HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #1

There can be only one #1 for All Hallow's Eve!

John Carpenter's original classic, Halloween!

Happy Halloween all! Have fun Trick or Treating!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #2

Horror comics have a long and storied history - from EC classics like Vault of Horror to Tales from the Crypt right up to the modern age with books like Steve Niles's 30 Days of Night.

But for me the best, creepiest, and most consistently entertaining horror comic stars a cocky, rude, Englishman named John Constantine.

From his first appearance in Swamp Thing (vol.II) number 37, Constantine has been a constant enjoyment for me to read. The creation of Alan Moore, the mage has been written by a variety of writers throughout the years (including Americans Denise Mina and Brian Azzerello), but he has always remained so essentially, Constantine.

The latest run by Andy Diggle (The Losers, Green Arrow: Year One) has been nothing short of brilliant.

Boo!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #5, #4, #3!!!!

Three for the price of one! My favorite Halloween books:

#5 The October Country by Ray Bradbury

#4 Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

#3 Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Bradbury is the king of Halloween spookiness and mystery as far as I am concerned - as much as Stephen King is the
master of horror, Bradbury turns the best tales of cool autumn winds, crackling leaves and carnivals in darkening fields.

Bringing it back to comics, The Long Halloween was the third time that Loeb and Sale tackled Batman in his "Year One" setting and made the whole affair an year long event that started and finished on All Hallow's. If you can't see the beauty of using the Bat's Rogues Gallery in a Halloween story, you've lost me and should probably surf on by!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #6

If a life-size bust of my favorite monster from
Sideshow Collectibles doesn't put you in the mood for All Hallow's, the price ($499.00!) might give you the proper holiday shock!

Anyway, it's sold out, but man, that is frighteningly cool . . .

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #7

Go here and check out all the great designs for Kreepsville Industries upcoming coffintable book, Cereal Killers.

Some of my favorite artists are contributing to this, and I can't wait to get my paws on it. The artwork to the left is by Wayne Harris!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #8

Classic Bust of Leatherface! Take that Rodan!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN! #9

If you're going to wear a store-bought costume on All Hallow's to Trick-or-Treat in your neighborhood, there's only one way to go . . .



Ben Cooper. The King of the Costume. Classic Frankenstein.

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN! #10

Starting the countdown to my favorite holiday!

In order to properly prepare for the night of all nights, little ghouls and boys everywhere need a handy-dandy guide to make-up effects. Why not go with a classic!

LINKPORN

A follow-up to the Eightball controversy in CT: Teacher goes free, comics blamed.
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Logan gets titled.
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I'll take a case of Rudolph Pate, please.
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eBay gets on your desktop.\
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The vault is about to open - there's one coming from Marvel and DC too. Neato!
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More Star Wars news.
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He's back.

A SATURDAY NIGHT MEMO FOR YOU

From DC Comics' Green Arrow and Black Canary Issue #1, art by Cliff Chiang.


And for enterprising youth, a blank .jpeg version:

NUCAP = NEW COKE? YOU DECIDE!!

As a follow-up to my last post, Marvel Comics' big 10.11.07 announcement was the re-emergence, re-design and re-introduction of the recently deceased Captain America (see Captain America, Vol. IV, #25 for all the lurid details.)

Alex Ross designed the new look which incorporates the design of Cap's original triangular shield, as well as arming the NuCap with a gun and knife. Marvel's staying mum on who is taking up the mantle of the Sentinel of Liberty, but with Ed Brubaker writing, I am pretty confident it will be a fun ride.

As for the new costume, the verdict is still out for me. I like the general idea of a more urban combat-looking costume. It's more functional, less "costum-y." The metallic effect, while it works great with Ross's paints, is going to be hard for many artists to pull off without it looking cheesy.

Ross used a similar technique for the re-design of DC DC Comics' Citizen Steel (formerly Commander Steel) in that company's JSA title.

In that book, Dale Eaglesham and Ruy Jose, have done an admirable job of keeping Ross's metallic design while still staying true to their own style of art. I credit the colorist here too, but I don't have an issue handy to see who that is.

One colorist that comes to mind who's always done an admirable job with metal surfaces is Laura Depuy - certainly over John Cassiday's pencils on the character Danger in Astonishing X-Men.

I'm confident in Steve Epting's abilities as penciller and painter to stay true to Ross's redesign, it's just that with the way Marvel handles it big events, you just know that NuCap is going to be appearing in every title from Iron Fist and New Avengers to Moon Knight and Ghost Rider. With that wide range of artists handling the appearance of the difficult to nail effects of the costume, readers are going to get a lot of less than stellar interpretations of the new duds.

Whatever the eventual treatment of the costume is, there are going to be many purists who can't stand the idea of a NuCap in a new outfit. Personally, I have really been enjoying the storyline of Cap's death and the aftermath. Besides World War Hulk, its the best thing Marvel is doing right now. Also, I am not a diehard Cap fan, so the changes effect me that much less.

One of the first Cap stories I read and loved, however, was Mark Gruenwald's 12 or 14 part story that started with Steve Rogers quitting as Cap and a new more ruthless person taking over the roll. So, I'm already partial to NuCap stories.

And anyway, this is comics and the original Cap, Steve Rogers, will be back from the dead soon or later.

My money's on sooner.

images courtesy of Marvel Comics via Newsarama

MARVEL, MARVEL, MARVEL

Here's the teaser poster for Jon Favreau's Iron Man :





















And here's a teaser image for a big announcement Marvel Comics is making on October 11th, 2007, apparently :
Can you tease a date?

This is another perfect example of Marvel's insistence to make everything they do overblown. World War Hulk (and Planet Hulk leading up to it) has been a great storyline with little or no hype to it before it was released. The much bally-hooed Civil War on the other hand was screamed about everywhere possible, and for the most part was a major disappointment. Spidey's current One More Day storyline is super-duper hyped, but with only one issue of the 4-parter out so far, I will reserve judgment. Suffice it to say that first issue was no great shakes.

Anyway, that's my dig at Marvel this week - come back later in the week for a dig at DC!

We try to be equal opportunity in our hating here at TTHQ . . .