Hallowe'en Horror

I love Hallowe'en, and ever since I was a kid the biggest part of Hallowe'en for me wasn't the candy but dressing up in a costume. I would change my mind about a million times before October 31st rolled around.  I wanted to dress up in all the costumes and occasionally I'd wear different costumes to different Hallowe'en events prior to All Hallows' Eve.

from wikipedia.org

When I was younger I was never into anything all that scary. I typically eschewed "traditional" Hallowe'en monsters for heroes from comics, movies, or television. I didn't like being scared as a child. Anything harsher than "Ghostbusters" was too much for me. As I got older I became interested in classic horror films, the old Universal monster movies like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. I was probably initially drawn to monsters from a variety of sources, Sesame Street being one, and old reruns of The Addams Family and The Munsters being another.  My fledgling interest in H.G. Wells would've led me to read the Invisible Man and then seek out the film version starring Vincent Price.

from wikipedia.org

from wikipedia.org

I loved Vincent Price's voice long before I knew who he was as an actor from Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective" and once I discovered him as an actor beyond that film and the Batman villain "Egghead" I branched out from the classic monster movies and started trying to watch as many Vincent Price movies I could find at my local video store (remember those?).

I still prefer slightly silly or schlocky horror to truly terrifying stuff but my tolerance has grown. Except for just gore-fests or extreme violence. Those I can still do without.

Kirby Goodness (from comicbookdb.com)

from darkhorse.com

The Universal Monsters led me to Godzilla which led me to the great old monster comics by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. From those deliciously silly stories with gorgeously delineated creatures of the wildest imagination I delved deeper into the comic books of yore and eventually found what some aficionados call the greatest American comics: those published by Bill Gaines' EC Comics. "Tales from the Crypt," "Vault of Horror," "Haunt of Fear," with their trio of tongue-in-cheek horror hosts are some excellent comics.  I've been collecting both the full colour EC Archives published originally by Gemstone and currently by Dark Horse as well as the great artist-centric EC Comics
Library collections from Fantagraphics.

from darkhorse.com

from fantagraphics.com

The best of modern horror comics has to be found in Mike Mignola's "Hellboy" and "B.P.R.D." series. I could gush about how great Mignola's art is along with his artistic collaborators like Guy Davis and Duncan Fegredo, colourist Dave Stewart, and co-writer John Arcudi among others. I could tell you how Hellboy basically melted my brain when I discovered the first trade paperback at my local library.  I could do that, but instead just go read some. I recommend either the first volume of Hellboy, Seed of Destruction or the third volume (pictured above) which is a collection of shorter stories that give you a nice spread of Hellboy stories. Borrow from the library or a friend, visit your local comic shop, or buy digital copies online. But don't wait, you'll thank me.

I haven't even touched on some other great horror comics of past and present like Warren's "Creepy" and "Eerie," Eric Powell's "The Goon" which actually straddles several classic comic genres, "Beasts of Burden" by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson, or some of the very creepy European comics I've read like "Beautiful Darkness" by Kerascoët and Fabien Vehlmann (published in English by Drawn & Quarterly) or "Toys in the Basement" by Stéphane Blanquet (published in English by Fantagraphics). To say nothing of my favourite "weird" writers like Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, and Algernon Blackwood. There's tons of viewing and reading material out there to get you in the Hallowe'en mood. Maybe I'll delve into the depths of darkness of some of these series more specifically another day, but for now I'll leave you with this: