Arriving a couple of months late, this is Broadsword Comics’ annual Christmas issue. Following up from last issue, this once again under the “Alternative Paths” banner, presented as if Boo Cat were the start of this series, instead of Tarot (or Raven). This issue is a Christmas fable, the story of Boo Cat, Krampus, and Santa Clause. And it’s all present in rhyming prose, sort of like Twas The Night Before Christmas.

So the basic story is that Santa is too sick to deliver Christmas presents that year, so he tells all the elves that Christmas is canceled. Boo Cat is one of the newer elves, and she volunteers to deliver the gifts herself, but Santa says she’s not qualified to do it. then Krampus shows up, looking for Santa’s naughty list which Krampus uses to punish bad children. But Santa manages to convince Krampus to join Boo-Cat and help her deliver the gifts, with the promise that Krampus gets to “punish” Boo Cat afterward.

So off they take flight in Santa Sleigh and manages to deliver all the Christmas presents with little difficulty. And when they return to Santa’s home at the North Pole it’s time for Boo Cat’s punishment, which is a spanking. And to Santa and Krampus’s surprise, Boo Cat willingly submits because she loves getting spanked, it turns her on.

And, that’s it. As I said, it’s told in rhyming form, like:

So Boo made a change, from elf green to Christmas red.
She even went as far as to wear Santa’s hat on her head.
The new elf loaded the sleigh, and it was not easy.
The Krampus didn’t help, and Santa felt a bit queasy.
Did he make the right choice? It was hard to say. 
But every time he told Boo Cat to stop, she say no way!

Art-wise, each page is a splash-page, with a single image. And it’s colored sort of brown, with only red and white being active colors.

I don’t know, I get that Jim Balent was trying to do something new and creative for this issue, but I just didn’t find it that interesting. It’s not the kind of thing that I buy this series for. If you’ve been collecting this series since the beginning, I’d get it to keep it complete, but otherwise you can skip this one.

AVAILABLE DIGITALLY ON COMIXOLOGY, OR IN PRINT FROM JIMBALENTSTUDIOS.COM