgson’s Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a new season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 was a tremendous success.  Hodgson will be producing 14 new episodes (one will be a Christmas Special) that will include cameos by Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, Jerry Seinfeld, Mark Hamill and Bill Hader.  Guest writers will include Rob Schrab (Scud the Disposable), Rick & Morty creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland and Dana Gould.  Robert Lopez who wrote songs for Avenue Q, Book of Mormon and Frozen will be creating original songs for the show and Mythbusters’ Adam Savage will be doing special effects.  And contributing designs will be Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time), Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe) and Guy Davis (Sandman Mystery Theater) -- this drawing of new host Jonah Ray with the ‘bots is concept art done by Gary Glover.

* Seriously, the Visionaries?  I recognize that once you pass M.A.S.K., Hasbro’s library of well-known toy franchises gets kind of thin.  Before making the announcement I assume Hasbro and Paramount test-marketed the heck out of each one of the properties but I’d have to argue when it comes to obscure 80s toy/cartoons Hasbro’s Inhumanoids ranks higher in the hearts of 80s toys aficionados.  As well as being infinitely cooler.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.