Image Comics announced the premiere of a new ongoing comic series featuring Krampus, the child-punishing demon of holiday legend, just in time for Christmas. Krampus! #1 will release December 11th, with a price of $2.99.Brian Joines (Noble Causes, 7 Guys of Justice) and Dean Kotz (The Red Panda, The Black Coat) will envision Krampus as a put-upon protagonist who helps the Secret Society of Santa Clauses (Father Christmas, Ded moroz, Hoteiosho and presumably, Saint Nick) after their powers are stolen.
"I've always had a darker sense of humor and liked the idea that all the stories and legends we knew as kids had darker underbellies... like the Grimm's Fairy Tales," said Joines. "When I found out that there was this demonic thing that used to ride around with Santa and punish wicked children... I knew I had to do something with that someday. It took a while to figure out how to use him, but once I did, the Krampus wrote himself."
The beast-like devil of Yule fokelore from Germany and other Alpine countries (Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bavaria, and Croatia among others) is the child-punishing counterpart to Saint Nick. Krampus is enjoying a pop culture revival in the new millennium, appearing in holiday episodes of Venture Brothers, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, The Colbert Report and The League; in comic form on webcomic PVP, in the 2010 Grimm Fairy Tales Holiday 2010 edition and in the 2006 Dark Horse graphic novel Chickenhare: The House of Kause by Chris Grine; as well as the subject of an illustrated novel by Gerald Brom.
