A Kidnapped Santa Claus

Harper Collins released this small hardcover graphic novel based on L. Frank Baum's original book, A Kidnapped Santa Claus, adapted by Alex Robinson(Box Office Poison). The book was a followup to Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus which told Santa's origins. In this story, Santa gets captured by some evil demons, so a bunch his elves and fairy friends(including Zurline)mount a rescue. This actually turned out to be a great comic for young readers, and I highly recommend it as a holiday gift.

There's a reason that L. Frank Baum's "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" has always been less than classic when it comes to Christmas tales: The mythology is too much to grasp in the span of a short story. The "daemons" that kidnap Santa go by the names of Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, and Repentance (a fifth, Malice, is not included in Robinson's adaptation). As a way to teach children the perilousness of vices, "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" would seem to have a daunting task. Baum goes several steps further, though, complicating matters with layers of original mythology. His Santa doesn't live at the North Pole--instead, he lives in Laughing Valley on the border of the Forest of Burzee. Instead of elves, he's assisted by knooks, ryls, fairies, and pixies. Over the course of Baum's novel "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus," things are easier to understand. As a standalone tale, though, there's too much going on. Comic book artist Alex Robinson does an admirable job, illustrating Baum's story with beautiful black-and-white line art. His original dialogue and creations are welcome additions, updating the story for modern readers. (One of the Santa's fairies, Wisk, is now a female with a crush on her co-worker Kilter, providing some much-needed humor.) Still, Robinson can't solve the central problem of the short story, which is that it is ends up too complicated for a children's book...and too silly for adults to appreciate. It's probably better suited to an animated film--it would be interesting to see what Tim Burton (or even Pixar or Dreamworks) could do with Baum's story, Robinson's new creations, and 90 minutes of screen time.

Alex fills out this short story with such thought and care that I wish it was longer! I love that the morality story brings everyone, even the "bad" kids to become "good." The stark black and white artwork gives the story another good vs bad edge. It's a classic story that you should read to your kids before they go to bed on Christmas Eve.