Ok, HALLOWEEN won the “which horror franchise’s comics should I binge read next” poll, which means we’re starting with this well-worn copy of HALLOWEEN #1 from 2000.

As a young horror fan growing up dreaming of comics based on these franchises, this one absolutely blew my mind when it came out. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

One thing I’ve always loved about this comic is that it really lets us see a different Loomis, years before Ahab mode set in, who was doing everything in his power to help his withdrawn patient. At first, he is truly looking out for this kid’s best interest.

It really takes the movie’s monologue to heart. At first, Loomis sincerely wants to help Michael. The change is gradual, it’s just little things at first, and it makes it that much more tragic to witness him become the broken man we’re introduced to in the original film.

It also shows us the shit Michael got away with in Smith’s Grove, liking killing a kid who ate his birthday cake and this Halloween party bobbing for apples scene lifted directly from the original novelization.

Moving onto the second issue: HALLOWEEN II: THE BLACKEST EYES.

If you ever wanted a direct sequel to CURSE, full of Thornsploitation, this is it. Plus, we’ve got the return of not only our hero Tommy Doyle, but Sheriff Brackett, Mrs. Blankenship and even Lonnie Elam!

We also get a VERY detailed history of both the town of Haddonfield and the Myers family.

Onto HALLOWEEN III: THE DEVIL’S EYES, which brings Lindsey Wallace back into the fold and attempts to somehow tie together the events of CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS and H20.

Next up: HALLOWEEN: AUTOPSIS. This creepy one-shot came packaged with the H25 documentary. It’s about a sociopathic photojournalist who becomes obsessed with Michael’s work and is forced to reconcile the fact that death is the only thing that has ever or will ever make him feel.

Up next is one of my all time favorite licensed horror comics, HALLOWEEN: NIGHTDANCE. It is absolutely next level great.

NIGHTDANCE beat HALLOWEEN ‘18 to the punch on the “Michael makes a Jack o’ Lantern out of a human head” front.

A lot of the kills in NIGHTDANCE are super sad and bleak. Here’s a good example, but there are a couple way darker than this that literally felt like too much to post.

Next, HALLOWEEN: 30 YEARS OF TERROR. This one’s an anthology full of great little vignettes. It’s basically “22 Short Films About Haddonfield.” Only, less than that.

Some great inter-comic continuity: in AUTOPSIS, one of the crime scene photos is of a slain beauty queen believed to have been killed by Michael. One of the stories here depicts her death.

One of the stories is narrated by Laurie, a stream of conscious retelling of her life, her trauma, reconciling both her friends’ deaths and her acceptance of being Michael’s sister, which is at the end revealed to be being written on the night of her death in RESURRECTION.

Speaking of trauma, we’ve made it to the final issue of this binge reading, the only issue I have of the tragically unfinished miniseries, THE FIRST DEATH OF LAURIE STRODE.