The mystery drama series Stranger Things has become wildly popular since its launch in July 2016. Centered in the small town of Hawkins, the story follows a group of children and their self-appointed babysitters as they seek to understand what is exactly behind the strange events. Now, that popularity has earned the series multiple installments of novels, comics, graphic novels, and even games. The most recent of these supplemental materials was the Stranger Things Holiday Specials, a collection of three short comics centered around the holidays celebrated in Hawkins.
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What are the Stranger Things Christmas specials about?
Each of the three stories in Stranger Things Holiday Specials takes place in the Stranger Things universe in different time periods.
The Halloween Special takes place just before the events of Season 1. On Halloween night, Dustin, Lucas, Mike and Will are gathered at Castle Byers, trying to scare each other with scary stories, as young boys do on of a typical Halloween night after spending hours collecting candy. This one-shot captures the truly creepy nature of the series and even has the added levity that comes after an incredibly stressful situation.
The Winter Special is the lightest of the three one-shots. The boys excitedly prepare to help Eleven celebrate her first Christmas. In addition, very funny interactions between two characters will make you want to watch the series again and many little moments will make you laugh.
The Summer Special centers on Powell and Callahan, two cops who roam Hawkins during the events of Season 3 and narrowly miss some critical moments in the story. This is the scariest of the three one-shots and will have you worrying about the survival of the two central characters throughout the story. There are plenty of references and cameos from the main series, some of which will make you laugh and others of which will make you feel sad.
What works
- Color Palettes – Each Stranger Things Holiday Specials one-shot was created with a palette that perfectly matches its tone. The Halloween and Summer special issues are both scarier stories, which is why they were done with darker color palettes. Some panels in the Halloween special have a faded, sinister look that adds to the tone of the story. The Winter Special is done with lighter, brighter colors, which adds to the lightness of the story.
- Entertaining Character Dynamics – One of the best things about Stranger Things is the amount of sarcasm exchanged between different characters. The Stranger Things holiday specials don't disappoint in this regard, giving us a glimpse of the bonds between certain characters that we've seen blossom throughout the series.
- Character Designs – Not only do the characters in the one-shots look like the actors playing them (most of the time), but there are a few panels where the characters are shown with exaggerated facial expressions that fully capture the essence of their personalities . Plus, there's a moment with Hopper that shows how nervous he is regarding Eleven's safety, and it's more than likely that it will make a few readers laugh.
The design of some monsters is also very well done. Once again, the artists managed to capture their disturbing nature without adding too complex details.
- References to the series – These are small moments that connect the Stranger Things Holiday Special one-shots to the series and make the comics feel like part of a larger universe than the series .
What doesn't work
- Some confusing dialogue and panels – for the most part the one-shots are coherent and make perfect sense, but there are one or two panels where it feels like there's a bit of a gap in the dialogue which breaks the flow of the story and can leave the reader a little confused about what is happening.
The creators of the Stranger Things Christmas specials?
Each one-shot in Dark Horse's Stranger Things Holiday Specials series was written and drawn by a different collection of artists who took significant time to ensure they managed to capture the essence of Stranger Things in its together, from the sarcasm of characters like Dustin to the color tones used in certain scenes.
The collection's cover art was designed by Stever Morris, who has worked for several big names in comics, including DC, Marvel and Power Rangers. The Halloween Special was written by Michael Moreci (a comic book writer who worked on the graphic novel Stranger Things: Kamchatka and Star Wars Adventures: the Clone Wars – Battle Tales), with art by Todor Hristov and Chirs O'Halloran.
The Winter Special was written by Chris Roberson (a science fiction author who has worked for both Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics), with art by Abel and DJ Chavis. The Summer Special was written by Keith Champagne (best known for his work with DC Comics), with art by Caio Filipe and Dan Jackson.
The lettering was done by Nate Piekos of Blambot (who also worked on several other Strange Things graphic novel titles).
Final thoughts and recommendations
The Stranger Things Holiday Specials is a quick, enjoyable read that captures the essence of the characters that have been established in the story and does a great job of expressing tone through its use of color. The special Halloween episode, in particular, perfectly manages to recapture the atmosphere of the first season. One-shots give you a brief chance to see certain characters in a moment of peace outside of the life-or-death situations they are often unwittingly thrust into.
If you're someone who really enjoyed Stranger Things and are looking for something to fill the void while you wait for the final season to come out (or if you're just looking for a slightly spooky comic involving characters you already know), then I recommend you go see Stranger Things Holiday Specials. Unfortunately, for Max Mayfield fans, the fiery redhead isn't featured in any of the one-shots.
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