Incomplete Translations: Li’l Santa (Petit Pere Noel)

I’ve been reading BD long enough now that I’ve repeatedly had the frustrating experience of a book series that suddenly stops being translated while the book continues to be produced in France.

I documented one such case in this Ythaq summary, which Marvel started reprinting in their 2000s short-lived translation program. I’ve learned more about the series since then and should probably update that article one of these days.

Today, though, I want to look at my favorite Christmas comic series, “Li’l Santa.” In France, it’s referred to as “Petit Pére Noël,” which means the title is a pretty direct translation. Shortening the “Little” makes it fit in with all sorts of prior art in America where kids or kid versions of characters get the “Li’l” prefix attached. (Think Li’l Abner.)

Initially produced by writer Lewis Trondheim and artist Thierry Robin (with Isabelle Busschaert on colors) around the turn of the millennium, each album features Santa having an adventure based near his home or workshop at the North Pole, a mostly forested region with mountains and some amount of snow.

The book is laid out with a sixteen panel grid, and the stories are completely silent. (Double OuBaPo!) Trondheim is also responsible for Mr. I and Mr. O, two other silent books, but with a 60 panel grid layout.

The book is bright and colorful and a joy to read. Characters are animated and well-designed. They’re terrific examples of what comic book storytelling should be. It’s all the more impressive when you realize that the same artist who drew these super cute characters also drew “The Death of Stalin.”

The All-Too Short-Lived Glory Days

In its glory days of their Franco-Belgian translations, NBM published the first two books in the series:

• “Li’l Santa” (2000)
• “Happy Halloween, Li’l Santa” (2001)

(Those links will take you to my recent video reviews of the two books.)

I always knew there was a third book, and I have maintained my disappointment for 20 years that NBM never published it. I suppose the sales didn’t warrant the licensing fee, sadly. Another favorite title at the time — Trondheim’s biographical comic “Little Nothings” — suffered a similar fate after four albums. I can only imagine how many books he’s compiled to collect those by now.

Recently, I did a little research to see just how many books I’m missing, and was surprised to find a larger number of books than I would have guessed.

There were a total of five albums in the original series. Books 3 through 5 have these titles (with my rough estimates for the English translations in parentheses):

• “Petit Pére Noël Contre Le Docteur Méchant” (“Li’l Santa vs. Dr. Bad Guy”) (2002)
• “On a Volé le Courrier du Petit Pere Noel”. (“Someone Stole Santa’s Mail”) (2003)
• “Petit Pire Noel et Le Cadeau Perdu” (“Li’l Santa and the Lost Present”) (2004)

Thankfully, volumes 3 and 4 are easy to pick up on eBay. The last book is the trickiest. I could only find one offer online for it, and the price was way out of my range. I get the feeling this is the classic case of a series fading at its end and being under-produced. The few people who got the books are really attached to them, so none are making it out to the market.

This holds true in American comic series, as well. Take a look at the values for issues of “The Savage Dragon” from the last few years. There’s some higher ticket items in there for no reason other than low print runs.

The cover images you see above are photographs of the books I was able to pick up from France, just in time for the holidays. Please excuse the glare in the lower right corner on both of them.

But the series didn’t end there!

The Second Life of Le Petit Pére Noël

Thierry Robin brought the series back with a new writer, Alexandre Révérend, who came from a tv cartoon writing background. I don’t know the full story, but Trondheim isn’t involved with this second series. I’m guessing he had said all he had to say and moved on to one of his other dozen projects. If there’s more to it than that, please leave a comment below.

The new series was done at a smaller size: the pages are slightly smaller at 8″ x 10.5″ instead of 8.6″ x 11.8″ in size, the books are only 32 pages in length instead of 48, and 16 panel grid is now only 9 panels.

Re-titled “Le Petit Monde de Père Noël”, Robin intentionally aimed the series in a younger direction. I’d guess Robin and Révérend were shopping this around for an animated outing. The story is shorter, has less danger to it, and (in the book I read) is set in “the real world.” Santa Claus is stuck in a department store, and is on the run from management there.

I miss the stranger creatures and the North Pole. The storybook fantasy is more interesting to me.

The art style adjusts a bit to have fewer solid black lines. The background lines are all colored in (by colorist Corinne Bertrand). The ink lines are different, too. It looks like the book was inked with a Bic pen.

I hate to say it, but this might make the case for why some art works better when you shrink it down. It causes everything to tighten up a bit. But I also think the difference in production values is impacting it.

I haven’t read the other two books in this version of the series, but I’m not too hopeful that they’ll be much different.

This second verson of the series ran for three books:

• 1. “Elle Veut Changer Noël” (“She Wants to Change Christmas”) (2007)
• 2. “Une Nuit au Grand Magasin” (“A Night at the Department Store”) (2008)
• 3. “Le Calendrier Infernal” (“The Infernal Calendar”) (2009)

I’m including the cover image for volume 2 because that’s the one I’ve been able to track down so far.

The books are still silent, though, so you can read them in any language. The title on the cover might be confusing to you, but the internal storytelling is as spectacular as ever.

That’s where the series ends, though. I can’t find any sign of a third volume or an animated series that came of it.

You Can Provide the Change We Want to See In This World

If you’re an outrageously rich person and wish to license these books to reprint here in America, you can look up the licensing information for the series at the Mediatoons website.

I’ll make myself available to consult on such a project! (That’s because I want the books, not because anyone makes money in comics.)

I’m thrilled to discover there was more than one missing book in this series, and I’m almost caught up already. It’s only slightly frustrating to know that the fifth volume is out there and not easy to pick up, but I’ll get there eventually. While I’m disappointed in what I’ve read of the second series so far, I’m still looking forward to picking up those last two books to round out the collection.