AIPT’s 31 Days of Halloween is back! After a four-year absence, we’re celebrating the spooky season with a new article every day throughout October. Follow along as the AIPT staff explores horror across comics, movies, games, music, and more, with plenty of monsters, scares, and Halloween favorites along the way. Check back every day for something new, all the way through October 31.
Most comic book fans have a solid idea about what they’re going to buy every week as they descend upon their local comic shop. With that said, there’s still a lot of fun to be had just glancing at the week’s new releases and taking a chance on a book that looks promising, funny, scary, etc. That’s where covers come in. A fantastic image can make the difference between trying something new or saying, “Nah, not this week.”
In that spirit, here are the covers that captured our attention this week, with entries from comics editor Chris Coplan. And in honor of AIPT’s ongoing 31 Days of Halloween, we’re choosing only the most spooky, terrifying, and/or holiday-appropriate covers we can unearth. This is Judging by the Cover.
Absolute Green Arrow #6
Was there some uncertainty if “superhero slasher flick” would resonant? Sure, because even the best things in life can be hard to accept. But based on Absolute Green Arrow being extended to 12 issues, I’d say the whole “gimmick” is working, and people continue to connect to this layered thriller with the greatest of ease. So then what’s all that got to do with this InHyuk Lee variant cover? Well, sort of like the book itself, the magic is often in the details. The horrifying, endlessly detail graphic bits, as if someone made a real Warhammer figure with actual human refuse and blood and some random construction bits and what I can only imagine are dead alien limbs. Admittedly, not the most disarming and unsettling piece from this story so far, but still a pretty efficient encapsulation of how horror provides structure and a framework for this book, and then everything else gets built atop. Because you may be focused on the face of a badass assassin, but then you’ll soon realize the chaos and carnage undercutting and extending this story, and how it goes so deep and dark indeed. It’s maybe a little more subtle of a horror show — until it’s not and you’re practically begging for an arrow to the head or chest. Still, we’re going to have to wait a little longer to see if and when that sweet relief ever comes.
Amazing Spider-Man: Halloween Special #1
Of the nine covers we present each week, I promise you this will be the most tame and non-threatening of the entire bunch. And rightfully so: There’s this sensibility I’ve noted in recent years, where it’s only truly Halloween if it’s 1) totally bloody and scary or 2) there’s this overt sense of seriousness to the proceedings. But I recall that Halloween is also being young and dumb, dressing like your favorite cartoon character to gather jumbo-sized chocolate bars from your neighbors. And that’s the exact spirit I can feel radiating off this Paco Medina for Amazing Spider-Man: Halloween Special #1: the joy and frivolity that comes with escaping your own life, throwing on a costume, and celebrating the notion that the barriers in life are ours to kick down as we see fit. That’s my true Halloween spirit — that life and death and all the barriers we manage in daily life are not to be feared but bashed against outright to foster this vital, slightly mischievous connection. Now, if you are looking for fear (and not hopeful messages), consider the world-rattling horror that would come if Deadpool actually wielded Mjolnir, or Ben Grimm was imbued with the power of Silver Surfer. And don’t even get me started on the emotional terror that is “Tony Stark, Captain America.”
The Twilight Zone #11
Variant cover by Vincenzo Riccardi
I grew up on The Twilight Zone, and as far as I’m concerned, there have been no long-term ramifications whatsoever. But I think what an upbringing like that offers is a bit of context — everything is about what you see and how you decide to react, respond, etc. Case in point: this excellent Vicenzo Riccardi variant cover for The Twilight Zone #11. Now, I could look at this and instantly allow myself to tumble head-first in some cascade of psychic horror, and to feel the slow creep of the world’s blurry edges infiltrate my mind and push out all hope and decency. And since I’ve done some version of that beginning in childhood, I can and will do that at least once with this cover. But I can just as easily choose not to fear these horrific beings, and instead to embrace the idea that I am quite small and the world is more delightfully vivid and intense than I could ever truly muster (and that’s generally good/good-ish). And since this isTwilight Zone, after all, I don’t ever need to choose one experience over the other — I can have both at the same dang time, and really relish what it means to be alive in a big, ever-expanding universe where everything is dead and dying but also growing in ways I can’t actually see. That, my friends, is the magic of this fictional universe, and the thing that keeps me warm on many cold, lonely nights.
