Comic Review: Klaus: How Santa Claus Began (BOOM! Studios)

BOOM! Studios bring you a graphic novel that focuses on the birth of a god, an alternative Christmas story in Klaus: How Santa Claus Began on its first volume.

This is the story that focuses the beginning of Christmas holiday back in the old days in a dark fantasy world alike. Either way, it’s more explanatory to tell the story of the birth of Jesus, however, the story is going to be more than that. The story is written by Grant Morrison and Illustrated by Dan Mora. Grant happens to be a Scottish comic book writer and playwright who happens to write one of the DC Comics back in the 80s, and Dan is a comic book artist who illustrated Power Rangers, Buffy the vampire comics, and so on. That is more to say from the art, which is more realistic than reading Berserk, but unlike that, this comic would prove to be more exaggerating, and it is going to be bloodshed all over.

The front cover shows an illustrated version of the main character, carrying a dead deer for food for him and his pet wolf. Even so, the details of the front cover show more than just any other bloodshed comic you’ve ever read. The main character and the wold have covered some blood everywhere from that deer. And it took place somewhere in the forest on a snowy day. So this guy is going to ho ho hope that he could eat that deer for dinner. So once upon a time, there was a man who literary looked Kratos from God of War, which makes the main character, Klaus an important character of the story, and it tells the story about how Christmas began. So, Klaus is headed to a town called Grimsvig when everything is going under strict rules by the Baron of the town, however, the town seems to be more silent and less excitement like the city of Gresith from Castlevania. The whole thing is that the soldiers of Grimsvig were that ruthless, they even tried to hurt one of the children. They also treated Klaus that badly because they treated nothing but scum to the end of the earth. Something is very wrong because the town used to celebrate the Yuletime festival and other kinds of celebration they throw?

That isn’t the part when Lord Magnus and the royal family are ruthless, but their child is becoming more spoiled than any other spoiled children, and he only careless about Yuletime and more toys. The strangest thing is that in the dining room, they set up a Christmas tree full of lights around. If you don’t know about Yule time, I’ll clear it up, but originally it’s actually Yuletide than what they pronounced in the comic. It’s a festival historically observed by the Germans. It’s a part of the Christmas season and during the time when winter solstice began on the 21^st of December. Think of it as a winter break, when school is out and everyone is at home, spending their time with their families during the Christmas season, especially those whose birthday on December 25^th. But in this comic, that child is even more spoiled, Santa would probably put in the naughty list.

Back to the story, after when Klaus was thrown out of the town, he hunts for food with his pet wolf and at night he uses a flute to summon a spiritual creature of the night to help, and then out of the blue, he pulled an all-nighter to make some toys for the children, and he delivered them to town. However, Lord Magnus was disgusted and irritated by his scheme so he tried to hunt him down. But here’s the real kicker, do you know how the spirits are attracted to Klaus, do you know why? He gained a connection to the spirits to create the Christmas that everyone should remember. Not just that, Klaus had a mother who was frozen from sometime leaving the baby alive in her arms. And then one of the soldiers took care of the baby while growing up in Grimsvig. For Magnus however, it’s about revenge because, in his youth, he poisoned the ruler of Grimsvig and died, and then blamed Klaus for such matter. Magnus became so twisted and somehow he kept some monster beneath the mines just that to live and hungers for children. And the appearance of the monster looked like the trolls from Berserk, which is monster-like munchkins with short sized and hideous faces, and apparently, he acts like Santa, a Santa of hell. But all Magnus wants is his kingdom and the throne. And then at the end of the story, Klaus brought Christmas back to the town and everyone is happy, even for him, he became Santa Claus and is doing his job to bring some joy to the Yuletime holiday every year.

The story is unique, even as a guy who likes Christmas, it seems to have more in detail to tell the story about that great holiday every year at the end of the year. But I wouldn’t expect a story that the story of Santa Claus would be a bloodshed war just to protect the innocent children and then bringing the Christmas joy for the world. And it seems to be a great story to be told. The art is amazing, to begin with, even as the warrior who acts like a wild man and then a banished local citizen. The environment is a great landscape concept in medieval times. I’m actually amazed by what the artist has done, and all the magic that came from this comic is extraordinary. I would like to see more of the story which is related to the Christmas holiday because the story and the art is amazing. And it could be told for many children for every holiday season.