John Carpenter Presents Storm Kids: Stanley and the Haunted House (Family Comic Friday)

I finish out my all-ages reviews for Halloween 2023 today with this delightful funny animal tale from horror legend John Carpenter. (I've still got a couple of mature reads left to review.) Stanley and the Haunted House is the 3rd comic in the series. Back for another annual adventure, Stanley and his friends decide to spend the night in a creepy mansion in order to prove once and for all if ghosts exist. Bandit brought the flash lights. Baby Wolf has got the food. While Natasha has a camera to document the proof of spirits. 

I became aware of John Carpenter and wife Sandy King's all-ages imprint Storm Kids with last year's The Yard Gang Halloween Special. (I'm not really sure how I missed the first two Stanley books.) When I heard that this new one-shot was dropping, I was a little disappointed not having the pets from the Yard Gang. But the world of Stanley and Friends was a delightful introduction to a gaggle of characters that were a laugh riot. 

These guys have panache and great comedic timing. I would love to see Stanley and his furry pals starring in an animated series. Maybe an annual Halloween cartoon special! They've got the chops on par with the Looney Tunes and the cartoons of classic Mickey, Donald and Goofy when they go ghostbusting in 1937's 'Lonesome Ghosts.'

The story was written by Jeff Balke. I'm not familiar with him. But if you ever head to Jeff Balke Studios, you will feel like you're in the presence of a true devotee to those classic cartoon predecessors I mentioned in the last paragraph. On art and inks are Walter Carzon and Horacio Ottolini. Both of these talents I AM familiar with as they are DC Comics mainstays in relation to Hanna Barbera and Looney Tunes properties. Together, these three made a terrific trio with a story that was spooky, not scary, and very laugh-out loud hilarious.

The first two Stanley books are Stanley's Ghost and Stanley and the Forgotten Forest. Both of those issues along with Stanley and the Haunted House can be purchased online at the Storm Kids parent website stormkingcomics.com (Just a bit of warning though. This site also sells Storm Kings' more mature horror titles and some images on the website may be too terrifying for young readers.) If the 2021 and 2022 Halloween specials are anything like this year's release, the young readers in your life are in for a treat. And as this book isn't set during Halloween, it's a read the family can enjoy 365 days a year for a small scare read!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Bill and Ted's Day of the Dead #1

I got this special last year. AFTER November 1st. I'm not really sure why publishers released holiday books after the event is over. It seems to defeat the purpose of celebrating, if you ask me. Though shipping delays could have something to do with it. But I'm really sure that I saw that release date for this book in Previews being for after Day of the Dead, 2022 had come and gone. At least I had it to read for the 2023 festivities!

The town of San Dimas really knows how to celebrate! It's the annual celebration of Dia de los Muertos and the Wyld Stallyns have been invited to perform a set during the festivities. Before their set, Bill and Ted enjoy some good food, make some decorations and meet a pair of beauties in calaveras make-up who have built an elaborate shrine for their ancestors. Inspired by the shrine, Bill and Ted go back in time to bring back several icons of Mexican history including acclaimed artist Frida Kahlo and Aztec Emperor Montezuma!

Then in the back-up story, longtime Bill and Ted antagonist Chuck De Nomolos escapes from his prison in the year 2721. It just happens that the day De Nomolos makes his prison break, it's also Day of the Dead. With everyone dressed like Death, De Nomolos has a tragic break from reality, fearing another melvin from the Grim Reaper.

I liked the first story except for the fact that Bill and Ted essentially cheat on their girlfriends in this story. Both acknowledge that they still are in love with their princess girlfriends but they also want to get to know those cute celebrants better too. That 'harmless flirting' was just beyond the pale for me.

I didn't really like the De Nomolos story. In fact, it's inclusion was a bit startlingly. I had forgotten all about the character who debuted in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Plus the image of a dead Chuck De Nomolos looked nothing like actor Joss Ackland. I had thought that some non-related back-up story had been added at first and was really puzzled as to why Opus Comics didn't add another Bill & Ted story to this book. Thankfully, by page 2, I understood what was going on. But it really felt like I was reading 2 different comics at first.

