Klaus (comics) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Klaus
Publication information
Publisher	Boom! Studios
Format	Limited series
Publication date	2015 – 2019
Number of issues	7 + 4 One-Shots
Creative team
Writer(s)	Grant Morrison
Artist(s)	Dan Mora
Letterer(s)	Ed Dukeshire
Creator(s)	Grant Morrison
Editor(s)	Eric Harburn Matt Gagnon
Collected editions
Klaus	ISBN 978-1608869039

Klaus is a fictional superhero created by writer Grant Morrison and artist Dan Mora. It started as a seven-issue comic book series in 2015 and 2016, published by Boom! Studios. Since then, Klaus has appeared in more stories.

This comic tells the origin story of Klaus, reimagining Santa Claus as a wild winter shaman from the 16th Century. The creators, Grant Morrison and Dan Mora, used ideas from old stories, westerns, and fantasy to make a new kind of Santa for today. The story follows Klaus, a wild man of the forest, and his pet Arctic wolf named Lilli. Their mission is to bring back joy to the special holiday of Yule.

The story takes place in a town called Grimsvig, where joy and Yuletide are banned. Klaus becomes a hero, like Robin Hood, fighting against the mean Lord Magnus and a scary demon called Krampus who is behind him.

After the main series, Morrison and Mora have released a new, bigger comic each December. These are like special Christmas TV episodes. So far, there have been four of these special comics: Klaus and The Witch of Winter (2016), Klaus and The Crisis in Xmasville (2017), Klaus and The Crying Snowman (2018), and Klaus and The Life and Times Of Joe Christmas (2019).

Klaus is a powerful, magical hero who brings joy and gifts. He can even fly through space on a special sleigh! He is part of a group called the League Of Santas.

How Klaus Was Created

The idea for Klaus first came up in the late 2000s. At that time, Grant Morrison was working on other famous comic books like All-Star Superman and Batman. He was also writing movies in Hollywood.

The Story of Klaus

Part One: Grimsvig's Sadness

In medieval times, a trapper named Klaus comes to the town of Grimsvig. He wants to trade animal furs. But he finds the town has changed a lot. A cruel ruler named Lord Magnus now controls everything. He has made most of the men work in the coal mine. His guards also stop people from having fun. They have even canceled the yearly Yule celebration. All toys and musical instruments are taken away for Magnus's spoiled son, Jonas. Lord Magnus rarely leaves his castle. He stays inside with his unhappy wife, Dagmar, and Jonas.

The guards take Klaus's furs, saying they don't trust strangers. Klaus doesn't fight back at first. But he gets angry when a guard hits a child. He tries to stop it and gets badly beaten. The guards march him outside the town walls to kill him. But his pet white wolf, Lilli, saves him. Klaus makes a camp in the forest and falls asleep. Forest spirits visit him in his dreams. When he wakes up, he is amazed. He has carved a big bag of wooden toys while sleepwalking.

Part Two: Toys in the Night

Even with the tall walls and locked gates, Klaus sneaks into Grimsvig at night. He gives the toys to the children of the poorest families. He also draws on a picture of Lord Magnus. When Magnus sees the children playing, he gets very angry. He orders his guards to take all the toys. He claims his son, Jonas, is sick and needs them more. Magnus demands to know who the mystery person is. One child answers, "It was the Julernisse... the Yuletime Spirit."

Jonas is mad that the new toys don't make him happy. He smashes them in a fit of rage. His mother, Dagmar, notices one toy looks like a carved bird from her own childhood. She has kept her old bird hidden. She then realizes who the mysterious man is.

When night comes again, Klaus tries to reach the gates. He knocks out several guards and even builds one into a snowman as a joke. But then, a group of hunting dogs corners him.

Part Three: Whispers and Wishes

Lilli, Klaus's wolf, chases the dogs away, helping Klaus escape the town. The guards start to whisper. They think the intruder is a ghost or a shape-shifter. Meanwhile, the children start writing wishes on pieces of paper. Magnus orders his men to guard every house door. So, the children burn their wishes in their fireplaces. They hope the wishes will reach "The Santa" through the chimneys.

Magnus takes a magic book, called a grimoire, from his library. He goes deep into the coal mine alone. He says he has followed "the voice's" instructions. Soon, it will be free.

