Comic Info
Comic Name: Zombies Christmas Carol
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Jim McCann
Artist: David Baldeon/Jeremy Treece
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2011
Zombies Christmas Carol #2
Reprints Zombies Christmas Carol #1-5 (August 2011 to December 2011). Ebenezer Scrooge has a problem. He hates everyone around him and the Christmas holiday that reminds him of his past. When Scrooge was young, he was bitten by a sick horse that gave him something extra. Scrooge often hurts those who hurt him and those who are hurt become the Hungry Dead. Scrooge has been hurt a lot in his past and now the Hungry Dead threaten to overtake London. It is up to the visits from the Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghosts of Christmas Present, and the Ghosts of Christmases that Will Never Come must remind him of what the holiday spirit means.
Written by Jim McCann and illustrated by David Baldeon and Jeremy Treece, Zombies Christmas Carol adapts Charles Dickens’ 1943 classic A Christmas Carol…and adds zombies. The five issue series was released and collected in 2011.
Adding zombies and other monsters to classic or historic works is a popular trend. Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies or Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter all used this mash trend. The addition of zombies to one of the most told holiday tales makes sense in this term, but adding zombies to the Christmas story really didn’t do much for me.
Zombies Christmas Carol #3
The story balance between metaphoric zombies and real zombies is sometimes blurred. The zombies are real, but I would really have liked it if they were metaphoric. Scrooge is consumed by his past and his actions are like a disease. As this disease spreads, the world becomes darker. I wish the zombies weren’t real because this is much better than a story about a horse bite that creates a guy who can scratch guys to make zombies…and has a magical sister (and her son Fred) who can purify things…it doesn’t make much sense.
I like some of the choices made by the creators. The idea of Scrooge’s love Belle being the ghost of his past is perfect. The Ghost of Christmas Present is a fun looking design and his consumption by the always creepy Ignorance and Want was a good end to the character. Not enough was done to modify the Ghost of Christmases that Will Never Come (other than change his name). I would have liked a more surreal style of art with this story however.
Zombies Christmas Carol was not very good but showed some potential for an interesting adaptation. Be aware that despite sometimes being labeled as Marvel Zombie Christmas Carol, that the series has nothing to do with the Marvel Zombie series. I wish that the story had been taken in a different direction because it just comes off as an odd, unbalanced story which could have been enriched by a little more thought. Scrooge (and zombies) deserve better.
Related Links:
A Christmas Carol (Scrooge) (1951)
Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962)
An American Christmas Carol (1979)
Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994)
Christmas Carol—The Movie (2001)
A Christmas Carol: The Musical (2004)
Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006)