That second story had a touching tribute to the late George Carlin, who played Rufus, the time-travelling mentor to Bill and Ted. I hadn't realized he died all the way back in 2008. I would have said he had only been deceased since maybe 2019. 2018, at the most. 

Another thing that stunned me was the advertisement for the Bill & Ted's Excellent Holiday Special. How did I miss this? I really don't remember this and I am 99.8% certain that I didn't pick a copy of this up at my favorite LCS. I recently did a deep dive through my pile of new purchases that I have yet to bag or add to my collection and I didn't come across this book. So I might have something to add to my holiday comics wish list. 

This book is full of Day of the Dead festivities. But those two tales are as different as night and day. Also, I couldn't stand how Bill and Ted acted with their girlfriends away at space camp. No wonder they all had to go to a marriage counselor in Bill & Ted Face the Music. I'm very glad to see Dia de los Muertos getting some comic book love and the time travel antics of the guys was great. It just didn't feel true to the Bill & Ted franchise.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Archie Halloween Spectacular 2023

I saved my favorite for as close to last as I could stand it. For about 5 years now, the comic book devoted to Halloween I look forward to most annually are the Archie specials. Same goes for the Christmas edition. I think it's because of how timeless they are. So full of nostalgia, humor and wonder. Plus they have moments of spookiness without being too scary. 

This year's offering is a love letter to the dark side of Archie Comics. I didn't realize this, but in the 1950s and 60s, Archie and his gang interacted with a bunch of classic monsters and aliens. While the stories might have been tongue in cheek, the artwork of the ghouls and goblins was pretty darn intimidating. In the all-new opening story, Tom DeFalco pens a tribute to those glorious looking frights.

Last year's Halloween annual introduced readers to Trick and Treat; a pair of Halloween imps who like to visit Riverdale every October 31st. While I wasn't as enthusiastic about their debut, these two have become fan favorites. So a return was almost inevitable. In DeFalco's tale, Veronica's father is allowing the students of Riverdale High to use one of his abandoned properties as the site for the annual Halloween party and haunted house. In the minds of Archie and Jughead, this place already is haunted. Trick is inspired by the old comics books that Treat has been reading and uses the creatures from them to scare Archie and Jughead.

At the end of the book is a gallery of all the old Archie Comics issues that inspired this debut story. There's also a great 2-page article about the history of Archie books and why horror has always been an element in them. Did you even know that the Archie sister imprint Red Circle had straight up horror anthology tales? I had always thought that more adult Archie books of terror was more of a modern invention. Gee, was I wrong.

There's 4 reprint stories included in this book. One looks like it's from the 80s. Starring Betty and Veronica, the girls spend the night presumably in this same abandoned mansion in hopes of proving ghosts exist. Then there's a more modern tale involving some newer characters including a goth girl and a young boy of Indian decent. That's got the gang cutting through a graveyard on Halloween night in order to get to a Halloween party quicker. Bad idea there. The last newer looking story has Sabrina having to think fast when a rival witch attacks her at Veronica's Halloween bash- in front of mortals!

The 4th story was from the 50s, I think. Or the very early 60s. It's a classic that I've read before in which Dracula tries to trap Archie and Jughead. Only the two teens are completely oblivious that they're in near mortal danger. Every time the Count tries to prove to the fellas that he's a monster, one of the boys dismisses it as being lame. It was drawn to be very spooky. But it was so funny.

I thought the all-new story was just too short. But I really appreciated the nods to the past. I also don't quite get all the love for imps Trick and Treat. For one thing, Treat has a noose around their neck and I'm very surprised nobody has cried fowl on it and the implications of lynching. Besides, I'm more of a Jingles the Elf fan. Though I would love to see a Trick and Treat meets Jingles crossover! Maybe we could see these two worlds collide in a Thanksgiving Day special. If you ask me, an Archie look at Turkey Day has been sorely missing from my annual holiday comic book reads. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Headless Horseman Halloween Annual 2023

Let me start by addressing the elephant in the room. The Headless Horseman, who is the horror host of this anthology special, is female. I know that is not supposed to be an issue in this gender fluid generation. However, when something doesn't match syntax, tone or pre-assumed expectations, it makes my brain itch. That's not being a boomer. It's my OCD. Go figure. I want things to be written (and advertised) correctly, but could care less if my house is messy or not. 

