Monday, April 9, 2012

Review- HALLOWEEN VOL. 1: NIGHTDANCE

HALLOWEEN VOL. 1: NIGHTDANCE (Devil's Due, 2008; Softcover)
Collects Halloween: Nightdance Nos. 1-4 (cover dates February- May, 2008)
Writer: Stefan Hutchinson
Artist: Tim Seeley
The dangers of upgrading, exhibit A. The now nearly-defunct Devil's Due had solicited a Halloween Omnibus in 2009, which would've collected this mini-series as well as the Halloween: 30 Years of Terror one-shot and Halloween: The Death of Laurie Strode mini-series. Devil's Due hit a couple of hurdles: 1. Like many companies, the financial meltdown in the Fall of 2008, and 2. Diamond Comic Distributors implementing minimum sales requirements for publishers, essentially banishing many small press publishers to Haven Distributors. The problem with that is that Haven was basically two guys in a garage, and was a Hodge-podge operation that failed to make any inroads. It is unfortunate because the small press is where the stars of tomorrow come from. Who knows if the next Ed Brubaker will ever get his break now. I made the mistake of dumping this on eBay when they solicited the Omnibus, only to have it delayed for a year, and eventually be cancelled outright. By that time it was out of print, but I managed to find a copy after a lengthy search. I have since discovered that you can find this on remainder type websites for a few bucks. D'OH!
None of which has anything to do with this book. Halloween: Nightdance is a great read, exceeding anything in the film franchise with the exception of the original 1978 film. The artwork and writing are both top notch, unlike the cheesy Scream flavored Horror in the abysmal H20 film. Michael Myers, a/k/a The Shape, is at his brutal best here. They should show this to a studio and say Look, this is how a Halloween movie should look. While I found the Rob Zombie helmed films somewhat enjoyable, this book has a better story by far.
The OCD zone- The cover is uncoated, and can be scuffed easily. While this particular copy is scuff free, my original copy did get scuffed. The gutters are a bit tight, with some of the monologue boxes sinking to the level of being barely readable. This is the result of Devil's Due not resizing the pages to compensate for the smaller page spread available in a trade paperback versus a single comic book. All of the covers are in the back of the book, an annoyance, but every variant cover is included, which is a plus.

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3 comments:

  1. 'I hope that it's glued.'
    *looks around nervously*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Was there a tpb of the laurie strode mini?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nope. It was originally going to be Halloween: 30 Years of Terror with the one shot and the Laurie Strode mini. It was an Amazon Fish. Once it reached the solicitation cycle, it became a softcover Omnibus that was repeatedly delayed and, ultimately, cancelled. There haven't been any more Halloween comic published since then, which is a shame considering the high quality of these issues.

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