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Friday, December 20, 2013

Comic Review: The Last Christmas HC by Gerry Duggan

The Last Christmas HC
Story By: Gerry Duggan
Art By: Rick Remender
Story By: Brian Posehn
Price: $24.99
Diamond ID: SEP130533
Published: November 20, 2013
Image Comics


The writers behind the hit series Deadpool present the sad, funny, and true story of Santa Claus after the apocalypse. After tragedy strikes the North Pole, Santa turns his back on humanity and gives up on Christmas. Even though the world has been completely overrun by naughty men, there's still one boy that believes in Santa. But could that be the biggest mistake of his life?

Enjoy this modern action-comedy Christmas classic in hardcover for the first time. It's illustrated with love by comic star RICK REMENDER and inked in a wonderful style reminiscent of Mad magazine by HILARY BARTA. This edition has a foreword from PATTON OSWALT and new commentary from the creators, plus the original covers from GEOF DARROW, RICK REMENDER, KIERON DWYER, and TONY MOORE.

Collects THE LAST CHRISTMAS #1-5- See more at: https://www.imagecomics.com/comics/releases/the-last-christmas-hc#sthash.fPj8xpRx.dpuf
It shouldn't take much more than the poetic stylings of Patton Oswalt in the introduction to this book for you to realize this is going to be a pretty wild ride. Heck, the cover alone should hammer that home.

If your image of Santa Claus is that jolly old fella you see in the Coca-Cola ads each year, prepare to be mentally scarred for life. From the irreverent--and most likely deranged--minds of Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn comes an anti-Christmas Carol.

The premise starts off easy enough. What would happen to Christmas after the apocalypse? I'd qualify it as a zombie apocalypse, but the baddies roaming the wastelands of Earth aren't strictly zombies, but more the mutated flesh-eaters spawned by a rainfall of toxic waste on the population. Well, the answer comes in a rather inspirational form ... at least at first. The good little boys and girls all over the world still get their presents on Christmas Day, although the gifts may sometimes be weapons to help fight off the mutant scourge.

Christmas is safe for a while, but calamity strikes the north pole, and Santa's workshop lays in ruins. And Mrs. Claus is murdered by a roaving band of Mad Max wannabes. Santa isn't just despondant, he's more than devastated. Santa has given up. Trouble is Santa can't die--not while at least one little boy still believes in him.

So what's Santa's plan? Kill the boy.

Oh my lord, this book was a cross between a bad acid trip and one of those glorious Christmas claymation specials. This is the kind of comicly subversive story I would have gobbled up as a little boy, exploding reindeer and all, and likely would have had to hide it under my pillow lest my parents take it from me for corrupting the mind.

The story moves briskly and with a bag full of lowbrow humor all along the way. And the artwork from Rick Remender is just a delight, making me wish some panels could be handed out as Christmas cards this year. Some might want an Uzi-toting Santa or an elf stabbed in the eye with a candy cane for their card, but me, I'd probably go for a near-psychotic Santa chasing a white bunny down the streets of San Francisco chanting, "Pretend it's chocolate, pretend it's chocolate."

While I'm not so sure this book will do much to fill you with holiday cheer, it is definitely good for a laugh, and the sicker your sense of humor, the better.


4 Sheep




Gef Fox

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