House of Horror - Week 3 (October 12 - October 21)

Okay, my thoughts on the books:

DC Halloween Special 2009:

The framing sequence with the Bizarros is…okay.

The Guy Gardner story is really good, not only fun with all the Lanterns in different costumes, but actually does some interesting stuff with Guy as a character.

The Outsiders story was cool – different to see the Outsiders (which I recently read this version of the team with the Lantern Book Club) with a very different artist in Kelley Jones.

“Halloween Past and Trick Defeat” was okay – kind of felt like a standard Batman story, really.

“Cavity Search” was also felt more like a standard Batman & Robin story – nothing really special.

“Our Father’s Sins” was interesting, liked that they explored a different facet of Halloween with the Day Of the Dead celebration, and fits with where Tim was at the time.

“Mirror Games” was pretty cool – never thought of Bloody Mary being part of the Mirror Dimension, that was pretty clever.

“Haunted or Hoax” was kind of a dud for me – one because I hate when writers depict Wonder Woman as completely ignorant or foreign to the ways of the world in modern times. Like, she’s been around in-universe for almost a decade, she’s probably seen a scary movie or two. The other thing is the art of this one was kind of bad – like the artist was trying really hard to do cheesecake and it just doesn’t work.

“To the Finish Line” was just cute as heck.

Same goes with “My Turn To Be Scary.” It’s not often you see Superman around this time of year, and it really works with Superman’s powerset. Very fun.

DC Halloween Special 2010:

“Trick for the Scarecrow” was a great start. Seeing Batman try to contain his laughter finding that Scarecrow got dropped by a couple of kids was hilarious – even if the face Batman made was terrifying. There’s a reason why we don’t see Batman smile often. It was also funny that it seems like this story is a sequel to another story in a previous Halloween special. Who knew these books had continuity to them?

Speaking of, “Robin, The Vampire Hunter” was cool because it feels like it was referencing the Outsiders story of the previous issue with how the Cult was bringing Andrew Bennet back to the, erm, undead. It was interesting seeing Damian deal with the supernatural like this for the first time.

“Time of Your Life” was certainly a thing that exists.

“A Night To Remember” was really fun. Deadman’s sort of crush on Wonder Woman was cute and I liked that she understood his need for companionship, very sweet.

“Medusa Non Grata” was okay – I liked that the real moral of the story is that what saved the day was a bunch of cool goth kids giving validation.

“Free of Steel” was a pretty cool examination of Superman’s fears, and it was interesting to see Etrigan of all people being the one who helps raise Superman back to his normal level of confidence. However, some of the rhymes in this story is just wack as hell. “Like” and “psyche” just don’t rhyme at all.

House of Mystery #3:

Another solid issue. It’s mostly focused on Fig cementing in her mind that there’s no conventional way of escape. It was funny seeing the other occupants kind of laugh at her antics and even try to prank her for their own amusement. We also get a little idea of what really happens to people who leave in the stagecoach, which is nice.

The only thing I didn’t really care for is the story inside. Here’s my problem: so the gangster breaks out of his bonds by breaking the gas line, and he eventually gets out of the mansion by having "The Neck shoot his gun, which causes the mansion to explode. BUT, how is the gas able to ignite the mansion from that far from the line breakage when another triggerman was able to shoot inside the room without a spark going off? Is it nickpicking? Absolutely. But considering how this is the only story we’ve seen so far that doesn’t have a supernatural element, one kind of expects more of a rational element to it, you know?

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I just joined this week so I spent my time catching up on house of mystery and only made it half way through the '09 Halloween issue. So far the H.o.M. series is pretty good with a pretty decent plot. I’ve always thought “stories for currency” was an interesting concept and it gives the writers room to do some really interesting stuff. For the Halloween issue I really liked that it was split up into a bunch of short stories. It made it easier to jump in and out of in between work and school. Going to attempt to finish both books before Monday but we’ll see. I’ve always loved spooky stuff so I’m really excited to be in this club :purple_heart:

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I am hoping it is okay with everyone, but to keep my post count down here, I am going to comment on the many posts that have come in while I was at work. Seriously, everyone here is excellent. I love coming home and seeing a discussion about horror comics.

According to the DC fandom wiki page, which I reference more than I want to admit, it doesn’t look like it yet. Please review those pages with the knowledge that they are made by fans and not entirely accurate. Characters might be listed that aren’t in the book or they omit characters that are in the books. An example of this was in DCU Halloween Special 2010 where they didn’t list any of Batman’s rogue gallery that was present in the fun Superman story.

