Batman #247

Batman's Special Holiday Issue takes a decidedly sinister turn as the cover — penciled and inked by Dick Giordano — depicts a menacing masked villain looming over the Dark Knight atop a giant New Year's Eve ball emblazoned with the words "Deadly Happy New Year." Below them, Gotham's streets are flooded with fleeing figures, while a chilling caption promises that at the stroke of midnight, everybody in Gotham gets struck dead. It's a genuinely unsettling holiday tableau that pairs festive imagery with real dread, making this 1973 DC offering one of the more memorable seasonal comics around.