Zor Saves Christmas #1 (Family Comic Friday)

The holiday sequel to the Ringo Award nominated miniseries. Zor is a magical being made of tears. When someone touched by Zor's magic is in their greatest distress, he comes to life through their falling teardrops to save the day.

In this Christmas one-shot, little Zoe is doing her very best to make it a merry Christmas. It's the first one since her mother died and Zoe and her father are trying to make new traditions together. This year, they're going to visit Santa at the local mall. 

Santa must be in high demand this year. Or he's gotten really strict. He's requiring a ticket to get to sit in his lap and tell him about your wishlist. Unfortunately, Zoe's has lost her ticket and with the mall closing in 30 minutes, she's in danger of missing her meeting with Santa. Crying buckets, Zor is activated by Zoe's tears and he's found the missing ticket. Unfortunately, so has the Mall's resident mouser and Mr. Cat has no intentions of letting it go without a fight. 

The story was charming. Zor is a great character with awesome powers. This truly was a magical tale by Rob Potchak. I just wish that the artwork was consistent.

The humans all look very stiff; almost like they were made by a 1990s Microsoft Paint program. Except for Santa Claus. He's lively, cheerful and almost jumps off the page! Zor exhibits so much fluidity. Fitting since he's made for liquid. And I just loved his nemesis who's only doing what a cat does and isn't inherently evil or anything like that. Interestingly enough, one of the reviews on the back cover likened this story to a Pixar movie. That seems fitting since the humans have always looked off in those films.

So far, it's is one of top 2 holiday comics of the year. Something that the whole family can enjoy. From Keenspot, the publisher who brought you the many comedic adventures of Grubbs, make Zor Saves Christmas a new Christmas tradition with your children!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Christmas With Grubbs #1

The graphic novel adaptation of the animated special of the same name from 2023. After really enjoying a pair of Halloween specials starring the mischievous Grubbs, I was thrilled and delighted to have remembered that I had this book in my collection just waiting to be read.

I actually went into this reading a little disappointed. While I didn't mind that this Keenspot one-shot adapted the animated special, from the images on the back cover, I was under the impression that this book is comprised of screenshots of the cartoon. The first volume of Teen Titans Go! and several Disney XD adaptations of Marvel animated series were both guilty of this. It just lacked that magic of a hand drawn comic book. Plus the screenshots always come out too dark to see clearly...

Thankfully, that's not the case here. Not because they used high quality photography of the screenshots. It's because we get original art here!

Grubbs has his heart set on a deluxe golf cart for Christmas. But he can't seem to get himself off of Santa's naughty list no matter how hard he tries to not get into mischief. The lad is in danger of being on the list permanently when he accidentally drives his dad's bosses new cart into the back nine water hazard. 

Now dad might lose his job. His sister's boyfriend lost his job (because he let Grubbs drive the cart). Plus his brother might get dumped by his girlfriend because he's too embarrassed by Grubbs and his antics to bring her over for Christmas dinner. It could be a Christmas to forget for everyone involved!

I think the biggest surprise for me about this story wasn't the ending. If you thought for a minute that things aren't going to end with some sort of Christmas miracle, then you don't know anything about holiday specials. No, the biggest surprise for me was about Grubb's best friend Tyler. He's not real! He's imaginary! It's no spoiler, really. It's just that I've now read 3 Grubbs one-shots and I hadn't noticed until this holiday special that I realized that even though Tyler is always with Grubbs, nobody except for the main character ever interacts with him! Man, you could have knocked me over with a spoon when I finally learned that!

Another triumph from creator and writer, Max Weaver. Lovely, lively artwork from Athila Fabbio. Perfect for a feel good holiday read! And it's available in it's entirety on Youtube!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.