Tag: Halloween

Pop Culture Squad > Halloween
With Further Ado #222: Casper and the Sequential Crush Podcast

With Further Ado #222: Casper and the Sequential Crush Podcast

Posted on by Ed Catto

I love Halloween. I bet that many folks who read this column love Halloween too. But one of the downsides to this glorious, spooky celebration is how pop culture, television stations and retailers all seem to lurch to the next holiday season so quickly after Halloween’s last trick or treat.

In Adweek – you didn’t think I only read comics, did you – they’ve already started their analysis of holiday themed TV commercials. (I will admit, the Katy Perry+LEGO tv spot does look like fun!)

So, with that in mind, shall we drag out Halloween just a little bit longer?

Casper Instead of Candy

We’re one of the families that give out comics instead of candy to trick-or-treaters. Most of the comics we give away are current or recent comics. But I rescued a few old Harvey Comics from a bargain box and thought some kid might enjoy them. Harvey’s Casper, the Friendly Ghost #75 was from November 1964, and I thought it was charming on so many levels. Continue reading “With Further Ado #222: Casper and the Sequential Crush Podcast” →

With Further Ado #169: The Vast of Night

With Further Ado #169: The Vast of Night

Posted on by Ed Catto

Halloween is time for scary movies. That’s part of the fun. My utopian Halloween would consist of kids trick or treating, going to a killer (not literally) Halloween Party, and then settling in with a classic monster movie, preferably something from Hammer or Universal’s heyday.

And while we “meant” to watch a lot more movies during the recent Covid-19 lockdown times, we really didn’t, just a few here and there. I’m a little disappointed in myself, if I am to be honest with you.

Having shared that confession, it makes sense we missed The Vast of Night at first. I’m elated we finally stumbled across it. This is a brilliant indie film set in the 1950s at the pinnacle of the scary “Flying Saucer craze”.  It’s both creepy and gorgeous, a tribute to both small town Americana and the fears that bubble up from rural communities.

The heroes are an unlikely pair: a plucky teenager with a part time job, played by former Disney Channel actress Sierra McCormick, and a cool-cat radio DJ, played by Jake Horowitz. These two are actors to watch.

I’ve been learning about Rod Serling and enjoy teaching a bit about him.  Nick Parisi’s brilliant book, Rod Serling: His Life, Work and Imagination provided me with a such a rich background and dialing into Tom Elliot’s The Twilight Zone Podcast adds to my Serling knowledge.  Even so, I was really surprised to find that The Vast of Night takes place in a small town called Cayuga, New Mexico.  As you might know, Serling grew up and eventually returned to the Cayuga Lake area. He even taught classes at Ithaca College, far above Cayuga’s waters. Continue reading “With Further Ado #169: The Vast of Night” →

With Further Ado #163: Hosting Halloween

With Further Ado #163: Hosting Halloween

Posted on by Ed Catto

Halloween is seemingly right around the corner. There’s a lot of candy in the stores. Of course, we know that this is all part of a pantry loading strategy. That’s consumer-package-ese for a plan to make you buy more than you need right now.  In other words, the candy companies want households across America to buy their Halloween candy ‘early’, then give in to temptation and eat it, and then rush back to store to buy more candy to give out to trick or treaters.

Of course, in the this crazy world of delta variants and anti-vaxxers, it’s hard to predict just what will happen this Halloween.

I can safely predict that (1) I won’t be buying bags of Halloween Candy for trick-or-treaters (We always give away comics.) and (2) I’ll be reading a spooky story or two.

And in that… vein, let’s turn the spotlight on a few wonderful comics I recently rescued from bargain boxes from various comic shops.  And the theme for this week is Horror Hosts.

Spooky radio shows and comics have been using Horror Hosts to introduce, or queue up, creepy tales for years and years. They typically don’t engage in the story itself but rather just make a few ghastly puns and set the stage for a story. The fine of art of horror hosting is almost a lost art, I’m afraid.

Do You Believe in… Ghosts ?

This issue of DC’s long-running Ghosts touts the fact that is the 10th anniversary of the title (with 27 Spine cracking pages), but even cheesy sales copy can’t keep you from admiring the brilliant Joe Kubert cover.

