Learnt Offerings - Legend of the Swamp Thing Halloween Spectacular & The Doomed and the Damned
Halloween Specials fucking Rule.
Perhaps more than any other comics publisher, DC, has made a tradition of getting into the Halloween spirit with their long-running series of Halloween special books. This year that proud/spooky tradition continues beautifully with two terrific releases that I wholeheartedly recommend you check out.
Though both of these releases are also out digitally, I'd always encourage those of you that can safely do so to seek them out at a local independently owned Comic Shop. I paid a visit to my friends at Chattanooga's Infinity Flux (good horror-loving folks!) to secure my copies. If you're one of our Chattanooga based readers, I'd recommend hitting Infinity Flux up!
As a lifelong fan of Swamp Thing, The Legend of Swamp Thing Halloween Spectacular was pure joy. Comprised of six short tales "rooted in terror" that each takes a look at the many forms of Swamp Thing over the years. DC recently canceled the Giant-Size Swamp Thing series it was releasing--A direct result of pairing down their monthly offerings due to the pandemic--and I honestly missed the big green guy. Now that the CW is airing the canceled far too soon recently series and fans seem to be waking up to its charms; I'm hopeful that we'll see more of him soon.
Clocking in at a whopping 80 pages, DC's The Doomed and the Damned boasts some of my favorite artwork I've seen in comics this year. It's an easy book to recommend based on its visuals alone. But to sell it further, we also get a new story by Preacher/The Boys creator Garth Ennis and a brief but spooky tale that might be as close as we'll ever get to seeing Batman fight Candyman.
I chased these two books with a Costco sized amount of Sour Patch Kids over the weekend, and it leveled up my October faster than anything Pumpkin Spice Related ever could.