Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate the spooky holiday.

My tradition is to try and do some cool jack-o-lanterns which I thought I would share here.

First off the Fleischer Studios take on Superman. This truly has been the year of Superman so I thought it made sense to celebrate it here.

I also did an Escapist jack-o-lantern because my girlfriend and I just saw The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay opera at the Met last month. So this seemed timely!

Hope everyone gets more treats than tricks!

2022 Jack-O-Lanterns

As many know, one of my favorite Halloween traditions is to carve pumpkins. Nothing better for a creative outlet than figuring out what jack-o-lanterns I am going to carve and then figure out the design. If you use the Halloween tag here, you'll see the pumpkins of yesteryear (as well as some Halloween comic reviews). 

A more recent sub-tradition is doing a Legionnaire pumpkin each year. Over the years I have put together quite a mission team: Sensor Girl, Wildfire, Monster Boy, Quislet, and now this year's addition ... White Witch.

This was a bit trickier than I thought it would be as the long eyelash antennae were a  bit delicate and required some fine carving. But overall, I think this came out pretty good! Welcome aboard Mysa!

But I am more pleased with the second jack-o-lantern.

2021 Jack-O-Lanterns

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is carving jack-o-lanterns. You can hit the link to see some of my assorted pumpkins from yesteryear (as well as some comic reviews relevant to the holidays).

I have decided that each year I will try to do a Legionnaire for a pumpkin, having done Sensor Girl, Wildfire, and Monster Boy so far.

This year, I went to Twitter to ask for some suggestions and got a ton of great ideas. But several people thought Quislet would be a fun one to try. 

Given the complexity of the other carving I was going to try, I figured Quislet was a good comic character to try. His design is relatively easy.

I am a big fan of the Baxter era and loved the quirky Quislet so hope you like this!

2020 Jack O'Lanterns

Happy Halloween everyone!

As many know, I love to carve jack-o-lanterns around Halloween time and try to challenge myself with semi-complicated designs. 

I am no artist but I am always chuffed with the results. And I have recently decided to try and do a Legionnaire when I decide on doing a comic related carving. I will post pics of those below.

This year I thought I would celebrate the new Legion of Super-Heroes by picking one of the new recruits! So here is my attempt at a Monster Boy carving.

No one will know who this is on the block. But I don't care. I am pretty happy. 

And Arune Singh (who Monster Boy is based on) and Brian Michael Bendis were pretty pumped when they saw this on Twitter.

I also decided to do a Bride of Frankenstein carving this year and this also came out pretty good. 

I don't think there is mistaking for anything but the Bride! 

My hope was to do a Frankenstein one as well but as of this posting I haven't got to it yet.

From 2016, here is Wildfire!

From 2014, here is Sensor Girl!

Have a safe Halloween in this pandemic 2020!!

2018 Jack O'Lanterns

Happy Halloween to every one who celebrates the creepy holiday!

I love the day for it's inherent fun. Costumes and candy! There is no downside.

But my particular niche of Halloween is jack o'lanterns. Every year I plan out a couple of pumpkins to carve and I try to elevate my game. I usually try to include one specific comic character having done Supergirl (duh), Flash, Reverse Flash, Rocketeer, Sensor Girl, and Wildfire in the past.

This year, blog friend Ryan Daly recommended that I honor the passing of Steve Ditko with one of the lanterns. Folks know that I love Ditko's DC stuff - Shade the Changing Man, Hawk and Dove, the Question, and Stalker are all faves of mine.

But this is Halloween. So it seemed more appropriate to pick something more horrific.

What could be more nightmarish than The Dread Dormammu!

I am pretty stoked about this lantern as it tool a lot of fine and delicate knife work. That head is basically floating except for the horn connections so that it precarious and unstable. One of my favorites no doubt.

So what else did I do?

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all the ghosts and goblins out there!

As is my tradition, I strive to do decent jack-o-lantern carvings and each year attempt a theme of sorts. Usually it isn't solely comics. I usually only have one comic lantern each year, what I call 'my pumpkin'.

But this year is the 25th anniversary of Batman the Animated Series and I thought what theme could be better. With a couple of nephews who are all into Batman these days, I decided I'd get carving. I hope these turned out okay.

