Superhero Santa

Superhero Santa

A review of Grant Morrison and Dan Mora’s Klaus: The New Adventures of Santa Claus (Boom! Studios, 2018)

By Derek Newman-Stille

I have to admit that I have an absolute love for Yule holiday traditions and stories, especially ones that play with and complicate traditional narratives. There is something otherworldly about the holidays and they inspire a need to read – particularly for those of us in the Northern hemisphere during Yule. The shorter days and longer nights call out for a need for hope and light, so reading optimistic holiday tales can evoke that feeling of hope in the long, long nights.

The second instalment in Grant Morrison and Dan Mora’s Klaus graphic series, Klaus: The New Adventures of Santa Claus continues Morrison and Mora’s re-exploration of this reimagining of the Santa Claus figure. But where Santa was a jolly old man with a round little belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly, Morrison and Mora’s Santa Claus is a muscular middle aged man who seems to spend more time at the gym than he does eating milk and cookies. Klaus is a warrior figure, set against the tides of darkness that spring up around Yule, whose role is to fight evil… but also inspire hope and caring in children.

Klaus is fully steeped in Norse mythology, formed at the combination of the Joy rune, the Gift rune, and the Fire rune. He is a newly imagined figure who is steeped in the pagan origins of Yule and connected to other traditions like the Yule Lads of Iceland, the Yule Goat of Scandinavia, Ded Moroz of Russia, and the Frost Giants of Norse myth. Instead of reindeer, this Santa Claus is accompanied by wolves. Yet, Mora and Morrison don’t just play with the idea of a magical Santa. He is also steeped in technology, riding a sleigh that looks like it is part space ship and occasionally fighting aliens.

Klaus: the New Adventures of Santa Claus occurs in two narratives – “Klaus and the Witch of Winter” and “Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville”. Klaus’ encounter with the Witch of Winter involves a battle against forces of cold with hints of The Snow Queen (especially through the notion of children developing a frozen heart), but the tale also connects Klaus to other tales, making this Santa Claus the teacher of Geppetto (from the tale of Pinocchio). This tale brings up concerns about global warming, ideas of family, and the psychological trauma that children undergo.

“Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville” is similarly charged with magic and political commentary. In this story, Morrison and Mora explore the influence of Coca Cola in shaping the image of modern Santa Claus and his capitalist trappings. Using the name “Pola Cola”, Morrison and Mora point out things like the exploitation of workers and the power of economy to turn people into zombie-like figures, but they also combine this with Klaus’ battle against a werewolf-like figure and aliens from another planet who are trying to suck all of the creativity out of human beings because they don’t have any of their own.

Morrison and Mora have created a new mythology with Klaus, modifying the traditional image of Santa Claus and combining him with another creation of popular culture – the superhero.

To find out more about Grant Morrison, go to https://www.grantmorrison.com

To discover more about Klaus, go to https://shop.boom-studios.com/series/detail/458/klaus

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K is for Klaus

K is for Klaus

A review of Grant Morrison and Dan Mora’s Klaus (Boom Studios, 2016).

By Derek Newman-Stille

This isn’t your regular right jolly old elf. Instead, this Santa Claus is a warrior, hunter, and rebel. Playing with the story of Santa Claus from the 1970 stop motion animated film Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Grant Morrison and Dan Mora’s Klaus is a warrior who shows up in the village of Grimsvig, where children have been forbidden to have toys. Even rocks used as playthings are taken away with severe punishment threatened. Grimsvig is a town where all joy has been removed. It is a nightmare of labour without reward where only the wealthy are allowed the pleasure of escape and imagination. Klaus returns to Grimsvig and is disgusted with what the town has become, and after being expelled from the town, encounters otherworldly beings who inspire him to create toys that he then brings back to the community.

 

In this comic, Morrison and Mora play with images of rebellion, having Klaus modify posters of the royalty around the town of Grimsvig with stylistic similarities to V for Vendetta, yet the poster of the baron has the rune for joy written on his chin instead of a beard. Klaus combines joy with rebellion, playing with the idea that joy can be a rebellious act. Klaus attacks guards and disrupts the monotony of the town.

 

Klaus takes on the role of Julernisse, the Yuletime Spirit, operating between myth and reality. Even within the comic, he is discussed as myth, disbelieved because of his stealth and ability to resist the perceived natural control of the baron. Klaus is described by various people as a man-wolf, a ghost, and a spirit, taking on the status of legend while alive.

 

Morrison and Mora create a story where play is an act of rebellion, a means of resistance and a way to assert change. They illustrate that play is not just a means to escape, but to creatively inspire transformation. Capitalism and joy clash in a world where anything that doesn’t generate profit is seen as suspect.

 

Klaus comes into conflict with the destructive, greedy impulse of humanity and battles for a better humanity that he imagines is possible. Drawing on Norse mythology, popular narratives about Santa Claus, and the rich folkloric imagery about Father Christmas, Morrison and Mora create a new fairy tale about Santa Claus to expand new possibilities for imagination and wonder.

 

To discover more about the work of Grant Morrison, visit http://www.grant-morrison.com/

To find out more about Klaus, visit Boom Studios at https://shop.boom-studios.com/series/detail/458/klaus

 

Orwellian Uprising

Orwellian Uprising
A review of Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, and Steve Leialoha’s “Fables: Animal Farm” (Vertigo, 2003)
By Derek Newman-Stille

The second volume in in the “Fables” comic book series, “Fables: Animal Farm” introduces us to the fairy tale characters that can’t pass in the human world. Whether giants, talking pigs, Puss in Boots, flying monkeys, or trolls, the fairy tale characters who passed into the human world and are unable to pass as human are confined to a small village away from human civilization, deprived of common rights of movement, and limited in the activities they can participate in. 

Feeling treated as second class citizens, many of the residents of The Farm want to challenge a system that divides characters by appearance. But, these beings from fairy tales of the past are integrated into a tale of the present as George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” becomes a modern text that weaves into this tale of exploitation and class difference. Like in Orwell’s tale, certain residents of The Farm decide that they can exploit the anger that the residents all have over being treated as second class citizens in order to take over their society. 

“Fables: Animal Farm” explores ideas of class conflict, but it also interrogates ideas of segregation of certain populations, and the residents of The Farm remind the reader (and the human-looking fairy tale characters) that no matter how good the buildings are in a segregated community, it is still a prison when you are unable to leave. There is a commentary here on other institutions that segregate disabled populations or aged populations from an able-bodied population that consistently expresses a desire not to see people with disabilities or the aged. The residents of The Farm are similarly hidden from sight, removed from social interaction, and isolated. Indeed, they represent their isolation by playing on William Golding’s Lord of the Flies by slaughtering one of the Three Little Pigs and placing his head on a pike. The characters use this symbolism to illustrate that their isolation, rather than their bodies, have transformed them into animals and monsters. 

In “Fables: Animal Farm” Willingham, Buckingham, and Leialoha illustrate that texts have power, and, particularly, that they ask social questions. Mixing fairy tales with some of the social commentary from Orwell and Golding’s tales, “Fables: Animal Farm” reminds readers that fairy tales and other stories that we tell ourselves are our way to understand our place in the world and that tales should be revisited because every time we revisit them, we observe something new and relevant.

To find out more about the Fables series, visit Vertigo at http://www.vertigocomics.com/graphic-novels/fables-vol-2-animal-farm