How many of you were under the impression that Halloween was over for 2020? Well boy, do I have news for you! Today we have two tales from DC's great Secrets of the Haunted House series, issues #44 and #46 to be exact, featuring all sorts of All Hallow's evil, plus a spooky cute Stephen Bissette quickie --one that he actually wrote too despite the other name credited-- (believe it, he told me himself!) And if that ain't enough, we'll round it all out with a cool Bernie Wrightson cover! So, everyone have a nice holiday?
Art is great on Halloween God, and I love how the whole story basically turns on the "gotcha" line about working once a year.
ReplyDeleteHiram's plan might not be the best idea, though, because if I was Sloan I can tell you the first thing I'd do next Halloween is twist the head off of that guy!
The goblins are great (growing from seeds!) and the Halloween God is a cool image. An all around fun tale mostly carried by the fine art.
Seeker is really a great package, both the writing and the art are top notch and it's a great little 2 pager. The ghost's causal flipping between ages is a solid gimmick. That's a real winner.
Number 1- It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, I told you he was real!
ReplyDeleteNumber 2 The story was a pumpkin seed of an idea behind Pumpkinhead, no doubt.
Useless trivia- Originally Jack o Lanterns were made out of turnips since Pumpkins are a North American plant, and were unknown to the believers of Samhain long, long ago.
I guess the spirit of All Hallows changes with the times, no harm in that.
Happy 365/366 days of Halloween everyone!
Grrr...I was the one that was supposed to make the Great Pumpkin and Pumpkinhead joke!
DeleteGreat art on that, yes, but can't say the fake psychic investigator (are there any real ones?) wasn't asking for it.
The second story is pretty affecting. One can't not feel sorry for the ghost, if that's what she is.
ReplyDeleteI'm digging the Gonzales art of the first story too--but, ah, I find myself a little distracted by the huge, cartoony fingernails. I mean, those things don't really match-up with the rest of the figure drawing. It's as if, rushed, 'ol Adrian just couldn't ink all the way to the ends of those fingers in time, and so the editor went back and filled the tips in with a ballpoint.
ReplyDeleteHappy Belated Halloween! I'm looking forward to celebrating Belated Halloween from now till Walpurgisnacht.
Some of you that I'm friends with on facebook might have read this comment from Stephen Bissette himself about the "Seeker" story, for those that didn't though here's the scoop from Bissette himself:
ReplyDelete"I scripted, penciled, and inked this story. Long story short, when the promised check didn't arrive, I called DC; turned out they had a policy forbidding sole freelancers writing and completely illustrating their own work. Editor Dave Manak and I contacted my pal Bill Kelley, who allowed his name to be used, and then sent the payment on to me after DC paid HIM for the script. Too bad, as Dave was up for my doing more of these. That was the end of that! Then, Dave called to tell me the series was cancelled. DOUBLE whammy."
I'll have more Halloween horrors here that didn't make it to THOIA last month, I'll sprinkl 'em throughout the next few weeks though cuz up next it's something lantern related instead-- and I'm not talking about the Green Lantern either!
Your previous blog spot made it very easy for me to enlarge the pictures and enjoy the posts. I'm very nearsighted, and I can't see lettering or details in the panels. Is there a way to fix this? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned over the last handful of posts and in the comments for over a month now, the recent Blogger update (made by BLOGGER, not me) has seriously affected how images are viewed and sized. I have no way to fix it, that is why I'm only posting here now because clicking on images no longer allows the images to enlarge for some stupid reason and the page format of THOIA is too small. You can always just read the scans right on the main page here at AEET instead of clicking on them. Try going up to your tool bar at the top and click VIEW - ZOOM IN as many times are you need until they're readable on your end too.
ReplyDelete