Red Ranger Came Calling: A Guaranteed True Christmas Story

For Breathed (A Wish for Wings That Work; Goodnight Opus), 'tis the season to be laugh-out-loud funny one page and cause a tiny tear to well in a reader's eye the next. Retelling the autobiographical story that his late father related every Christmas Eve, Breathed introduces a cynical young man (self-named The Red Ranger of Mars) who meets his match in a retired Santa (When Red snaps, ``They say you're Santa Claus,'' the old man retorts that Santa is ``a foolish story for small children. He's a big jolly bribe to control their criminal instincts''). Breathed's hallucinatory artwork is as wondrous and as unpredictable as his tale. Reaffirming a reader's belief in the spirit that is Santa, this could become a perennial seller. All ages. (Oct.)