John Carpenter’s Tales for a Halloweenight #1 Review: A Gory Bang

Halloween is that one magical night of the year where people come together and scare the living daylights out of each other. Because of that, the horror everything is out in full force and sales of said horror skyrocket. Of these types of horror is comics. One of the more recent ones is “John Carpenter’s Tales for a Halloweenight,” an anthology comic where the first story is written by John Carpenter himself. The first issue starts things off with a gory bang.

Carpenter’s story, “The Ghost maker” with art by Federico De Luca, is about two friends having a discussion about Schrodinger’s Cat which devolves into absolute horror for one of them.
It’s an interesting enough story with plenty of tension and one crazy payoff. The art is the best part. This is high-quality stuff here.

“At Sea” by Trent Olsen with art by Tone Rodriguez and colors by Sian Mandrake is about a group of friends having a fun day out at sea when one of them falls ill. Things take a turn for the worse when the rest of them start facing dangers themselves. Another one with nice art but the story isn’t all that interesting and the payoff is a bit predictable.

“Bunny Didn’t Tell Us” by David J. Schow and art by Darick Robertson, Richard P. Clark and Diego Rodriguez, is about a gangster digging up the grave of a pimp who has something of value to another pimp. What awaits him is this corpse refuses to rest. Both the art and story are worth checking out and the payoff will appease all gory hounds.

“Some Grubb” by James Ninnes with art by Brett Simmons with colors and letters by Ben Glibert is about a thief meeting a contact in a diner and telling about why his two cohorts died during the job. Story and art-wise, this one’s not worth reading. It’s the weakest of all six stories with some grammar mistakes, a weak story and predictable payoff.

“Notice to Quit” by Duane Swierczynski with art by Richard P. Clark is about a guy who commits suicide but decides to call 911 and save his life. The near-suicide has made him possessed by a demon and he’s now trying o get the demon out. This is the best story of the lot. The tension and horror are great here and the at brings out the messed-up situation nicely.

Finally, there’s “Fortune Broken” by Sandy King with art by Leonardo Manco with colors by Mariana Sanzone. Here, a woman is accidentally murdered in front of a pawn shop and a young girl decides to take the woman’s ring. The ring, however, is cursed and causes evil things to happen to our heroine. While the art brings out the evil overtones of the setting, the story is decent. It’s not really scary and the ending is predictable.

While some stories aren’t that interesting, “John Carpenter’s Tales for a Halloweenight” has plenty of great stories and art that are well worth looking into for all your horror needs.