If the host is supposed to be the Headless Horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, then sure, I'm justified in my confusion because that character was the ghost of a Hessian soldier. And I'm pretty sure that the soldier was male. If this is an all-new character or a character from the Hellboy universe or Eric Powell's The Goon, which most of the art of this character closely resembles, then I have no issue with the gender of the Horseman. Just don't call this character a HORSE... MAN!

Now when it comes to the host, I had no issues with them. There were those punny elements you'd get from those B-movie theater hosts. They look awesome. And They spin a good yarn. I just don't know who this Headless Horseman is...

There are 5 stories in this issue. It starts with a tale set inside a fantasy video game. Not very scary, but it's got a great moral and awesome ending. There's a weird fable about a woman with writer's block. A group of teens go trick-or-treating with the new kid and his mom. Only there's something very, very wrong with mom. There's a wolf on the prowl as a little girl, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, gets separated from her mom during trick-or-treating. And then there was the fifth and final story.

Up to this point, other than initial confusion over just who this Headless Horseman really was, this anthology was going great. That story about the new kid and his mom freaked me out and even though I didn't really get the writer's block story, I saw merit in it. But then Dark Horse had to go and ruin everything by getting political.

The story in question is about 4 kids dressed as monsters who are visiting a haunted house on Halloween night. The exhibits in the exhibition are really lame. It seems like the real horror is in getting old. Then I start to realize that the kids aren't dressed as monsters. They are monsters! So it's a haunted house about what humans do and the idea of what constitutes the contents of a haunted house for monsters and ghouls seemed like a novel idea. And then we get to that room!

Every year the haunted house has a new room. This year's room is full of right-wingers spouting off their agenda. Did we really have to throw MAGA into the mix? The concept was doing well up to now. It didn't need to get frighteningly real with the internal strife affecting our country. When I'm not reading comics and writing reviews about them, I'm a public school teacher. It's culinary, so I don't teach tricky subjects like race, gender or religion. But I still see a diverse mix of kids that will one way or another be highly affected by the results of the 2024 election. I deal with those fears everyday and I witness countless teachers and staff bailing out in anticipation of a Red Wave. When it comes to horror right now, I need vampires, zombies and psycho killers. I don't need tales of right-wing militants or uber-Dems. Those kind of frights already keep me up at night.

This one-shot is listed as an annual. So I see potential that there might be another issue next Halloween. I would be fine with that. Editors at Dark Horse, just leave the politics for election night if you make this an annual occurrence!

Worth Consuming! 

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. (But it could have been a 9 out of 10 if not for how that final tale ended.)

Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror Ominous Omnibus, Vol. 2: Deadtime Stories For Boos & Ghouls HC

The second of 3 omnibuses that will collect all of the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Halloween annuals. 

Unfortunately, the editors didn't follow my request to have the stories reprinted in order. (Like Harry N. Abrams Books was going to scrap their format to put the stories in chronological order of printing.) 

Along with material from the 23 annuals, there's material from previous collections and other issues that are Halloween themed or at least spooky in nature. 

Gotta say that I wasn't such a fan of this one. I know with a massive volume, clocking in at around 400 pages of material, it's kinda hard to rate based on material; especially since everything has been cut and pasted into themed chapters. One chapter was about surviving the end of the world. It had a story in which it appears that Flanders doesn't get taken in the Rapture. But it turns out that in reality, Flanders' left-handedness is what keeps him from being abducted by aliens. 

I did like the Old Sea Captain's high seas tales of terror that are anything but. Though I have read them before, I thought both of them were oddball classics. Plus Lisa, Bart, Homer and Grandpa play a round of Mad Libs to varying degrees of success. Another all-time great that I've read before but got a kick out of reading again.