Six Of Us #2
Cover by Gabriel Hernández Walta
Going back to the point I made in the Amazing Spider-Man blurb, so much of good horror is what you don’t see. Yes, I love when a monster rips apart some co-ed in a geyser of blood and viscera, but that’s a kind of release or catharsis that, for me at least, transcends “traditional” horror. If you really want to scare yourself, and learn what if any value that emotional state holds for your inner life, then you need to not know in a very strategic sense. It’s something that series/cover artist Gabriel Hernández Walta expertly demonstrates with Six Of Us #2. There’s the very obvious levels of the piece, like who are those people and what’s with that body and did those people kill them or not? But then there’s the less obvious layers, like what configuration of victim and perpetrators (if that’s the case) would elicit what emotions out of me? Depending on the viewer and the context, is this going to be a sad scene for a lost fave or am I going to celebrate some jerk’s downfall and some other jerk’s demise? Not knowing drives me batty, and that’s clearly a good thing — we tell so much more of the story to/for ourselves when faced with not knowing, and all the story threads are still in play when we have to manage them flailing about our inner minds. The story becomes something so much more, a worm in our head that eats away at anything until nothing feels truly real. Horror as a proper condition, really, and I hope they never find a cure.
The Eye Collector #5
Variant cover by Jacob Phillips
Like some other AIPT staff, I sure did love Everything Dead & Dying. Not only for Tate Brombal’s emotionally dynamic narrative, but for how series artist Jacob Phillips brought it all to life. I wouldn’t normally associate Phillips with such a deliberately visceral story, but he killed it in balancing the humanity with the endless gore, keeping the reader emotionally engaged while grappling with the sheer violence of it all. There’s some of that same dynamic in his variant cover to The Eye Collector #5. Not that this title needs much help to be unsettlingly affective, but Phillips’ turn is interesting all the same. There’s a deeper sense of humanity to the madness surrounding the Eye Collector, a form of gravity that removes some of the mystery and abstract psychedelics in favor of a snapshot of something painfully, undeniably real. At the same time, there’s this kind of dated-ness and nostalgia permeating the piece, as if we’re looking at something from a forgotten alternate 1957 with the weirdest magazine ever. Both of these concepts together are truly stirring — they foster an intimacy and connection that brings me into this book in a way I hadn’t experience just yet (and that’s frankly unnerving in a new exciting and terrifying way). It’s clear that Eye Collector has real levels to it, and Phillips’ cover is a personal touch that I don’t think I could remove even with a metric tonnes of hand soap.
Filthy Lambs #1
There’s been a lot of talk in this week’s column about the many facets of horror. Sometimes you want the bloody over the mysterious, and other times you require something human over the dark and/or absurd. But the cover to Filthy Lambs #1 proves that the best kinds of horrors can even be beautiful and somewhat grandiose. That notion generally makes sense for this series, which follows a family who has locked up a demon for wealthy and significance (and now their unwilling collaborator may have gotten loose from the basement). But before all that turns into a bloodbath, series/cover artist Chris Evenhuis graces us with a decidedly appealing moment. Even knowing what I know about this person and their family (seemingly), it’s hard to ignore how utterly captivating she is, and how I’m buying what feels a little overly performative with that blood-curdling scream. It’s oddly inviting, like entering a house of all white leather and abstract furniture, and I can’t help but feel some tinge of power and grace even if I knew the homeowner were, say, the worst arms dealer ever. Again, it’s not all that new (Midsommar accomplished much of this same dynamic), but it’s one of my favorite aesthetic approaches for how it uplifts both audience and subject and then allows the sheer horror of it all to slowly crack some facade. And based on all the extra sharp crimson, the eventual smashed facade is going to be epic AF, folks.
