halloween

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. The Halloween season is upon us, and even though any time is always a good time to think about Dracula, this is probably an especially good time, so today we’re going to be talking about comics’ best Draculas!

With 800 episodes over the course of 22 years, the Power Rangers television show is arguably the single most successful live-action superhero franchise of all time, and certainly one of the strangest. Adapted from Japan's long-running Super Sentai series, created by manga legend Shotaro Ishinomori, the Power Rangers combined the giant robots and monsters of their Japanese counterpart with a completely different set of secret identities and problems, and became a pop cultural phenomenon. That's why we're looking back with an in-depth guide to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, including its source material, Kyuoryu Sentai Zyuranger, in ComicsAlliance's Ranger Station! This week, though, we're jumping ahead to 2006 for a spoooooky episode of Power Rangers Mystic Force, where the Pink Ranger becomes a vampire!

Is there any holiday more geared specifically towards teenage hijinx than Halloween? I mean, I love Christmas, but the shenanigans involved in trying to find the right present for someone aren't really all that wild, and nobody really gets all that excited about, say, Arbor Day. Halloween, though? Candy! Costumes! Mistaken identities! Parties that go haywire for any number of reasons! It's the perfect time for teens to find trouble while dressed up as bears, and I know this because I have been reading Archie comics for a very long time. And now, to celebrate the season of scares, Archie has put together their next digital collection: Masquerade Mishaps, which follows up on last week's amazingly titled Josie and the Scaredy Cats with 100 pages of costume-themed comedy from Archie and the gang. It's out on the 23rd, but if you can't wait, check out a preview below!

ComicsAlliance Presents “Kate or Die,” a series of exclusive comic strips created by one of our favorite cartoonists, Kate Leth! In this episode, Kate has some awesome tips for great spooky comics to get you into a Halloween mood. Buy them for yourself; buy them as gifts for a friend, relative, or local witch; or give them away to the best trick-or-treaters to come to your door.

Q: Are there any superheroes who can't be improved by making them also a werewolf? -- @daveexmachina A: My friends, I am being 100% real with you when I say that questions like this are exactly why I started writing this column in the first place. So let's see here. If you go back and look at my work over the past ten years, it's probably going to be pretty clear that when it comes to your classic Halloween monsters, werewolves don't really do much for me. I am and will always be a Dracula man, but I can't deny that throwing in some extra hair, a couple of claws, and an uncontrollable monthly blood lust is something that could make pretty much any character in comics a whole lot more interesting. Which, now that I think of it, is probably why it's actually happened way more than you might remember.

ComicsAlliance Presents “Kate or Die,” a series of exclusive comic strips created by one of our favorite cartoonists, Kate Leth! In this episode, Kate's getting into a spooky mood for Halloween with a collection of tales sure to send shivers down the spine of anyone working in comics. Enter ye now the ghoulish garret of the freelance cartoonist... if you dare!

Cosplay always goes mainstream at Halloween, with the witch and ghost and vampire costumes of yesteryear making way on the streets, and at parties and bars, for the sort of pop culture costumes we're more used to seeing at conventions. These days, everyone wants to be Iron Man. But a lot of comic fans take pride in going the extra mile at Halloween, and nowhere is that more true than at Toronto's annual Snailoween Party, organized by local retailer Silver Snail Comics. Cosplay photographer Paul Hillier was on the scene to capture some of the finest outfits of the night, and he's agreed to let us share them here at ComicsAlliance.

The writer of Boom! Studios' Bravest Warriors and Adventure Time: Bitter Sweets, IDW's Edward Scissorhands and Archaia's Fraggle Rock, Kate Leth got her start with the frequently autobiographical, always entertaining webcomic Kate Or Die. Now published bi-weekly here at ComicsAlliance, Kate uses the strip to address topics germane to the comic book and broader nerd cultures. And Halloween. See, in reviewing the last couple months of strips, we noticed Kate has a preoccupation with dressing up and all things macabre, so much so that we were able to compile this digital collection of spooky and costumed-themed comics for your Halloween enjoyment.

If there's one thing we've learned from our years on the Internet, it's that there's no aspect of comics that can't be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there's no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we're taking it upon ourselves to compile lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. All month long, we've been devoting our lists to spoooooky topics, from great horror stories to scary villains and the greatest stories about a certain fanged count. So today, with Halloween finally upon us, we've put them all together for your trick-or-treating enjoyment!

All Hallow's Eve. Halloween. The Day Of The Dead. Samhain. No matter what name one uses to refer to it, October 31 is the craziest, spookiest, creepy-crawliest evening of the year – a night of costumes, trick-or-treating, ghosts, goblins, monster movie marathons, and of course, comic books! So today, we've reached out to some of our favorite modern-day creators to ask for their takes on the scary comics that they found inspiring, and to get their riffs on the critters and characters that have influenced their work. Happy Halloween!