ADVANCE REVIEW: Sleigher: The Heavy Metal Santa Claus #1 & #2

The first issue of this series introduces the heavy metal grandson of Santa Claus as he fights the forces of evil to save Christmas. Issue #1 is falling over its enthusiasm to get to the laughs and if you like your peanut butter smooth this might be a bit crunchy. This is a funny comic, it does contain genuine laughs but they feel a bit squeezed into a plot that needs to breath a bit. The art is heavy as well and the whole thing had me hoping this wasn’t going to be my first slightly negative review of an Action Labs book, then I read issue two…

I breathed a sigh of relief as I opened this sandwich and found smooth peanut butter. The creative team must have sat back and taken a deep breath as the pacing is better, the art is just as good but the line work and composition are lighter and better thought. The laughs are better blended into the story, a scene where Sleigher dives into a giant snowman’s mouth with a battle axe and erupts from its anus is a bare knuckle belly laugh. There’s also two scenes that stand out, one is a telling of the villain’s back story done in a strange but cool black and white style, the other is one of the funniest meta gags outside a Deadpool book.