The time has come once again for us to celebrate the holidays in all of their glory. It’s time to deck the halls, trim the tree, and create crazy monsters with magic and hunt them for sport! Well, that’s the case if you live in Hole World. In this year’s Curse Words Holiday Special, we get a look into the main cast, as the nine beings that worship the evil Sizzajee celebrate their favorite tradition: the Meatmeet, a special activity that shows these pretty bizarre beings doing a pretty bizarre things. Mostly, the Meatmeet is a competition for Sizzajee’s favor, as the nine beings (which are the ones who have come after our beloved Wizord in our world) create a creature, imbue it with magic, and hunt it down, with the winner getting respect from Sizzajee and a special seat at the table during the celebration.

It’s a silly, fun, and lighthearted way to show Hole World in a new way, and give some more insight into these villainous characters. It also shows the beginnings of what we all know is a failed relationship between Ruby Stitch and Wizord, which is a cute moment, if you don’t think too much about who these characters are from a moral standpoint. While this was obviously a silly, one-off issue, it was nice to see the lighter side of this world, which can be pretty nefarious in most instances.

The creative team on this issue is on point, with Charles Soule still at the helm as writer and superstar artist Mike Norton filling in for co-creator Ryan Browne. Norton is a fantastic artist, and he absolutely nailed this issue. His style is great for a series like this which is big and explosive visually while also being very weird and silly. That being said, I very much miss Ryan Browne. There is a magical quality to his work that I really love, with a style that toes the line between brilliance and chaos, the best sound effects work I’ve ever witnessed, and some wholly unique ideas when it comes to character creation. Norton doesn’t miss a beat in his stead, but as a huge fan of Browne’s work, this issue would have been put over the top by his trademark weirdness.

As a transition from the second arc of the book to the third, this is a great palette cleanser to what has been a really fun series thus far. A long way off from anything normal, this special holiday issue shows off just how much of an wonderful oddball this title is. Hopefully, we will get to celebrate the holidays with Curse Words again next year.