Undoubtedly this holiday season, you’ll cultivate a little yuletide joy by imbibing Christmas comics like so much eggnog. If you want something that’s warm and charming, there’s The Peanuts Guide to Christmas. If you’d prefer a little horror instead, try Four Gathered on Christmas Eve. And if you’d somehow need more of an action-oriented experience, you could always tackle Batman: Noël. But be sure to leave a little room in your heart (and reading pile) for a different sort of Xmas adventure, Our Soot Stained Heart.
Published by Mad Cave Studios, Our Soot Stained Heart is the brain-child of debut writer Joni Hägg and artist Stipan Morian (20th Century Men). Here, we travel to The Coalition, a seemingly advanced city in the “deep north” ruled by two things: the heinous Governor Glass and coal technology. In fact, coal is so vital to this society that for citizens to “get extra coal at the end of the year, [they] must be bad, every day!” Cue Peggy Stones, our earnest hard-working hero who must “journey to the ends of the world to find answers that could change the world!”
Described as a “steampunk Santa story,” Our Soot Stained Heart doesn’t fit with some of those classics — because it feels like the best encapsulation of everything. There’s holiday warmth, potent socio-political commentary, big-time action, and a deep well of pure, undeniable humanity. Whatever you celebrate, and however you mark the occasion, Our Soot Stained Heart will remind you of the power of a great holiday-adjacent story about people betting on themselves in the name of something better.
Our Soot Stained Heart #1 is due out this week (December 3), with the debut spanning a whopping 48 pages. In the lead up to the first issue, we caught up with both Hägg and Morian (via email) to delve deep into the land of The Coalition. That included the story’s development, how they celebrate and utilize steampunk ideas/tropes, the Christmas traditions explored across the book, and even their fave Xmas stories/films.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
AIPT: Where did the idea for this story come from? It feels a little like Oliver Twist meets Samurai Jack (kinda).
Joni Hägg: The premise came first. I was coming up with ideas for a short comic for some anthology pitch, and I thought of the Christmas trope of Santa putting coal in your stockings if you had been bad that year. My twist was to envision a society that exploited this “policy” to gain an advantage. The rest of the story grew organically from there, trying to think what this would look like and what could follow. And because I wanted it to be a Christmas story, it had to have a Santa character, of course. The story we present in the final book is a culmination of many long years working first on my own, and then with Stipan (and many others along the way). Oliver Twist was one of the many inspirations that we built on. I think I recall Stipan mentioning it when we were coming up with some of the swashbuckling sections seen in #1.
Stipan Morian: The idea came from Joni. He sent me this short Santa story that was brimming with exciting imagery. I said, ‘Wonderful! Let’s work on that.’ I really appreciated that the world undergoes significant changes throughout the story. The shift is both ecological and spiritual. I also thought it would be interesting to combine it with something Joni had sent me earlier to illustrate for a tabletop game: gloomy, depressive, Finnish-coded gods ruling cold winds, dispensing thunder, muttering threats in rhyme.
AIPT: I feel like steampunk-y stories often get a bad rap (that’s often undue). What did this genre offer to you in telling this story?
JH: The genre choice grew naturally from the premise, as I wanted something rather Dickensian to set the tone of the world; yet it had to have room for the more supernatural and myth-like elements that the story would entail. An empire built on coal, but in a world that could also house a Santa-like being. This version of the story has always been a bit of a storybook or a fairy tale at its core, where things don’t have to be quite so realistic. It really lets us, especially Stipan, play with our imaginations.
As for whether steampunk has a bad reputation, I cannot really say that I’ve ever paid attention to that, as I have always loved all things genre fiction wholeheartedly. From my first literary love, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and the great Ankh-Morpork, to shows like Warehouse 13, or the gloomy visuals of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the faux-Victorian vibes have always resonated with me in some way.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
SM: That genre is too often hijacked by an annoying guy with a top hat and aviator goggles. There are plenty of examples where it’s done well. At the top of the heap, you have Jules Verne, Luther Arkwright, Frostpunk, Dishonored, Bioshock, and Les Cités Obscures. I could go on and on. As with any genre, too much sugar spoils the dish. For Our Soot Stained Heart, we thought it would be striking to create a contrast between the warm quality of a human heart and a harsh, cold world.