Part Four: Klaus's Past

We see a flashback to Klaus's past. As a baby, he was found in the forest. His mother had frozen to death, but he was still alive. Grimsvig's guard commander, Karl, adopted him. Karl named him "Klaus," which means "Victory of the People." As a boy, Klaus became friends with Dagmar, the lord's daughter. He gave her a wooden toy bird to replace her dead pet. They grew up as best friends. Young Magnus watched them, feeling jealous.

Later, Klaus became a captain of the town guard. But Magnus poisoned Dagmar's father, the lord, and blamed Klaus. He forced Klaus outside the walls to die. But Lilli, whom Klaus had saved as a cub, saved him again.

In the present, Klaus enters Dagmar's window. He asks her how she could have thought he poisoned her father. He also asks how she could have chosen Magnus over him. She has no answer. But Klaus gives her a single toy for Jonas. At first, Jonas wants to smash it. But Dagmar sits down and tells him to make up a story with it. Soon, they are playing happily. Then, Magnus interrupts them. He has a plan to catch "the Santa" using Jonas to write a wish letter.

Part Five: A Dangerous Trap

Jonas tells Dagmar that Magnus scared him into writing the letter. Magnus showed him the magic book from the library. Before Dagmar can find the book, Magnus walks in. He seems half-crazy. He believes he is surrounded by enemies. He thinks this even after everything he has done to become powerful and make life better for Dagmar and Jonas.

Jonas's letter leads Klaus into a trap set by Magnus's men. Klaus barely escapes the town walls. He is wounded by a poisoned arrow.

Part Six: The Demon's Arrival

A young boy from the town, with Lilli's help, drags Klaus to his cabin in the woods. The boy treats Klaus's poisoned wound. But Magnus and his guards follow them there. They burn down the cabin. They leave Klaus tied to the surface of a frozen lake. They expect him to die from the cold.

Magnus prepares for a visit from the King. He gathers the town's children into a room in the castle. They are offered sweets to eat as much as they want. On the same night, a coal miner finally breaks open a cell. This releases a huge demon, Krampus. The demon enters the castle's main hall. It demands its promised "feast"—the captive children.

Outside Grimsvig, Klaus is visited again by the forest spirits. He is "changed," given new strength. He is told to "make things better."

Part Seven: Klaus Saves the Day

The boy who helped Klaus earlier leads the other captive children out of their room. They move through the castle. In the main hall, Magnus was happy when the demon arrived. But his joy turns to horror when it attacks Jonas. He opens the magic book to find the spell to control the demon. But the demon laughs. It tells him it used him to get free. Magnus has no power over it. Dagmar distracts the demon with an arrow. She tells Jonas to run. Jonas meets the other children who are running away. But then, the Krampus corners them all. Before it can eat any of them, Klaus appears! He is on a flying sleigh pulled by eight white wolves, with Lilli leading. He is holding a great sword.

Klaus fights and defeats the demon. But Magnus demands that Krampus keep its promise: giving him the kingship and the love of his family and people. Dagmar finally realizes that Magnus is to blame for her father's death. She tells him that all the evil in Grimsvig is his fault alone. She walks away from him with Jonas. Magnus goes crazy. He screams at the demon to give him what he deserves. The demon breathes fire and burns him to ashes.

The demon grabs Jonas. It turns Klaus's sleigh into a dark chariot pulled by hellhounds. It flies into the sky, shouting, "All bad children belong to me!"

Klaus gets up. He tells Dagmar that the forest spirits have made him immortal. He leaps onto a rooftop and then onto the chariot. He declares, "There are no bad children!" As the chariot flies higher into the sky, the demon tries to burn Klaus. But its fiery breath doesn't light up in the thin air. With his famous "Ho Ho Ho," Klaus defeats it. The demon's body falls back to Earth. Klaus returns in his now-fixed sleigh with Jonas. Dagmar promises the King that she will be the new leader of the town. With Klaus as her helper, she will fix all her husband's bad deeds.

From then on, the Yuletide festival is held every year. The town becomes joyful again. Even Jonas changes. He stops being selfish and learns to play with other children.

As the years pass, Dagmar grows old. But Klaus stays the same. After her funeral, Jonas is now an adult and the new lord of the town. He sees Klaus getting ready to leave in his sleigh. Klaus is going to bring joy to the rest of the world. But he promises to return once every year, when things are at their darkest.

Collected Editions