By Sam King

What is Santa Claus Private Eye Vol. 1 about? Take a magical childhood icon, add festive humor, mix in detective fiction, and sprinkle it with murder. Pour all of that into a hot chocolate mug, and you’ve got Santa Claus Private Eye in a chestnut shell. That is the best way I can describe it. We have all heard that Santa Claus knows who has been naughty and who has been nice. This story has a fresh take on how he gets his information…or rather what his magical intel can reveal when applied to another occupation.

I had never heard of Santa Claus Private Eye or the creative team behind it until I selected this graphic novel to review based on name alone. It is long past Christmas now, and we still have about an eight-month respite. Or we would if stores could give us November off, which I don’t see happening. Although it is not Christmas or remotely close to it, this was not a book I could pass up once I read the premise.

Basically, jolly old Saint Nick delivers toys to children around the world, but when it isn’t Christmas, he also moonlights as a private investigator for hire. A woman comes to him with a case, and through his investigation, we get to see some of the dark secrets that Santa himself is hiding. Throughout the comic, there are numerous festive references in the dialogue or Santa’s thoughts. These made me smile and I thought they were kind of clever, but they can also be kind of cheesy, so I can understand that this may not tickle every reader’s funny bone. I had some genuine chuckles during my read through of it. This comic does something that I really enjoy in my reading. It plays with well-established source material in a new way.

As far as characters go, the most developed is Santa Claus, which is to be expected as he is the lead. While the woman who hires him does not have a lot of depth, she fills her role solidly enough. When the comic opens, Santa Claus is in the middle of catching a random woman’s spouse in the middle of an affair, and gathering evidence to present his client. He seems pressed for cash and is very happy when the woman mentioned above comes in with a job for him and a wallet thick enough to make him slightly eager for the job. Her husband is dead, and police wrote it off as a suicide, but she thinks there was foul play. That’s where Santa Claus comes him. He is hired to investigate and discover if he was murdered. Along the way, we meet what appears to be Claus’s predominant informant, Jack Frost, who appears to have voyeuristic tendencies. Additionally, everyone apart from Jack seems to harbor dark secrets that continually shape the arc of the story, revealing things little by little. We see how Santa becomes a private investigator, how his life has changed as a result of it, and how much he really knows about people based on prior information he has. Not every twist is unexpected, but every piece fits together pretty cleanly.

The art is predominantly very clean and enjoyable, although sometimes there are shadows that look kind of peculiar. Additionally, there are spots where the clothes or some hair looks a bit off, but it wasn’t large enough of a problem to take away my overall enjoyment of the story. I liked the bright color palette that meshed with the darker, criminal elements. My favorite shot is definitely the splash page that kicks the comic off, immediately following the credit page. I liked the creativity used for the distinct shadows and the proportioning of the overall image. While the perspective is a bit distracting to my eye on some background elements, it is such a minor detail compared to where the visual focus is and the overall composition of the page.

What I like most about this comic is the originality of the idea, as well as its potential for deafening failure. That may sound bizarre and harsh, but let me explain. I’ve never seen anything quite like this. I’ve seen my fair share of re-tellings or reworkings of beloved characters, but this one definitely had some style. The idea at the base is kind of absurd. Santa Claus, the jolly old fat man who delivers toys once a year, investigates murders and has secrets of his own that you wouldn’t talk about with your family around the Christmas tree. As a concept it is bizarre, but the execution really makes it work and actually kind of makes it shine. The more I read, the more things seem to mesh in an unexpected way.

Additionally, the segment written by the creators at the end was very intriguing. There is a presentation of the different ways that Santa Claus Private Eye has reached audiences: as a digital comic and as a print comic. As a writer, I found this section to be informative and thought-provoking as it talks about how different a story can be depending on the medium used, even via different comic mediums. What we read or see and the pace we can see it, has the potential to greatly affect our reading experience, and that is important for any writer of any medium to consider. The insight on the creation and altering of the book for both comic types is eye-opening.  

This comic definitely will not be for everyone, but I think it can find a solid following of readers as more people become aware of it and give it a chance. This is one I would recommend to people who like detective fiction and are willing to try something with a yuletide twist that may not seem like much at first glance. This isn’t one you should just read at Christmas; it can be enjoyed any time of year. I can honestly say that I would like to see more in the future if possible and see what other dark corners Santa can shed some light on or may be hiding under his red coat or in his bag of toys.  

Score: 4/5

Santa Claus Private Eye vol. 1
Darby Pop