This Christmas, Klaus better watch out.

Grant Morrison and Dan Mora have returned to Klaus and BOOM! Studios for a third time, and CBR has the first details on their latest adventure, the 48-page one-shot Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville. This time around, the action picks up with Klaus -- the superhero-esque version of Santa Claus introduced by Morrison and Mora in 2015 -- in the 1980s, faced with an evil version of Santa who is described by Morrison as "cruel, violent, unreasonable, a bully, a monster -- and a werewolf."

RELATED: Morrison Brings Klaus to Present-Day for Witch of Winter One-Shot

If that's not enough, Klaus is also locked in the fiercest of all battles -- "trademark dispute" -- with the Pola-Cola Corp, a familiar-sounding company looking to permanently co-opt Klaus' image for commercial use.

CBR spoke in-depth with Morrison about spreading "more weirdness" with Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville, setting the story in the '80s, his own nostalgia for the decade (spoiler: he has none), teaming again with Mora and what could be next for Klaus. Also, an appreciation of Twin Peaks: The Return, an update on Morrison's projects in TV and comics and building the heroic holiday world of Klaus. All that, and the first look at Mora's cover for the special, and solicitation text for the issue.

Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville cover by Dan Mora.

CBR: Grant, you’ve said in the past that you’re up for returning to Klaus each year -- given the weird world we’re living in, what makes Crisis in Xmasville the story you wanted to tell this year?

Grant Morrison: The best response to the weirdness that surrounds us all right now is more weirdness. We guarantee to add to the confusion wherever possible!

Last year’s Klaus special drew on a lot of traditional Christmas lore from around the world. This year, the influences are more contemporary, and Crisis in Xmasville takes some of its inspiration from the history of Coca-Cola and Santa, and from things like the 1964 screen classic film, the open-source Santa Claus Conquers the Martians! We also meet one of the “League of International Santas” who were glimpsed briefly in last year’s special. The Russian Santa Claus -- Ded Moroz, or Father Frost -- and his assistant, Snowmaiden, make a big appearance in this story and they’ve already become two of my favorite characters, with the potential to support their own spinoff!

The plan is to keep expanding the Klaus universe with each new story -- introducing new villains, new allies, new setting -- to give it a scope and richness that generates new adventures.

This story is set in the ‘80s -- how did you arrive at that setting? How does it affect the storytelling, and the depiction of Klaus himself?

We’d established in the 2016 special that Klaus was trapped on the moon for a while sometime between the ‘80s and now, so this was a way of providing some more links in the continuity we’re building. The time frame also allows us to play into the Gordon Gekko “greed is good” yuppie corporate ethos of the ’80s. And there’s the inevitable flavor of Spielberg and Stephen King -- Xmasville is classic small town with a big-secret setting, in the vein of E.T., The Goonies, It, and more.

The ‘80s is also the decade where you broke through as a comics writer -- how do you view that time period now? Nostalgically? Cynically?

I look back on the ’80s as a doomed planet I was fortunate enough to escape. I hated the ’80s when they were happening -- I hated the music in the charts, I hated the clothes and the haircuts, I hated the politics and the politicians, I hated the dreary obsession with 1950s culture (I find it interesting that the ’80s have ended up being the new ’50s).

On the plus side, there were some good comics, indie music, TV, and films, but otherwise I was unemployed for most of the first half of the decade -- a work-class dole statistic in Margaret Thatcher’s unwelcoming Britain, with no hope and no future, or so it felt at the time. I look back on those days and shudder, to be honest. Zero nostalgia. I don’t think I’ve ever felt nostalgic for any era. The future’s always more interesting to me than the past.

You’re once again pairing with Dan Mora for this Klaus story. He’s become a frequent collaborator for you -- how do you view your partnership with Dan? What are you excited to see him take on in his story that’s different from the past Klaus tales?

Dan quickly established himself as one of my favorite collaborators and it’s always a pleasure to work with him again. I’m keen to see him do more aliens and sci-fi stuff for this one. I’ve seen his alien designs and they’re amazing. I’m especially looking forward to seeing him bring the world of Father Frost and Snowmaiden to life. I like to fill these stories with colorful, mad stuff for him to draw. He can do anything and it’s good to take advantage of that kind of talent.

So far, Klaus has been set against fantasy backdrops, like the town of Grimsvig in the origin story, or the Witch of Winter’s lair in last year’s special, so I’m looking forward to seeing Dan tackle a more modern suburban setting with science fiction elements.

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It looks like a major part of the story is an evil Santa from an alternate dimension. Maybe I just have Twin Peaks on the brain, but the notion of an evil double seems to be as prominent as ever in pop culture -- what do you think it is about that notion that makes it such an enduring part of fiction?

