Many thanks to Oni Press and NetGalley for allowing me to preview an interesting, new graphic novel Yuletide: Curse of the Winter Witch. While I’m not one to read a lot of Christmas-based stories, the idea of a winter witch who wants to apply a curse appealed to me. I was surprised at how creatively Northy incorporates the kind of mythological characters and monsters from other cultures and belief systems in this modern story. Yuletide is an interesting take the kids versus monsters/evil stories that were a part of 80s movies. In fact, in an interview at the end of the book, Northy credits Goonies as a major influence along with movies like Hocus Pocus and shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also wrote for the show Charmed, and I can see how the research into traditional witches in other cultures applies to this story. Although the story takes a little time to develop, once all of the mythological creatures are unleased from their boxes and begin wreaking havoc on the town of Christmas, PA, the story gets much more engaging and exciting.
Yuletide starts with the story of Jake, a jaded teen who is sick of the corporatization and commercialization of Christmas, even though he lives in Christmas, PA with his widowed mother and sister. Jake has some other friends in the town with whom he can commiserate about the impending holiday gloom, even though his Jewish friend Abe is more obsessed about Christmas than Chanukah. The friends eventually congregate at one of their Uncle’s Christmas shops, where, dressed as Santa, Uncle Kris reveals a series of odd boxes with designs he found under other Christmas antiques and artifacts. The friends decide to revisit the shop afterhours and open one of the boxes with a squiggly knife. The boxes unleash several of the mythological monsters and figures from other winter cultures. Included are the Jólakötturinn, a giant Icelandic cat that attacks children who don’t receive new clothing for Christmas; Mari Lwyd, a Welsh horse ghost who is represented as a skull with a sheet and often speaks in rhymes; Jólasveinar, who are 13 Yule Lads (or trolls) who wreak havoc by licking bowls and stealing sausages during the holiday season; the Schnabelperchten, creatures who have a large, bird-like beak, carry giant scissors, and sweep and clean people’s homes during the new year; and Perchta, the Yule Withc, who was a beautiful winter goddess, but gradually took on people’s misery and filled herself up with darkness, becoming a dark goddess and witch, who goes after children, slicing open their bellies with a crooked blade, removes their innards and replaces it with trash. It’s a motley collection of winter monsters and witches, who begin to cause chaos throughout the Christmas centered town. The story reminded me of those 80s films, including Gremlins, where the characters know some of the rules, but also have to figure other weaknesses out to defeat their enemies. Jake and his friends have to band together and with the help of an elf who was also released to track down the Yule Witch and her minions, seek to send these winter warriors back to their hibernal habitats. I loved learning about the different cultures and creatures. This was probably my favorite part of the book, and Northy subtly integrates elements of the cultures and traditions that bore these myths into a modern story. He also takes some creative liberties in making the creatures behave in a modern setting, but this also helps to create an engaging pairing of traditional cultural beliefs and modern genre stories for adolescents like Goonies and Gremlins. Although the story is action-packed and the teen team has to battle through the winter crew one-by-one before reaching the head boss, Perchta, the beginning of the story started a little slow. I also found that the dialogue to be a little long and abstract for comics and especially for teenagers in comics. Northy presents some philosophical ideas, especially about Christmas, commercialization, and corporate interests, but it was a little hard to read these lengthy diatribes in comic bubbles. Nevertheless, his work to introduce and educate about these mythological creatures is well done, and I really enjoyed the story once they were released. Furthermore, this book made me think more about my own ideas and practices during the winter season, and whether I’m really appreciative of the changing of the seasons or whether I’m in it more for the presents and commercialization. Additionally, Argano’s artwork makes the story fun and light. I also enjoyed some of the other alternative covers as well. Yuletide: The Curse of the Winter Witch is a fun, wild ride with many interesting creatures incorporated from other cultures and myths from around Scandinavia and other winter-based cultures. Recommended!