Ho, ho, ho! Christmas is just around the corner in a few days. So it’s high time to start taking care of the presents for your loved ones. But what should you give as a gift? If you haven’t wrapped anything in gift wrap yet and have no idea what to wrap, here are a few suggestions that will be especially popular with comic and series junkies. How about, for example, the comic strip templates for some of the currently best productions on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix & Co.? Whether it’s sci-fi entertainment, brutal superhero action, bloodthirsty horror or fantastic adventures for young readers, there’s something for every taste.
“Invincible”
The second season of the hit animated series ‘Invincible’ airs weekly on Amazon Prime Video. This is about 18-year-old Mark Grayson, who, as the son of the world-famous superhero Omni-Man, suddenly develops his own astonishing powers. However, when it becomes clear that his father actually has sinister plans and is expected to bring the world under his control on behalf of the Viltrumites, a powerful (and mustachioed) alien race, Mark must rise up against him.
“The Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirkman has created one of the most original comic universes outside of Marvel and DC with his “Invincible” comics. Although the animated adaptation largely sticks to the original, fans of the series in particular should definitely get the comic, as the story is told slightly differently and in much more detail. The events of “Invincible” season 2 are largely covered in the second and third collectionswhich are published in this country by comic book publisher Cross Cult and which you can find on online providers such as Amazon:
“Star Trek: Lower Decks”
The animated comedy series “Star Trek: Lower Decks” has been around for four seasons – a fifth season has already been confirmed. The success is not unjustified, after all, this is one of the most charming ‘Star Trek’ series in recent history. It tells the story of the experiences of the crew members of the USS Cerritos, a rather insignificant Starfleet starship, as they encounter alien civilizations and life-threatening dangers in the vastness of space.
A comic book based on the popular series has now been released just in time for Christmas with “Star Trek – Lower Decks”. In it, Boimler, Mariner, Tendi and Rutherford face an extremely delicate problem, as they accidentally created life on the holodeck. Count Dracula, to be precise, and he now wants to reach the crew of the USS Cerritos. Unfortunately, the Prime Directive prohibits simply removing this artificial (but self-determined) intelligence. Speaking of the Prime Directive, it is significantly violated by Captain Freeman and her crew when they reveal themselves to an underdeveloped civilization.
“Star Trek – Lower Decks” is a comic for true fans of the crazy sci-fi series, which, at least for the author of the article, exuded strong Simpsons comic vibes when reading it. Because even if every joke here doesn’t land and the comic adaptation lacks some of the quality of the original series, it’s still a harmonious extension of the “Lower Decks” cosmos and should provide a few entertaining hours, especially for fans of the weird things from the series. Humour.
“Hilda”
Meanwhile, there is a personal expression of love and an absolute reading recommendation for “Hilda”, because the author of these lines fell head over heels in love with the enchanting world of the comic universe created by Luke Pearson when he saw the comics. The world of the blue-haired girl became known to a wider audience through the Netflix series of the same name, the third and final season of which only started on December 7, 2023 on the streaming giant. If you got anything out of the series, you should definitely check out the comics, as they have a timeless, magical charm that the streaming adaptation unfortunately lacks in places.
‘Hilda’ combines the melancholic, mystical magic of a fictional, magical Scandinavia, reminiscent of the world of Moomins imagined by Tove Jansson, with the childlike spirit of discovery of series like ‘Gravity Falls’. So if you’re still looking for a gift for young comic book beginners and want to be thoroughly entertained at the same time, the “Hilda” adventures (personal recommendation: the wonderfully absurd) are the way to go “Hilda and the Midnight Giant”*) definitely good advice.
“Pluto”
Naoki Urasawa’s sci-fi mystery-crime novel “Pluto,” which reinterprets a short story by “Astro Boy” creator Osamu Tezukas, was adapted as an anime on Netflix this year. Unfortunately, the series has flown somewhat under the radar in this country. But this is completely wrong, because the adaptation of the manga faithfully fleshes out the complex story about the investigative work of Inspector Face (!) from a futuristic Düsseldorf (!!).
If you want to put the investigative work of the German-speaking inspector, who investigates a murder involving the strongest androids in the world, on your shelf or perhaps surprise your friends with a cleverly written manga for Christmas, you can bookmark this series . The series includes a total of eight parts, which you can buy for a small dollar from online retailers such as Amazon.
“Something is Killing the Children”
If you don’t feel like delving into the templates of the current series, you can “There is something killing the children“ to take a look at a potential Netflix highlight of the coming year. The new project from ‘Dark’ creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese is based on this dark fantasy-horror graphic novel, whose final series ‘1899’ was canceled after just one season on Netflix, much to fans’ regret.
But no one should see that as a bad omen, after all, ‘Something is Killing the Children’ is a completely different material, which is thematically more reminiscent of her Netflix success ‘Dark’, because children also disappear in the graphic novel. But this time it’s not about a sci-fi mindfuck mystery, but about child-eating monsters terrorizing a small American town.
And that’s what “Something is Killing the Children” is about: more and more children are being murdered in Archer’s Peak. The situation seems hopeless and the police are at a loss. Who is behind these bloodthirsty crimes? Reports of gruesome creatures make the rounds, but are dismissed as nonsense. But then a mysterious stranger comes to town – Erica Slaughter – and takes on the problem…
It is currently unclear whether the series will come to Netflix at the end of 2024 or only in 2025. If you have a “Dark” fan in your family or acquaintances, you are doing nothing wrong by putting one of the parts already released in Germany in their Christmas stockings. The dark graphic novel is recommended for anyone who likes comics with a harder style and is not afraid of blood, gore and horror. The series is not yet finished, so Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese have a lot of material to draw from when implementing the template.