All reasonable people have Twin Peaks: The Return on their brains right now -- best TV show ever! I’m on to my third time watching those 18 episodes!

With Klaus, our stated intention up front was to do Santa as a superhero and apply some of those familiar hero tropes to this character. Hence, the appearance of the inevitable “evil duplicate.” The mirror universe bad version -- goatee Spock, the Crime Syndicate, etc. -- is a reliably popular notion because it dramatizes the binary “dual nature” of human experience—the good and bad side, the light and dark, the idea that we’re all Jekyll and Hyde. The evil doppelganger literalizes our warring natures, in an appealing way, allowing us to physically confront our own dark sides, or personal Jungian “shadows” given form.

In Twin Peaks, the idea is built into the title -- the series is filled with duplicates, twins, doubles, tulpas, reflections -- two worlds, two Coopers, etc.

Art from BOOM! Studios' original Klaus series.

What can you share about the evil Klaus? What are the qualities that make up Klaus’ opposite?

Where Klaus is the giver of gifts, his doppelganger is more of a taker so he’s a pirate Santa, basically. Where Klaus is kind and brave, his opposite is cruel, violent, unreasonable, a bully, a monster -- and a werewolf! He’s a formidable enemy.

From what I know about the story, it seems like it’s having a lot of fun, but also has something to say about commercialization and the way a figure like Santa Claus is commoditized. How do you view the balance between humor and more biting satire? Or are they one in the same for you?

Well, this one’s very much about the co-opting and commodification of the image of Santa Claus. In last year’s special, we added a throwaway reference to Klaus’ war with the Pola-Cola corporation. As we’ll learn, that war was over a “trademark dispute” -- a cheeky nod to Coca-Cola’s appropriation of Santa Claus.

We’ve invented this bizarre steampunk, Edisonade-ish soft drink company run by a dynasty of bizarre characters through the decades. The latest of the clan is a 20-something yuppie businessman with a big plan to “rebrand” Christmas in an unusual way -- a plan involving aliens, mind-controlled Santas…

I wouldn’t call it biting satire; it’s more absurd and over the top. To some extent, I’m as guilty of the commodification of Santa Claus as anyone else so it’s not about pointing fingers but about raising questions and exposing contradictions, the real truth being that we’re neither good nor bad in absolute opposition but a confusing blend of both.

Since you see this as something of an annual tradition, do you already have Klaus ideas percolating for 2018 and beyond?

I already have plans for next year’s special (three specials will also give us a decent book collection as a Volume 2 follow-up to the origin story). Following that, for volume 3, I have an idea to do a longer, more involved and “serious” story with Klaus in 2019.

The Klaus specials are fairly short and super-compressed; I think of them in terms of something like the Doctor Who Christmas shows or the kind of extended stories we used to get in Superman annuals, so they’re light, fast reads that are heavy on plot and incident. I’d like to complement them with something more ambitious. If that doesn’t work out, I still want to do something every Christmas with Klaus.

We’ll see what happens. I’ve spent most of last year writing and producing on the Happy! TV show -- a different kind of Christmas story which airs on Nov. 29 this year -- and the Brave New World adaption for Syfy. I have three TV shows in various stages of development, with more on offer and I’m having so much fun doing that, it’s likely to occupy most of my time for the next few years at least. As a result, my comic output has diminished to a few pet projects: Klaus, short stories in Heavy Metal, the Wonder Woman: Earth One trilogy, the Avatarex book at Graphic India, Sinatoro with Black Mask and the Arkham Asylum sequel, which I’ll get into seriously at the start of 2018.

In the meantime, I hope people enjoy Crisis in Xmasville. It’s an ideal holiday stocking filler for all the family and is so packed with vitamins it can even double as a Christmas dinner for two if you burn the roast!

Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville is scheduled for release in December from BOOM! Studios.

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Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville cover by Dan Mora.

Klaus and the Crisis in Xmasville

  • One-shot
  • Publisher: BOOM! Studios
  • Writer: Grant Morrison
  • Artist: Dan Mora
  • Cover Artists:
  • Main Cover: Dan Mora
  • Variant Cover: John Cassaday
  • Format: 48 pages, full color
  • Price: $7.99
  • On sale: December 2017
  • Eisner Award-winning creator Grant Morrison (All-Star Superman) and Russ Manning Award winner Dan Mora (Saban’s Go Go Power Rangers) reunite for a brand-new Klaus Special!
  • An evil Santa from an alternate dimension has founded an evil soda corporation that uses Christmas and Santa as a marketing tactic to build their fortunes.
  • Only Klaus can defeat the Pola Cola Corp and the zombie-like Santas that are in the evil Santa’s thrall.