Written by Juanita ‘Obi-Juan’ Bonner  Thanks to the deliciously eerie television show NOS4A2 (AMC; 2019-2020), I happily stumbled onto the novel of the same name and the limited comic series entitled The Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland. Originally published in 2013, Joe Hill’s 7 comic run was very well received. Fast forward to 2019, as I neared the end of season 1 of the television series, character research led me to the comics. Serving as a prequel, the comics focus on two things – Charles “Charlie” Talent Manx III and his Inscape (imaginary world) Christmasland. There are no other Strong Creatives like Vic McQueen or Maggie Leigh. So, if you’re here for the love of the novel and TV characters, you might be surprised to find out there aren’t any. But, as we take a deeper look at the NOS4A2 world, I promise you won’t be disappointed!! So, let’s dive… or should I say… DRIVE right in where the full story of Charlie Manx began – Volume 1! Opening on the road, we see Charlie visibly aged as he addresses a scared little girl in the back seat of the Wraith. In just four panels, not knowing anything about this world, it’s relatively easy to ascertain that the journey ahead will be quite dark. The art work seems old. Much older than 2013. Particularly the areas giving us Charlie’s past. But the present at hand is the road to Christmasland as Charlie tells the little girl, “You already know where we’re going. You have spent the last ten hours dreaming about it!” Charlie’s tone feels whimsical even though you know it’s not! And, as he continues to soothe his traveling companion, just to let the reader know this is anything but a kid’s tale, the Wraith, ever the extension of Charlie himself, swerves to purposely kill a small rabbit on the side of the road. YIKES! The road itself winds along the dark of night as the Wraith travels through Colorado and eventually into Manx’s Inscape. We’re in Charlieland now kids, so buckle up! The original cover, showing Charlie looking rather nefarious as he holds the door open to the Wraith, is cold yet inviting at the same time. Bloody handprints mark the windows and door immediately telling you this isn’t a normal ride, but you somehow want to get in anyway. This oxymoron theme of revulsion and invitation is similar to that of the novel as well as the television series, though I didn’t fully pick up on this until finishing ALL three mediums. All of it is deep and delicious to say the least. Also noted on the cover is a set of black and white road signs. Stacked in order, a Christmasland street sign, a Route 6 sign and an arrow sign pointing forward adding to the invitation vibe. Research taught me that US Hwy 6 – once the “longest highway in the country” – is out of sync with the rest of the highway grid in the United States. Additionally, also different from other highways, Route 6 is not a major transcontinental corridor. Modified & chopped up over the years with almost no true beginning or terminus, yet passing through snowy and cold Colorado, it makes total sense that Joe Hill would pick this road to lead to Charlie’s Inscape. I mean… a road to nowhere seems like the perfect place to make the leap from reality to imagination, am I right?? Further explained as Charlie tells the little girl, “With the right kind of ride and the right kind of driver, you start out on the first sort of road, and wind up… eventually… on the other sort.” Holy cow, it’s all so meta! I’ve contemplated a few times as to whether this is exactly how Joe felt when conceiving Inscapes in the first place. Not to mention, Colorado is the home of The Shining, a personal nod to Hill’s father, Stephen King. Very intriguing to say the least, no?? Continuing the drive, Manx expands on his life to the little girl. As one would expect, very few monsters are born, but rather created and Manx is no exception. Apart from the sad fact that it’s glaringly obvious that all he really wanted was love, from child to man, virtually every aspect of Charlie is shrouded in evil. Raised in Cripple Creek, Colorado by a an emotionally abusive whore mother at Portis and McMurtry’s Inn and Mortuary, we see Charlie neglected and forced to sleep in a coffin where he reads Christmas books for entertainment. Ahh, and so it begins – the Christmas obsession! And the man whom Charlie eventually emulates with his traditional chauffeur attire, is no mentor or real father figure at all, but rather the pimp & security for the Inn and Mortuary. With just a few panels, you really start to see the threads of Charlie’s essence come to life. Further, his first job as the driver for the mortuary’s horse-drawn hearse earned him a little money that his mother always kept. However, on Christmas, she would allow Charlie to get something he wanted. At 13, unbeknownst to Charlie, he chose his first Knife – a Fantom wood and metal sleigh. After witnessing an altercation between an angry patron, the pimp and his mother, a distraught Charlie takes his sleigh up the mountainside for a ride. Wanting to escape the madness of his real life, this is when everything changes. The ride itself opens Charlie’s Inscape for the first time and in the midst of moving snowmen, a static filled sky and his prized Christmas gift, Charlie finds himself “Between the outer world and inner world of thought.” WHOA!! But something pushes him even farther. Details that should be reserved for the reader leave Charlie’s sleigh in pieces and his psyche changed forever! Using a blade from his mangled sleigh, Charlie defends himself and later returns to town to wreak chilling havoc before leaving for good. We then jump into adulthood as Charlie states to his child passenger, “The next decade and a half was just – static.” Perfect!! Charlie, now a true chauffeur, is hired by a well-to-do businessman who introduces Charlie to his daughter. They fall in love and are soon married. Blissful and content for a few years, things take a turn when the old man dies after losing all his money on the stock market. A once comfortable and lavish lifestyle is gone overnight leaving Charlie, his wife and their two daughters, Millie and Lorrie, virtually destitute. And just like their status, Cassandra’s love seems to dwindle too. Riding and ridiculing Charlie regularly, Cassandra becomes the shrew and yet another disappointing feminine figure in Charlie’s life. His only pride left – his daughters – love him unconditionally and for that he stays. Aside from his childhood, he seems to genuinely be a good man who only wants the best for his daughters. While Cassandra, whose true colors were revealed through money and status, seems no different than Charlie’s awful mother. The story here draws a straight line to the novel, where you can see that his anchor, though quite perverted, is actually love. This same love is presented in the television adaptation as well making all three mediums quite succinct when reflecting on Charlie’s character arc. A VERY sharp turn, just like that sleigh ride all those years ago, gives way to the Manx we have today. So let’s finish up and see how we get there.  By the summer of 1938, Charlie meets Mr. LeMarc in a shop spouting promises of money miracles from a place called Christmasland above Gunbarrel, Colorado. Describing an amusement park where it’s Christmas all the time and the fun never stops, Charlie is enticed to invest after being told a one-time payment of $10,000 would yield that same amount every month for the rest of his life. That’s a hell of a lot of money back then. Once the deal is done, in his excitement, Charlie purchases the Wraith. In excellent condition, it had an extremely low sticker price due to the fact a man murdered his family and then himself in what’s to become Charlie’s next Knife. Uh… YEP, that’s sounds about right… LOL!! Needless to say, Cassandra was furious and demanded he return it. Charlie then pretends to give in if she agrees that they take the car on a trip to Christmasland before he gives it back. She approves not knowing that Charlie mortgaged their entire life to invest in the property. Yeah, this definitely isn’t going to end well!! LOL!
