Happy New Year! (coming when you least expect it)

The tiny blue marble upon which our lives and dreams reside is hurtling through space at roughly 67,000 mph. Woosh, that’s fast. Every 365 days, or so, we complete an orbit around the sun. It’s kind of a big deal. We celebrate each lap by declaring a “New Year.”

Here’s the thing, though. When should we start counting?

The Gregorian calendar starts Jan 1st, while in Babylon, the new year began with the equinox. In Nepal, we’re on to mid-April, and following the Coptic calendar, we’re not due until September. This is all a long way of saying that the New Year holiday is a social construct, and that we enjoy making excuses for the lateness of our holiday cards.

Join us now in declaring a new start! You are, after all, reading a New Year’s card, so a new year it must be. We at the Karlsson lab thank you for all of your support, and offer our sincere hopes that this year, whenever you choose to start it, is a wonderful one.

Cover inspired by Uncanny X-Men #1, illustrated by Jack Kirby (published September 10, 1963)