Halloween!!!

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

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Holy haddocks, as we say in England. It's just struck me that this venerable site has never done a post dedicated to that fear-filled festival of frightful frivolity that is Halloween.

Admittedly, that's not strictly speaking true. A click on this link here will whisk you to numerous ancient musings that have skirted upon the topic,

However, what is true is that I've never launched a post directly dedicated to the festival itself. Therefore, here is that post.

My earliest memory of Halloween is of blundering around our back garden, in the late 1960s, carrying a turnip that had a scary face carved into it and a blazing candle inside. There were none of those fancy pumpkins, back then. We had to make do with turnips, just as our primitive ancestors had. I would assume this was in either October 1968 or 1967 because I know I was elsewhere on October 31st, 1969 and I would, surely, have been too young to remember it if the year was 1966 or earlier.

Other childhood memories are of bobbing for apples, scrying with a mirror, and even breaking out the Ouija Board to see if contact could be made with the spirits of the dead. Reader, I can reveal that no contact with the dead was ever established.

That was at home. In primary school, we were encouraged to cut out cats, bats, and witches on broomsticks, from black paper, and hang them from the ceiling.

And, of course, we were taught how to make witches' hats from black paper, then encouraged to wear them on the way home from school.

When it comes to culture, the things I most associate with the event are, inevitably, John Carpenter's Halloween movies but, of that multitude, the only one that's ever grabbed me is Halloween III which bears no resemblance to the others and may or may not have been written by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale.

I also associate the date with Ghostwatch, BBC One's 1992 broadcast that purported to be a livecast from a haunted house. It all ended with Sarah Greene missing, presumed dead, and Michael Parkinson alone in a possessed TV studio. It was all fake but that didn't stop large numbers of people believing it to be true and phoning in to complain, making it the most complained about TV show in British history.

I associate no songs with Halloween. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't even think of any songs that have the word in the title.

I associate no paintings with Halloween.

Of course, I associate, a million and one comics with the festival, what with 1970s DC having churned out the likes of The Witching Hour, The Unexpected, House of Secrets, House of Mystery, Ghosts and a gazillion others. 

As for what I'll be doing this October 31st, unless I can summon up the willpower to go out for the evening, I shall be doing what I always do and hide behind the settee, with the lights out, in case any trick-or-treaters come to the door. That way, I can save all my sweets for myself and not have to share them with anyone. After all, if Halloween has taught me anything in life, it's that the evil in my soul must be allowed free rein to express itself.

Those are my heart-warming thoughts upon the matter and I'm sure you have heart-warming thoughts of your own. Therefore, feel free to post your Halloween experiences, feelings, conclusions, remembrances, expectations, associations and anything else that might occur to you, in the space below.

Mega-Halloween Special Collector's Edition Post. Your favourite Horror comics.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

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Greetings, my fellow traveller in the Darkest Realms of the Human Soul. Has there ever, in the entire history of humanity, been a genre worse suited to comics than that of horror?

All wise readers cherish it, hugging it to their bosom, like the teddy bear they were once inseparable from but, bearing in mind that the British and American comic book has traditionally been aimed at children - and there is, by law, a limit to what you may inflict upon those of an immature leaning - launching a horror comic is, it seems, an act of madness itself.

But then again, could we truly expect horror comics to be frightening, even when aimed at adults?

After all, if we peruse Hollywood, its horror output is routinely aimed at adults and, having studied the form for lo these many decades, I always insist the only film of that genre I've ever encountered which is capable of eliciting a sense of dread in even the timidest of viewer is Trilogy of Terror. And, even then, only when one is twelve years old.

Still, despite the limitations placed upon them by the authorities, the big publishers of our youth all produced comics in that genre.

While DC largely concentrated upon the production of similarly-styled anthologies such as Weird War Tales, The Unexpected, The Witching Hour and the Houses of Mystery and Secrets, not to mention a Forbidden Mansion, Marvel settled its gaze upon transforming horror stars into defacto super-heroes, thanks to the likes of The Son of Satan, Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night and the Monster of Frankenstein engaging in often feeble battles with the forces of malice. Why, even that scoundrel Dracula managed to battle evil in his Marvel days, despite being, himself, always more evil than the evil he was fighting.

Charlton in the 1970s seemed to barely supply us with anything but horror tales. Who can forget the thrills of The Many Ghosts of Dr Graves, Ghost Manor, Haunted and Ghostly Haunts?

Then again, for those with more grown-up tastes, Warren gave us Vampirella, Eerie and Creepy.

In its brief existence, Atlas Seaboard bequeathed upon us Devilina and Tales of Evil - books which bore no detectable resemblance to any ever produced by other companies.

But there was, before even any of that, the legendary venture known as EC whose titles were so extreme that the Comics Code had to be invented in order to reassure reader's mothers that, from now on, the horror comics their children read would be as devoid of horror as was humanly possible.

But choices must be made. And I am, thus, going to have to announce that Weird War Tales was my favourite of DC's horror titles. Perhaps it was its range of exotic artists, perhaps it was merely the indefatigable parade of skeletons which adorned its covers but the book managed to make even I enjoy war stories, despite my habitual antipathy towards the field.

Meanwhile, for my love of the Son of Satan's first two adventures, Tomb of Dracula was the Marvel horror book that most often drew my gaze towards the spinner racks.

Midnight Tales, however, was my Charlton supernatural epic of choice, with its host Professor Coffin, his theoretically beautiful niece Arachne, and its tongue embedded firmly within its cheek.

Tragically, the only Atlas Seaboard horror book I ever read was issue #1 of Tales of Evil. Therefore, in the absence of any competition, I must, perforce, nominate that as my favourite from that company.

As far as I can recall, the only Warren book I ever read was issue #30 of Vampirella which I remember mostly for a magnificently coloured strip by Richard Corben. Thus, I must select that as my favoured Warren book.

The only one of Skywald's horror offerings that I ever read was Nightmare #17. Frankly, it was not to my tastes, featuring the eating of human flesh far too often for a man of my distinction to appreciate. But it did feature a woman being turned into a naked bee queen, which is a thing that appealed to me greatly.

Despite their decades of notoriety, I must confess to never having read any EC comics. I cannot, therefore, nominate a top pick from that bunch.

Nor, as far as I'm aware, did I ever read an issue of Misty, Fleetway's legendary late-1970s horror anthology for girls. I do feel as though I should, though, in the interests of filling the gaps within my knowledge.

There was also, of course, Dez Skinn's House of Hammer, the only issue of which I ever encountered being that which adapted the cinematic delight Twins of Evil. That must, therefore, be my favourite from the series.

But what of you? Which horror comics have most readily floated your boat across the River Styx? You are, as always, free to expand upon the subject, below. 

That is, provided the chill hand of fear does not prevent you moving your pen across the paper.

And, while you're at it, feel free to share any thoughts you may have upon the subject of Halloween. My first memory of it is of wandering around a back garden, sometime in the late 1960s, armed with a blazing turnip and a sense of northernness, thus sinking the myth that Halloween did not exist in England until ten years ago. I remember thinking at the time, "Look at me! Here I am, deft master of horror, in the late 1960s, sinking the myth that Halloween did not exist in England before 2012!"