Paul Dini's Jingle Belle Is A Silver Bell-Bullet For The Holidays!

By Mike Jozic

Paul Dini is probably best known to fandom at large as one of the long-time writers and producers on the various Batman and Superman related animation projects from Warner Bros. To others, he is known for the many and varied DC specials that he has worked on with collaborators like Bruce Timm and Alex Ross. And to a smaller, but no less devoted, group of fans Dini is also the writer and guiding force behind his own creator owned books, Mutant, Texas and Jingle Belle.

Debuting in 1999, Jingle Belle chronicled the playful and madcap adventures of Santa’s teenaged daughter and showcased for readers the very dysfunctional family behind everyone’s favourite gift-giving holiday. Chasing Eskimo boys, playing hockey and swiping dad’s sleigh to go for a joyride are all in a day’s work for Jing as she stirs up trouble wherever she can find it.

On December 14th, Dark Horse Comics released the latest Jingle Belle special entitled, “The Fight Before Christmas”. The one-shot, consisting of three separate holiday themed tales, has Dini and associates treating readers to a rematch between Jing and her snow leopard rival Tashi in sequel to 2001’s “Mighty Elves” story, a tale of Lemming romance at the North Pole and attending the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C.

To celebrate the holidays and the new book (did I mention it would make a great stocking stuffer?) I spoke to Paul briefly by e-mail about the new special, the Jingle Belle film, what the holidays are like at the Dini household, and what were the best and worst Christmas gifts he’s ever gotten.

MIKE JOZIC: Your portion of Jingle Belle: The Fight Before Christmas is a follow-up to the “Mighty Elves” one-shot from a few years ago. What prompted you to revisit that story?

PAUL DINI: "Mighty Elves" was a popular story with Jingle Belle readers, so I felt it was worthwhile revisiting that area. At first I was reluctant to do another hockey story, then I happened to be reading some of the Fantagraphics Peanuts reprints and remembered all the times that Charles Schulz went back to the pitcher's mound for more gags for Charlie Brown. I like hockey and can easily come up with more stories that take place on the ice. Also more than a few fans have written to me wanting to see Jingle's friendly enemy Tashi again, so this was a good chance to feature her, as well.

JOZIC: I read somewhere that you thought that this special is a good introductory issue for new readers. What about it makes it so?

DINI: It's a trio of short stories that showcases Jingle and her world pretty thoroughly. We have the story that establishes her hockey team and her rivalry/friendship with Tashi, a story with her giving advice to some of the lemmings that work in the toyshop, and a final tale that shows her in conflict with her parents at a public event. If you've never seen Jing before, these three stories set her and her world up pretty well - she comes from a unique place, she's feisty, she dates cute guys, she's more or less loyal to her friends, doesn't always get on well with her folks, but bonds with them when she has to.

JOZIC: Your wife Misty also has a story in this issue. Was it a collaborative effort between the two of you or did you just let her go to town with the character?

DINI: More of a collaboration. I was working on a story about Jing helping one of the lemmings with his love life and I was pitching a bunch of ideas to Misty to see what she thought of them. We started imagining the fun things the lemmings could do on their date and Misty began supplying the dialogue for them. She also came up with the sweet ending for the story.

JOZIC: Has your approach to writing the character changed at all since 1999 or is she still the same old Jing to you?

DINI: She's pretty much the same as far as her rebellious nature goes. I walk a fine line with Jingle about how far I can take her without the character becoming either too unlikable or too much like other "bad girls" out there. Certain story ideas I discard because I feel they're too adult or too mean-spirited. I don't have hard and fast rules, though after working with a story for a couple days, I get a sense if I'm on the right track or not. This year's story was originally supposed to be a big epic that spanned a lot of time and reexamined the idea of Santa Claus in the modern world and what Jingle did about that, but it never really came together. Part of the reason was I would have needed much more than twenty-two pages to do the story. Maybe sometime I'll revisit that story because it would make a great graphic novel.

JOZIC: J. Bone has been with the series for a while, now, and I believe that this is Jose Garabaldi's and Stephanie Gladden's second Jingle Belle project to date. What is your working relationship like with your artists and what do you feel they bring to Jing's ongoing adventures?

DINI: Jose and I first worked together on a Jing graphic novel called "Dash Away All" for Oni. It was a fun story and someday I'd like to publish it again in color. Jose also did the four-part Jing series from Dark Horse last year. I've been a fan of Stephanie's for years. I was very happy she was able to do a back-up story for one of last year's books and just as thrilled she was able to return for this one-shot. J. Bone is awesome. I was sure he'd be too busy to do anything for the book this year, then I got an idea for a short story about Jingle going to the lighting of the National Christmas tree. I pitched it to Bone and he went for it. Jingle VS George Bush - it was a perfect subject for Mr. Bone's twisted sense of humor.

JOZIC: Who hasn't drawn a Jing story that you would love to see tackle one?

DINI: I have somewhere a very cool drawing by Alex Ross of Jing looking a lot like Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood and Santa rendered in the style of Frank Miller's huge, bulky Dark Knight. I'm not sure how many fans know it, but Alex can employ a great cartoony style if he's in the mood. Anytime he'd love to do a story in that style, I'd love to run it. One of the things I'd like to do with Jingle Belle, if it does continue as an annual event, is let other writers and artists play with the characters. Gail Simone has told me she'd love to write a story and other creators have expressed interest in writing and drawing Jingle, too. That worked out really well five years ago when Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragones and Chynna Clugston all did original Jing stories, and I'd like to open that door again.

