Halloween: The Gathering Week Three

For this third week of Halloween: The Gathering, I will be suggesting some awesome horror comics that lean slightly towards the bizarre side of the genre. I think that both of my recommendations this week are excellent Halloween season reading as they both have plenty of blood and violence. If blood and violence don’t get you in the spirit of Halloween, then I guess you’ll just have to wait until next week because blood and violence is what I have for you this week. 

Empowered and Sistah Spooky’s High School Hell

Adam Warren created the Empowered comic book universe over a decade ago now and I have enjoyed so much of it since. One of the most entertaining things to come out of that universe in my opinion is his current mini-series, Empowered and Sistah Spooky’s High School Hell. So far we have gotten five amazingly strange issues of Empowered and Sistah Spooky trapped in Sistah Spooky’s old high school. In this High School Hell, they are being forced to face different groups of blondes in different dangerous scenarios that are being set up by the school’s Infernal Service Provider who is also known as Satan. 

This mini-series gives us a glimpse into a lot of Spooky’s outlandish history from her life as a normal and geeky black child to the hot and powerful Sistah Spooky she became. But the series isn’t about her origin story necessarily, these trips into the past are lightly sprinkled throughout the issues. 

The main storyline of the series is Empowered and Spooky’s battles with the blondes in the ludicrous battle scenes that each take place in different classes of the high school. Each clash has the blondes fight Emp and Spooky with things that fit into the theme of the class they are fighting in. This has caused them to engage in combat with giant frogs from science class, emojis and mean texts in study hall, and a giant gross hamburger in the cafeteria. 

This setup for each issue provides a lot of fun because it keeps the drama of Spooky’s past at a minimum and keeps the horrific chaos turned up as loud as it can go. Despite knowing that each issue is essentially going to contain our two heroes fighting blondes in this high school, Adam Warren’s concepts for this series are so strange and creative that I am always shocked by the unusual ways he writes these battle scenes. And each bizarre concept that he comes up with is amplified by artist Carla Speed McNeil’s even stranger illustrations. There are some moments with visuals that are so distressing and marvelous that it blows my mind. 

These extraordinary concepts and illustrations are what made this series pop into my mind for some great Halloween season reading. The first five issues of Empowered and Sistah Spooky’s High School Hell provide some unsettling and extremely entertaining comic book reading. Plus, you have time to catch up on the fives issues that are currently out before the sixth issue is released on October 17th! 

Plastic

My second recommendation for this week is one that is brutal and gory but somehow extremely pleasant at the same time. Plastic was released as five issues and then collected into one book in October of last year. The short series is about Edwyn Stoffgruppen, who is amazingly a very nerdy and likeable guy while also being a badass murderer. Granted, he doesn’t murder for fun, he murders to protect the ones he loves, specifically Virginia, his wife who is also a sex doll. 

When I first read the description of this story a while back I had it set in my head that Edwyn may be fun to read about but was probably always going to seem pretty creepy or strange for marrying and loving a sex doll. But it didn’t take that much reading for me realize that Edwyn is a pretty charming guy and I was on his side throughout the entire collection. 

Plastic’s story, written by Doug Wagner, is so entertaining and unique that I don’t want to share too much information that will prevent it from astonishing you. However, I will tell you that this series is packed full of violence, gore, humor, and emotion which I hope will help you get even more into the Halloween spirit. This is a story about a man with a desire to be with the person he loves and who will do anything to make that happen. It just so happens that the person he loves is a sex doll and the things that he has to do involve a whole lot of blood and dismemberment. 


As I said above, blood and violence is a great combination that helps make my mind realize that it truly is the most wonderful time of the year: Halloween season. These two series may be short in length but they definitely do not lack anything in the gore department. Week three’s recommendations are all about violent fun and I really hope that these two stories satisfy those vicious needs inside of you. Give them a read and let me know what you think by tweeting me @nathankoffler. 

Halloween: The Gathering Week One
Halloween: The Gathering Week Two