Among all festivities, Halloween takes the top spot for the sheer fun of dressing up as spooky monsters and fan-favorite characters. It is a holiday based on the horrifying premise that at night, the dead arise to haunt the world of the living. With a paradigm shift in what defines horror when real-life incidences are rocking society, Halloween gets a new look in Halloween Party. By writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn and featuring artwork from Scott Koblish and Hi-Fi and letters from Joe Sabino, Halloween Party #1 from Image Comics makes quite the splash with a killer adventure filled with wacky aliens and gun-trotting mercs.
Halloween Party #1 welcomes readers to a grand party celebrating the onset of the Halloween season, with beasts and monsters from all corners of the country attending the festive gala. However, everyone has a long face as humans are either falling prey to the system or murderous psychopaths in public spaces. As they lament, the boisterous Scotch McTiernan crashes the party, sending everyone scurrying. Looking at McTiernan’s expertise, someone suggests employing the merc to rid them of all the aliens and mass murderers taking away their glory. McTiernan starts to reminisce about his past adventure, oblivious to the sinister plans of the event’s organizer.
Halloween Party #1 gets into the groove with its very first page, soaking it in the devilish grins of a killer clown and his stooges as the horror slowly creeps onto the reader. Just as the bullets come flying, the story makes a full 180-degree turn along with its Pennyworth-wannabe, conning readers into getting into a wild ride involving sex, drugs, and unmistakable satire. Writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn roll exhilarating style and dizzying pace into one giant spliff that delivers a wacky sense of time with no real clarity in the transitions. There is a definite plot somewhere that can only be made heads or tails of in the aftermath of Scotch McTiernan’s spectacular disasters caused by his foolishness, overconfidence, or both. The issue is filled with movie and character references, which are initially fun but eventually overstay their welcome.
The artwork is the real reason for the book to feel so amped up and overdosed on nerve-wracking energy. Halloween Party #1 is a monster mash, with every fiend from literature and pop culture making themselves known in Where’s Waldo-style layouts, naturally leaving the onus of identifying them all on the reader. If they get tired of it, readers can piggyback through an alien-infested flashback, illustrated ostentatiously by Scott Koblish with enough gore to balance the psychedelic banquet. Colorist Hi-Fi keeps up the spirit and gives readers a colorful welcome into this over-the-top book, painting every panel with a vivid array of shades and tones. As if creating an electrifying atmosphere is not enough, Hi-Fi also adds shiny effects to make the action pop.
For those looking for a fun way to pass the time, Halloween Party #1 is here to distract from any woes but add new ones on top by the time they’re done reading it. Not by design, but the whole schtick is so much that it is really good at keeping the wackiness in the narrative high throughout. The plethora of references thrown at the readers shows that the story does not take itself seriously, which is why it is fun despite its chaotic nature. Halloween Party #1 may not particularly uphold the spirit of the occasion it takes its name from as a parody, but it is a goofy affair nonetheless.
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