Broken Frontier

So it's that time of the year again; the haunting moment in which everything seems possible. That particular time in which you go out and dress up like a werewolf, a ghost, and if you live in Los Angeles, you dress up like a slutty nurse... but we all know that Halloween is closing in!

Though the holiday is based in ancient tradition, many of our modern Halloween rituals are largely made up by people who want to earn a buck. But you know what? I love the mythos, I love the stories, I love the movies, and most of all... I love the comics! Whether it is Jim Balent's amazingly sultry Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose or Dan Brereton's outstanding The Nocturnals or the sweet Halloween-issues from Vampirella (I love some Amanda Conner who draws Vampirella on the toilet!) or from DC Comics... but there is only one Halloween Man.

You mix up pulp with bad slasher movies (so bad that they are good on so many levels), add some eye-candy, boil it with some nice family values and spice it all up with snarky one-liners and you have the best meal you can ever think of on that special day in October!

In Halloween Man: Superdeformed we get to know Solomon Hitch but more importantly, we get to know Drew Edwards. Drew is the writer and creative genius of Halloween Man and his glorious and colorfull sidekicks and villains. Drew is a very disturbed person. He is disturbing on many levels but luckily for us, these disturbing traits are funny, intelligent, innocent and most of all contagious, because reading Halloween Man makes you long for that special love! Love you say?! Yes! Halloween Man might be about monsters, vampires, ghouls and other uglies but in the end this is just Beauty and the Beast in a special packaging.

Halloween Man: Superdeformed is a collection of prior webcomics and features mostly the luscious artwork of Nicola Scott and also some art by David Baldeón. Both artists seem to have got their start here and eventually they ventured into the offices of DC and/or Marvel when the Big Two finally acknowledged what we can already witness in these issues of Halloween Man. It's something Drew Edwards got to first; there is magic in the world!

But enough babbling about the amazing artwork, which shows true greatness in the dynamics, the facial expressions and the overpowering battle-scenes! Halloween Man is about Halloween Man and the writer has found ways to let the MAN in Halloween Man take a front row seat.

In the first story we learn that Solomon Hitch is the anti-hero. This seemingly slacking and lacking young person finds himself loved by one of the hottest, brightest and richest gals in the city. Solomon however is attacked by a vampire who speaks too much for his own good and who kills him. A deity comes to the rescue and, via the television, dispenses the power of horror movie sequels. Along the way, Solomon's face gets a makeover and he also gets this eerie craving for living flesh. Now a monster, he loses his job but not his friends and certainly not his soul mate, Lucy Chaplin.

Together with deity Morlack, they form an unlikely team to battle the bad beasties that pop up now and then and Drew lets his feeling for pulp, western and love-stories come together on every page. Solomon becomes the anti-hero, who in action is the gun-toting and enchanted-shovel wielding superman but in moments of repose he seems to fall onto his knees and discover that his UNhumanity sometimes scares him witless. But through the strength of his friends and his love he conquers all. Genre-bending finds a place in the pages of Halloween Man.

Reading this manga-sized trade paperback will get you into the spirit of Halloween in an instant, but it will be a Halloween that flirts with Valentine's Day... or more accurately Valentine's Day dressed up like Halloween Man!