Wacky Squirrel Halloween Adventure Special #1

I purchased this 1987 special for one reason and one alone. And it sure wasn't because it starred Wacky Squirrel. Until I read this book, I don't think I could have picked the character out of a line-up. I still don't trust that I could do it correctly. The main reason I recently bought this Halloween special is because of the guest-star: Mr. Monster! Okay- being a Halloween themed book is another reason why I got this book. So I had two reasons and two alone!

I enjoy the heck out of Michael Gilbert's Mr. Monster. He's like a slightly saner, paranormal investigating version of the Tick. His stories are brilliant satires of the horror genre. And I don't feel like I am being talked down to by the writer. My biggest complaint about Mr. Monster is that his books are difficult to find and that it seems that Michael Gilbert stopped creating Mr. Monster books about 2 decades ago. Thus, finding this book with appearance by the character was a huge treat.

The Wacky Squirrel Halloween Adventure Special has the main character taking pity on a crying kid on Halloween. The boy and his family have been recently evicted from their home by ghosts! Wacky, believing that there's no such thing as ghosts arrives at the house to perform an exorcism. But what Wacky really needs is a hero. A hero which appears in the form of Doc Stearn, Mr. Monster!

This book was classic Dark Horse Comics. Though I'm not really sure if you can consider the early days of Dark Horse to be all that classic. At this point in the publisher's history, Dark Horse had only been in existence for a little over a year. The majority of the comics released by Dark Horse were in black and white, only just starting to issue a few select special edition titles in full color. This special was not one of those editions.

It's really interesting seeing the old ads for Dark Horse. Paul Chadwick's Concrete was by far the publisher's most popular title at the time. They had just recently obtained the rights to Godzilla and anthology series Dark Horse Presents was in its immediate infancy. Within another year, Dark Horse would have major hits on their hands with adaptations of the Alien and Predator franchises. But it would be about another 4 years until Dark Horse becomes known as a heavy hitter in the comic book industry with the obtaining the rights to produce books based on Star Wars in 1991.

This was a fast-paced fun read. It's mostly Wacky Squirrel's show. At least Mr. Monster appears in more than just 1 page. He's not in the whole thing. Maybe 8 pages. Yet it was more than I was expecting and Michael Gilbert draws all of the Mr. Monster images which was something else I wasn't expecting. If you love slapstick cartoons like Tom & Jerry or Looney Tunes, you'll especially love the middle act when Wacky heads over to the haunted house. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.