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This Week’s Sermon – “Monster Mash”

By Britt Schramm

October 31, 2005

Happy All Hollow’s Eve, my little Jolly Ranchers.

Being a comic book fan, most of my co-workers ask me if this time of year is my favorite so I can dress up as Batman since that’s probably my favorite comic book character. But when I tell them that I do not like getting all costumed up, I can almost see the tears well up and the disappointment set in their faces. Ya see - Halloween, much like most holidays for me, is usually about one thing: pain.

No I’m not talking about OD’ing on store-bought min-candy bars and Willy Wonka treats then suffering from stomach pains so bad that you would have to sleep for two days in the fetal position (although that has happened to me before but that incident was caused by eating a Ex-Lax cookie on a dare from a “friend”. Don’t worry I eventually survived. But let’s just say I got the dude back in Chemistry class by daring him to inhale non-diluted ammonia from a lab flask. Gotta love being young and stupid.)

No, I’m talking about going out Trick-or-Treating in Maine when I was in grade school. I know that the end of October is supposed to be somewhat cool. But have you ever experienced Halloween in the great state of Maine with their cold-to-the-bone weather? One year, as accounted by the picture to the right, my brother and I had to buy our costumes a size larger since we had to put them on over our snowsuits. Nothing says “Good Times” like a possible case of frostbite due to skin exposure.

I kid. In reality, I’m more of a non-costume on Halloween kinda guy. But even as a kid, there were a couple of Halloweens back in Maine where I actually questioned the whole concept of trick-or-treating in below freezing weather just to get some candy when I could just buy some during my paper route during the afternoon. It wasn’t that I was lazy (although I have been accused of that in the past); it was because I liked having all of my fingers and toes intact before I hit puberty.

So, rather than make you guys suffer from going to comic book store to comic book store looking for some good Halloween books to read tonight, I thought that I would compile a list of some books that you may not have seen or heard about but would deliver some good old Halloween spirit. Really, no tricks this year; it’s gonna be all about the treats for you good kiddies.

Halloween books for all-ages

Scary Godmother (Sirius) - This is a fun book no matter what the time of year is but as you can tell by the title that it is definitely at home in late October. The series is about a young girl named Hannah Marie and her friendships with the kids who live in Fright Side, a supernatural plane of existence where it seems to be Halloween 24/7. It is a place where all of the ghosts, vampires and werewolves live and super cool Scary Godmother is always involved in the action. Creator Jill Thompson has likened the cast of characters to that of old Archie comics in previous interviews, which is a very apt comparison. The series also reminds me of the Casper, the Friendly Ghost cartoons. If you got a kid in your life, do yourself a favor and get them the first hardcover or the Halloween Spooktakular DVD. Don’t worry; the parents will enjoy it, too.

Hipira (DH Press) – Imagine if Tim Burton was born in the Land of the Rising Sun, loved manga and still had an affinity toward all things macabre. Then welcome to the city of Saruta, a vampires-only city surrounded by a very high wall and a place where the sun never rises. Hipira is a grade school aged vampire who gets a fairy as a best friend as a result of an accident by an elder vampire. The two get into mischief as best friends do and the results are hilariously delicious. If there’s one last way to sell this book to y’all, the writer is Katsuhiro Otomo, the great mind behind the anime classic Akira and last year’s release Steamboy.

Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror (Bongo Comics) – This one is not so much of a hidden gem but I would be doing a disservice if I did not include it in this list. Like the fun “Treehouse of Horror” specials on the TV, this annual series is one of the best Halloween specials going. Groening always seems to get killer talent from both inside the comics industry (this year’s issue had horror greats Marv Wolfman, Gene Conlon, Len Wein, and Bernie Wrightson) as well as outside of it (last year’s incarnation had Rob Zombie, Gene Simmons, Alice Cooper, and Pat Boone all pen stories) to contribute their hilarious visions of gut-busting terror. If you haven’t read an issue of this book, I don’t think that I can do much for you other than recommend you to seek some sort of counseling.

Horror Comic Treats for Older Readers:

Batman: Haunted Knight (DC Comics) – Most people use Batman: The Long Halloween as their pick for a great superhero haunting and it is a good one. But for me, the collection of Jeph Loeb’s and Tim Sale’s initial foray into the Batman mythos still the one that I prefer. This book is a collection of three Legends of the Dark Knight one-shot specials that were first printed from 1993 to 1995 called Fears, Madness and Ghosts. These stories highlight some of Batman’s best villains during their early attempts to terrorize Batman into a mental breakdown. The series also laid the groundwork for future Loeb/Sale collaborations like Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory as well as other non Bat-projects like Superman for All Seasons and the Marvel color series (Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue and Hulk: Gray). If you’re not a big superhero comic book reader, try this one out for size.

Giant Monster (BOOM Studios!) – I wrote a review of the first part of this two-issue mini-series at my other site so I won’t go into the big plot details here. Let’s just say that Steve Niles takes a standard monster B-movie plot and has a bloody good time with a ton of killing and destruction but doesn't forget to add a slight smidge of humor into the mix. It’s not too overtly bloody like his 30 Days of Night vampire series for IDW but there’s a fair amount of limbs and bodies getting chomped just in case you’re somewhat squeamish.

Dylan Dog (Dark Horse/Bonelli Comics) – Dylan Dog is an investigator of nightmares in London and the clientele that walked through his doors brought some really psychedelic cases. With the help (or lack there of) of Felix, his assistant who bears a striking resemblance to a certain “Duck Soup” ringleader, Dog chases hauntings, murders, zombies and other worldly planes. This series is not so much a blood-and-guts horror book but there are some disturbing scenes. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of you haven’t heard of this digest-sized black and white, six-issue mini-series that was adapted from the classic Italy series. When it was first released back in ‘99, horror was not in the forefront of the comic book scene as it is today and as you can imagine, it didn’t sell at that well – even with Mike Mignola providing all of the cover art. So, because of those poor sales, the mini-series has been long out of print but you can read the one-shot that was release in 2002 called Dylan Dog: Zed. If you can find either the series or the one-shot, I highly recommend picking them up as fast as humanly possible.

If I were more inclined, I would open up and wax poetically about titles like:

• Image Comics’ The Walking Dead, which brings the sense of being trapped and scrambling for your life from brain-eating zombies
• IDW’s hilarious comic adaptation of the indie film Shaun of the Dead that proves that decapitating zombies can be funny
• Tokyo Pop’s i luv halloween which could only be birthed from the twisted mind of Keith Giffen where a bunch of wacked-out kids decide to dole out tricks to people in order to avoid a curse of bad candy for the night; maiming and brutality for all abound
• Kitchen Sink’s The Crow (the original out-of-print, goth version only, please)
• Marvel Comics relaunch of X-Force with Rob Liefeld just because everyone needs a "scared straight" message in their lives and this series has that in spades