In the Racks and Stacks series, Cody discusses the comic books he has been reading.
Christmas in July? Why not June?
In 2009, writer/director Michael Dougherty's long-awaited horror anthology Trick 'r Treat finally reached home video and instantly became a Halloween classic. In 2015, he brought the world a Christmas horror movie called Krampus, and many horror fans have also embraced that one as a holiday classic, making sure to get a viewing of it in every December. For some reason, I've just never been able to get into that movie. I have given it a few chances, and it just never clicks for me.
Unlike Trick ' Treat, Krampus is not an anthology film. However, Dougherty and his co-screenwriters Todd Casey and Zach Shields did realize that there are many tales that can be told about the eponymous creature, thus the creation of the anthology graphic novel tie-in Krampus: Shadow of Saint Nicholas. I first read this book months before I had the chance to watch Krampus - and while I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed the movie, it's not entirely smooth sailing for me, either.
The title isn't a reference to the actual shadow of Santa Claus, it's a description of the Krampus, Santa's demonic counterpart who punishes naughty children. For this graphic novel, which is split into four chapters, Dougherty, Casey, and Shields came up with three intertwining stories dealing with the Krampus and its minions, with Casey and Shields writing the chapters and receiving an assist from Laura Shields on chapter two.
Chapter one was easily my favorite of the bunch, and was a story I could imagine making an really fun movie on its own. Actually, I don't want to just imagine it, I want to see this segment as a movie! Dougherty should go ahead and turn this chapter into Krampus 2 - and if he did, it would be a rare sequel that surpasses the original.
At its center is an alcoholic Vietnam veteran who hits the "magic grape juice" a little too hard while working as a mall Santa. When seemingly apocalyptic snow conditions blow in, this guy is trapped in the mall with a couple of co-workers, a group of children... and a small army of wooden mask-wearing elves, who set about creating killer toys to send after the people trapped in the establishment.
This chapter had me laughing out loud with the drunken Santa's antics and dialogue, the action was plentiful, and the artwork by Christian Dibari looked fantastic. Each chapter was handled by a different artist, and Dibari's art worked the best for me out of all of them. The only problem with chapter one is that is builds up a WTF non-ending. A character says exactly what I was thinking in the moment: "I don't understand what just happened."
Chapter one was so great, at least up to the ending, that I couldn't help but feel like the rest of the book went downhill from there. It never again achieves the level of fun that first segment reaches.
Chapter two centers on a police officer teaming up with a man she has every right to hate so they can battle those evil little elves, and some strange winged creatures, side-by-side. While the art by Maan House is fine for the most part, there were some confusing choices made, and I found the writing of this chapter to be a bit lackluster.
The art on chapter three was done by Stuart Sayger, and I wasn't a fan of his style, which could make even a normal little girl look like a hideous monster. The fact that all of these stories are tied together starts to become very clear in this one, which is basically the Krampus universe take on A Christmas Carol. The artwork and hallucinatory scenario really lost me as this story went on. I didn't enjoy it very much.
Things end on a positive note with chapter four, which wraps everything up with a neat little bow and was brought to the page with some nice artwork by Michael Montenat.
Overall, I found Krampus: Shadow of Saint Nicholas to be a very mixed bag. Chapter one alone makes the book worth picking up, but the chapters that followed didn't offer much that I felt was worth sticking around for. Chapter two has a strong concept and some cool action beats (there were moments in there that I felt would have been cool to see in a movie, too), but the overall execution was underwhelming. Chapter three I could have done without entirely, while I appreciated chapter four largely because it makes up for the sour notes that all of the preceding chapters end on.
If you love Krampus and want to spend some extra time in its universe, I would recommend that you get the graphic novel. I would also recommend it to anyone who wants to see a 'Nam vet in a Santa suit do drunken battle with the forces of evil. If you don't fit into either of those categories, you might not get much out of it.
Note: Marvel Comics will not be covered in Racks and Stacks articles, as they have their own article series.
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