I wanted to do something a bit art deco for the 'main' pumpkin, something sort of daring and risky. I felt that end image of the opening when the lightning bolt lights up Batman is so iconic that it would be the ultimate homage.

This was tough for a couple of reasons. For one, I drew the stencil on backwards from the show opening, a rookie mistake. But then trying to decide what would be carved, uncarved, and through was a challenge. I needed to add details so people would know this was Batman.

I am on the fence about this one, not sure if I am happy with it or not.

2016 Jack o'Lanterns

Happy Halloween everyone!

As many know, my creative outlet at Halloween is the jack o'lantern! Every year I carve 4 or 5 pumpkins, trying to increase the technical skill involved and still making it fun. A theme also tends to pop up each year as I try to do ones that my kids will enjoy. But every year, there is one pumpkin I carve just for me.

This year, my jack o'lantern is Wildfire from the Legion. Wildfire has always been my favorite Legionnaire so I figured I would give it a shot. I wanted to highlight the cowl, face plate, and symbol and I thought this pose (swiped from a Greg LaRocque panel) did nicely.

The original plan was to have energy leaking from the vent at the top of the helmet but my artistic attempts at Kirby Krackle failed so I opted for the Legion symbol instead.

Click on to see more!

2015 Jack O Lanterns

Halloween was yesterday and as usual most of this week was spent carving jack-o-lanterns. Each year I try to step up my game and I felt like I had stagnated a bit. But this year I am very pleased with how things came out. Even better, the supergirls at home have been doing these with me and have done their own the last couple of years. This year the ones they produced were unreal, equal if not better than mine. Here we go.

I don't think I had ever done a Marvel lantern before and so I thought I should go classic. I use the phrase 'my spider sense is tingling' all the time at work so thought this would be the way to go.

Technically this was pretty simple, just a matter of doing a lot of scraping.

The Flash has become a staple in my house. The supergirls and I watch it and love it. So I thought a Flash lantern would be timely.

This one was a bit trickier, trying to figure out the carving style. The 'speed lines' were a late addition. Super-wife came up with the idea of a lighting gradient going fomr light to dark. Thought that added a lot of energy.

This required a lot of careful scalpel work and a lot of thinning of the pumpkin from the inside.

Given the main villain of season one was the Reverse Flash, I thought a battle of the lanterns would be fun.

I probably should have thinned this one out more.

I decided that reverse speed lines would be a nice touch.

I simply reversed the stencil I made for the Flash to create a Reverse Flash. This one was the reverse of the last, so didn't have to think too much on the design.

But this was really the effect I wanted. To have the two speeding towards each other.

I am pretty psyched with how this came out.

 I am sorry not to have an 'unlit' pic of this Rei Ayanami (from Neon Genesis Evangelion) jack o lantern. This is my favorite anime and amazingly the middle Supergirl at home loves it as well. I knew this one wouldn't last long given some of the thin parts of pumpkin just hanging out in space. Sure enough this morning it looks quite rotted.

I am most impressed with how the illusion of the floating double zero came out. Lucky to have pulled this off.

Carving these is always a fun family time.

The supergirls at home have been helping and doing them the last couple of years. The oldest pulled off this snow leopard lantern this year. This might be the best of the lot given the precision work on the spots. Call me a proud papa.

The youngest did a Bill Cipher (from Gravity Falls) with a little help from her old man.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Mike Maihack's Supergirl/Batgirl Halloween Comic

One of my favorite things in the world is Mike Maihack's Batgirl/Supergirl comics. They are absolutely a treat mixing in the sensibilities of the super-family and the bat-family while being lighthearted and fun. And lucky for us, Maihack has put together another one just in time for Halloween.

What I like about Maihack's Batgirl is that she puts on the airs of the grim and gritty Bat-family but clearly has a warm heart. And what I love about his Supergirl is that she has a wonderful joie de vivre which permeates everything she does. In this strip we see all of that.

Supergirl, garbed in a Halloween version of the super-suit, is trick-or-treating with Streaky while Batgirl pummels the Scarecrow.

But Batgirl is so overwhelmed by the cuteness of Streaky in a Bat outfit that she pauses the fight to give Supergirl candy.  (The wide-eyed Kara in panel four, hopeful for candy, is so perfect.)

