Earlier this month, TokyoPop released Book One of The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero’s Journey, encompassing the first five issues (#0-#4) of what will eventually be a 20-issue story.
TokyoPop’s official website offers the following description of The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero’s Journey:
- “When Jack Skellington’s faithful pet Zero gets lost, the ghost pup must get the help of the residents of Christmas Town to find his way back. With Halloween plans on hold while Jack mounts a search, will they be reunited in time to save both holidays?”
If you’re a fan of Tim Burton’s classic holiday film, you’ll definitely enjoy this graphic novel. While reading it, I could easily hear each character’s voice in my head and it was like I was getting to see a sequel to a movie I grew up with. It’s certainly a worthy recreation of the film.
The best part of the graphic novel is easily the artwork. I found myself pausing my reading several times just to admire the visuals on each page. Jack, Zero, Sally and the rest of you’re favorite characters from the film are featured several times throughout the book and they look stunning.
I will say the story can, unfortunately, be a bit difficult to follow at times, especially if you are unfamiliar with mangas and the concept of reading from right to left. I suppose that is to be expected though when the main character of the story you’re reading never actually speaks. Combine that with the idea of trying to read the musical dialogue and you may find yourself reading some of these pages a couple of times before moving on.
Still, the visual component is very helpful in telling the story and helps you to understand what the characters are saying and experiencing. And again, you’re going to want to spend some time taking in the visuals of this graphic novel.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero’s Journey Book One is available now at all good comic and bookstores, with a variant cover available only at FYE. Issue #5 will be available in stores in November, with the Book Two collecting issues #5-#9 and hitting stores in May of 2019.