I Gotta Catch Santa Claus

    (Taylor, 2005)
™ and ©2005 TopperTaylor

Trevor and his buddies from the Chess Club set about winning the $25,000 prize for providing proof of the existence of Santa Claus. (The money will come in handy since radioactive guinea pigs trashed the tournament chess room.) Using the advanced technical skills and scientific know-how typically possessed by chess club members, the gang devises a strategy to snare Santa.

Taylor Comics’ chipper Christmas one-shot uses colors bright enough to attract hummingbirds which suits the story’s summery Southern California Christmas scene.

— Leland Burrill

From the Comics Buyer’s Guide:

The inside cover of this one-shot promises two forthcoming titles from the publisher: I Gotta Catch the Easter Bunny and I Gotta Catch the Tooth Fairy. That would be something to look forward to, if it weren’t for the awfulness of I Gotta Catch Santa Claus, a slickly produced, garishly colored waste of four allowance dollars.

The story begins with a boy sitting on Santa’s lap, asking for an unusual present: a guarantee that his chess team will win the championship. Then, as if on cue, radioactive guinea pigs demolish the tournament chess room, prompting the chess club to enter a contest in which contestants must prove that Kris Kringle is real. Catching Santa will net them $25,000 for use in rebuilding the chess room. How convenient.

Santa Claus is energetic and fast-paced, and the art is pleasant enough, but it is bogged down in contrived situations and clumsy panel-to-panel transition. Lasers, robots, radioactive creatures, moneymaking schemes, and other story elements continually plop out of, seemingly, nowhere.

— Brett Weiss
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Cover Price: $3.95
1 copy available for $7.00 		Daniel MonahanTim Brazier