Hi Comic Shop Friends! How was everyone’s first week of Halloween? Give me all your horror movie recommendations! I’ve been spending all my free time knocking movies off my watchlist. But now we have all these events happening, so we’ll see how many I can get to this month!

First up, this Thursday the 12th, we will be at the Cleveland Magazine Best of Cleveland party to celebrate Winson being the Editor’s Pick for one of the Best Shop Cats in Cleveland! John, Ben, and Kyle will have a table and photo booth set up, and a few of us are stopping by later. You can get tickets here: https://clevelandmagazine.com/magazine-events/best-of-cleveland/home

This Friday the 13th is the Mark Waid signing, from 5pm to 8pm, and the trivia showdown from 8pm to 10pm! Yes, customers get in an hour earlier than advertised! You can get three items signed for free thanks to the Cleveland Public Library. You’re welcome to get back in line, but we will be cutting the line at 8pm because of the following trivia event. We’ll have snacks and refreshments during the trivia contest, so come cheer on John Dudas, John Shearer, and Raf as they take on Mark Waid!

We are still stocked on books to have signed as well!

The following week is Late Nite Comics on Thursday the 19th from 8pm to midnight! This time we’ll have two spooky guests! Lenora from Lenora’s Midnight Rental (on the Found Footage Festival’s YouTube Channel, and monthly Grog Shop events) will be here with Midnight Rental merch and VHS tapes for sale!

Also in attendance, Cory Holliday, also known as Vile Consumption, will be here with original art prints of horror icons, comic book and horror mashups, and trading cards! He was here at last October’s Late Nite Comics, so if you missed him then, make sure to stop by! I grabbed Joe Bob Briggs and Castle Freak original art last year, so I’m looking forward to seeing what new stuff he has!

With tons of dollar stock! 50% off back issues! And maybe I can play one of my many Halloween playlists!

And John says, “Please clean out your file completely by the end of October. We’re getting new carpet and it’s less stuff to move for the install. Please help us in our endeavors by picking up your file.” You can also help us in our endeavors by picking up any back issues you’ve been eyeing during Late Nite Comics! Help us clear out some back issue boxes!

The day after that, Friday the 20th, Sina Grace will be here for a free signing from 6pm to 8pm! Last week his new Superman graphic novel, Superman: the Harvests of Youth, came out so pick up one of those to get signed.

And we just got in prints of a Cleveland-themed piece that Sina Grace drew! Free with a purchase while supplies last, and feel free to bring it back on the 20th to get signed!

The week after, on Wednesday the 25th, Ben will be co-hosting the Halloween Midnight Rental show at the Grog Shop with Lenora! The doors open at 7pm and the show starts at 8pm, but it’s worth it to get there early to catch all the weird trailers and old Cleveland commercials before the movie. A bunch of us will be there, and we’ll see if I can continue my streak of having seen the secret film! (I’ve got John Shearer beat!)

Then on Friday the 27th, from 6pm to 8pm, Sarah Kuhn will be here for a free signing. She will be joined by Jerry Siegel’s daughter Laura Siegel Larson! We will have free copies of the FCBD edition of Girl Taking Over: a Lois Lane Story to give away, so you can get those signed.

We have her two DC graphic novels, Shadow of the Batgirl, and Girl Taking Over: a Lois Lane Story in stock, so check those out!

And finally, the following day, Saturday the 28th is Halloween in the shop! We’ll be giving out free comics and candy all day!

MARVEL COMICS

How about a tale of werewolves for Halloween? Writer Stephanie Phillips and artist Carlos Magno bring back Capwolf and the Howling Commandos! Set in an alternate world where Nazi cultists are set on a supernatural solution to turn the tide of battle during World War II, Captain America must lead the Howling Commandos to stop them. But after an attack, Cap is transformed into a werewolf, and now his task of controlling the skeptical Commandos is made even harder when he can barely control himself.

A Spider-Man story superior to all others! Writers Dan Slott and Christos Gage, along with artists Mark Bagley, Ryan Stegman, Humberto Ramos, and Giuseppe Camuncoli, celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the Superior Spider-Man by bringing back some of Doc Ock’s missing memories from his time as the web-slinger. Otto wants to know if he chose to leave Spider-Man’s body, or if Peter Parker forced him out to deprive him of his greatest success. Visiting his old underground lab, Doc Ock unburies some memories, but that’s not the only thing that will be unearthed. Will things go according to plan? Probably not, but find out as the Superior Spider-Man returns in this special one-shot, and the new series coming in November!

DC COMICS

Cosmic horror is unleashed on Gotham City from writer and artist Christian Ward in this new Black Label series. For generations the Court of Owls has guarded the sealed doorway between Gotham and the mirror city of Gotham Below. Full of twisted versions of the city’s heroes and villains, fueled by the fear and hatred that flows from above, the Below is now seeping into the Dark Knight’s city. A nightmare Batman has escaped, with plans to train a Robin of his own. Harvey Dent can hear a third voice speaking to him. What other horrors will make their way above? Can the Court of Owls and Batman maintain an alliance long enough to stop them? A great creepy read for October!

Writer Robert Venditti and artist Riley Rossmo return to the Golden Age of Sandman in a new noir mystery! Wesley Dodds has spent years testing and perfecting his sleep gas in order to fight crime without causing harm, but now his journal of failed experiments and notes on deadly formulas is stolen, and no one will escape the Sandman’s dark dreams. Not even Dodds himself. Who is in the shadows pulling the strings? Can the Sandman stop them before the contents of the journal cause death and destruction?

SMALL PRESS COMICS

I would have liked this comic just because of the reference to Phantom of the Paradise, but luckily everything else about this is great too! It’s the first issue of a new ongoing series from writer Wyatt Kennedy and newcomer artist Luigi Formisano. Set in a slightly different version of our world, where the U.S. has 31 states, and Florida is owned by Spain. And vampires, ghosts, and other supernatural things co-exist with humans. In 1999, Vince moves to Florida to live with his cousin, Ivory, and his roommates, and within his first day there, Vince sees his first in person ghost, meets the only vampire in the state, and has a run in with a baby gang. Totally normal things in the lives of his new friends. There are a couple time jumps in this first issue, but I don’t want to give too much away, and this is a great introduction to these kids and this slightly weird world full of humor and lingering darkness.

From the hosts of The Last Podcast on the Left, Henry Zebrowski and Marcus Parks, and artist David Rubin, come what is described as Near Dark meets Ocean’s Eleven. (Not quite an accurate description, since this is much lighter than Near Dark.) Hex is a “young” blood bug, not quite a full vampire, and Steve is recently turned and trying to continue to live his human life. The two meet through a blood delivery app, but they find more than crimson liquid in the package Hex drops off. There are files detailing “Operation Batboy” and a mysterious Onyx object. Now an O.G. vampire, Anwar Gobin, enlists them to join him in the search for the object that can turn them back into humans, but they must deal with elder creatures, a monster underground, and militant vampire slayers.

This must be a John Dudas pick because it’s a new series about a firefighter, Ruben Kwan. Except Ruben has been afraid of fire his entire life. Living in the shadow of his firefighter father, who died on the job, he’s spent his 25-year career behind a desk, dealing with unruly coworkers, an ex-wife, a teenage son, and a newly pregnant wife. But his unremarkable life suddenly changes when a random act of courage reveals that he is fireproof! From writer Brian Buccellato and artist Stefano Simeone.