Jingle Belle is a fictional comics character created by Paul Dini. The spoiled teenage daughter of Santa Claus, she has a humorously contentious relationship with her famous father. She is usually motivated by feeling unappreciated or being jealous of the attention her father pays to all the children of the world.
The stories are episodic and mostly self-contained. The plots include battles against the Blizzard Wizard, who considers Christmas and the Kringle family his enemies; Jingle's attempts to make her own mark on the holiday independently of her father; her efforts to help people she meets who are in trouble or in need; and her adventures with her friends Polly, Ida and Tashi.
Jingle Belle has appeared in a number of creator-owned comic books, short stories, strips, and a graphic novel, most written by Dini and illustrated by a variety of artists, including Stephen DeStefano, Jose Garibaldi, Bill Morrison, J. Bone, Sergio Aragonés, Kyle Baker and Stephanie Gladden.
Origins and influences
The idea for Jingle Belle's story came to Paul Dini after he received a Christmas card from film director Steven Spielberg and his family. This caused Dini to wonder how world-famous celebrities were perceived by their own children, and whether they might feel some resentment at having to share their famous fathers with the world.
Dini has stated that Jingle Belle "spins out of my love for just sitting down and reading a good, fun Sunday morning comic strip panel... They're like a Sunday page, back when they could really take some room and play with the Sunday page format a little bit".
Publication history
In 1998, Dini began developing two humor series for comics publisher Oni Press. One of these was Honor Rollers, a series about students at a prep school, which did not go forward. The other was Jingle Belle. The original character designs were done by animation artist Lynne Naylor based on Dini's sketches. The first Jingle Belle story, "Sanity Clauses", appeared in Oni Double Feature #13 in the summer of 1999, illustrated by Stephen DiStefano. This was followed in winter 1999 by a two-issue miniseries also illustrated by DiStefano: "Miserable on 34th Street"/"Santa's Little Hellion".
A short story, "Belle of the Brawl", appeared in Oni Press Summer Vacation Supercolor Fun Special (Summer 2000), followed by Jingle Belle's All-Star Holiday Hullabaloo (Winter 2000), a collection of short stories. 2001 brought the one-shots "The Mighty Elves" (Summer 2001) and "Jubilee" (Winter 2001). "The Mighty Elves" was nominated for a 2002 Eisner Award in the category of "Best Humor Publication", losing to the Simpsons comic "Radioactive Man".
Oni Press' final Jingle Belle one-shot was "Winter Wingding" (Winter 2002). Dini and Jose Garibaldi then worked on the first Jingle Belle graphic novel, Dash Away All. The project fell behind schedule and the decision was made to publish the uninked pencils rather than delay the book until the following year.
The first one-shot for Top Cow, "Santa Claus vs. Frankenstein", appeared in December 2008, with Stephanie Gladden returning on art.
In 2010, Top Cow solicited a new Jingle Belle trade paperback collection, Stocking Stuffers, which would have included "Santa Claus vs. Frankenstein", a new one-shot entitled "Grounded", a story co-starring Polly Green called "Slaybelle", and some short stories. However, this volume was removed from the publication schedule. Instead, all of its contents (except "Slaybelle") were combined with the Top Cow Holiday Special and published in flipbook format. In December 2011, the Jingle Belle portion of the flipbook was reprinted as a stand-alone comic called "Gift Wrapped",
"Jingle Belle's Christmas Party", a series of illustrations by David Alvarez with narrative by Dini, was published on the PaulDini.com website in December 2017.
IDW Publishing became the new publisher of the series in 2016, releasing the Jingle Belle: The Whole Package! omnibus and, in December 2018, a new one-shot: "Jingle Belle: The Homemades' Tale" with art by Nicoletta Baldari.
In other media
In 1999, Jingle Belle was intended to be adapted as a live-action feature film by Revolution Studios, scripted by Gina Wendkos (Jersey Girl, Coyote Ugly, The Princess Diaries), but this project did not move forward.
Four short Flash-animated cartoons appeared on the JingleBelle.com website in 2000.
Dini says he has received proposals to do film adaptations, but does not want to give up ownership or control of the character.
Jingle Belle merchandising includes a statuette by Dynamic Forces and another by Electric Tiki; a bobblehead doll by Funko; a Christmas tree ornament depicting the Jose Garibaldi design of Jing; a lunch box; holiday notecards, and a t-shirt.