The way issue 3 ended made me extremely curious about her. I believe she was in the first book for a brief moment and maybe mentioned in the second book? Either way, they have me hooked on her story.

You are right, maybe I was a bit harder on this story than I should have been. What they did with Guy Gardener was excellent, especially while stating the rules for Halloween.

This is a story I really liked. I don’t remember what I wrote on it, but it is one that has kind of stuck in my head for a bit.

You do bring up valid points. I chose to sort of ignore the faults and go along with it. Maybe I was searching for something to really like in this book and this is one of the stories that I ranked higher than others.

I was crazy surprised to see that when I was reading this book! I really enjoyed that aspect of the story.

We got a bingo! I completely agree with your nitpicking on this story. There were things that just didn’t add up. I actually read that short story twice to see if I missed something, which I have done in the past.

Welcome to the house @Ladydeath!!!

This is a great point and I never really thought about it like that. By having the patrons tell the stories when they are told, it seems more organic.

I have some great news for you on this front! A lot of the horror comics on DCU are anthology based. House of Mystery, Elvira’s House of Mystery, many one-shots, and so much more are all in an anthology format. In fact, these comics even had “hosts” that would introduce and close the stories. If I had to guess, there are 2 anthology books coming up for House of Horror 4 and at the very least 2 more anthologies for House of Horror 5!

I hope you enjoy your stay in the House of Horror and I can’t wait to see your thoughts on the other books! If you would like to see what books we have read before you joined, I have them cataloged here. If you or anyone else has any questions or suggestions you can message me directly!

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I still need to finish this week’s issues. I’ve been too busy this week. Hopefully I get a chance to finish by Monday.

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Being too busy is my middle name! I have just finished working 13 days in a row. I am off tomorrow and I am not answering the phone if I see work is calling. My plans are to read some comics and get in some much-needed relaxation. Being honest, I think this club is one of the few things that keeps me sane.

Also, our books won’t change until Thursday so you have a little bit of time!

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You can do it!

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The History of the Halloween Special or How I Managed To Go Off-Topic and Love the Parade
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As I typed the words “…we will be taking a closer look at the Halloween Special.” I knew my work was cut out for me. Will I have the time to dig through the entire DC comic book history to find a definitive answer? Once I asked myself that question, I came extremely close to deleting those fated words. The easy out is to just look at the comics with titles like DCU Halloween Special or perhaps Wildstorm Halloween Special. However, sometimes the easy way out isn’t the most fulfilling. The gears in my head have been spinning since Monday. The main question I keep asking myself is what was the first DC comic to feature Halloween? Then something happened along the way in my many Google searches. I got a bit off-topic but stay with me for a bit.

Comicbooks have been a big part of an annual Halloween parade in Rutland, Vermont. The inspiration is so big that the parade has been featured in both DC and Marvel books and is the catalyst for the first DC/Marvel Crossovers!

From Comics Alliance:

Following the first Rutland Halloween Parade’s lackluster showing in 1959, a motivated Tom Fagan went to Rutland’s Recreation Department, where – as he later remarked to Alter Ego magazine – communicated, “We should have a theme for this. Because it’s Halloween and these are creatures of the night, you should have Batman as parade marshal to lead off the parade.”

If you clicked the link you will also see that Marvel beat DC by featuring the parade in a comic. DC wasn’t far behind when they released Batman 237 in 1971.



You might notice a certain superhero costume that is not DC sanctioned in this picture, I know I spotted it instantly.

In Justice League of America 103 released in 1972, Justice League visited Rutland for the parade. It should also be noted such real-world DC Comic employees such as Len Wein made appearances in this book.


The comics from both DC and Marvel that featured the Rutland Halloween Parade had characters from the other company making an appearance. Of course, this would only lead to these creative minds wondering if they could do a crossover.

To get back on the topic of the Halloween Special. At first glance, it appears the first Halloween Special on DCU is not even a DC title! In 1997 the comic shelves saw Wildstorm Halloween Trilogy of Terror. The interesting this about this book being on DCU is that at the time of release, Wildstorm was an imprint of Image Comics. Of course, as we all know Jim Lee is the man currently running DC Comics but that wasn’t always the case. In the early 90s, he joined up with other creators to form Image Comics. Throughout time, the imprint was later sold to DC. I could go deeper into the history of Image and Wildstorm but I don’t want to get too off track.