And I love that Kara has a variety of outfits for Streaky to optimize maximum candy from the person she is visiting.

I would read this if it was a monthly. Take my money DC!

As always, visit Maihack's site for more news, comics, and his great Cleopatra in Space books: http://cowshell.com/buffalog/

2014 Halloween Jack O'Lanterns

Happy Halloween everyone!

Folks who have been here over the years know that I love to carve jack-o-lanterns. And I usually end up doing lanterns on pop culture stuff that I like and the supergirls at home like as well.

I have been contributing to The Legion of Super-Bloggers, Legion of Super-Heroes blog, covering the 5YL Legion series. And that has re-energized my love of the Legion. So I definitely wanted to do a Legion jack-o-lantern. I toyed with a number of designs, including Wildfire and Ferro Lad, but ultimately decided on Sensor Girl and I have to say I am thrilled with how this came out.

In particular, I tried something new artistically with the 'hair', going for a varied, organic, mix of depths to give the hair a natural feel. I just sort of carved without a plan, unlike the level smooth look of the mask, and the varying light gives the hair some texture.

Here is the lantern when it isn't lit.

The youngest supergirl at home is a huge fan of Pacific Rim and asked for a lantern based on the movie.

I thought that doing the logo of Gipsy Danger would be a nice lantern for her. The more graphic design, the WW2 bomber image of a woman with a machine gun, looked too daunting for my skills and so I opted to do the simpler Gipsy Danger logo.

As long as supergirl likes it ... I'm happy.

Here it is unlit.

I only have lit pictures for these other ones I have done.

Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Mockingjay from the Hunger Games.

And lastly, Snoopy as an ace WWI fighter pilot.

I have to say I was way happier with these lanterns in comparison to last year's. I felt like last year was a let down.

Hope everyone has a happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I have sung the praises of Mike Maihack in the past on this blog, showcasing his Supergirl/Batgirl comics.

Well, Maihack has done another wonderful comic with the two heroes, this time Halloween based. Here is the link to his site and the comic (seen above): http://cowshell.com/2013/10/22/happy-halloween-from-batgirl-and-supergirl/

Maihack has always captured the classic personalities of the two heroes in these brief strips. Barbara is determined like anyone in the bat-family but maybe with a little light that is being hidden. And Supergirl is bright, sunny, and optimistic. Heck, Supergirl gave Killer Croc cookies and made him promise not to fight on Christmas in the last strip.

So in this comic Supergirl has to convince Batgirl that they should go trick-or-treating on Halloween rather than patrol. Batgirl agrees knowing that walking the streets is a patrol of sorts. They even capture the Penguin!

Far and away, my favorite panel is Supergirl mockingly saying 'Quickly Batgirl, to the candy!' with a faux seriousness on her face. Just perfect!

To see other Maihack stuff, you can search my site here:
http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/search/label/Mike%20Maihack 

Or head to his site: http://cowshell.com/

2012 Jack O' Lanterns

One of my favorite parts of Halloween is carving jack o'lanterns.

Now I have done years with themes and years without themes and I thought this was a themeless year.

But taking a step back, I guess I have to say this was a Faustian year for my pumpkins.

First off, after years of carving, I finally decided to try to do a Supergirl jack o'lantern. And the Super Best Friends Forever Supergirl seemed a perfect choice. I am pretty happy the way this turned out. I knew it would be challenging to pull off and it was. It looks better in person than this picture shows; you can barely see the cape in this pic. Of course, this Supergirl is the brain child of Lauren Faust.

Last year I did Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The MLP fever remains strong in my house and so I thought I would do another pony as a jack o'lantern. So this is Pinkie Pie. Again, I think this one came out okay. And, much like Supergirl, this version of Pinkie Pie is the creation of Lauren Faust.

This year, the oldest Supergirl at home and I teamed up to carve a Princess Luna jack o'lantern. Looks like she is a chip of the old block, even if I did the exacto-knife work. And of course, Princess Luna is part of the Lauren Faust MLP empire.

Thus three Faustian jack o'lanterns were in front of my house last night.

A last minute addition to the jack o'lanterns was this Mockingjay symbol from the Hunger Games. The oldest supergirl at home loved this series so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Of all the pumpkins I carved this year, I think this one is my favorite.

