Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! Not only that, but I believe today is the first of several Friday the 13ths happening this year. I for one am glad that 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, because we’ll need that good luck to counteract all the bad luck. Or something. I’m not really sure how luck is supposed to work, exactly.

So here we are: the first Ben & Winslow comic of the new year. I’ve stuck to familiar themes of eating and monsters, which will hopefully lull you all into a false sense of security. Because strange stuff is afoot. Strange stuff is always afoot in the Ben & Winslow universe, but still. Don’t want you getting scared away early on.

I wanted to end the year with a sunset. So I drew a sunset. And something extra. See if you can find out what it is. It’s totally hidden. You’ll never really find it. Muahahahaha.

So here is the result of Winslow’s request of Santa. You didn’t really think Santa would give Winslow Salma Hayek, did you? I mean, if he went to all that trouble to kidnap Salma Hayek, he would totally keep her for himself.

So. Here we are at last. You, me, maybe some snow, and this: the December 2011 issue of Defenestration. It smells like pine needles and pinecones and pine-scented floor cleaners. Very piney. Pinish? That sounds awful. But the smell? Ridiculishious.

You might be thinking, “This is a winter issue,” which is true if you don’t live in like, Australia, where everyone is wearing bathing suits and taking photos of themselves in bathing suits and them uploading them to [insert social networking site here] so all their American friends (they don’t have any other friends) can feel sad about everything. That’s a very Australian thing to do, I’ve heard. Anyway. You might be thinking “This is a winter issue,” which is true, only not really. In fact that’s wrong. Totally wrong. Nothing in this issue has anything to do with winter. In fact, if we were going to choose a theme for this issue, it would be poop.