As we enter the climax of this holiday season, who can deny the comfy ambience of sitting by a fire, drinking eggnog or sipping on mulled wine while you eat a delicious minced pie, and telling ghost stories on a beautiful winter night? Of course, when you have four of the most celebrated writers sharing these stories, things are bound to get a little…twisted.
In Four Gathered on Christmas Eve, four authors join for a holiday tradition (both figuratively and literally) to celebrate the season and give us four holiday (Read: horrifying.) stories. Of course, these stories are all works of fiction, but when you have four authors known for the eccentric, you can be sure that everything will turn out merrily and bright.
To go too deeply into the separate stories would be a disservice, as they each are their own unique brand of holiday chaos, but you can rest assured that each story told is unique to that author’s style. The stories themselves aren’t groundbreaking, but rather fun, whimsical, and sinister, and not in that order. When these storytellers get together, you can be sure you’ll have an absolute blast reading through them.
Each story is beautifully drawn and colored in their own unique way. From monsters to apparent hauntings, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll find a favorite in here. For me, it’s the spectacular retelling of Lewis Carroll’s famous poem, Jabberwocky.
What should also be mentioned is the framing of the story, as the four authors ⎯ playing convincingly heightened versions of themselves ⎯ gather for their annual tradition of ghost stories, good food, and treachery, bookending the entire comic in a fatally entertaining way. Suffice it to say, you’re getting five stories instead of the four, and that is for all the better.
Four Gathered on Christmas Eve is a hauntingly adorable love letter to the yuletide season, ghost stories, and those we hold close to ourselves – enemies and friends alike. If you’re in the mood for a good laugh, haunting, and an all-around good story that isn’t from Charles Dickens, you’ll be happy to give this a read.
Creative Team: Eric Powell, Mike Mignola, Becky Cloonan, James Harren, Dave Stewart
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Click here to purchase.
