By this time next week we will all be Trick-or-Treating, giving candy to those who trick-or-treat or reminiscing about Halloween’s past. Well, most of us…there are three exceptions to this rule, and they are the religious, the foreign and the dead. Combos are particularly exempt. Pope John Paul II is EXTREMELY exempt from Halloween.
Every year I advocate giving unwanted comics (age appropriate, mind you) out instead of candy. Do it. It’s good for you, and maybe a few of the kids who nab freebie books will take to it. There’s still time to pick up a few fun Halloween comics for yourself, ya’ know?
We still have a few issues of Marvel Now What #1, this years annual funny book from the house of ideas. Not a bad outing, really! Well worth the read just to see the fantastic art of Jacob Chabot, the Skull Boy Army wonder kid who’s usually pencilling his fingers into stumps over on Sponge Bob Comics.
The best Marvel book for a fun Halloween treat would be EITHER Volume 1 of Essential Ghost Rider or Tomb of Dracula (Both fun titles) or the first two volumes of Marvel Zombies. For serious gang, if you haven’t read the first book of Marvel Zombies you best get to that. Whatever you do, please don’t drop that thun thun thun (AYE!)
Afterlife with Archie was a blast? Did you miss it? Well there’s a second printing on it’s way. Steve Niles begins a run on everybody’s favorite Groovy ghoul buster, Ash Williams, in Dynamite’s Ash and the Army of Darkness. Steve Niles plans on picking up the story right where the original film left off…and that’s great and everything, but that approach has already been sensationally done in the Army of Darkness Ashes 2 Ashes trade paperback! I’ll check out Steve’s new take, but I do urge you all to pick up a copy of Ashes 2 Ashes. Nick Bradshaw’s art is a blast!
THE BIG GUNS
Even if you DID drop that Thun Thun Thun, and I do urge you to take the greatest pains to prevent such a Thuntastrophy from occurring, there are a few books that you will NEED to scoop up this week.
First off is the debut issue of the brand new Sandman Overture #1, the first new Sandman material from Vertigo in quite some time! Neil Gaiman is back to tell a prequel story of Morpheous, the actual Sandman and ruler of the kingdom of Dream. For fans of the original, game changing Sandman series this is a dream come true. For anyone who hasn’t gotten around to reading the Sandman series yet, NOW is a perfect time to start.
NEXT is Dark Horse’s annual anthology of creepy Edgar Allen Poe tales as beautifully adapted by the incomparable Richard Corben. 2013 brings us The Raven and The Red Death. These books are a Halloween highlight year after year, and this time out Mr. Corben is bringing his a game! Everybody knows the Raven, Poe’s trippy treatise on birds mocking our pain, but the Red Death is the real bon bon of the bunch! What happens when you get all of your rich friends into your swanky castle for a masquerade galla, simply so the peasants have time to die of a horrid airborne disease and rid your land of the poor once and for all? Better be sure you’ve invited the grim reaper to your party, because he sure is going to be pissed if he shows up and he’s not on the guest list!
THEN you’ll have to sell some blood, because we still have Adventure Time’s Spooktacular Halloween issue and issue #2 of the snazzy Power Puff Girls comic!
LIFE IS SHORT
Halloween is special because we get a change to have fun with death, to be who we want to be and to celebrate the spooky and the macabre. Wether it’s props, last minute costume details or just some fun reading, make Forbidden Planet and comics a part of your celebration! Be safe, kids! Don’t eat any razor blade apples.