I also had the time to carve one for a family member who is a huge Bruins fan. I like this one a lot too.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween: Review Adventure Comics #396

Happy Halloween to all the ghouls and goblins out there.

I am, unfortunately, still carving my jack-o-lanterns so can't post them here in time for trick-or treat time. So instead I thought I would present a spooky Supergirl story from the Adventure Comics run in the early 70s.

There is some synergy here as I actually reviewed the first part of the story earlier this month when talking about the thought beasts of Krypton. If you want to refresh your memory, you can go here for the full review:
http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2012/10/review-adventure-comics-395.html

In that story, Linda Danvers spends the night in a 'haunted mansion'. The haunting later turns out to be the Phantom Zone villains broadcasting evil telepathy through a amped-up television set. The house belonged to a missing  inventor Amos Ameswell. At the end of that first part, the Phantom Zone villains have been 'unplugged' when Supergirl destroyed the TV set. But then suddenly Ameswell seemed to magically appear!

Writer Bob Kanigher does an interesting job in this 2 parter mixing science fiction and horror elements. It makes for a bit of a muddled story but a fun one nonetheless. Artist Kurt Schaffenberger puts in his usual fantastic work, especially in the expressions Kara has in the story. 

But this is supposed to be a Halloween story! I think with a title like 'I am a witch!' it fits the bill, especially when we see on the opening splash page Supergirl surrounded by black cats and broken mirrors.

Supergirl seems perplexed by the sudden appearance of Ameswell especially when he starts to cackle about how she hasn't earned the reward for staying in the haunted house overnight.

Hoping to get some answers about where Ameswell has been for the last 12 years, Supergirl tries to grab him only to have him seemingly do some rapid fire shape changing - fire to smoke to python to lion to condor and back to human.

Supergirl seems unconvinced that his tricks are true magic. After all his 'haunted house' was also explained by the science of the transmitting television.

Ameswell means to convince Supergirl that there is some factual basis behind magic and superstitions. And so he brings her into his 'bad luck room', a place filled with objects meant to curse someone with ill fortune.

In some ways it's comical ... ooooh, a salt shaker, a mirror, and a black cat! But Supergirl takes it all with a ... ahem ... grain of salt. In fact, she seems to forget that there is a mystery behind Ameswell's disappearing/reappearing act. Instead she decides to have a conversation with him.

In the midst of the conversation, Ameswell shows he believes these items to be capable of affecting someone's luck. When he spills the salt, he tosses some over his shoulder.

Supergirl aims to show Ameswell that superstitions are nothing but nonsense. And so she walks around his bad luck room and does everything she can to give herself ... well ... bad luck.

For some reason I think the panel of Supergirl defiantly walking under a ladder is awesome. Maybe because it is so inane.

Unfortunately, it looks as though her disregard for superstitions might lead to tragedy.

When she stops to help a group of civic minded young men build a boys' center, she ends up destroying it.

And later when she tries to save some passengers on a runaway roller coaster, she ends up accidentally demolishing the ride.

And lastly, when she tries to save some pilots at an air show who are in danger, she only makes matters worse, sending them into a worse predicament.

It is clear that she has toyed with powers beyond her ken.

And, this being the Silver Age, she goes through a momentary crisis of self-doubt.

Supergirl figures that after afflicting herself with bad luck, and knowing that being a jinx with super-powers is a recipe for major disasters, she has no choice. She must banish herself to the Phantom Zone!

Ahh ... the Silver Age.

Meanwhile, from afar, Ameswell cackles in joy. He has seen Supergirl have a 'super-breakdown'. And he knows that with Supergirl out of the way he can use all his powers and inventions to terrorize future victims.

His greatest machine of all, a time machine he has used over those missing 12 years to travel through time and learn from the greatest dark magicians in history.

Hmmm, maybe he has some 'real' magic powers after all?

Before he can enjoy his victory for too long, Supergirl crashes into the house and destroys the time machine. (I guess Ameswell has to say 'irreplaceable' so as readers we know he won't simply rebuild things.)

Maybe now is the time for him to break out that black magic he used??

I guess he doesn't really have magic powers after all.

