Sleigher: The Heavy Metal Santa Claus

When Santa Claus is unexpectedly killed, his son is called to take over the family business. Forging his own way as a heavy metal rocker, the man known as Sleigher, does his new job with a musical flair. On Christmas, Sleigher delivers gifts to all the good little boys and girls of the world. The other 364 days out of the year, this new Santa battles the forces of evil that seek to pervert the spirit of Christmas. Those Sleigher defeats are held captive within the confines of Santa's sack, which obviously have magical properties.

When an ancient race of Christmas mischief makers called the Yule Lads assault Santa's workshop, they steal the bag, releasing countless holiday villains, along with their mama, back into the world. With their escape, the Christmas spirit of the world's populace is replaced with a selfish hedonism.  With the help of Sleigher's grandfather, the Coca-Cola style Santa Claus, and his Elves with an attitude, the Heavy Metal Santa will face a foe so vile, that if allowed to roam the world, there definitely won't be a Christmas next year.

This 2016 volume opens with a lecherous priest trying to put the 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' moves on an innocent choir boy. Thankfully, Sleigher intervenes. However, with this kicking off the story and this version of Santa Claus being heavy metal, which is traditionally a very anti-church genre of music, I was afraid that this was going to be a book that really skewers Christianity. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Does Sleigher talk about raising hell and gestures with devil horns and stuff? Absolutely. But does he love Christmas and take pride in being the new Father Christmas? He sure as hell does!

If the blurb on the last page of this story is true, Sleigher was supposed to be an annual miniseries in which the hero would seek to return one of the escaped yule time prisoners back into his magic pack. Krampus was to the the antagonist for the sequel. Yet, for reasons I've not been able to uncover, Action Lab never returned to this property.

I suspect it might have something to do with the name of the series. Sleigher is of course, a great name for a Christmas heavy metal themed series. However, there's already has been a band named Slayer since the early 80s. I'm wondering if the band's lawyers sent Action Lab a cease and desist over name similarities. Or maybe sales weren't that great. Comic book history is full of promises of forthcoming issues, specials and sequels that never materialized because of poor sales. I just wish I could uncover the reason there never was another season of this irreverent but hilarious holiday comic.

By the way, this comic marks the 4th time this holiday season alone in which Vladimir Putin is a character! I didn't know he was so affiliated with Christmas. Strange. A very strange coincidence, if you ask me...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Powers in Action (Family Comic Friday)

Hiya Folks- I've been cleaning out my Google Docs and I found this unpublished classic review from when I was a writer for Outrightgeekery.com. Other than grammar, I've not made any updates to when I wrote this in 2019.

Enjoy!

Seamus (The Famous): The Treasure of Gunnar Folkbeard (Family Comic Friday)

Family Comic Friday has a wonderful new series to introduce to young readers this week. Mixing fun and imagination, it’s Seamus (The Famous)!

Seamus (The Famous): The Treasure of Gunnar Folkbeard
Written and Illustrated by Christopher Ring
Published by Action Lab/Discover
Pages: 64
Print Retail Price: $9.99

Seamus is a precocious young boy whose imagination goes 100 miles per minute! For Seamus and his talking tabby cat Fitcher, there’s no situation that isn’t a doorway to fun and adventure. In this introductory graphic novel from Action Lab/Discover, it’s a bag full of broken toys from Seamus’ closet that leads the way to a quest for pirate treasure!
Join Seamus (The Famous) as he leads his crew of swashbucklers on the high seas against dastardly raiders, booby traps and a roguish crab!

This book was absolutely delightful! Being a cat person, I can really relate to the creative fun you can have with a fellow feline. And Seamus, wanting to find treasure in order to help a house full of orphans gave this book a much needed (and appreciated) dose of heart!

Join Seamus (The Famous) as he leads his crew of swashbucklers on the high seas against dastardly raiders, booby traps and a roguish crab!

This book was absolutely delightful! Being a cat person, I can really relate to the creative fun you can have with a fellow feline. And Seamus, wanting to find treasure in order to help a house full of orphans gave this book a much needed (and appreciated) dose of heart!
Seamus and Fitcher and their expressive brains reminds me of another boy and cat duo- Calvin and Hobbes. Only, whereas Calvin is a bit of a bad boy. Seamus is very heroic. Fitcher is more sarcastic than Hobbes but he’s just as wise. One thing that really works between Seamus and his gato is their comedic timing.