On the road to Christmasland, the girls are singing and Cassandra seems happier than she’s been in a long time. Believed to be a natural thing in the beginning, Lorrie loses a tooth. Soon, as the road winds on, static appears outside the window and the girls’ appearance begins to change. Cassandra becomes frustrated and demands they stop for the night. Charlie pushes on saying they can rest in Christmasland as he lets Cassandra in on the secret investment. Her hate and wrath are palpable, but Charlie no longer cares. As they round the bend to their destination, the girls are now jagged teeth little demons and Cassandra, thinking she must be hallucinating, is helpless. WOW!! It’s all so sickening… yet somehow… wickedly just at the same time! Finally reaching the gates of Christmasland, Charlie realizes there’s nothing else there. Greeted by a lumberjack who proceeds to tell Charlie the whole thing was a scam cooked up by one Nick LeMarc. As in Nick the Mark!! In a rage of anger and disbelief, Charlie plows over the lumberjack and now, fully immersed in the deepest parts of his Inscape, right into Christmasland. As Charlie and the girls, hand and hand, begin to walk on and look upon Christmasland, Cassandra’s bloody arm hangs from an open car door. WHOA!! Are the kids Strong Creatives too or are they just trapped in Charlie’s world? The story then cuts back to the present as the Wraith barrels down the highway. Now deep in the Inscape, Charlie and the little girl ride on. Of course, eventually, like all children who ride in the Wraith, the little girl is no longer afraid. The last panel boasts a sharp toothed smile as she simply says…” Where do I get my ticket?” as a now youthful looking Manx looks on with a grin - THE END! Holy cow… creepy AF!! Set aside as Charlie’s personal story, Volume 1 is also a prologue entitled Fantoms. And yes, the spelling is different than the traditional term we know today as phantoms… with a Ph. Which is exactly what the Epilogue for the 7th and final volume of this series is titled – Phantoms. Interesting, no?? I couldn’t find anything related to the comics on the obviously deliberate differences in spelling. However, the definition of phantom relates to apparitions and wraiths as well as something illusionary or felt but not seen. So, basically, the ENTIRE word and the majority of its iterations and definitions, including phantoms as extensions of something, point to Charlie. Level after level, Charlie himself, is a phantom, right!?! And so is his Wraith. Plus, fantoms… with an F, is actually defined as “an archaic spelling of phantom.” So, considering the prologue with an F gives us the background, or “archaic” version of Charlie and the epilogue with a Ph gives us a more modern version, closer to who we meet in the book and TV series, I’ve concluded this was the reason for the spelling. Representing archaic to modern while wrapping layers of definitions in one word describing not only Charlie, but Knives, Inscapes and more. Even the change from his first Knife as a child, the Fantom, to his Wraith in adulthood – both phantoms too – represents a transformation of sorts as the time between is mostly static. All of it giving me that diabolically crazy, I love this meta shit feel… LOL!! Overall, this prologue is a scrumptious introduction to Manx and Christmasland that I hope you truly enjoy as much as I do. By the way, I’m purposely vague on a lot of the details as they should be enjoyed with one’s own eyes!! Next week we’ll look at Volume 2 which deviates from Manx’s backstory and begins a more modern 5-chapter story of bedlam, horror, wonder and delight landing us smack dab in the middle of Christmasland. In the meantime, feel free to pop over to our NOS4A2 Collections page where you’ll find recaps of all the television episodes as well as my review – The Christmasland Chronicles: NOS4A2 in Print, Comics and Television. Until next time, remember Charlie’s words: ”Magic is not a matter of incantations and boiled frogs! You require only a talisman – an object – that you love so much it is like a dream made real.” ‘The Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland’ – Volume 1 – ‘Prologue: Fantoms’ IDW Publishing; Nov 2013 - Author: Joe Hill; Illustrations: Charles Paul Wilson III; Colors: Jay Fotos; Letters: Shawn Lee and Robbie Robbins; Edits: Chris Ryall
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