Marvel Zombies: War Zone #2
Variant cover by Scott Hepburn
Given that I have the shittiest zombie tattoo this side of the Mississippi River (and I love it, which is why it hasn’t been removed), I feel like I’m an expert in proper zombie depiction. (I’ve also seen zombie movies so good and so bad that either one would break your heart and maybe even make you spit up.) And based on this solid cover from Scott Hepburn for issue #2, Marvel Zombies: War Zone is a generally good zombie tale (even still so early on). For one, it passes the “test of incongruity”: how much is your hero out of place in fighting zombies? Well, I’d say a super-jacked Frank Castle feels both out of sorts and also the perfect choice, and that very dynamic is the foundation for a bloody and unpredictable zombie story. From there, we have to look at the zombie designs; while we’re not exactly in some new terrain, the extra lean, emaciated vibe really works (especially when you considering how far some of these zombies have fallen and how that makes you think about the nature of vitality and power). I will, however, note that the flayed bones and addition of “chubby zombie” does a lot to extend the feel and impact of these undead corpses. Add in some other small touches (i.e., the blood-red sky, a strategic explosion, etc.), and I’d give this a 7.7 out of 10 on the “Zombi-Meter.” If you ask me, certainly enough to shuffle past a lot of the competition.
Did You Hear About Mimi Green #4
Across the first three issues of Did You Hear About Mimi Green?, series/cover artist Josh Cornillon has delivered onto us a lot of great body horror. Issue #3, especially, had a few choice moments, and reading that chapter gave us a sense of the intent and focus that Cornillon deploys in trying to upset and unbalance the audience. But lest you forget, Mimi Green is as emotionally affecting as it is stomach-churningly wonderful, and the truly great moments of this story are when those tent-poles come into full alignment. Case in point: Cornillon’s cover to the fourth and final issue, which to me feels like the perfect synthesis of the book’s themes and interests. Are they traipsing through the actual internet, where pools of blood are as commonplace as bad comments and (gasp) social media metrics? Or, is this an alternate Hell dimension, where they’ve decided to upgrade to horror beyond just, say, electrifying your most delicate bits? It’s likely all of that and also really none of it, a place where you make your own torture and it’s reinforced with every single dumb or half-cocked thing you ever did and say. In short, this realm where pain has plenty of tools, and where old and new, the personal and the social coalesce to move you to tears like few other stories could. With DYHAMG, the world has no real barriers, and everything comes spilling out as to effect us all with brutal efficiency. And as scary as that effectiveness is, it’s also totally undeniable.
Terrorbytes Halloween Annual #1
Admittedly, I haven’t paid as much attention to Terrorbytes as perhaps I should have considering I like tech-centric horror. But if anything could bring me in — aside from a solicitation that notes that “the scariest monsters aren’t hiding in the dark…they’re already here” — it’d be this Dave Chisholm cover. As he proved with the incredible Is Ted OK?, Chisholm knows how to tackle genre fiction in a deeply compelling manner, presenting this singular slice of sci-fi that stoked our imagination as much as it also broke our collective heart. With this Terrorbytes Halloween Special, Chisholm employs the same thoughtfulness and intent to achieve wildly different but equally impressive results. Chisholm’s depiction of robots/technology is wonderfully human; you can feel the overt aggression in such a way that it makes you ponder these “advancements.” Similarly, I found it hard to discern if that was blood and/or motor oil, and falling into that “gap” is exactly what you want in stores like Terrorbytes. Even the angles of this violent act feel especially gripping — there’s this vivid, kinetic intent, mixed with the feel of skin and bone about to pop, that is similarly on the tipping point between terrible reality and gnarly “fantasy.” It’s a moment made for Terrorbytes and similar, spoof-forward stories like Twilight Zone — aggression that questions your reality with vigor and asks you to test that new truth with your own mind/body. The only thing stronger than this robo-graps? Me snatching up a copy posthaste.
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