Stranger Things Halloween Special One-Shot

We're wrapping up Halloween reads for the year. Just a couple of reviews left. Next up is a 2020 one-shot based on a Netflix series with deep ties to Halloween. Published by Dark Horse Comics, the Stranger Things Halloween Special takes place just a few days before the TV show does. It has the four main male characters having just finished trick-or-treating, sitting up in their tree house swapping scary stories. 

Just when it appears that the festivities are over for the night, when Will Byers casually mentions the Child Eater of Hawkins. At this point, we go back about 40 years or so to a Hawkins Halloween night that is fraught with dread. 4 children have died; their bodies turned to puddles of green goo. As the sheriff imposes a curfew, a group of children find themselves locked in the local library. It just seems that they'll have to sit out and wait until dawn- hopefully.

I don't have Netflix. So I have never seen an episode of Stranger Things. Yet I think I've enough done research and Wiki-reading to understand what's going on in this book to a point. Is the Child Eater of Hawkins one of the creatures that kidnaps Will in Season One? Or an antagonist from another season? That I do not know. But I enjoyed this one-shot enough that the only thing my questions do is make me hope we get Netflix one day. 

Series writer Michael Moreci pens a very chilling tale that has enough horror to be eerie. But it wont give nightmares. And man is that artwork very good. It's from relative newcomer Todor Hristov (Forever Maps). He's only got a trio of listings in the comic book data bases I utilize. But I hope to see more of his work in the future. 

A fun read for fans of the 80s, Stephen King, Treehouse of Horror and of course, Stranger Things.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.