Progressive Panels October Comics (2011 Edition) By Andy Frisk October 19, 2011 - 20:36 October is my favorite month of the year. Where I live it is pretty darned hot in the summer and the summer starts early and ends late. We do get seasons, albeit spring and fall are slightly abbreviated and definitely shorter than where I grew up. It’s not all bad though, we did have a white Christmas last year. The first one in untold decades… October is the month that the heat finally breaks for good, and the short fall season actually begins. It’s the month of my birthday, like another one of our writers here at The Bin. It’s also the month that ushers in the season of "The Big Three" as I call them: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It’s a magical time of year when the leaves are turning, the smell of falling leaves, crisp cool air, and pumpkin are everywhere. Especially though, October is specifically packed with the opportunities that many comics fans delight in, and often indulge in at other times of the year: dressing up like our favorite heroes and watching scary and sci-fi thriller movies and television shows non-stop. Many Octoberists (as I call them) among us engage in marathon horror movie or television show watching binges. Some of us indulge in horror or spooky comic book reading marathons as well. In honor of the spirit of the month, which is full of spirits (both ethereal and liquid), here’s a few selections and suggestions from my library of October Comics that I often revisit each October, sometimes not in succession or every single year, but with an annual to bi-annual frequency. Some are old classics and some are relatively new. They all are worthy reads that just seem to read better during the month that ushers in the dark half of the year. No superhero is better suited to Halloween and October than The Batman. Obviously, many writers and artists have made use of the natural correlation between the spookiest superhero ever and the spookiest holiday ever. During the run of Batman: Legends of The Dark Knight, a long lived sort of extended “Year One” type title that featured Batman’s early adventures and debuted around the time the Batman (1989) debuted on the big screen, Eisner Award winning creators Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale collaborated on a series of Batman: LoTDK Halloween Specials which were both fun and frightening romps through The Batman’s Halloween-time themed adventures. These specials are collected in trade paperback under the title Batman Haunted Knight. The three stories contained within: “Fears,” “Madness,” and “Ghosts” are chock full of some brilliant Loeb and Sale dark atmospherics, psychological horror, and deep autumn imagery. “Fears” even directly inspired the Scarecrow’s portrayal in Batman Begins. The line where The Scarecrow is gassed with his own fear solution and repeats the line “Professor Crane isn’t here right now. But, if you like to make an appointment…?” is taken directly from “Fears.” “Madness” involves a harrowing Halloween ordeal suffered through by a young Barbara Gordon, who has become The Mad Hatter’s stand in for Alice in his twisted manipulation of Lewis Carroll’s classic. “Ghosts” is a bit of a more lighthearted affair with Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol serving as the framework for a sort of "Batman Halloween Carol." These early Halloween themed Batman adventures gave rise to the full length Loeb and Sale masterwork Batman The Long Halloween. They were hints of what was to come from Loeb and Sale and are some of the most perfect Batman tales ever written for the season. Before leaving our favorite hero of the night, another Batman story that isn’t specifically a Halloween tale, but is perhaps the most frightening and disturbing supernatural Batman story ever written is Grant Morrison and Klaus Janson’s Batman Gothic. As I’ve stated here before at The Bin, and in my column, I’m not a fan of Morrison’s long run form work on mainstream superheroes. He’s a brilliant writer, but is better suited to pet projects, mainstream hero one-offs, or original works where he can freely indulge his imagination and love of “magic.” Batman Gothic is one of those short run/one-off tales, much like his Arkham Asylum, where his storytelling skills weave a tale of horror involving Bruce Wayne’s frightening stay at a demonic boy’s school, a near immortal monk who’s sold his soul to the devil, a modern murder mystery, and the little nun who comes calling for the monk’s soul. Batman Gothic is dark, scary, cinematic in its execution, (I’ve never jumped with the main character while reading along), and disturbing on several levels. In other words, it just might be the greatest horror themed Batman tale ever, and one definitely worth reading near Halloween. If you’re looking for a fright, that is.   