JOZIC: What difference has colour made for you in bringing these stories to life? Would you ever go back to B&W?

DINI: Color brings a certain dynamic to Jingle's world that black and white just didn't have. Yet I loved the black and white stories we did at Oni. If it meant doing the book or not, I'd go back to black and white.

JOZIC: Are there any non-Christmas seasonal events you'd like to see Jing tackle? Maybe a Halloween special? Thanksgiving's got a lot of potential. President's Day?

DINI: Sure! I think they'd all be prime settings for Jing stories. At one time I toyed with the idea of doing a six issue series that would have Jing screwing around with six different holidays in the space of a year. I'd love to write it, but I don't think any publisher will go for it. Horror characters like vampires and witches have grown beyond Halloween and you can publish books about them throughout the year. Jingle, owing to her look and her name, is tied pretty closely to Christmas, and I don't think a lot of readers would seek her out at any other time. Last year I did a two-part story in the spring that had her trying to save an old Santa's Village-type amusement part, and while there was some North Pole imagery in the story, it had nothing to do with the holidays. Still, I had some readers complaining, "Why am I buying this in April? It's not Christmas yet."

JOZIC: This has probably been answered before somewhere, but why the move from Oni to Dark Horse?


DINI: I think the guys at Oni felt Jingle had run her course with them. I don't think they particularly cared for the character, and they always told me the book was too expensive to produce. I guess that's the case when books are written by one guy and drawn by two or three others. It makes more sense for them to publish books that are written, drawn and inked by one creator. So when things ended with Oni, that left Jingle Belle and Mutant, Texas up for grabs.

Mike Richardson at Dark Horse liked Jing, so we were able to set that up over there fairly easily. We've done some really nice-looking books there and Dark Horse is starting to get Jingle published overseas, for which I'm grateful.
I'd still like to revive Mutant, Texas someday as those characters are fun to write and J. Bone did such an amazing job on the artwork. I know he's eager to draw the characters again, so hopefully we'll find a home for Ida Red again in the not too distant future.

JOZIC: So, what’s Christmas like at the Dini household? Do you have any long-standing traditions you stick to?

DINI: Starting noon on Thanksgiving, it's eggnog 24/7 until New Year's.

Actually, I wish it was that laid-back. It's usually pretty hectic as I often have a strict writing schedule to adhere to and Misty is always busy performing. She's an illusionist and much in demand for corporate holiday parties and other big events. When you can wave a wand and make it snow indoors or cut the chairman of Chrysler in two (as she did last week) your December tends to book up pretty fast.
For the last few years we always threw a huge holiday bash, but this year we did our big party on Halloween when we got married. This year we're having a few friends over for supper on Christmas Eve. Nice and simple. No cowboy bands or monkeys on HumVees. (You should have seen our wedding.)

JOZIC: What would you say are the best and worst Christmas presents you've ever received?

DINI: The best present I ever received was a first edition of Kipling's Jungle Book. Misty gave me that two years ago and it knocked out the previous top gift, a battery-operated Dino the Dinosaur I got when I was five. The stuffed rat in the Batman costume my mom gave me a couple years ago was awesome, too. It may not be the #1 gift, but it's definitely in the top five.

It seems like every year there's a competition for the worst present. I tend to get a lot of meaningless corporate gifts that are more confusing than anything else. Over the years I've gotten such useless items as cartoon character umbrellas, personalized laundry bags or steel balls with spikes on them that are supposed to make you feel good when you rub them over your hands - goofy junk like that.

Sometimes the corporate gifts are great. Last year I got a weekend at a nice hotel and a swanky computer bag. But usually it's a basket of party food that I wind up dropping off at the local mission.

JOZIC: I've also read about a live-action Jingle Belle movie being in the works. What stage is that project at?

DINI: It's in preproduction at Revolution Studios and Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Company. It's being scripted by a trio of writers who have a fun take on the character.

JOZIC: Why the choice to do live-action over animation?

DINI: For one thing, I'm interested to see how the Jingle Belle version of the North Pole will look in live action, especially with some CGI effects. Like a lot of Jing's stories, the movie is set both in the real world and at the North Pole, so having her go from a fantastic land into an ordinary one will provide a visual contrast you don't get when both worlds are traditionally animated.

Not that I'd ever rule out doing an animated version of Jing. I think there's a lot of fun to be had there. However the reality of how animation deals are structured at most studios drove a stake through that idea at the very beginning. There had been a lot of interest in an animated version of Jingle Belle ever since the book first appeared, but every meeting I had ultimately came down to the animation studio, TV network or film company saying "We will own 100% rights to the character. Other than a very small purchase fee, you will receive no other remuneration for the character, and must surrender all original artwork of the character, as well as the designs and rights to any merchandise produced depicting the character."

I told my agents and lawyers at the time that no way would we be listening to deals like that, yet when Mutant, Texas came out, I went through the whole nightmare again. I ultimately decided that doing animated versions of my characters made no sense business-wise. I'd rather spend the money myself to create cartoons and run them on my website then let other people own them for little or no money.

JOZIC: One last question to finish off with.

I love the new ornament based on Jose Garibaldi's design. What are your thoughts on it and will the Jingle Belle ornament be the gift of choice from the Dinis this season?

DINI: It's pretty sweet. I think those will be showing up in a lot of our friends' stockings this year.

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