Paul Dini's Jingle Belle

Paul Dini, noted writer and producer of "Batman: The Animated Series", "The New Batman/Superman Adventures", and "Batman Beyond" (as well writing the screenplay for "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker") is also the creator and writer of Jingle Belle, a comic miniseries published by Oni Press.

The comics focus on the character Miss Jingle Belle Kringle, aka Jingle Belle (whom Dini affectionately calls "Jing"), the daughter of none other than Santa Claus himself, living at the North Pole and dealing with everyday life as a 200+ year old teenager (her mother was an elven queen), as well as the larger problem of having the overbearing "Jolly Ol' St. Nick" (whom Jing affectionately calls "His Lardness") for a father. She's a plucky, witty, cute and helplessly likable teen with an uncanny ability to get into mischief, and through her eyes we see a refreshingly realistic yet comedic glimpse into what has always been the stereotypical picture-perfect world of Santa Claus.

Jingle Belle has now leaped beyond the pages of Oni Press comics and into cyberspace. Her official homepage, jinglebelle.com was launched on November 15th. In an interview with ComicsContinuum, Dini said that "the whole [site] is constructed from [Jing's] point of view, with Jing herself supplying all the info on her friends and enemies, as well as announcing up and coming Jingle Belle-related books, products and projects. In fact, you'll even be able to click on her special Jinglecam feature to see what she's up to every minute of the day. Granted, as Jing's usually grinding out toys in Santa's workshop, her activities might appear to be a tad monotonous, but keep watching for special surprises."

The site's primary feature is a series of four, two-minute Flash-animated shorts that will be showing until New Year's, the first of which is entitled "Santa's Throne", starring Juliana Young as Jingle Belle and Paul Dini himself as Santa Claus. In it, Santa expresses his sadness over children who either cry and refuse to sit in his lap, or just sit in his lap and cry. You can bet that Jing's probably the one causing it, and the gag at the end of the cartoon takes a poke at Pokιmon.

Dini says that the remaining three cartoons "will feature Jing, Santa, and other characters from the comics doing what most families do around Christmas, i.e. getting on each other's nerves and threatening to inflict bodily harm. We're thinking of it as worthwhile counter-programming to the usual network holiday treacle."

"All cartoons on Jing's site will be furnished by animator/director D. Campbell MacKinlay (AKA Cartuna) the mad genius who animates those insane images of Harry Knowles on the Aint It Cool News site. Campbell's a great guy with a deeply warped sense of humor. I've had a good time creating the Jing animation concepts with him."

Paul Dini shared with me firsthand that the next cartoon, as well as an update for the Jinglecam, should be up within the next few days. I also asked about an image of Jing on the "Blame" page of the site resembling a Bruce Timm design, to which Dini replied, "That's [drawn] by "Lynne Naylor, one of the terrific artists I've had the pleasure of working with in animation for the last ten years. I showed her my first rough scrawls of Jingle and she refined her into the elfin beauty she is today. That image is from the JB lunch box which will be in comic stores by the end of December."

For those who've read any of the Jingle Belle miniseries, it could arguably be said that one of the finer comic moments to date involved the Lemmings running amok in the story where Jing hosted a wild party at Santa's pad while Santa himself was away on business. A profile for the Lemmings is included on Jing's site, and I had personally hoped to see more of them featured, perhaps in one of the animated shorts, to which Dini replied, "Last I saw of [the Lemmings], they were headed out the door with a stolen pecan pie and a case of Hamm's. It is [the Holidays], after all."

And speaking of the comics... Oni Press released the "Jingle Belle: Naughty & Nice" trade paperback on November 8, collecting Jing's first three adventures in a "brand-new special eight page color story, 'Jingle Belle Conquers the Martians'.

And released on November 15, "Jingle Belle's All-Star Holiday Hullabaloo", which Dini says, "was a lot of fun because it gave Jing a chance to jam with some great writers and artists. Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier contributed a very funny story about Jing's misguided campaign to clean up street corner Santas. Shane Glines, a terrific designer who worked with the Bat-crew at Warners, takes Jing on a sugar plum-induced nightmare. Bill Morrison contributes a tale about Jing's rivalry with a department store elf helper whom Santa much prefers to his own daughter. Jason Bone illustrates a meeting between Jing and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, but it's not a Christmas Carol parody, strangely enough. Speaking of chance encounters, Chynna Clugston-Major has her Blue Monday crew meet up with a runaway Jing for a wild Christmas Eve party. Rounding out the festivities is a poem illustrated by Bone's Jeff Smith detailing what exactly Jing does with all those lumps of coal Santa gives her every year. Wrap it all up with covers by Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows) and animator Lynne Naylor and
we've got a pretty sweet package, I think."

Priced at 8.95 and 4.95 (respectively), you might still find these available at your local comic shop, or you can order them Oni Press.

Dini has also been heavily involved in the production of the animated shorts and other content in the online spinoff of "The New Batman Adventures" at gothamgirls.com, starring Dini's brainchild Harley Quinn, as well as Poison Ivy, Catwoman, and Batgirl. And Toon Zone staffer Craig Marinaro reports that Dini is slated to guest-write issue #52 of the "Simpsons Comics" series which will be released in December.

Note: A review of Dini's screenplay for "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker" will be available soon here at Toon Zone, as well as another report from Paul Dini himself on jinglebelle.com and gothamgirls.com.

[Sources: ComicsContinuum.com; OniPress.com; JingleBelle.com; and Craig Marinaro; with a special thanks to Paul Dini for additional info.]