AIPT: Joni, you’d said that the book isn’t a “retelling of any one story, nor do we use any Christmas characters ‘as-is’…we’ve reimagined them into an entirely new world—one that draws on my Finnish cultural mindscape and Stipan’s Balkan heritage.” Can you explain that more — what is Christmas like in these traditions/cultures?
JH: I can’t speak for the Balkan part here, but we realized quite early in our collaborations that there is a certain shared cross-cultural mindset that comes at least in part from many of our ancestors being rural folk who held a lot of myths and beliefs about the world. And those have survived to the present through traditions, especially when it comes to things like surviving winters and harsh times. For Our Soot Stained Heart, I was influenced by all sorts of Christmas stories, traditions, and even small minutiae that I found interesting. But for this story, I wanted to preserve some of that Germanic and Nordic influence of those early yuletide traditions. It is a darker frame of mind, as winter is seen as this harsh thing to survive through, and even the early characters and elements that would eventually become part of Santa Claus were often used to scare people.
Modern Finnish Christmas is very much a family holiday, and it tends to be all about the close community. Christmas Eve is the biggest day of celebration, when we visit the graves to remember those no longer with us, come together for a big feast, and share presents in the evening. Food plays a big part. But every family will have their own traditions.
SM: You don’t have to go far to experience other cultures. Differences in social conditions shape the experience of holidays far more than your point on the globe. Some people live hard lives. In poverty-ridden skyscraper anthills buried in snow, with frost-bound streets, steaming pipes, and little stinky stoves burning everywhere. And frustrated family members trapped indoors.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
AIPT: Peggy is such a well-developed character so early on. Why is she a great lead, and why does she feel so dang vital even just a couple pages into issue #1?
JH: That’s why I love Peggy, she wears her heart on her sleeve. You don’t have to guess with her, and I think that is what makes her such a great character to pull you into her story. In the beginning, even though we can read her words, I think it is the fact that she stands alone, in contrast to everything else, that sets her apart and makes us want to root for her. But Peggy has always been easy to write; she has this sincerity and depth that always felt natural to me, very human.
SM: Peggy has all the qualities of youth. She is rebellious and uncompromising in her demand for change, yet at the same time, she’s clearly a lamb, unspoiled. But her point of view is reasonable. You know, I spend a lot of time with these characters, so in the end, I know them to the core. I gave her white hair to make her look more like a lamb, dressed her in a big coat to emphasize that she’s a child, and put a sword in her hand because it’s a symbol of the word. She is the messenger in the story, the one who sets the whole change in motion.
AIPT: I love this book because it feels like the whole world is developed, but we’re never bogged down by too much exposition and world-building. How much of this world did you craft, and how much of it will we actually see by the story’s end?
JH: You’ll definitely see and learn more about it as we go along. We have had talks about the world, how it works and connects, and crafted some concrete things out, but in many ways, I consider this more of a soft system, because I wanted that myth-like feel, where you don’t quite know what is possible and what lurks in those unseen corners. But as we have worked on this for quite a long time, the world has solidified at least at the back of my mind into something that I know very well. But instead of just dumping all that out there, we’ll throw you the occasional line and idea. But with each issue, we are mapping out the corners, bit by bit. The iceberg metaphor fits here, I think.
SM: You’ll see more, for sure, but showing the entire world we had mapped out would take more than four episodes, and we only have that many here.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
AIPT: With the U.S. launching more coal initiatives under Trump, the book certainly feels timely in a specific way. How does that make you feel — is the use of coal here at all meant to be a greater commentary of some sort?
JH: Well, climate change and the use of fossil fuels are one of the main overtly visible social themes that we tackle, so it does sadden me. Despite all the years of research and knowledge, the coal industry is still pushing on, and this issue remains current. I was thinking about things like how Germany boosted their coal plants after deciding to shut down their nuclear reactors. And when I came up with this idea, we still had an active coal plant in the very central part of Helsinki (very close to where I lived). So I was used to seeing this massive pile of coal, just a few roads away at the plant. Thankfully, the plant has since been shut down, so some progress is being made.
SM: You should get rid of that.
AIPT: Similarly, I think we’re all thinking more and more about working class issues, and this book is all about that. Can you talk a little more about the book’s interests in working class solidarity, rebellion and resistance, etc.?