Switching gears some and moving away from mainstream superheroes like Batman, Dark Horse Comics has recently revived another of Robert E. Howard’s creations: Solomon Kane. The devil battling 16th Century Puritan made his Dark Horse Comics debut in Scott Allie, Mario Guevara, and Dave Stewart’s expansion of Howard’s original Solomon Kane story The Castle of The Devil. Collected in trade paperback as well, The Castle of The Devil opens, reads, and labors under an Edgar Allan Poe-like autumnal atmosphere. Guevara’s art depicting Kane on his solitary journey through Germany’s Black Forest is the picture perfect realization of Poe’s atmospheric setting from the beginning of his tale Fall of The House of Usher. The first line of Poe’s tale reads, “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.” These words immediately sprung to mind when I saw Guevara’s depiction of Kane on his solitary journey. Substitute “House of Usher” with “Castle of The Devil” and you couldn’t tell the two apart. Guevara creates a visual atmosphere that rivals the prose description of the same type of atmosphere that Poe wove with his words. It is an atmosphere perfectly suited to a tale of a murderous werewolf, a devil-worshiping priest, a dank castle filled with evil secrets, and a dour man of God who has doomed himself to walk the Earth battling the minions of Satan. This story might not have a specific Halloween theme, but it is one of the most October-ish and gothic tales ever written in a mainstream comic book. Remaining within the same time period, roughly, thematically, and artistically, Guy Davis’ magnificent The Marquis: Inferno, which collects both Danse Macabre and Intermezzo into one trade paperback, is another highly atmospheric work that pits a man against demons. Davis’ Marquis is a much more dubious “man of God” than Solomon Kane is though. Yes, he battles demons, or at least what he sees as demons, which are horrific and twisted images of man/animal hybrids that are nearly beyond description in good company, just as any well imagined demon should be. Is the Marquis a mad murderer acting on his own demented visions of self-loathing or is he really an agent of God and his beloved Saint de Massard? The answer is neither, and much more disturbing than one could imagine. The Marquis is packed full of Davis’ signature brilliant artwork, which the above mentioned Guevara is obviously inspired by, and intelligent musings on the nature of madness, religion, piety, and the cost of doing the devil’s work while walking the side of angels. The Marquis: Inferno is dark, brooding, violent, frightening, and intelligent. Again, not specifically Halloween themed, but there is no better time of year to read this brilliant work than during the lengthening October nights. My final entry in this year’s “October Comics” (a series that I hope to make annual here at The Bin and in my column) returns us to the realm of superheroes. Specifically, the now defunct, but one time highly interesting, Dark Horse Heroes. With the comic book boom of the 1980s and 1990s, which included the explosion of “independent” publishers like Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, and Valiant Comics, integrated superhero universes with tight continuities became all the rage amongst the “independents.” Dark Horse Comics showcased some interesting heroes such as X and Barb Wire, but the most interesting and visually appealing was Ghost. Outdoing and inspiring Emma Frost’s look in later years, Elisa Cameron aka Ghost patrolled the streets of the “dark metropolis Arcadia” protecting its citizens from the forces of evil, as well as the evil that men do, while trying to unravel the mystery behind her ghost-like condition and deal with her deep seated psychological issues concerning the men in her life. Ghost was an intelligent psychological/horror thriller that probed the deep recesses of female angst and gave birth to one of the most interesting October/Halloween themed villains of all time: Doctor October. Decked out in a candle framed Jack-o-Lantern that hid her hideously scarred face, Doctor October made it her mission one Halloween to destroy Ghost. Obviously she fails, but Elisa must battle October’s minions which include a vile character named Hunger who psychically manipulates sexual ecstasy and lust, driving his targets mad with murderous and orgiastic rage. The seminal battle between October and Ghost take place around Halloween, which simply adds to the psychological horror affect that October and her quest to destroy Ghost is rife with. Eric Luke’s tale of psychological horror and super heroics showcasing my favorite month of the year, a villainess named after this month, and a beautiful and tortured hero who has no problem kicking ass and taking names is one of the most interesting Halloween themed comics ever written and drawn. The series also featured the coolest Halloween cover ever as well. These great old stories are collected in trade paperback form as Ghost: Black October. To the best of my knowledge this collection is out of print, but still available in bargain bins at conventions around the country. Hopefully, I’ve been able to suggest a few spooky reads to accompany your hopefully equally spooky October nights. Read them with the lights down low if you dare, but most of all have fun with them and with October. This magical month only comes around once a year so make the most of it. Until next year: Happy Halloween!    © Copyright 2002-2026 by Toon Doctor Inc. - All rights Reserved. All other texts, images, characters and trademarks are copyright their respective owners. Use of material in this document (including reproduction, modification, distribution, electronic transmission or republication) without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.