Posted in: Comics | Tagged: boom, boom studios, christmas, dan mora, grant morrison, Klaus

Grant Morrison's Klaus Returns Again For Klaus And The Crisis In Xmasville

Published Tue, 12 Sep 2017 17:56:50 -0500

Grant Morrison and Dan Mora are bringing the Christmas cheer with a new Klaus one-shot at BOOM! Studios in December.

Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville will see Morrison and Mora reunite for a new Klaus special. The news was revealed when an astral projection of Morrison's head, glowing with an eerie green light, appeared out of thin air in the CBR offices and telepathically demanded to speak with Albert Ching.

During their chat, Morrison projected his thoughts on the comic directly into the brain of Ching, who fell into a trance and began transcribing Morrison's thoughts through the process of automatic writing. Morrison "told" Ching about his inspirations for the new comic:

This year, the influences are more contemporary, and Crisis in Xmasville takes some of its inspiration from the history of Coca-Cola and Santa, and from things like the 1964 screen classic film, the open-source Santa Claus Conquers the Martians! We also meet one of the "League of International Santas" who were glimpsed briefly in last year's special. The Russian Santa Claus — Ded Moroz, or Father Frost — and his assistant, Snowmaiden, make a big appearance in this story and they've already become two of my favorite characters, with the potential to support their own spinoff!

In the comic, according to Morrison, Klaus will face off against his nemesis, an evil pirate werewolf doppelgänger Klaus:

Where Klaus is the giver of gifts, his doppelganger is more of a taker so he's a pirate Santa, basically. Where Klaus is kind and brave, his opposite is cruel, violent, unreasonable, a bully, a monster — and a werewolf! He's a formidable enemy.

Morrison continued to string together sentences consisting of words whose meaning is incomprehensible to mortal men, but likely contain untold magickal power when recited in these exact arrangements:

We've invented this bizarre steampunk, Edisonade-ish soft drink company run by a dynasty of bizarre characters through the decades. The latest of the clan is a 20-something yuppie businessman with a big plan to "rebrand" Christmas in an unusual way — a plan involving aliens, mind-controlled Santas…

I wouldn't call it biting satire; it's more absurd and over the top. To some extent, I'm as guilty of the commodification of Santa Claus as anyone else so it's not about pointing fingers but about raising questions and exposing contradictions, the real truth being that we're neither good nor bad in absolute opposition but a confusing blend of both.

Morrison says he has plans for Klaus through 2019, and maybe more after that, called the comic "an ideal holiday stocking filler for all the family" and suggested that the comic will be edible and contain nourishment for humans.

Read the full interview at CBR.

Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville
One-shot
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Dan Mora
Cover Artists:
Main Cover: Dan Mora
Variant Cover: John Cassaday
Format: 48 pages, full color
Price: $7.99
On sale: December 2017
Eisner Award-winning creator Grant Morrison (All-Star Superman) and Russ Manning Award winner Dan Mora (Saban's Go Go Power Rangers) reunite for a brand-new Klaus Special!
An evil Santa from an alternate dimension has founded an evil soda corporation that uses Christmas and Santa as a marketing tactic to build their fortunes.
Only Klaus can defeat the Pola Cola Corp and the zombie-like Santas that are in the evil Santa's thrall.

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