JH: This is the second big theme we have, and I’d call it our central theme, really. It’s a topic that I’m highly invested in, as I feel like the older I get, the more active, socially aware, and progressive I become. My day job also happens to be in the employment sector, so working class issues and especially unemployment are very close to home. Now more than ever, I feel like this late-stage capitalism is a constant oppressive force, and one of the only ways that I see forward is unity and class solidarity. Rebellion is not an easy topic to discuss, but we have to be willing to dream it, and it’s why I felt so strongly that I wanted to write a story where a working class rebellion is brewing. I think the first thing Stipan said about this book, when he told me he wanted to draw it, was that it mattered because there was a concrete change in the world. That’s what this ultimately is about: our ability to change things.
SM: I think we all need a change. Otherwise, we are doomed.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
AIPT: I’d heard you worked on the book for over three years. How did the story and your collaborative process develop over that whole time?
JH: There have definitely been different phases of this. The story has changed a lot from what I originally wrote as a pitch to Stipan. We expanded on it wildly when I visited Stipan in Croatia, and it has been a weird and very involved collaboration ever since then. First, it was to show more of Peggy’s story, then bit by bit, every scene and chapter we planned has gotten bigger and bigger. And we have left a bunch of good stuff on the cutting room floor. And we definitely work very differently three years later than we did back then, and the work is honestly getting better. It is pretty safe to say that this is one of the most unique collaborative projects that I’ve heard of in comics.
SM: Trade secrets.
AIPT: Do you have a favorite page, panel, or moment from issue #1? Something that really speaks to the heart of this story?
JH: There are so many in this first issue! It’s double-sized for a reason! Oh, what to pick. I love everything about Peggy. The very first page that she is on is visually one of my favorites. But it’s page seven, where she stands defiantly in handcuffs, where I think things just click. Visually, there are so many standout moments that it is hard to name just one. Everyone loves that one page where Stipan plays with a more old-school cartooning style, and for good reason. What an insane flex. That page is such a joy, because I swear I wrote that scene, but I did not write that. It is exactly what I imagined, though, which is the magic of our collaboration.
SM: At the beginning of the first episode, there’s a jail scene where they’re smuggling tobacco and pipes. In that scene, when Peggy shows up with a huge pipe, she is so silly and cute. I love that moment. She’s going to steal some hearts there.
AIPT: Since we’ve been talking about Christmas stuff I have to ask: What’s your favorite holiday story or movie? I myself am partial to Love Actually.
JH: I’m not sure if I have an enduring favorite, but rather the tradition of television on Christmas as a whole. In Finland especially, there are so many different Christmas specials, cartoons, and movies that are shown on the telly every year on Christmas Eve that it has essentially become a canon of its own. Snowman is a classic, which really signals Christmas for me. But when it comes to Finnish and Nordic traditions, one show stands tall. And that is the animated Disney Christmas special From All of Us to All of You that in Finland is known as Jiminy Cricket’s Christmas Greeting. That’s when you sit back after opening your presents, enjoy a glass of glögi or wine, and enjoy some chocolates.
But in the more traditional Xmas rom-com field, I have to say that I have become partial to Happiest Season. Even with its flaws, it was a welcome LBTQ+ addition to a genre dominated by heteronormative narratives.
SM: A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey.
Courtesy of Mad Cave Studios.
AIPT: Can you tease any other big moments/happenings from the rest of this story?
JH: I personally can’t wait to see how people react to meeting our much-teased Baron in #2 — there are more amazing moments there, and pages that will definitely blow people’s minds. And, well, we all want to see Peggy eventually return to the Coalition, don’t we? It’ll be quite the set piece.
SM: We will visit Santa’s secret workshop/fortress, fly a zeppelin, and meet a demon.
AIPT: Is there anything else we should know about Our Soot Stained Heart, comics, steampunk, coal, Christmas, etc.?
JH: I feel like I’ve rambled quite a bit here about our book and everything else. So I’ll just tell everyone to read Grant Morrison and Dan Mora’s Klaus this holiday season. It’s the biggest inspiration behind this book, and I read it annually.
SM: If you are interested in seeing how the comic evolves, I invite you to my Instagram. I’m always happy to talk about comics and to hear from readers.
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