Lio by Mark Tatulli for December 08, 2018

Hybrids!

Santa must not be the entomologist type.

Lio likes his candy to be full of life!

I’m trying to imagine the actual words spoken in this conversation.

He’s going to grow up to be a leg man.

Quit bugging old Saint Nick. You’re getting under his skin.

You would have thought Lio would be speaking to Jack Skellington instead…

Who knew that Lio was a leg man?

Incorrigible Leo

Face it, Santa is a sugar junkie!

A gag that could be done only in a visual medium. Cleverly done.

…as visions of spiderplums danced in his head…

Lio must have like 30 industrial size “Creepy Crawlers” ovens in his basement.

Santa:" Kid, I’m Santa Claus. Not Jack Skellington."

Some time ago, deviantART held a cute monster contest. I had tentatively planned to draw candy-themed monsters, but I never got around to it. Leave it to Mark to take up the slack.

Santa is fighting a secret war with spider-like aliens who love him. Who knew he has arachnophobia? They the Beta Lyrans from Vega star system have mammal physiologies over arachnid and are about the size of ponies. They are well advanced and have been dressing up like Santa and putting presents under trees for years. (Who knows how many children and adults have been frightened by a huge black thing carefully putting presents under the tree while wearing a version of Santa’s suit of red or green with white fur trim?)

Ole Santa is blind to their adulation, the only emotions they ever show. And much as Santa kills them the Vegan ‘spiders’ hold no malice. (Regenerate those who die to life.)

Just Lio hoping for a little something in his stockings…

In the end, it’s the legs. Lio wants ambulatory pets, Santa. You should be able to understand that….

The important thing, for Lio, is that the gifts have at least eight or more legs.