Christmas 365 #1: ‘Tis the Season, Every Season

It’s that season again, folks. The holidays are upon us, and for some reason, it’s the perfect time to drop monthly books based around the festivities that immediately lose their vibes a month or two after launch. I get that it’s a difficult kind of comic to schedule, but it’s hard to stay excited about a book like Christmas 365  when March rolls around and you no longer feel that same seasonal sensation you did back in December. So, I was admittedly impressed by the concept Mikey Way (Collapser, Electric Century) and Johnathan Rivera (Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye) have presented to the comics-reading masses.

After finally beginning to tackle his arrested development, father of three and husband of one, Peter attempts to make up for his failures as a father by committing to a grand plan that would see the family celebrating Christmas on the 25th of every month, even attempting to wrap in other seasonal themes. It’s a genius move for pacing out a monthly comic, but this story is so much more than a gimmick.

What I found most engagingabout this initial issue was just how familiar yet fresh its premise and characters were. It reads with the same sensibilities of a classic holiday drama/comedy, yet instead of the team penning comedy-focused caricatures of trad-suburbanites, we get a main crew that’s instantly realistic and relatable. They exist against a world that’s brighter than their outlooks, Peter’s big decision to light up their lives as a family being one that drags them into a world of potential craziness.

The writing also wastes no time bringing the reader into Peter’s life and the demons that haunt his nightmares, but it never feels like the story is rushing to dump information on the audience. The pacing is perfect, and every bit of history we get is revealed naturally through the story, through Peter’s relationships to his job, his family, and his childhood love for Christmas. The only thing that I wish we got more of was a fleshing out of the wider family. I understand the necessity of Peter being the main focus to get the story into high gear, but a little more time spent with the rest of his family would’ve been a cherry on top of a other-wise great first issue.

The script is full of heart and humor but is never complex. Reading this is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket and watching your favorite Christmas film without nostalgia clogging up your vision. I’d describe Piotr Kowalski’s art in the exact same way. It’s very simple and very ‘comic book’ on the surface, but he communicates so much with his skill as a cartoonist that there are plot beats and setups for the rest of the story occurring without a single shred of dialogue.

The team is able to lean on his art and visuals to envelope the book in a seasonal atmosphere as well as characterization the book’s side-cast, thus allowing dialogue to be purely conversational and natural. That’s not to say the writing is doing some good things in-terms of character work, its just that the art is on par with the writing in that regard.