Dan Conner

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle for Pumpkin King collects all five issues of the limited series written by Dan Conner, with pencils and inks by Deborah Allo, colors by Roberto Scalia, and a story by Shaun McLaughlin and D.J. Milky. The story is a prequel to the film, exploring the backstory between Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie. As the tale begins, Jack and Oogie compete in a friendly way, but that all changes when Edgar, the current Pumpkin King, announces his retirement. Jack and Oogie are nominated to compete to become his replacement. Edgar has his own plans, however, and seeks a candidate he can control in order to retain his power through a puppet king. Edgar doesn’t like the “trick” part of “trick or treat” and would prefer to increase fear at the expense of the joy in Halloween. So Edgar tries to help Oogie, slowly corrupting him from a ghoul obsessed with winning to one that regularly cheats.

Bonus features include a gallery of cover and concept art. The story does address how Skellington became Pumpkin King, but focuses more on Oogie’s origin with how Lock, Shock, and Barrell became his minions, how he gained his lair, and how he went from Jack’s friend to a terror. The story is a fun addition to the Nightmare Before Christmas canon, but is somewhat brief for an origin story. Fans will enjoy it, though, and that’s what truly matters.… (meer)