Review Shooter: Jingle Belle Gift-Wrapped One Shot

Writer- PAUL DINI (main) MISTY LEE (Back-up)

Artist- STEPHANIE GLADDEN

Synopsis- Trouble is brewing in the Clause Household, and Mrs. Claus enlist the help of  an imp known as Peter Krampus to help straiten it out. Krampus is ready to punish somebody, so he agrees to help.

Let me start off by saying, I probably wouldn’t have checked this out if Paul Dini’s name wasn’t on the cover, the cover art really didn’t grab my attention. However, the interiors are far superior!

Also, For the record, It’s a funny-book. No Super-heroes, or overly-serious tones here.

The first few pages start off in flashback with Krampus. You see, Krampus accompanies St. Nicholas during the X-Mas season, warning and punishing bad children, in contrast to St. Nicholas, who gives gifts to good children. He is typically demonic in appearance, and carries switches to spank bad children with. As time has moved on he’s pushed to the side, and children are just spoiled now.

So, Anyway, The Clauses are having some issues. To be more specific, Jingle Belle, and Santa are fighting about being lied to. Mrs. Clause summons Krampus to try and straiten it all out. Krampus can tell which one is being more “wicked” you see. So Hi-jinks ensue!

The art in this one shot, sans cover, is deliciously Cartoony. The characters are all over the top. I think personally, I like Krampus the most. His actions and expressions are just so wicked and exaggerated. The only thing I can copare this one shot to, is an Archie Comic, except Jingle Belle is actually way better in the storytelling, and art department. The dialog is also pretty darn awesome, even though in some spots the word bubbles are pointing to the wrong person. Each character’s personality is shown really well here.

There are also a couple of  one to two page back ups in here. The first one with Krampus and Clause made me laugh out loud. Hobbes from Calvin&Hobbes even makes a cameo! It would have been nice to have some kind of title card on the back ups tho, as they seem to just happen with no “the end” of the joke.

The Second Back up has Jingle Belle playing Hockey with some Anthropomorphic Snow Leopard girls. The third back-up, stars the Witch, Polly, and some magic shenanigans, also more cameos. The fourth and final back-up stars Jingle Belle on a date that doesn’t go so well.

If this was a cartoon on TV, which is what it feels like, I would totally watch it.

Reccomendation – BUY

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