Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week Bennett reviews the comics for this year's Halloween ComicFest.



Well, it’s that time of year; double pre-Christmas Eve, a.k.a. Halloween, meaning it’s once again time for Halloween ComicFest.  A chance to reach out to the general public and gently remind them where all their favorite movies, TV shows and ancillary merchandise comes from.  You might think that sort of thing would be unnecessary given our currently geek culture-supercharged popular culture.  I mean, not only is she on the cover of this week’s TV Guide, when asked to name his favorite Marvel hero Presidential Candidate Jeb Bush inexplicably declared Supergirl "pretty hot."  The truth is that rarely does a week go by at Super-Fly Comics & Games without some customer stopping in just long enough to utter the dreaded phrase "I didn’t know they still made comic books."  And I can’t believe it’s the only place where this sort of thing still happens.

To find the shop closest to you might want to check on the Halloween ComicFest website (www.halloweencomicfest.com).  Super-Fly Comics & Games will certainly be a part of it; there’ll be a big storewide sale, special guests, an extra 10% off for anyone who shops in costume.  And of course, there’s the free comics.  As always the season’s giveaways come in two sizes: "Full-Size" and "Fun-Size."  In "Full-Size" we have:

Action Lab Actionverse, Vampblade Featuring Zombie Tramp, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1, Aspen Presents: The Adventures of Psycho Bonkers!, Batman Adventures #1, Harley Quinn #1, The Birth of Kitaro: A Halloween Special, Stan Lee’s Chakra The Invincible Halloween Special, Donald Duck’s Halloween Scream #1, Doctor Strange: The Oath, Ultimate Spider-Man and The Avengers, Fragments of Horror Halloween Special, Grimm Fairy Tales of Terror: Web of Deceit.

As usual Marvel and DC tie for the publisher who might have put a little more imagination into their selections.  Now I’ll gladly concede that it’s a great comic, especially for kids, but seriously, yet another reprint of 1992’s Batman Adventures?  It would have been nice if there had been a Batman: L’il Gotham Halloween comic, or, since I’m obviously reporting from dreamland, why not at least a partial reprint of an issue of Bugs Bunny Trick ‘N Treat Halloween Fun?  And while I’m sure that Ultimate Spider-Man and The Avengers  will no doubt appeal to the kids, I’m guessing they would have also liked something more along the lines of Guardians of the Galaxy: The Halloween That Totally Ruled, in which Groot and Rocket teach a bunch of jaded teens how to trick and treat hardcore.

Most of this year’s selections fall into the "all in good fun" category, but there were a couple of genuinely scary comics too, like the reprint of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1.  But this year’s scariest by far would pretty much have to be Fragments of Horror Halloween Special from VIZ featuring the work of manga artist Junji Ito.  This is some serious nightmare fuel even for us grown-ups, so it should also definitely be the title retailers will want to keep a close eye on this Saturday when the kids come around.

Honestly I enjoyed most of this year's comics, though my personal favorite would probably have to be Action Lab Actionverse from publisher Action Lab, which is launching its own creator-owned superhero universe.  And after seeing the contents of this sampler I definitely want to see more.  Though to be perfectly honest, the main reason this one’s my favorite is because it features a crossover between the characters Midnight Tiger and Jamal Igle’s Molly Danger.

On the fun-sized side there’s The Garlicks: How She Met Her Mother, Famous Monsters Presents: Spook-A-Rama, Booooom! Studios Halloween Haunt, Grimiss Island and Skylanders: Halloween Special.  Among these I was most intrigued by the Bitten Preview Special from Magnetic Press, which presents a new story written by Young Adult author Cornelia Funke with artists Francisco Herrera and Raul Garcia featuring characters from their upcoming graphic novel, Bitten!

And having already seen the Yo-Kai Watch anime currently running on Disney XD (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Who Would Have Thought it?").  I have to confess I was curious to see the manga.  The Yo-Kai Watch Halloween Special mostly serves as a preview for Volume 1 of the Yo-Kai Watch manga which is shipping in November, but it’s hard to complain when the manga shares the anime’s fresh look and energetic feel.  And for a very different manga take on kids and traditional Japanese supernatural creatures you might also want to check out the Shigeru Mizuki The Birth of Kitaro: A Halloween Special from Drawn & Quarterly.

Special thanks goes out to Deborah Moreland, Advertising and Promotions Manager of Diamond Comic Distributors for providing me with previews of all of the 2015 Halloween ComicFest comics.  Halloween ComicFest has been such a success something occurs to me…

Maybe it’s time we start thinking about doing something similar at Christmas.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.