Santa’s Most Trusted Steeds

We all know about Santa’s reindeer, the magical and flying deer that helps Santa get around the world. They usually include Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder, and Blixem. There are, of course, stories that focus on them and can even show more of them than before. The most famous of these additions is of course Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The Not So Nice Reindeer

Action Lab’s Chainsaw Reindeer is a new story that is definitely not in the same mold as previous reindeer stories. This is a very violent, very dark, and very disturbing one shot that tells so much without telling that much. Writer Brandon Rhiness manages to be rude, lewd, and crude in telling this story of one of Santa’s reindeer killing pretty much everyone.

Starting out with a drunk, abusive, and depraved Santa treating his wife and elves terribly before beating the hell out of and even supposedly raping one of his reindeer, something that’s hinted at to happen regularly. This one reindeer just happened to have had enough and grabs a nearby shotgun to kill Santa, his wife, and the elves. Escaping the North Pole with the other reindeer, they all get shot down by the Canadian Air Force. They crash land in the woods, with just the leader surviving and running into depraved lumberjacks that abuse him.

This convinces the magical reindeer that all humans need to die and grabs one of the lumberjacks’ chainsaw and kill the two. The rest of the comic is just Chainsaw Reindeer killing anyone and everyone all over the world in excessively violent and gory matters. He goes to every country, every piece of land on Earth, and even all the way out in space to kill every single human being. Doesn’t matter who they are, what they do, or even if they’re the leaders of the many countries, he will slaughter them all.

Simple Writing-Funny and to the Point

Rhiness’s writing is exactly what you expect, lots of killing and lots of dark humor, though there are times where it crosses the line a bit more than needed. You manage to actually side a bit with Chainsaw because of what he and the other reindeer went through and the killing can be so cathartic whenever you’re angry at the world for what’s going on. Even with such simple writing, there are some smart and hilarious moments that stand out such as killing an Australian with an alligator that winks at him, beheading the Loch Ness Monster, and massacring every single army that’s sent after him. Though some of the crudeness tries too hard at making fun at various cultures, like Irish having leprechauns and the Japanese comparing him to Godzilla, that feels a little lazy.

Carlos Trigo, the artist of the comic, does a great job with how detailed, cartoonish, and overall dark toned it is. Though near the end, there’s a tad less of that detail especially with panels having a larger number of people.

Chainsaw Reindeer is a really fun one-shot that knows how crazy and silly its story is, and thus knows how to end with great, though simplistic writing, and mostly good artwork.

You can pick up a copy of Chainsaw Reindeer at Amazon.

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