“The magic in mischief”: Torunn Grønbekk on writing ‘Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Shiver of Christmas Town’

Dynamite’s first-ever ongoing set in the world of The Nightmare Before Christmas lands January 7, 2026, and it leans straight into the film’s sweetest contradiction: spooky that makes you smile.

With The Shiver of Christmas Town, writer Torunn Grønbekk and artist Edu Menna aren’t just revisiting Halloween Town and Christmas Town — they’re letting both places hilariously misunderstand each other all over again. And the end result is precisely the kind of kooky charm that’s made The Nightmare Before Christmas popular among generations of weirdos.

In late 2025, I spoke with Grønbekk over Zoom to unpack this delightful new monthly series, her collaboration with Disney and Tim Burton’s team, and even why she believes the “magic in mischief” that defined the original film is alive and well in The Shiver of Christmas Town.

Courtesy of Dynamite.

Courtesy of Dynamite.

Working Inside Burton’s World (and Disney’s Guardrails)

Grønbekk didn’t go it alone on this one — and she didn’t just work with Menna, either.

“We worked with Disney and Tim’s team…every outline and every script sort of goes through both Disney and Tim Burton,” Grønbekk said. “And then they go back and forth a little bit to sort of make sure that they’re both comfortable.”

As such, a few gags didn’t survive that process — or as Grønbekk explained, “We had some jokes cut…it turns out my humor is a little too dark.”

Still, compared to other mega-IPs that she’s handled, the notes were mainly about tone and world fit.

“We would get into like, ‘Can we add like this certain shop into Halloween Town? Is that OK to do that,” Grønbekk  said. “And then that would sort of go through the chain to make sure that it felt correct for everyone involved.”

Premise: When a Scare Cares

Issue #1 starts with a classic Finkelstein experiment gone sideways.

“The Shiver, who is our new little creature, was supposed to be like a huge, scary, awful Halloween creature, which didn’t work for them, and it turned into a very sweet and very cute little thing,” Grønbekk said.

Given this new little darling, Sally steps in as caretaker and names the frosty-breathing newbie “Shiver” — just as the Mayor recruits Lock, Shock, and Barrel to introduce trick-or-treating to Christmas Town. What could go wrong?

One of Grønbekk’s favorite parts of the original film drives the book: each town comically misreads the other.

“When you see how Halloween Town interprets Christmas… we try to play around with that,” Grønbekk said. “Also, when you get to Christmas Town, they try to sort of emulate Halloween. And then they’ll get it wrong.”

Courtesy of Dynamite.

Sally Versus The Chaos Agents

From there, Sally moves firmly to center stage.

“She’s very clever and she’s very competent,” Grønbekk  said. “And she is sort of always the one with the solution.”

That meant finding a foil that isn’t a cackling villain so much as pure chaos.

“I was trying to find some opponent that wasn’t necessarily evil,” Grønbekk  said. “But more like chaos…It’s been interesting to have Sally being the grown up in the room again, but also trying to give her a little depth.”

Meanwhile, the Mayor’s marching orders send Lock, Shock, and Barrel to Christmas Town with the purest LSB logic.

“They’ve been told to do this by the Mayor, and they’re very sort of proud of it,” Grønbekk said. “But they’re obviously going to try to bring some tricks and bring some madness to the whole thing. And then they find Shiver, and they bring the bear along.”

Given their, um, ineptitude, why are LSB so dang fun to write?

“All you really need to do is to think like, ‘What do I want to do,” Grønbekk said. “Not like what should I do? Just what do I want to do? And then just find a way to execute it.” The challenge, then, is threading the needle so the banter lands “in a very, you know, Disney PG way.”

Courtesy of Dynamite.

Chasing New, “Iconic” Images

With a world as instantly recognizable as Nightmare, Grønbekk wanted set-pieces that stick in your brain.

“You have to try to find something that seems like it’s going to be delightful and make sense in a way that is still special enough that some people are going to be taken off guard a bit,” Grønbekk said. “And we certainly try to do that…you never know before you have it out there in the world.”

That fidelity goes down to background dressing. As Grønbekk added, “If you have something in the background…it’s supposed to be exactly what’s in the movie.”

If the writing balances spooky and sweet, Menna’s job is even more delicate: make every panel feel Burton-authentic.

“He had a harder job than I did in many ways… either you recognize it as Nightmare Before Christmas or you don’t,” Grønbekk said. “He did a spectacular job. A lot of the…character of the book comes from his art.”

Courtesy of Dynamite.

Actually “All-Ages” (Plus Jokes That Didn’t Make The Cut)

Grønbekk’s home viewing habits skew older, which made calibrating the tone a fun puzzle.

“My youngest is 13, and when I wrote this, she was like 11. She loves Rick and Morty…it turns out the things that we watch in this household are not what you’re supposed to write for all ages.”

Luckily, the final scripts landed where kids and longtime fans could best meet.

“I think we managed to get a pretty balance to it,” Grønbekk said. “I think all of the parents would have been delighted, and the kids would just be like, what does that mean? This is not my IP to do whatever I want with…[the Burton team] wants this to feel special in a way that the movie felt special… nothing that would mock your characters in any possible way. And I like that.”

Courtesy of Dynamite.

Spellwork and Good Times

So, after all of that work to tinker, what does Grønbekk hope readers feel when they close issue #1?

“I think there is the magic in mischief and the joy of [it],” Grønbekk said.

In Norway, Grønbekk explains how she helps cultivate that feeling for local kids every Halloween.

“I’ll project the movie on the barn where my studio is, and I’ll dress up in something ridiculous,” Grønbekk said. “The darkness and the fun and the magic and mischief — it’s always more important than the candy.” That very spirit is the book’s compass: “Just delight in life in a way. I hope it comes across.”