I love Halloween!  I love it as much as I love Christmas, and that is saying a lot!  I thought it would be fun to do a special Halloween issue this year, counting down my personal 10 recent fave Halloween treats.  And to celebrate the occasion, I thought I would draw a cover Boytoon that seems to scare a whole lot of you! Behold Stephane riding his Jack O Lantern! What you all have against clowns, I’ll never know!  LOL!

So without further delay, here are my fabulously scary top 10 Halloween Treats of 2008!

#1…Undead!
Written and Directed by the very crafty Spierig brothers, this is one of those low budget films that manages to look like a multi-million dollar budget flick.  This movie is so fun and so slick, you forget you’re watching something that cost about $1.50 to make.  In the tongue-in-cheek spirit of The Evil Dead and Dead Alive, Undead maintains the gore-drenched zombie horror tradition as five survivors take shelter in an isolated farmhouse to battle their way through a plague of walking dead.  It’s original and gives the Zombie genre a whole new twist that I just adored! That’s why this little beauty is my #1 Halloween treat of 2008!

#2… Jack Brooks Monster Slayer

What if Buffy had been a boy — A sexy, redneck boy with a real bad attitude and a great set of abs (well, at least on the DVD cover!)?  That’s essentially what this bizarre yet hilariously gory Horroromidy is all about.  And with Robert Englund chewing up the scenery, this one is headed straight for Cult Movie Status! Tentacle porn anyone?

#3… The Monster Trilogy
Okay, so I didn’t care for the second book as much as the first and third, but man o man, can David Wellington ever write a scary trilogy!  His Zombie saga is terribly engrossing and keeps you holding your breath!  Monster Island sees New York become a graveyard of voracious yet frighteningly smart zombies.  Monster Nation, though very cool in its own way, has a lot of military stuff in it (which I seldom like!).  Monster Planet makes you want to sleep with the lights on!  Fantastic reading!

#4… Crossed
Published by Avatar Press, this is one freaky comicbook!  Of course it is, it’s written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Jacen Burrows.  It’s the bloody end of the world alright, and the “infected” or whatever the fuck they are like to rip you apart and then do things to your body part!  Seriously nasty – and seriously addictive! Though be warned, this little blood fest is NOT for the feint of heart!

#5… UGLYDOLLS

Because not everything Halloween has to be about Zombies, blood and mischief, the UGLYDOLLS are the coolest stuffed thing-a-majigs to hit the shelves in a long, long time. Uglydolls are plush, lovable characters that show us that being UGLY means accepting our differences and embracing our flaws. They’re so ugly, they’re adorable.  They come in several different sizes and there are a ton of characters to choose from!

#6… Day of The Dead
I will confess, this is the one Zombie flick that features army stuff that I actually really liked.  It’s no academy award winner by any stretch, but it’s mighty entertaining.  Nick Cannon, Mena Suvari and Ving Rhames star in this horror film based on the George A. Romero classic zombie film. A mysterious virus has infected the small town of Leadville, Colorado, and the military is brought in to enforce a quarantine and stop the spread of the disease. As people perish, survivors realize that the virus is creating the walking dead who crave human flesh. Only a small number of people are immune to the virus, and those few survivors must battle to fend off the infected zombies while trying to make it out of town alive. Great gory fun!

#7… The Ruins
I went into this film with “0” expectations and found myself surprisingly entertained.  Populated by the most insufferable and annoying 20-somethings you could possibly imagine, you actually begin to care for each one of the characters as their doom seems rather inescapable.  Sufficiently creepy to make you keep your feet on the couch, and rather believable in its decent into madness plot line!  Read the book by Scott Smith or watch the movie, but either way, you ought to check this one out!

#8… Fangland
Trust me – this one is Vampires with (at last) a new twist!  Written by John Marks, Fangland has to be read to be believed.  Anything else I tell you here would only spoil the fun and surprises the book holds in store!

#9… Monster Quest
Finally on DVD, this fantastic series is a must for all of you who have ever wondered about the truth behind stuff like Big Foot, Giant Squids, Werewolves, and Sea Monsters!  The series is intelligent and unbiased, and is guaranteed to keep you entertained and actually maybe even teach you something new.  But don’t expect proof beyond a doubt of the existence of the show’s elusive creatures of the week – that sort of thing would make headline news before ending up on a show put together by the History channel!  Still, well worth shelling out for the complete first season!

#10… The Big Penis Book
Okay – so the Big Penis Book isn’t so much about Halloween, but trust me when I tell you it’s DEFINITELY about monsters! Monster cocks, that is.  In The Big Penis Book we explore the centuries-old fascination with the large phallus, a fascination common to men and women alike. This hefty book is profusely illustrated with over 400 historic photos of spectacular male endowments, including rare photos of the legendary John Holmes. The majority of the photographs are from the 1970s, when the sexual revolution first freed photographers to depict the male entirely nude. Photographers include Bob Mizer of Athletic Model Guild, David Hurles of Old Reliable, Colt, Falcon, Sierra Domino, Third World, and Champion Studios, with each of these iconic photographers interviewed or profiled, along with information about each of their models. The Big Penis Book is written and compiled by Dian Hanson and published by Taschen.

So there you are, dear friends – my top 10 Halloween Treats of 2008!  If you get around to sampling any of them ( or if you already have) do let me know what you think!  You know me!  I love discussing this stuff!

Happy Halloween!
Hugz + Kisses,
Patrick XOXO

Stephane © Copyright 2008 Patrick Fillion / Class Comics Inc.  All rights reserved.