There's one more volume to go and yes, I am going to buy it. 3 volumes at $40 each is still cheaper than trying to get all 23 annuals. Plus once I get volume 3, I'll be able to free up a little bit of shelf space. 

I got to read Simpsons Halloween comics leading up to Halloween. In my opinion, a Simpsons comic book is like a Queen song. Even the worst of either is better than none at all.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. 

Star Trek: Holo-Ween #4

The first ever 4-issue Star Trek Halloween miniseries comes to a close. As you can see from the cover, Commander Scott is our mystery character from the last issue. Fitting, since Scotty was the main character in TOS episode 'Wolf in the Fold', which introduced the character of Redjac.

Speaking of blasts from the past, the obscure, but oh so important Next Gen villain Redjac brings back from the dead was killer!

The whole concept of this tale being set around Halloween seems all but forgotten until the last page. I understand that by having Picard and other members of the crew being altered to look and act like monsters of Earth lore was meant to be a tie-in to the holiday. But I say that unless it was Redjac turning them into monsters, that spooky seasonal element is diminished by having the crew members be transformed with their consent. 

Honestly, I think it would have worked better if Q was involved. 

This last issue was okay. Issue #3 was much more thrilling. This closing chapter was kinda ho-hum. Not very much suspense and the meeting between Scott and Redjac was downplayed. In fact, the assault Redjac carries out on Scotty on the cover doesn't even happen in this issue!

I'm glad to see Mr. Scott get closure on the Redjac affair. Lots of issues from DC and IDW reflect how much the whole episode traumatized the engineer. But the dish of revenge Scott serves against the entity is luke-warm at best. 

The art seemed to have gotten back to the baseline level of quality. Maybe Joe Eisma was just under a tight deadline with issue #3. Chris Sequeira's storytelling slumped. The ending could have been more exciting. But I think the limit to how much you could do with Redjac has been reached. 

I'm definitely hoping for another weekly Halloween story from IDW. I just hope we'll get something different. Another realm of the Star Trek universe would be fine. Staying away from Redjac would be perfect. Ideally, I'd like to see some other franchise get the Halloween debut treatment.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Star Trek: Holo-Ween #3

In my review of issue #2, I mentioned that this Halloween set comic is a sequel to an earlier story published by Wildstorm. I had also declared that I had never read that story before and I would need to check my collection to see if I have that issue or not. Well, it turns out that not only do I have a copy of it (as part of a trade collection), but I've read it too! 

Boy, am I dumb. Or man, I have just read so many comic books over the years that I'm starting to forget some of the stuff I read. Or both! That's one reason I do this blog; to help me keep up with my readings as a sort of journal. It's from looking through my archives that I discovered that I have read that previous encounter with Redjac... and I liked it! (Though I probably should read it again to help like this 4-parter a little more.)

Issue #3 sees Picard, Riker, Worf and Troi altered both physically and mentally as monsters to intercept the hostages being held by Redjac on the Enterprise holodecks. They'll need to hurry as they've only got minutes to spare before the mind-changing process results in irreversible brain damage. Meanwhile, with the entire starship on lock-down, a blast from the past manages to beam aboard ship and offers some expertise on dealing with the evil entity.

The story got better while the art got worse. There's a couple of scenes where I swear Joe Eisma just kinda phoned it in. Some pages are full of elaborate details. Then there's one panel where instead of Worf looking like a Gill Man, Eisma kinda just finishes the back of his head and torso to resemble a T-rex. And I'm talking purple dinosaur version, not one from Jurassic Park!

The identity of the mystery character was spoiled already by their appearance on the last issue cover. That's what I get for waiting for all 4 issues to come out before I read the whole thing. Can't blame IDW for that. But why did the editing team not say something to the diminishing quality of the artwork? Were they too busy keeping the story itself up to par? Or could it be, as suggested by other Star Trek comics fans, that the editing team is so small that they can't devote enough quality time to the glut of Star Trek books being published at this day and time?

I hate seeing IDW in such dire economical straits. But if they don't fix things soon, the publishers won't be in business as those naysayers are some really nasty vocal talking heads and those so-called fans would much rather see IDW fail that rise from the ashes like a mighty phoenix.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.