Characters
Jingle Belle Kringle - The rebellious and mischievous, but ultimately good-hearted daughter of Santa Claus and his wife, Queen Mirabelle. In "Santa Claus vs. Frankenstein" she gives her age as 151 ("that's sixteen in elf years"). This places her year of birth as 1857, the same year the song "Jingle Bells" was originally published. In "The Homemades' Tale", however, she states that she is nearly 300 years old. She appears to be an attractive teenage girl with pointed ears, blonde hair and blue eyes. Her typical costume consists of green shortalls over a white cardigan sweater, red and white striped stockings, black boots, and sometimes a green "elf hat" with a red feather. According to Dini: "[S]he's just a fun personality who rebels against an established structure. That structure just happens to be her father and all the Christmas stuff". Polly usually wears a revealing costume similar to Jingle Belle's, but with a Halloween theme rather than a Christmas one.
Tashi Ounce - An anthropomorphic, female Tibetan snow leopard. Tashi is the captain of a hockey team (made up of other girl snow leopards like her) that is the arch-rival of Jingle Belle's Elves. Tashi is a sports enthusiast like Jing, and they met as competitors at the "All Arctic Winter Games" where they immediately demonstrated their sportsmanship by kneecapping each other, Tonya Harding style. Known for their fierce and incredibly violent rivalry on the ice, they are actually fairly friendly with each other outside of competitive events.
Sheriff Ida Red - Ida Red is a teenage girl with mutant powers who serves as the sheriff of the town of Mutant, Texas. She has the power to fire powerful energy bolts from her hands, thus precluding the need to carry a gun; she can also fly for a limited amount of time. She has a mutant jaguar companion named Cat. Ida Red met and befriended Jing when they teamed up to rescue Santa from a family of local criminals, the Kiyotes, who had "bushwhacked" and kidnapped him on his Christmas Eve journey.
Eddie - One of the senior elves at the North Pole, Eddie may be recognized by his sunglasses, cheap suit, and porkpie hat. He is known for his vast and varied collection of holiday music. Eddie was inspired by Dini's friend, screenwriter Eddie Gorodetsky, who was also known for his large collection of Christmas records.
Gretchen Sweetsong and Rosetta Rosedew - Two elf girls who are among Jing's best friends at the North Pole; they are frequently dragged along on her exploits, and get into trouble as a result. Another close friend, Clifford, was introduced in "The Homemades' Tale".
Thrasher - Jingle Belle's giant musk ox "steed". Thrasher can fly, propelling himself by jet propulsion courtesy of his impressive flatulence. Like all North Pole animals, Thrasher has human intelligence and can speak, although he seldom does so.
The Blizzard Wizard - Santa's former arch-nemesis, the Blizzard Wizard can control the weather to create blizzards and ice storms. His minions are the Soft Servants, creatures made of rancid ice cream. Centuries ago, the Wizard enslaved the Northern Elves and their Queen, Mirabelle. Santa Claus launched an assault which freed them. The Wizard's power was then held in check by a magical snowball in Santa's possession, but he later freed himself through trickery. The Wizard resented the fact that Santa had displaced him as the popular embodiment of winter. As of Dash Away All, however, they have concluded a truce.
Heidi Hoarfrost - The Blizzard Wizard's niece and assistant, she also has control over weather. She attempted to sabotage Jingle Belle's attempt to complete her father's Christmas Eve rounds when Santa was ill with pneumonia. Like her uncle, she now observes an uneasy truce with the North Pole crew.
Krampus - Peter Krampus is a demonic-looking fellow who, in centuries past, accompanied Santa on his rounds in order to frighten bad children. In the modern era of more lax discipline, his services have not been requested, which has caused him to feel neglected and somewhat bitter.
Super Rica - A stuffed monkey with a blue striped hat and bow tie.
Rashy - A stuffed monkey with a red striped hat and bow tie.
Hobart - A thylacine who is Misty Lee, Paul Dini, Super Rica and Rashy's vicious looking pet.
Collected editions
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Title!!Date!!Publisher!!ISBN!!Contents
|-
|Jingle Belle: Naughty and Nice
|October 2000
|Oni Press
|1-929998-08-2
|The 2-issue miniseries, the short story from Oni Double Feature #13, a one-pager and a new color story
|-
|Jingle Belle's Cool Yule
|November 2002
|Oni Press
|1-929998-36-8
|Jingle Belle's All-Star Holiday Hullabaloo, The Mighty Elves and Jubilee
|-
|Jingle Belle: Dash Away All
|December 2003
|Oni Press
|1-929998-61-9
|Original graphic novel plus a few short stories, including "Oy, Chanukah!" co-written with David Mandel
|-
|Jingle Belle
|September 2005
|Dark Horse Comics
|1-59307-382-8
|The four-issue Dark Horse miniseries
|-
|Jingle Belle: The Whole Package!
|November 2016
|IDW Publishing
|978-1-63140-703-1
|All Jingle Belle comics published to date, except Dash Away All
|}
References
External links
- JingleBelle.com
- PaulDini.com
- (original website: toonopedia.jingle.htm)