Simon Hanselmann, Crisis Zone Calendar 2022, Cover

Happy holidays! Oh, I am not referring to Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus or any similar holiday - Dec. 22, 2024 is the 4th anniversary of Simon Hanselmann ending his daily instagram posting of Crisis Zone pages.

This was a tremendous undertaking of near daily writing, penciling, inking and coloring of an original Megg, Mogg and Owl (and many others) page done during a worldwide pandemic. It is perhaps the best long-form book of Hanselmann's long career - and it won the Eisner Award for webcomic in 2020.

I found Crisis Zone to be an oddly satisfying and timely work that added substance to the endless days of staying home. Hanselmann's ability to instantly translate current events to his long standing characters was amazing. While Crisis Zone is not "canon" Megg, Mogg and Owl, apparently Crisis Zone will become a new canon, an alternative universe shaped solely by the pandemic. It is an insane book, with over 300 pages including added commentary. The work ethic alone is crazy. I mean, what did I do for 9 months of the pandemic? I was definitely not as productive as this.

In terms of original comic art, the entire book is rumored to have been sold to one person. So it is impossible to collect any of the original work. Fortunately for me, Hanselmann decided to create a calendar reflecting characters and scenes from Crisis Zone for 2022 to accompany the 2021 book issuance.

So here and following are all 13 pages from the calendar (the cover and 12 months). When the opportunity to grab the entire calendar arose, I felt like I had to jump on it, even though I had already blown my budget for 2024 months earlier. But to me, this was a must buy that reflects how the world existed during the pandemic. And ... (spoiler alert)

OWL CAN FLY!

Enjoy. And Happy Holidays!