I really laughed out loud several times reading this book. The jokes are so clever. But this isn’t an overly silly book. It just helps balance the flow between action adventure without being dull or too intense.

Seamus (The Famous) is aimed at readers 4-8 years old. I think the whole family can gather together and enjoy this fantastic new series from commercial artist, Christopher Ring. Though I was rather surprised by the low blow our hero gives a pirate during a rescue sequence. It’s a little bawdy, but otherwise this was a book that parents and guardians should find inoffensive.

A joyful tale. It was filled with beautifully clean artwork, sly humor and adventure, adventure, adventure! Seamus (The Famous) is one book not to be missed!

Seamus (The Famous): The Treasure of Gunnar Folkbeard is currently available on Kindle and Comixology. It will debut in print on May 26th, 2020.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

This review was concurrently published on Outrightgeekery.com. 

The Adorable Beastling (Family Comic Friday)

Family Comic Friday explores a magical new realm and dozens of fantastic creatures in the young readers graphic novel: The Adorable Beastling.

The Adorable Beastling HC
Written and Illustrated by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Published by Action Lab/ Discover
Pages: 33
Retail: $11.99

A new pod of beastlings have just hatched. There's 4 beastlings total. 3 of them are mean and green and fiercely terrifying the other babies animals of the forrest into giving them their food. 

But the 4th beastling is super sweet. She loves the other animals and she shares her food with her new friends. Can a beastling survive in the wild without being rough and gruff?

Jonathan Rosenbaum crafts a wondrous story filled with unique creatures and even more fanciful flora. I just want a pizza plant of my very own! The Adorable Beastling is like the fable of the Ugly Duckling. Only in reverse. This story also felt like Casper the Friendly Ghost with the amiable beastly being pushed into being bad like her trio of mean brothers.

Formatted like a hard cover storybook, The Adorable Beastling has a layout similar to a graphic novel; only there are no borders. The font is quite whimsical, much like the story itself. But I had serious problems with the size of the type.

On some pages, the size of the font is easy enough to read. But on other pages, you need a magnifying glass. I understand that Jonathan Rosenbaum was probably trying to to drown out the beautiful artwork with the narrative. But if you make the words too small to read, is it really worth it?

I thought that this book was so heartwarming. It was a feel good book that didn't pander to the reader by making things too sad like some other books involving lively creatures. Young readers ages 8 or younger will love this story while older family members and friends will enjoy exploring a brand now fantasy world with them. 

The Adorable Beastling is an instant classic. This is a perfect introduction of graphic novels and comics! I hope that this isn't the last we'll see of our new heroine. But a larger font size would be greatly in future editions.

Look for The Adorable Beastling in print and your favorite digital platforms!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Hero Cats/Princeless #1 (HCF 2014)

I got this comic book at last year's Halloween ComicFest. But it's from 2014! I'm wondering if the store I went to found some leftover books in storage. Otherwise, the only other way I ended up with this book involves some sort of time warp.

There's two different stories in this book. It's not a crossover, despite the very cute cover. In the first story, a group of six cats with special powers, use their abilities to help a little girl who got lost during trick-or-treating. Then in the Princeless tale, the heroine and her friends run afoul of pirates... on land... in a steak house!

I thought the Hero Cats tale was just darling. All 6 characters are unique and funny. They interact how I imagine my furry babies. There's a mysterious and probably evil entity at the end of this story. It plays into the Hero Cats graphic novel and it will be on my radar for a forthcoming Family Comic Friday review.

Princeless was not quite what I was expecting. Creator and writer Jeremy Whitley lives in central NC, When he published his very first Princeless comic book, I meet him and got an autographed issue. I meant to read it and just never did. Then Princeless became the juggernaut and I've been afraid to read it since the book has skyrocketed in value. Regardless, for being a Halloween ComicFest freebie and the Halloween cover (and the Halloween theme of the Hero Cats adventure)- why wasn't the Princeless tale Halloween themed? 

Does the holiday not exist in the Princeless universe? Okay, I could buy that. But why wasn't this story at least spooky in some way involving a ghost or monster of the sort?

That first story was perfect. The second just wasn't scary in the least. Good art. Clever writing. Just not the right fit for a HCF free comic book.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.