It turns out that Supergirl's jinxiness came from science ... an anti-mass destruct element Ameswell invented and spilled on Supergirl. Thus anything she touched she would destroy. (Of course, that doesn't explain the lack of control of her super-breath in the airplane rescue.)

Looking herself over after the accidents, Supergirl noticed the elements and deduced that Ameswell set her up. So she washed it from her hands and returned to bring Ameswell to justice.

While the earlier part of this story was wonderfully silly, the end sort of falls short. Why would Ameswell, a great scientist, use his inventions to learn magic to terrorize people. Aren't there easier ways to use a time machine and anti-mass destruct elements to do that? And did he actually learn magic anyways? Why did he have the bad luck room set up ... just in case a super-hero showed up so he could try to convince them they had bad luck? And why did he return just at this moment?

I guess I'll just have to roll with it.

Still, I do love that montage showing Supergirl standing with her arms crossed, daring to let a black cat walk in front of her.

So a sort of silly, magical, superstitious tale for Halloween.

Don't eat too much candy!

Overall grade: B

2011 Jack O Lanterns

With Halloween behind us, I figured I would share my jack-o-lanterns from this year. I know it has nothing to do with Supergirl or even comics but I take my carving pretty seriously and thought this year's batch came out pretty good.

Since it had been 40 years since their last Stanley Cup, I decided to honor the Bruins. These were technically easy but came out just the way I hoped.

This year, I got to expose the Supergirls at home to Jem and The Holograms. Repeats began running on The Hub channel. I seem more entertained by the show then they are but they liked the idea of a Jem jack-o-lantem. This came out just about how I imagined it would although I think more hair 'highlights' would have improved it.

A late addition to the holiday was a Rainbow Dash jack-o-lantern. Tangentially, I wanted to show how psyched I was for the upcoming Super BFF cartoon shorts which are being produced by the same company as My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic. But, I'll be honest, the show does have it's charm. And I thought Rainbow Dash would be tough enough to make it a challenge. This did not come out as awesome as I was hoping, but still looks pretty good.

Hope everyone got more treats than tricks!

Happy Halloween! Back Issue Box: Adventure Comics #408

Happy Halloween to everyone! With this being the spookiest of holidays, I thought I'd again thumb through the back issue box to find an appropriate Supergirl story. And what is more Halloween-y than a ghost story involving a haunted house!

"The Face At The Window" was the lead story in Adventure Comics #408 and was written and drawn by Mike Sekowsky, the primary creator for Supergirl in this period. This was also during the 'semi-depowered' Supergirl history, where after being slipped a pill her powers would intermittently and unpredictably stop working. She ended up wearing a Kandorian exoskeleton and boot jets to help during those moments. It is definitely not one of my favorite time periods for the character and the 'my powers have failed' moments became cliche. Taking a step back, this was smack dab in the middle of Denny O'Neil's 'sand superman' 'Kryptonite Nevermore' arc, a story where Superman gets significantly depowered himself. It may have been an editorial edict to strip Kara of her powers so Superman would stay in the #1 spot.

Anyways, on to the ghost story.

Linda Danvers had just graduated Stanhope College in Adventure Comics #406 and had taken a job as a camera operator, newswoman in San Francisco. So that setting and this supporting cast is still pretty fresh. Here, the K-SFTV 'action news team' she is on talks about how exciting it is that Supergirl has moved to San Francisco.

70's stud Geoff Anderson and co-worker Johnny Drew are thrilled that such a super and 'pretty chick' has become stationed herself in their city. But co-worker, Supergirl hater, and Linda rival Nasty Luthor is not so sure. Nasty was convinced Linda was Supergirl back at Stanhope so the two of them moving to San Fran at the same time is too much of a coincidence.

For the remaining of this series, Nasty does her best to reveal that Linda is the Maid of Might. In a somewhat clumsy initial effort, Nasty hires someone to try and snatch Linda's wig off her head while Linda rides a street car. Luckily Supergirl's inherent sixth sense (her super-intuition) clued her in so she could foil the scheme.

Despite the uproar, Supergirl makes it to work on time so she can join the mobile unit on their tour of famous mansions around the city.

