Have you ever wondered why Santa Claus started doing what he does? What motivated him to bring joy to thousands upon thousands of children every year?

Well Grant Morrison is here to give you an answer with Klaus #1. The start of a six issue miniseries that reinvents Santa Claus with a distinctly Viking flair promising to be one of the best origin stories you’ll read this year.

This is one of those comics that you’re either going to buy, or not, based entirely on how the premise strikes you, and myself I knew I wanted to read Klaus when I first heard about it. Grant Morrison has a reputation of being one of the best comic book writers currently writing comics for a reason, and while it would be foolish to think that everything he writes is great, telling a story of the origin of Santa that is steeped in an Old Norse flavour with a healthy dose of fantasy and magic added in ranks pretty highly for me.

Dan Mora‘s art work feels cold. Which, considering that the tale is set in the midst of winter, is a very good thing. Not only did his back grounds give off a sense of the desolation and cold of winter it also reminded me of what I have to look forward too with the coming Canadian winter, and the battle with the snow plow. I also really enjoyed the layouts of his panels, and the way in which his scenes worked so well together with Grant Morrison‘s lack of spelling things out which really encourages you to pay attention to both the art and the text as a whole so that you don’t run the risk of missing the subtleness embedded within the pages. 

To say that Klaus #1 was a comic that I was looking forward to is utterly fair, and I really wanted to love the first issue purely based both on the premise and on the creative talent involved. Because my expectations were high, I was secretly expecting the comic to fall a little flat. To be good, but not great. To let me down just enough and to not quite be as good as I hoped it could be.  Thankfully, it didn’t. The first issue of Klaus was brilliant, Grant Morrison is as brilliant as I hoped, but Dan Mora is simply superb here. What he has done with a limited colour palate is, frankly, wonderful.

If the idea of a reinvented origin for Santa Claus seems even remotely interesting to you, then pick up this comic. It’s awesome.

Story: Grant Morrison Art: Dan Mora
Story: 8.5 Art: 9 Overall: 8.75 Recommendation: Buy

BOOM! Studios provided a FREE copy for review, but I also bought the comic because, well, Grant Morrison and Santa.

Also posted on Ramblings Of A Comics Fan.