by Drew Edwards

hile it's of no great secret that I love Halloween, people are often surprised that I also share a great deal of passion for Christmas. Thusly, in the four years of writing Halloween-Man I have crafted two Christmas themed tales.

The first of which is a sort of post-modern fairy tale called "Hansel and Gretal:2001." It was one of my few attempts at prose, accompanied with art by my good buddy Joe Singleton. The second story called "Faster Santa Claus! Kill! Kill!" had a much more interesting road to seeing fruition.

The idea first hit me at a con last November. It was one of those lightning strike images comic writers sometimes get. Without warning, I was hit with the image of Halloween Man in mortal combat with the jolly one himself...Santa Claus.

And why not? My all time favorite holiday movie (Nightmare before Christmas) features a culture clash of holidays. To do my own take on the idea seemed logical for a comic that thrives on "trash" culture.

The day after the con, I began watching dvds of classic Christmas specials in a fevered craze. Everything from the Rankin/Bass stop motion classics, to Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I was determined to turn a tiny spark into a raging bonfire. And thus I soon began writing my own Christmas special. However, this was to be a Christmas special like no other! In the tradition of Charles Dickens, it features the un-dead and graveyards, and in the tradition of George Lucas it features robots and flying cars. Top that off with some seedy S&M elements and you've got the perfect tone for a Halloween Man Christmas story.

With the script finished, I soon began the process of talking to artists. Several parties were interested, but the most likely candidate was "Something AGoGo" creator Andrew Barr. We had become buddies over email and had even been talking about a crossover between our two comics, so he seemed a natural fit for this project.

For a good while it seemed like a go. Andrew even created some really sharp looking concept art. Unfortunately, in the end Andrew couldn't fit such a large undertaking into his timetable and work on his own creation as well. So with no lost love between us, and December looking closer and closer, I was still without an artist.

Thank God (or Santa Claus) for the Internet. I mentioned my crazy script on a message board I frequent, and my buddy Kevin piped up..."how about a jam?" A jam! It was too perfect! Within a few days a group of talented artists had been assembled to bring my half-baked dream project to life.

Had I created a monster? Possibly...but it was the best sort of monster. The one that's a happy accident. With each page it has slowly come to life. Watching the whole thing come together has been a truly amazing experience. Each artist has brought something really special to the table.

So in the end, what did I help create? Quite possibly the best fetish themed, cyborg infested, kung-fu Santa filled, Christmas special ever to star a zombie superhero!