The Shiver of Christmas Town #2 // Review
The little patchwork polar bear has eaten all of the deadroot. This puts Oogie Boogie and his accomplices in a rather uncomfortable position. What are they to do with a little, fury creature that is so cute? Cuteness is all well and good, but it’s not exactly desirable in Halloween Town. The little patchwork polar bear is going to have to think fast in The Shiver of Christmas Town #2. Writer Torunn Grønbekk continues the legends of A Nightmare Before Christmas in another enjoyable juxtaposition between the two holidays of Halloween and Christmas. The story comes to the page courtesy of artist Edu Menna.
The little polar bear named Shiver finds a place deep inside herself where she’s able to find something suitably dark to impress Oogie Boogie and his allies. She concentrates, focusses and summons...a little bit of a breath. They’re annoyed, but willing to give her another chance. Surely she can do better than that. And she does. What start’s off as a vaguely dark breath turns out to be irresistibly itchy. THAT caches the attention of Oogie and the others. Meanwhile, Sally is going-in to check on Dr. Finklestein and Shiver...only to find that they are nowhere to be found.
Grønbekk has created a clever, little fusion of Christmas Town and Halloween Town in the character of Shiver. She’s got charisma that fuses the two realms quite well. She’s very impressionable and could easily move into a very dark place, so she’s actually got a dynamic drama drawn into her that works quite well as the center of this particular series. The fusion between the two towns feels like a very natural progression from the first film...and more so than any of the other work that’s been done on the property, Grønbekk’s story feels like an advancement of Tim Burton’s original idea.
Menna’s art lacks the finesse of Burton’s style as fed through a team of animators. It’s just one artist working on the whole thing for the most part, so there isn’t as much time to work and refine the imagery as one might expect from a full movie production, but it’s a lot of fun to see the visuals presented for Grønbekk’s story. Shiver remains a charming, little presence on the page that could turn into something much more appealing with the right angles. As it is, Shiver’s appearance isn’t quite living-up to the potential of what Grønbekk’s script seems to be envisioning.
There’s an enjoyable simplicity about the story that’s being delivered to page and panel. Halloween and Christmas speak to different parts of the modern psyche. They DO share quite a bit of personality in the hearts and minds of the people who love them, though. The fusion between the two finds a bit more clever articulation in Grønbekk’s work as this surprisingly engaging series continues. It’s going to be fun seeing where the writer is going to take it in future issues. There’s a great deal of warmth in the idea.