If you dig a little deeper, you will find that the first DC title to have the words Halloween Special is actually Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special 1!

This was released in 1993 and became an annual book for Legends of the Dark Knight until 1995.

The next time we would see a Halloween Special appear was in 2007 with the Infinite Halloween Special. Oddly, this title is not on DC Universe at this time. The cover promises “13 Tales of Terror!” and seems to follow the format of the books we have read this week. The tradition of the Halloween Special lasted until 2010. Yes, more Halloween-themed anthology books have been released since then but the titles have changed over the years ranging from Comics Calvacade to DC House of Horror to Secrets of Sinister House.
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If anyone happens to know the first DC Comic that featured Halloween, I would love to know! My research obviously took me elsewhere but that question still lingers.

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Protip: You might want to hold off on that one for another week. I have a weird feeling we will be seeing it here just before Halloween.

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Those magazines look amazing! What is Twomorrow, like a digital magazine thing? If so I might be jumping on there and getting a magazine.

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I’m gonna need to check out that JLA issue. I’m always interested in the history of comics so thanks @D4RK5TARZ.

I don’t know the first DC comic to feature Halloween but there are covers out there that are Halloween themed such as Comic Calvacade #12 which came out on September of 1945. Here’s the cover but since it could be offensive I feel a content warning is in order.

Comic_Cavalcade_Vol_1_12

@dogwelder9 that sounds really cool. I’ll have to check it out.

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That is amazing! That middle mask…well I have a feeling that book won’t be on DCU anytime soon. Like you, I am interested in the history of comics. I am not sure if you have clicked the link that I provided for Comics Alliance, they go deeper into the parade by including the Marvel books at the time that had DC characters in them. It was an excellent resource in pointing out key issues that I have mentioned here. Furthermore, I am sure you are aware but I do like mentioning other clubs when applicable and DC History Club ran by @msgtv and @TurokSonOfStone1950 has been an inspiration for these little write-ups. I don’t have nearly enough time to write as much as I want on each subject, which may be for the better so we can return to some topics in the future.

I did find some other comics of interest ranging from DC Super-Stars that actually had the words “Halloween Special” on the cover but it wasn’t a one-shot or anything like that to some random team-up books, which we will be covering at least one of them in our future.

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I’ve only read a few issues here and there myself. I was planning on covering some of them over at the JSA Book Club but stuff from the Golden Age didn’t go over to well in our first discussion so I dropped the idea.

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This is sort of a surprise but maybe not. I have noticed in HoH that the older books seem to be popular as well as the newer books. Maybe it is a different crowd? Either way, I definitely appreciate everyone going along the weird ride here as I try to mix up eras as much as possible.

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That is very true, still, I am a fan of that set up. I think that is one thing that House of Mystery sort of borrowed from that era, at least the anthology aspect. I know it was a different beast but the idea seems to be there. Hmm…perhaps that can be a future spotlight, the history of the anthology horror comic. Also, that seems like something that will be in parts as opposed in one entry.

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It could be that or perhaps the genre of the comics themselves. Golden Age comics are a bit verbose so that is likely another issue. That being said I may try some Golden Age stuff at the JSABC again at a later date and see how it goes.

That’s what I like about HoH amd what makes it unique.

Feel free to.

All Star Comics was basically an anthology book of reprinted stories from other comics. Those chapters were stories that appeared in the members individual comics.

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It doesn’t seem impossible. I know a while back when DC was going to publish an omnibus of Golden Age Wonder Woman, there was calls of banning it or editing the original pages because it included some blackface and really bad racial stereotypes. Ultimately it was published with a warning, saying that it was unedited, not as an endorsement, but to try to hide and edit the blemishes in history is foolhardy and damaging.

Would that happen today? I’m not sure, but like I said, not impossible.

I mean, I was/still am in both but I just think Bonze Age books read better typically than Golden Age.

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I enjoy reading both but for different reasons.

:man_shrugging:t4:

For me reading the Golden Age stuff is about learning a character’s roots. Where they started from. How their original creators envisioned them. How those stories are very much a product of their times just as all comics and other media are. That sort of thing.

Its also about seeing the evolution of the medium itself and how views on certain races and nationalities changed in comics to reflect the change in attitudes over the course of decades.

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I think I have been able to track down the first horror comic!!!
Eerie Comics 1 (one-shot) was released in 1947. I will keep digging for the first DC one but now I have a starting place!
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That looks interesting.

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Joe Kubert worked on it which is actually pretty cool.

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