Customer Reviews

The Last Christmas

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I picked up this book looking for a quick funny read, what I didn't expect to be entranced by the storyline. Yes, this comic is funny...the most funny Christmas tale you are ever likely to read...but that's not all it is. It's also a really good story in its own right.

The world has pretty much ended; nuclear war has destroyed the world and created zombie-like creatures. The survivors gather together in fortified cities to wait out the zombie menace, but zombies aren't the only thing these people have to worry about anymore. Nope, now there are renegade humans running around ransacking villages, raping women, and murdering anyone who gets in their way.

After a group of renegades attack the North Pole and kill Mrs. Clause...Santa goes off the deep end. He becomes a hopeless drunk and all he wants to do is kill himself...this is difficult since as it turns out he can't die as long as there are good boys and girls who still believe in him. Santa sets out on a quest to kill the last children who still believe so he may finally rest in peace, will he chop them to little pieces? Or will he be moved by their innocents to sober up and put a few buck shots into a zombie scull.

This comic is beyond awesome, buy it.

This book is awesome. Just the idea is great, and the whole team executes it (pun intended) really well. The image of a dirt covered Santa drinking or shooting or killing zombies or, my favorite, eating maple syrup off his own body, never gets old. The writers - Duggan and Posehn - craft a great story around the premise and really make the most of the supporting cast (especially the dwarves). The best, though, is Santa. His foul-mouthed-ness and anger are never just a joke - the character's got a believable and driving arc. And he licks syrup off himself. That ALONE is worth the price.

Rarely has a book been as funny and well thought out as The Last Christmas. If you've ever had a desire to see Santa sink to the lowest of lows then this is the book for you. The artistic talents of Remender and Barta bring back the long forgotten days of the EC books. The writing is clever and action-packed and every so often comes out of left field with a haymaker to the funny bone! Fun for the whole family...heh heh!

This is an interesting and entertaining story line. It's a story of a post apocalyptic alcoholic Santa. Mrs. Clause is dead and Santa wants to die but he can't. The world has been destroyed and almost all humans are now zombies. Santa has become horribly depressed and now wants nothing to do with Christmas. It's the will of one small boy that still believes in Christmas and keeps Santa alive. What in sues is a battle of wills and then a battle with zombies. There is some humor in the book. It's the kind of craziness you would expect from Brian Posehn.

The graphics in this book are good to great and really help carry the story. There are a few pages in back that show some of the story boards from conception to completion.

The book is in comic book format and can be read in less then an hour but you should take your time and appreciate the art work as well.

Take a good long look at the cover of this comic. You'll see Santa teetering atop the remains of a bombed out building, wielding guns, looking down at a legion of mutant zombies. Sounds like a setup for some ridiculous senseless violence, eh? Well to be honest, yeah it is. But that violence comes gift wrapped in the hilarious package that is The Last Christmas. The basic premise is that in the future most of the world is destroyed as a result of war. Marauding gangs of survivors sweep across the land killing and looting all in their paths. Eventually they hit the north pole, and that's where our story begins.

The storyline was quite a bit better than I expected. That's not to say that I was expecting all that much, but hey, they managed to put together decent story with a few ups and downs along the way. There are genuine laugh out loud moments every other page or so. The illustrations were also excellent. This is not one of those comics where the cover is great, but the illustrations within are a completely different, simplified style. What you see on the cover is pretty much what you get inside. I highly recommend this one! It's sure to be a Christmas tradition for me in years to come.

I've got a twisted sense of humor so any book where Santa tries to kill himself or a little kid is going to get my attention. I also love a good apocolyptic story, and if you add zombies to anything you can't go wrong, so when I saw the cover I knew I had to give it a read. It was worth every penny.

I purchased this product after reading the description and pre-ceeding reveiws. This exceeded expectactions. The story is funny, and well instrustrated. If you are a Brian Posehn fan, or a fan of funny zombie movies, this is a great buy. My only complaint is that it was over too quick... PLEASE create MORE!!!

In honor of today being Christmas, I thought I'd warm you up with this little holiday treasure. If you love Christmas, Santa Claus, zombies, and the apocalypse, then this is the comic for you. When Mrs. Claus is killed during the zombie apocalypse, Santa becomes suicidal and a drunk. He can't die because 1 kid still believes in him. He tries to kill the kid, but ends up helping him and survivors to fight marauders. If you love zombie guts and Christmas cheer, you'll love THE LAST CHRISTMAS!!!

If you're interested in seeing a depressed Santa Clause killing zombies and marauders in a post apocalyptic wasteland along side elves with christmas ornament bombs, a broad with big...er...guns, and a snowman with more cool one liners than John McClane on his best day, then you might want to check out this book.

This trade paperback (2006) publishes all five issue of 'The Last Christmas' comic issued by Image Comics, as well as including a few pages of some sketches from the artist, and some production pages to demonstrate the process from going from a 'rough' layout to a finished page.

It's unclear if writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn had ever scripted for a comic prior to pitching their idea for 'Christmas' to the people at Image. I suspect they were neophytes to the comics biz, if only because 'Christmas' really doesn't live up to its potential. The major weakness of the book is to have it illustrated in the manner of an exaggeratedly 'cartoony' 1950's EC horror comic. It gives the depicted carnage too much of a goofy, 'hey, aren't we funny' tenor. In my opinion the story would have benefited from a more realistic style of art, coupled with a darker, more mordant attitude towards presenting the ravaged Earth.

As well, much of the plot meanders, too often treading water while the artists use several pages to present some outlandish battle sequence, which then transitions to a page or two of clumsily written emotional interactions between the main characters. It's an indication that the Image editorial staff didn't lend as much help to the authors as they needed.

If you are looking for a graphic novel that melds the energy and artistic style of the Harvey Kurtzman 'Mad' magazine comics of the 50s with a satirical view of baby-boomer Christmas archetypes, then 'The Last Christmas' may be for you. But if you're looking for something more sophisticated, that takes the setting of a post-apocalyptic society and combines it with insightful treatment of our collective myths and legends, then you probably won't find it here.