The Adventures of Auroraman: Christmas Jam 2017

The Adventures of Auroraman: Christmas Jam 2017
Writer & Letterer: Jeff Burton
Artist: Colin Work, Marvin Law
Colourist: Donovan Yaciuk
Editor: Martin Boruta
Publisher: MiniJeff Productions

A review by Josh Rose

Auroraman, the superpower of the prairies, is back in The Adventures of Auroraman: Christmas Jam 2017. This is the second Auroraman Christmas mini-issue, and its a compilation of short stories. Jeff Burton and the town of Watson gave away 150 copies for free during their Santa Claus Days.

The first story sees Baron Von Schnitzel trying to ruin Santa Claus Days in Watson, Saskatchewan. Date Night sees the Baron attempting to attack Auroraman while he is on a date with his wife. The Baron and his gang are stopped by a person with ice powers before they have a chance. Struggling focuses on Auroraman at his day job as a teacher, and World’s Overlap looks at how Auroraman and Jeff Burton the character are not mutually exclusive to one another.

I really have high hopes for this character and Burton seems to be a huge fan of classic comics with the inclusion of simple one page stories. But like my review of The Adventures of Auroraman #1, there simply isn’t enough happening to whet my appetite for the Canadian hero. I can’t fault Burton for having short, simple stories. He also has to contend with being a husband, father, and full-time middle school teacher alongside being a writer. That doesn’t mean I don’t think Auroraman has potential to be a great series. I think it just hasn’t quite hit its stride yet.

The Adventures of Auroraman: Christmas Jam 2017 is drawn by Colin Work, with the exception of Marvin Law doing the Date Night story with Donovan Yaciuk on colours. Work is a self taught artist, and so far he has a fairly simple style. His colours seem flat, and his characters seem disproportionate at times. I’m not a fan of how World’s Overlap use photographs as the backgrounds.

Burton letters this issue, and while I can understand why each character’s word bubbles are different colours, its distracting and overly complicated. Baron Von Schnitzel’s word being a unique font style on top of the gold bubble does not help matters any.

Pages from the Christmas Jam were blown up to 6ft by 3ft pages and displayed in Downtown Watson, Saskatchewan. According to John Bell, a Canadian comics historian: “The latest Auroraman adventures are literally huge. In fact, they probably constitute the largest comic ever published in Canada.”

The Verdict:
Check It Out! While I lack the stories I crave from this character, I am getting to see snapshots of Auroraman’s character and abilities. The Adventures of Auroraman: Christmas Jam 2017 and other mini-issues have been great character studies for Auroraman. Luckily you don’t have to read any other issues to enjoy this, but it may help. I believe Auroraman has the potential to be one of the greatest Canadian indie series, he just isn’t there yet.