Our Soot Stained Heart #1 is the kind of comic to read while rolled up in a blanket beside a crackling fire on a chilly winter’s day. The design from cover to final page definitely conjures nostalgia for old Christmas tales past. But Our Soot Stained Heart is actually a revolutionary epic; a steampunk Santa story perfect for the advent season. The double-sized issue #1 comes out on December 10th from Mad Cave Studios with an excellent creative team.
Debut writer Joni Hägg – a Finn who probably knows a thing or two about snowy frostlands – creates something unique by turning one of the more forgotten aspects of Santa myths into an intriguing “what if?” scenario. Everyone knows Santa Claus brings presents to good girls and boys. But, do you remember what he puts in naughty children’s stockings?
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios
In the Coalition – a sprawling city in the frostlands of the deep North – coal is king. Coal burns, producing life-giving heat in otherwise uninhabitable cold while also driving the engines of the factories in this steampunk world. Consequently, every citizen of the Coalition is required to do his or her part to collect every extra lump of coal – what they call, ‘fulfilling the quota.’ All it requires is being as naughty as possible, all year round.
It’s a clever conceit that turns morality on its head in a surprisingly prescient way. What if being bad is “rewarded” with society’s most essential raw material? Well, of course the city will be ruled by an oppressive tyrant and his greedy minions. And society itself will be naturally lost in a vicious cycle of sin – the coal that brings life also leaving a black stain of soot on everything it touches, even the hearts of its people.
Yet, in the midst of this evil empire, a small band of scrappy rebels have come together with a far-fetched plan and hope. Hope that the cycle of evil and tyranny can be overcome by goodness. Hope that the so-called ‘Baron’ might bring something else on the darkest day of the year besides lumps of coal. And it all starts with the young heroine, Margaret ‘Peggy’ Stones – a girl who has never fulfilled her quota, because she’s simply too good.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios
Of course, the story of a scrappy band of rebels fighting for hope in a revolution against an evil empire isn’t exactly new or original. But, by embedding this classic plot into the Christmas myths of Santa Claus, Hägg creates something quite intriguing. Furthermore, the real success in recycling this well-known narrative lies in the realization of the fantasy world and the development of the characters which inhabit it.
Here, Joni Hägg is aided wonderfully by the excellent art team. Stipan Morian, best-known for his breakout work on 20th Century Men with Deniz Camp, draws expressive, dynamic and creative images with plenty of variation. No two pages look the same. Every image is full of detail with a touch of stylistic exaggeration to emphasize key qualities. The Coalition appears as an unimaginably complex set of buildings, stretching to the skies like an Arctic tower of Babel. The colors – by Rope Mann – bring the mood of every setting to life – warm oranges and reds in the coal-heated factories, icy blues in the snow-covered frostlands.
The characters are rendered with striking facial features and body language that fit their personalities. Although I’m not completely a fan of the exaggerated features, I see what Morian is doing. The young Peggy has impossibly large eyes and pure white hair, symbolizing her child-like innocence and pure goodness, respectively. Marie – the fiery leader of the rebellion – has an edgy face with a pointed chin and eyes. She’s sharp around the edges. The materialistic manager of the coal factory has grown obscenely fat in his own greed. And the monstrous Governor Glass – the evil tyrant of the Coalition – is a pale blue cross between a frost giant and Krampus, whose face looks like it’s gone through a meat grinder.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios
The always excellent Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou once again makes his Eisner-winning lettering a part of the art itself. The loose forms, differing colors and various fonts in word-balloons add to the personalities of the speaking characters. The style and font of narrative captions further the nostalgic Christmas-tale feel. The lettering is especially important in one well-written scene involving two different styles of narrative captions to denote the words of two different characters.
The biggest drawback in Our Soot Stained Heart #1 is the often-stoic personality of lead heroine – Peggy Stones – which made it hard for me to get completely emotionally invested in her story. Also, a lot of the more intriguing elements of this fantasy world are very subtly introduced. I missed quite a few on the first read-through. But it’s a story that gets better on the second read-through. I have a feeling Our Soot Stained Heart will probably work best as a collected graphic novel rather than a four-issue mini-series. But I guess we’ll have to wait and find out about that.
Our Soot Stained Heart #1 subtly twists the elements of familiar Santa myths to create an epic, steampunk story of revolution against an immoral and broken world. Debut writer Joni Hägg is supported by an excellent art team – Stipan Morian on pencils, Rope Mann on colors and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on letters – to create a fully realized world in the frostlands of the deep North. Everything about the book feels comfortingly nostalgic while also refreshingly unique.
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