The horror host for this one is a bit of a puzzler. He’s called Squire Shade, but he seems to be an almost total rip-off of that perennial Hawkman foe, The Gentleman Ghost. In some issues Squire Shade has a portly girth, but in this issue he could’ve been a ….dead ringer… for the confounding arch nemesis of the Winged Wonder. Continue reading “With Further Ado #163: Hosting Halloween” →

Spotlight Interview with Sandy King, Publisher of Storm King Comics

Spotlight Interview with Sandy King, Publisher of Storm King Comics

Posted on by Bob Harrison

Happy Halloween!!!

We are bringing you a special treat on this spookiest of days. Earlier this year, at Keystone Comic Con in Philadelphia, we were able to sit down and talk with Sandy King, the publisher of Storm King Comics.

If you are not familiar with Storm King Comics, you should be. Sandy and her husband John Carpenter are cultivating a wonderful stable of comic titles and stories for fans of horror and science fiction comics.

Recently the fifth edition of Tales for a HalloweeNight anthology was released, and you can probably still find it in your Local Comic Shop. It features stories created by such comic luminaries as Frank Tieri, Steve Niles, Andy Price, Amanda Diebert, Cat Staggs, Gus Vazquez, Bill Sienkiewicz and much more.

This upstart comic company is consistently producing high quality storytelling as evidenced by the recent mini-series Tales of Science Fiction: Surviving Nuclear Attack by Joe Harris and Cat Staggs.

We felt today would be the perfect day to bring you the interview that we did with Sandy King in which we talk about her vision for her company and comics in general. Continue reading “Spotlight Interview with Sandy King, Publisher of Storm King Comics” →

With Further Ado #066: Spooky Reading with Ghosts

With Further Ado #066: Spooky Reading with Ghosts

Posted on by Ed Catto

Happy Halloween!  Have you been partying at Halloween Parties all weekend? Are you ready for trick-or-treaters tomorrow?  And what do you hand out to the kids? Candy? Comics? Anything’s fine by me, as long as you’re not one of those dentists that gives out dental floss. What a bummer that is.

There’s something about that quaint, retro-spookiness of Halloween that makes it all so much fun. I especially applaud the hard-working entrepreneurs of Retro-Go-Go and all their wonderful Halloween merchandise. There’s such a charm in that idealized notion of Halloween that their creative seasonal merchandise evokes.   Continue reading “With Further Ado #066: Spooky Reading with Ghosts” →

Public Service Announcement: TODAY IS HALLOWEEN COMICFEST!!!

Public Service Announcement: TODAY IS HALLOWEEN COMICFEST!!!

Posted on by PCS Staff

Today is Halloween ComicFest. What is that? It is a daylong celebration of spooky comics you can find at local comic shops across the country. Many publishers issue special free comics for this day and it is the fall version of Free Comic Book Day.

Be sure to check in with your LCS today. They likely have a celebration planned. Some have costume contests and comic pro signings. There are usually great comic and merchandise deals to be found.

This is really a fun day to get together with other comic fans and enjoy the spooky season. It is an important day to support your LCS as well. This is one of the few times of year that the small businesses that sell us comic goodness can hope for a better than average number of customers.

So, throw on a costume. Head down to your comic shop and support a small business and the comic industry at the same time. Reply in the comments with your pictures of celebrating Halloween ComicFest.

 

With Further Ado #059: Isaac Bidwell of Pickled Punks

With Further Ado #059: Isaac Bidwell of Pickled Punks

Posted on by Ed Catto

One of the coolest Finger Lakes entrepreneurs I’ve gotten to know is Isaac Bidwell.  Sometimes he refers to himself as an artist, but he’s really so much more. He’s created a company, Pickled Punks, that evokes a bygone era of Halloween and spookiness, all with a charm and panache that forces you to exclaim, “More, please!”

The official listing for Pickled Punks talks about how this innovative company creates artwork, plush toys, coloring books and apparel based on Cryptozoology, Sideshow, Spook Show and Halloween. They sell online, but also travel around the county doing various events from craft shows to horror festivals, committed to educating people (young and old alike) to the wonders, mysteries and folklore of the past. 

I caught up with this busy guy and had a lot of questions for him!  Continue reading “With Further Ado #059: Isaac Bidwell of Pickled Punks” →