Santa Claus Private Eye #[nn]

The cover says it all: a white-bearded, world-weary Santa trades his red suit — visible hanging in the background — for a dark trench coat and a fedora pulled low over knowing eyes, suggesting the big man has a very different kind of list to work through. Bernstein and Dorman deliver a premise that writer Mark Waid calls "one of the best ideas I've heard come down the pike in a long time," and the moody, noir-drenched artwork here makes that enthusiasm easy to understand. This 2017 Darby Pop Publishing release is a thoroughly entertaining collision of holiday mythology and hard-boiled detective fiction that practically dares you not to pick it up.