Halloween and Comic Books go together like peanut butter and jelly. Where else (but a comic con) can you dress like a superhero or a monster and it’s not weird? (Okay, maybe it’s still weird at a comic con) Anyway, if we’re going along with my metaphor, “Halloween Eve” is one delicious sandwich.
Written by Brandon Montclare
Illustrated by Amy ReederEve has an imagination that’s more than active — it can be downright dangerous! Working late at the costume super-store Halloween Land, she gets lost in her own thoughts until something goes bump in the night. The rubber masks and plastic novelties are coming to life, and Eve must face ghosts, goblins, and gorilla suits made real.
High fantasy and heartbreak in an oversized holiday one-shot by BRANDON MONTCLARE (FEAR ITSELF: FEARSOME FOUR) and Eisner Award nominee AMY REEDER (BATWOMAN, MADAME XANADU).
Make no bones about it – Eve hates Halloween. It’s a shame that she works as a seamstress/clerk at a costume shop, because she’s going to run straight into it every year. As she alienates her co-workers as friends by refusing to participate in the holidays, the reader comes to learn that she is fighting a battle between her outward appearances and who she is inside. What transpires as Eve drifts into a Halloween-fantasy world while staying late at work one night, is a journey of personal discovery. Upon reflection, this is a quite common morality tale that we’ve seen time and again. Accepting who you are and being that person instead of hiding it is, in a way, the opposite of what Halloween as a holiday is reserved for. Montclare keeps the story from feeling overly familiar by hypothesizing that perhaps Halloween is our opportunity to show the world exactly who we actually are. Eve and her colleagues are all very well-defined characters whose personalities shine once we go on our “Wizard of Oz”-esque journey with them.
The only downside is that there’s clearly so much more to all these characters that one issue of a comic book doesn’t do them nearly enough justice. We’re sped through this story, and though they pack a lot in, the character development isn’t afforded the pacing that it needs. The story needs to spend more time with Eve being a judgmental Halloween stick-in-the-mud, but it physically can’t. The character growth is forced to happen at too fast a pace.
Amy Reeder was recently and unceremoniously dumped from being a pinch-hitting artist on DC’s “Batwoman.” I have to say that “Halloween Eve” proves that both parties are better off. Reeder is clearly allowed to stretch the weird and cartoony creative muscles that she possesses in spades and DC doesn’t have to try and shoehorn (and end up wasting) a damn good artist on a book that’s a poor fit for her and only caused conflict. Her talent comes across so much better when she’s simply allowed to create.
Here on “Halloween Eve”, Reeder is able to craft her own cast of unique characters. Each of them are visually memorable in their own way, which is a wonderful feat for a one-shot comic. Some “process” backup material explains that Montclare and Reeder had several definable traits for each character that they wanted reflected in their physical appearances. Reeder clearly nailed each one of these, without going overboard on the quirk or being too obvious about it. There are multiple levels to the visual concepts as each character wears a Halloween costume that says something about their character. Reeder’s product clearly matches the thought they put behind these concepts and again, none of these are so obvious that they would inspire any eye-rolling.
Montclare and Reeder have crafted a fine ode to the holiday by celebrating the heart behind it rather than the horror. But Amy Reeder is definitely the star here, breathing weird life into a fantasy world that is equal parts spooky, humorous, and heartfelt. “Halloween Eve” is the definition of a labor of love and definitely worth checking out for fans of the holiday.
Final Verdict: 8.2 – Buy, unless you’re an anti-Halloween grump.
P.S. If you’re scared of clowns, tread lightly.