The 'wig' issue was finally dealt with in Daring New Adventures when Paul Kupperberg gave Supergirl a 'kryptonian comb' which allowed her to comb the brunette into her hair as well as comb in blond locks and serious curls when she did the reverse motions.

The team arrives at the Stanley Mansion, a run down estate with a 'spooky' reputation.

It turns out that the owner of the house, 'Old Man' Stanley inherited the house and the family fortune from his niece and nephew when they died forty years earlier. Since that time he has become a recluse, never leaving the house and having it fall into disrepair.

The news team didn't call ahead to let Old Man Stanley know they were coming. And as he is a recluse, he doesn't take kindly to the intrusion. He greets them with 'Old Martha', his double barreled shot gun. And he gives them a simple ultimatum, either get off his land or get shot.

During the tense stand-off, Linda spies the face of a young girl in a top floor window. Who could it be?

On the ride back, Linda asks if Stanley lives alone in the house. Geoff tells her yes. Elizabeth and John Stanley used to live there with their daughter Cynthia. But Cynthia died during a flu epidemic and the Stanleys died when a ship they were on sank, killing the passengers and crew.

Linda had secretly snapped some pictures of the girl while Old Man Stanley was berating them. But when she develops the pictures, the girl can't be seen. Geoff thinks Linda must have been seeing things but Linda knows better.

Linda decides the best way to investigate is as Supergirl.

Meanwhile, Nasty has overheard Linda's prior conversation with Johnny in which she swears she saw something. What better way to kill two birds (spying on Linda/Supergirl, scooping a story) than to dress up like a cat burglar and sneak into the Stanley house.

Supergirl arrives first and sneaks into the attic of the house where she is immediately meets the young girl she saw earlier.

The girl is quite mysterious, talking about how she is searching for her parents in the house, how 'he' has hidden them from her, how 'he' is a bad man. Of course, these odd musings are creepy given the context. Amazingly, Supergirl takes it all in stride, holding the little girl's hand and walking around the house looking for these people.

The only place the girl hasn't looked is in the basement and so she leads Supergirl there.

Unfortunately for Nasty, she is not as stealth-like as she would hope. Stanley hears her creeping around and breaks out old Martha again, emptying both barrels around the house hoping to find her.

Fearing for her life, Nasty comes out into the open. Stanley pulls the mask off her face, recognizes her as a member of the K-SFTV team, and knocks her out.

In the basement, the little girl swoons saying she can feel her parents close to her.

Old Man Stanley discovers Supergirl in his basement and fires at her rapidly. He must be a quick shot because you need to reload that rifle after each blast. Thankfully Supergirl's powers don't give out on her (they remain 'on' this entire story) and she is able to shrug off the buckshot without any problem.

But the little girl has disappeared!

A little more investigation leads to the discovery of two skeletons bricked up behind a lead shield in the basement. Confronted with the bodies, Stanley confesses. He murdered his niece and nephew and stashed their bodies there. Then he concocted a story that the two were traveling under false names on the doomed ship, a way to maintain some privacy as they grieved for their daughter. It was a clean enough story that he got away with it.

Alas, he never got to enjoy the spoils of his crimes because he became paranoid that someone would discover the bodies. So he remained in the house all the time to maintain his freedom, even though the house became his prison! Ironic.

Then Supergirl switches to Linda and calls in the troops - the police and her news crew.

As she leaves the house, she sees a picture of the Stanley's beloved Cynthia, dead for over 50 years. And yet, she was the girl that Supergirl led around the house! It was her ghost who wanted to give her family and herself some peace.

OOOhhhhhh .... creepy! Hee hee.

Okay, so maybe not too scary. But still, this was a haunted house story and as good as it might get for a 'Supergirl and Halloween' post. I wax and wane with my appreciation of the Sekowsky era on the character. It was good to see Linda grow a bit, leave college and strike out on her own. These issues also included the wild and occasionally bizarre variant costumes for Supergirl. But the 'fading powers' storyline was lousy and played out too long before eventually just forgotten. Sekowsky's art can be good in a darker, rough way. I don't know if that always matched nicely with Supergirl.

From a Supergirl collection viewpoint, I would rank this as low importance. I have seen these issues in dollar boxes and priced as high as $18-25 bucks.

Overall grade: C+, bolstered a bit by the horror of Halloween!