Happy Christmas from the Cavletter

It’s Christmas Eve, a.k.a. the most exciting day of the year.

One of my favourite parts of Christmas growing up was picking up the festive editions of my favourite comics, full of Christmas cheer and, nine times out of ten, snow on the logo.

As a Christmas treat this year, my pal Keith Hopewell has created our very own Christmas cover for Monster Mechas, our little creative side project where we create covers for an imaginary 1980s toy line. And this one ramps up the nostalgia as it’s a homage to one of my top Christmas covers of all time…

It’s a tribute to issue 145 of Marvel UK’s Transformers weekly, with our character — the evil Wraptor — replacing the Scrooge-tastic Starscream from the original.

Santa hats off to original artists Barry Kitson and Robin Bouttell for producing a cover that has lived rent free in my head for nearly forty years!

In the original story written by Ian Ritter, a kid tries to teach Starscream the true meaning of December 24th, the cantankerous Cybertronian eventually wishing the festive-filled fleshing a merry Christmas.

See, even Decepticons can get into the Christmas spirit — my own yuletide cheer increased by an unexpected parcel I received yesterday from Keith containing the original art for the Wraptor cover.

Thanks Keith!

I hope you all have a peaceful few days, whether you celebrate the big Ho-Ho-Ho or not. At the end of 2025, I think we all need a little peace and goodwill. I hope you find time to relax and cosy up with those you love.

And to send you on the way, as is now traditional, I’ll leave you with my cover version of I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas with a Dalek by the Go-Gos.

Merry Christmas, kid!