Disney Manga: Tim Burton's the Nightmare Before Christmas -- Zero's Journey Graphic Novel Book 4 by D J MilkyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I couldn't pass up an opportunity to check this story out. Granted, it's part four of a four part series of comics based around The Nightmare Before Christmas.
As with every child who lived through the Nineties, I went through a Nightmare Before Christmas phase. I'm a Tim Burton fan but not a fanatic. I owned Ed Wood at one point but never watched it. I do own The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy. He's impressive. I love the world that he created with, allowing an abbreviation, TNBC. One thing that always bothered me about the movie and the original book that Tim put out is that Halloween Town is small. With Jack's pumpkin patch and the forest, it's implied that there's more to the world but you never see anything else.
This comic isn't written by Tim but it features all the characters we know and love. Zero is actually the main protagonist here. Despite only reading the last part of the set, it was a story that was self contained. A brief introduction explained why Zero was in Christmas Town to begin with. This comic picks up with Jack missing his beloved dog. He decides he has to go to Christmas Town to bring him home. To do this, he recruits the other monsters. While this is going on, Lock, Shock, and Barrel set fire to Santa's Workshop as a distraction in order to steal the presents and one of Santa's Sleighs. Zero helps save a Reindeer who had fallen under debris and then assist the Elves in putting out the flames. Santa is attempting to make due with the remaining presents when Jack shows up and after briefly uniting they discover the trio trying to speed out of there. Santa's Reindeer team up with Zero to stop the children and get the presents back to Santa. Then he allows Zero to help him deliver all the presents to children around the world because Zero saved the day.
This is obviously all geared towards young children. I get that. Us older Nightmare Before Christmas fans will be able to enjoy this by seeing our old 'friends' again but we're not in Penny Dreadful territory here. It also made the world of TNBC seem bigger. You see part of Christmas Town and Halloween Town, but they don't feel like isolated locations. There might be a little bit around the bend in both areas. I liked how the other monsters went with Jack to bring Zero home, but once they were in Christmas Town they stopped being active characters once they ran into Santa Claus. The monster under the stairs steals the show in this comic.
I can see myself reading the whole set - even the ones I didn't see - to children at the end of the year. If a local library has a Nightmare Before Christmas Day showing the movie and then having different activities and related books to read, this'll be worth having because the younger audience will love it. The artwork was fantastic too.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment