- Hardcover: 64 pages
- Publisher: HarperEntertainment (15 Nov 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061782408
- ISBN-13: 978-0061782404
- Product Dimensions: 18.7 x 13.3 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,559,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Kidnapped Santa Claus
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
"A Kidnapped Santa Claus" describes the action of some uncommon events in the land of Santa. Not far from the Laughing Valley where Santa and all his magical helpers live, and beyond the Forest of Burzee, there stands a huge mountain that contains the Cave of Demons. Each demon has a specialty: Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, Malice, and Repentance. Because the promise of Santa puts all girls and boys on their best behaviour, the demons have hardly any visitors to their caves. In order to remedy their dismal foot traffic, they conspire to kidnap Santa! But oh! even when it looks as if the demons might win, one can never underestimate the power of devoted (and magical!) friends. Adapted by Alex Robinson, author of several graphic novels, the action and menace of the tale will be enhanced and lightly spoofed. It seems a most appropriate treatment of Baum's work - he was an author who often let his profound and unsettling meanings roil beneath the surface of his stories.
About the Author
Alex Robinson lives in New York City with his wife and their two cats. His other books, all available from Top Shelf Productions, are Box Office Poison, BOP!, Tricked, and Alex Robinson's Lower Regions. His work has also appeared in BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2006. He graduated from high school in 1987, and was voted Most Artistic by his classmates. He was not invited to the reunion. Lyman Frank Baum (15 May 1856 - 5 May 1919) was an American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker, best known today as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of one of the most popular books in American children's literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, better known now as simply The Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a plethora of other works (55 novels in total, 82 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings), and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
well, this is the story of how the bad guys kidnapped santa, and how he was rescued. It has a moral lesson to it and all, and it would defenetly suffice as a story to read to one's little children come bed-time. How ever, it very simple in all aspects (be it good or bad you decide) and isn't all that interesting. Something nice to have around christmas for the kids. That's all.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Spirited Adaptation of a Minor Christmas "Classic"
26 Nov 2009
Format:Hardcover
There's a reason that L. Frank Baum's "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" has always been less than classic when it comes to Christmas tales: The mythology is too much to grasp in the span of a short story. The "daemons" that kidnap Santa go by the names of Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, and Repentance (a fifth, Malice, is not included in Robinson's adaptation). As a way to teach children the perilousness of vices, "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" would seem to have a daunting task.
Baum goes several steps further, though, complicating matters with layers of original mythology. His Santa doesn't live at the North Pole--instead, he lives in Laughing Valley on the border of the Forest of Burzee. Instead of elves, he's assisted by knooks, ryls, fairies, and pixies. Over the course of Baum's novel "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus," things are easier to understand. As a standalone tale, though, there's too much going on.
Comic book artist Alex Robinson does an admirable job, illustrating Baum's story with beautiful black-and-white line art. His original dialogue and creations are welcome additions, updating the story for modern readers. (One of the Santa's fairies, Wisk, is now a female with a crush on her co-worker Kilter, providing some much-needed humor.) Still, Robinson can't solve the central problem of the short story, which is that it is ends up too complicated for a children's book...and too silly for adults to appreciate. It's probably better suited to an animated film--it would be interesting to see what Tim Burton (or even Pixar or Dreamworks) could do with Baum's story, Robinson's new creations, and 90 minutes of screen time.
Baum goes several steps further, though, complicating matters with layers of original mythology. His Santa doesn't live at the North Pole--instead, he lives in Laughing Valley on the border of the Forest of Burzee. Instead of elves, he's assisted by knooks, ryls, fairies, and pixies. Over the course of Baum's novel "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus," things are easier to understand. As a standalone tale, though, there's too much going on.
Comic book artist Alex Robinson does an admirable job, illustrating Baum's story with beautiful black-and-white line art. His original dialogue and creations are welcome additions, updating the story for modern readers. (One of the Santa's fairies, Wisk, is now a female with a crush on her co-worker Kilter, providing some much-needed humor.) Still, Robinson can't solve the central problem of the short story, which is that it is ends up too complicated for a children's book...and too silly for adults to appreciate. It's probably better suited to an animated film--it would be interesting to see what Tim Burton (or even Pixar or Dreamworks) could do with Baum's story, Robinson's new creations, and 90 minutes of screen time.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Kidnap the Sandy Claws!
4 Dec 2009
Format:Hardcover
Harper Collins released this small hardcover graphic novel based on L. Frank Baum's original book, A Kidnapped Santa Claus, adapted by Alex Robinson(Box Office Poison). The book was a followup to Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus which told Santa's origins. In this story, Santa gets captured by some evil demons, so a bunch his elves and fairy friends(including Zurline)mount a rescue. This actually turned out to be a great comic for young readers, and I highly recommend it as a holiday gift.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
classic Robinson
3 Nov 2009
Format:Hardcover
Alex fills out this short story with such thought and care that I wish it was longer! I love that the morality story brings everyone, even the "bad" kids to become "good." The stark black and white artwork gives the story another good vs bad edge. It's a classic story that you should read to your kids before they go to bed on Christmas Eve.
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