Since 2014, Cartoon Network’s Over the Garden Wall has become a reliable Halloween watch staple. Thankfully, that won’t be changing anytime soon, but it also turns out that creator Patrick McHale is cooking up something new that will sound familiar to fans of Wirt and Greg’s adventures.
As revealed by Polygon, McHale will be starring in Dstlry’s Christmas comic anthology Through the Branches: A Yuletide Offering. The short story “The Man in the Blood-Red Coat” will see McHale meet again Garden Wall storyboard artist Jim Campbell to tell the story of two goblin children who live with their mother. Instead of going out to play in the snow, their mother wants them inside and safe from Santa Claus, or in my mother’s (very accurate) words, “a fat, ugly old man in a blood-red coat who roams the world walking in and out of strangers.” ‘houses.” In a press release, McHale called holiday paintings and “strange old books…a constant source of inspiration” for their story.
Hello! @BlackfordManor and I wrote a 7-page Christmas comic for this anthology, illustrated by Jim Campbell! It is called “The Man in the Blood Red Coat”. It’s out in December! pic.twitter.com/VuWoMEYQbz
— Patrick McHale (@Patrick_McHale) September 26, 2024
A friend Branches contributors include Jensine Eckwall (In the Goblin Market), Sweeney Boo (Harley Quinn), Molly Mendoza (Go astray), Grim Wilkins (Petrichor) and Dstlry founder James Tynion IV (Something Kills Children). As a long-time fan and writer, Tynion said he is “always fascinated by the quirky little stories we like to tell in the winter. There is something special about the holidays.” Regarding his story with Eckwall, he called it “a little story that I don’t expect everyone to see.”
Through the Branches: A Yuletide Offering will hit comic shops and stores in December. Because Over the Garden Wall fans, Dstlry is also working on an art book for the show, again Cartoon Network’s teamed up with Aardman Animation to create something fun to celebrate the upcoming 10th anniversary of the miniseries.
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