Halloween Comics
Hey look, a different comic approach! FIVE WHOLE COMICS FOR YOU TO ENJOY! I hope you like them, they were fun to write and draw.
Oh Halloween, that most magical time of year when spirits roam free and demons stalk the streets, looking to devour those that do not offer them respect. Some people like Christmas, I prefer Halloween.
Personally, I find the history of Halloween fascinating. While I’ve never really taken to the whole dressing up thing and only really went trick or treating until I was 10 or 11, I do like the concept of a holiday based on horror. The whole affair has really come a long way since it’s inception as All Saint’s Day, but less far than you’d imagine from it’s traditional roots as Samhain, the Celtic festival celebrating the end of the summer half of the year and the start of the dark winter half. In those days, folks dressed up to placate and ward off spirits, rather than to simply acquire fattening treats, though I imagine that if they had access to Snickers bars, they’d have gone door to door as well.
As an amateur folklorist, storyteller, and mythology nerd, the most interesting part of the holiday is its emphasis on monsters of all types. Television, advertising, and costumes are all oriented toward beasts and creatures, demons and angels, and it’s terribly intriguing to see the sorts of creations humanity has come up with over the years all at once. It’s as though we push the things that scare us and aren’t acceptable away nowadays and only let them come out at Halloween.
Consider the past. Monsters were serious threats to humanity even a few hundred years ago. Every dark place, every unexplored forest, every new frontier held it’s fair share of creatures waiting to tear you limb from limb. The fear of these things was so real it would keep people within settlements at night and worried during the day. Of course, fear is a dangerous thing, and as could be seen with the handling of witches in Europe, it can sometimes get out of hand.
These days we have different fears, newer ones that are harder to identify and even more difficult to grapple with. We’re afraid of terrorists and government plots and each other. We don’t have monsters to channel the energy of fear into something creative and interesting, we just have fear. While it may not always be at the forefront, it is a very real issue that needs to be confronted and dealt with in ways beyond just gross-out, gore-filled horror movies. I’m not sure what the solution to that is, but I am sure there is a solution.
Some look at it as a triumph that we no longer have anything to fear from monsters, and I can certainly relate to that (a more logical society is healthy) but not being able to experience the magic and wonder of monster-kind in the context of their times feels like a major let-down. There’s something about just reading a story about tengu, kappa, dragons, sea monsters, or ghosts that doesn’t quite capture the essence of what it would be like to actually believe these things exist. I’m not saying we should go back to those times, but man, some of the stuff people came up with back then was just crazy cool. The Jersey Devil? The Loch Ness Monster? Baba Yaga?
Totally awesome.
At least we have Halloween, though. I take this time of year to recognize all of man’s fearful creations and to smile at them, realizing that they were, and still remain, tools for our subconscious minds. Let us all appreciate them and enjoy how completely great they are.
You can do that while stuffing your face with candy, if you like.
Discussion (16) ¬
A multitude of Happle Teas! I am delighted.
These were most excellent! My excitement at this post of five comics cannot be expressed with words.
I can express in words how meaningful your blog post is to me, though. As a fellow mythology nerd, I am with you on so much of what you said and your passion for mythology and monsters never fails to thrill me. I love that there seems to be a hype for monsters in the media right now period, no matter how changed they are, because I enjoy seeing re-interpretations of monsters… alas, I was watching some monster hunter show on the SyFy channel today and was rather disturbed when one of the hosts complained about people taking monsters and making pop culture icons out of them (his specific example in this episode was the kappa and how it was once feared and now there’s all sorts of cutesy kappa merchandise in Japan). I like to think that the pop culture monsters are like an introduction for people who realize they want to learn what really made these creatures so frightful to people way back when…
/end rant
Excellent as always. Nice use of a limited palette (though nothing says Happle Tea like the lush colors you usually employ). Any thoughts of a book in the future?
Love the Halloween comics! Great stuff. And I just wanted to let you know I am always pleased by the interesting, thought-provoking blog posts that accompany your comics. Your points are cogent, and your tone is friendly and in a weird way, soothing for me.
So, you know, thanks for being awesome.
Shouldn’t of called his bluff, you know how serious kids can be about this stuff. Also I’ve seen Jehovah’s witnesses disguised as pizza men as well. Scary
“Unplanned Parenthood” is my favorite one.
Can’t stop laughing… can’t breathe… My favorite ones are Marketing Strategy and And Then The Mummy Says… The first one because a lot of people overlook that Dracula couldn’t enter a house without the permission of the owner which is very similar to those JWs. The second one mostly because it goes back to that older comic you did… so Lil’ K was just setting him up! Oh the joke came ’round full circle 😀
Great comics, friend! I’m really enjoying the colour scheme. Marvelous!
I went to school today wearing a druid’s garb to keep the spirit of halloween. It got confiscated. Perhaps the sacrificial goat was a bit much?
Oh no! They got your goat!
I’m so sad that Halloween is over… Thank God it’s Halloween everyday on this site… I LOVE YOU!! :*D lol “Unplanned Parenthood” was my favorite…
4 comics made my day! hope to see more done like this next holiday!
HAAAA! I couldn´t help but to grin ear to ear with the Great Pumpkin from Charlie Brown awww.
Indeed Halloween is one of the most awesome days of the year, but uhh it´s kinda dissapointing to see more ppl dressed up as Playboy bunnies than actual classic monsters. I most agree with ya about the coolness of ghost stories and folk myths; globalization appart from enabling us to expand ourselves a whole lot more, has saddly overcome some really valuable traditions and local spirit per say. Maybe our fears reflect now in more conrete way but we are as incapable of confronting them in more healtier ways…
nicely done 😀 five comics FTW
Re: The absence of magic and the supernatural
I sometimes feel kinda let down by having been born in the west, where most people’s only options are rationalism and a really dull, dogmatic form of monotheism. Since I got interested in Japan, I kinda envied the Japanese. They have all the benefits of living in the modern world – moreso than people in the UK or the USA, really, since their quality of life is generally better, they enjoy greater social justice, etc. – but it coexists easily with their ancient animism. Being Japanese, you can believe in spirits and still get to live in the modern world, and it won’t feel like you’re just pretending because it’s an ingrained cultural practice rather than romantic reconstructionism. It must be great to be able to walk through a forest or climb a mountain and feel that the trees and the rocks are full of onlookers, many of them benevolent, or to feel a real sense of comfort from the knowledge that you treat your household gods well or keep a good shrine to a genius loci. We had all that stolen from us by the Christians. That’s the worst crime of Abrahamism, and particularly Christianity, I think – killing the magic in the world everywhere it went. I want my Celtic Totoro back!
Halloween is soooo awesome right? Yeah I love it. Myths and treats. Halloween is my birthday! 😀 Maybe you are a skinny guy who doesn’t eat much, but Halloween candy was my equivalent of birthday cake! Yum