Halloween and October Comic Reading

Here are more comics I recommended reading for October and Halloween time in 2020.

The Occult and Supernatural

Hellblazer: Bloody hell, guv'nah! Everyone's Favourite Bi Street Mage only Going to Issue 12

Hellblazer (DC Comics, Sandman Universe) 

I have already said this, but it bears repeating. Hellblazer is the best it has been in years, on par with Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison and Jamie Delano’s tenures. Scripted by British scribe Simon Spurrier and bolstered by gorgeous art from Matías Bergara and Aaron Campbell, the title is spooky, moody, timely and more than clever,. There is a twisted Little Mermaid subversion, everyone's favourite bi street mage John Constantine being out of touch with contemporary London to his newfound pal from the local pub, Nat the bouncer. Unfortunately, the series is too good for this world. Hellblazer never found a large enough audience or the necessary sales during the pandemic to make it an on-going series. Scribe Spurrier talks about it on his blog, here. Thus, it will be a limited 12 issues, much to the chagrin of readers, critics and its creators. The first trade, though, is already available, John Constantine: Hellblazer Vol. 1: Marks of Woe, collecting The Sandman Universe Presents: Hellblazer #1, John Constantine: Hellblazer #1-6, and Books of Magic #14. The second trade collects issues seven to 12.

First panel by Aaron Campbell. 

Second panel by Matias Bergera. 

Cover by John Paul Leon.

Young Adult
Blackwood (Dark Horse Comics)
To call Blackwood a Harry Potter premise with sharper teeth, taking readers down a dark, sometimes twisting road, is to sell it short. Creators Evan Dorkin (of Beasts of Burden) and double-teaming artists Veronica Fish, and Andy Fish have crafted an interesting motley crew of outcasts getting into occult misadventures at Blackwood College. They are supposed to be learning about witchcraft, but the real lessons are, of course, after class. Dorkin’s work is interesting as he uses established tropes and subverts and plays with them. The use of colours, in particular, is garish, almost impressionist. The art riffs seriously on pre-Comics-Code-Authority E.C. Comics horror fare. It is a retro, exploitative paintjob with decidedly modern trappings and sophisticated writing. There are consequences.  Characters die, and gruesomely. Readers familiar with H.P. Lovecraft will also detect a whiff of eldritch horror, here, which only adds another layer to the enjoyable narrative. In other words, it's a comic for early teens, ideally read on a leafy autumn evening.  

The first trade, Blackwood, came out in 2018. The new four-issue series Blackwood: The Mourning After just released in trade.

Monster Fightin' and Racism

Bitter Root (Image Comics)

Artist Sanford Greene and writers David F. Walker and Chuck M. Brown are part of the all-black or African-American creative team behind Bitter Root. The premise is that the Sangerye Family holds a longstanding tradition of fighting monsters, monsters fuelled by hate, and it’s set in the Harlem Renaissance. It is no surprise that this monthly series is now selling out, given the current political climate in the U.S. They take up arms and fight in the street and are clearly the protagonists in this dynamic. The Red Summer Special occurs during the Tulsa race massacre. The back-matter material is absolutely stunning, with essays on the history of civil rights. The artwork is mind-bendingly good, which is no surprise as Walker, Brown and Greene did such an amazing and fun job on their disappointingly short-lived stint on Power Man and Iron Fist.

Panel from Bitter Root # 3, page 4. Sandford Greene's pencils are just kinetic and full of life.

LGBTQ+ Horror

Theatre of Terror: Revenge of the Queers! (Northwest Press)
Edited by William O. Tyler and Justin Hall, Theatre is a wonderful queer grindhouse/Tales from the Crypt-style horror anthology featuring a frightful cover by artist Phil Jimenez, perhaps best known for his Wonder Woman and The Invisibles work.
The whole works is framed by San Francisco midnight movie drag queen impresario Peaches Christ haunting a post-apocalyptic Castro Theatre, forcing uninvited guests to watch each story unfold. With this classic McGuffin, readers get a lot of bang for their buck, with a wide range of LGBTQ+ art styles and stories.
In the spirit of grindhouse cinema, the most amusing fake horror movie posters appear between the pieces. My only qualm is that there is no table of contents, so it can be difficult to remember where you left off, or to find a certain story you are, uh, dying to read. There is also requisite gore, sex, violence and monsters aplenty, here.
Theatre of Terror came out, so to speak, in December 2019, so it just missed the mark for Halloween, so I am giving it an extra, much-need push here. Stand-outs include “Mer-Maid Story”, Justin Hall's “Full Moon” and “Frankenwhein”, Robyn Adam’s “Dead Name No More!”, featuring a transgender ghost hunter, Tina Horn and Jen Hickaman’s (known for SFSX) “Barrier”, “Werekat”,  “The Vulture” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”.

Panel from writer/artist Robyn Adam’s story “Dead Name No More!” featuring Lorelei Fontaine, transgender ghost hunter!  I really hope to see more of her. 

Panel from Justin Hall's "Full Moon", a randy werewolf yarn...or tail?