Enjoying your spooky season, Comic Shop Friends? I am patiently waiting for the rain to end and the leaves to change so I can enjoy the satisfying crunch of decay under my feet. We have more great seasonal picks this week, but first here’s what’s happening the rest of the month!

Thanks to everyone who came out for the Mark Waid signing and trivia showdown. To the surprise of no one, Waid was the champion! We did stream the event on Facebook Live, so you can find it on our Facebook page and our YouTube page now.

Next up, Sina Grace will be here on Friday, October 20th for a free signing from 6pm to 8pm! We have some Marvel and Small Press graphic novels, and his newest book, Superman: The Harvests of Youth, in stock for you to pick up to get signed.

We also have these Sina Grace prints that are free with a purchase you can bring back to get signed as well! Featuring the city of Cleveland, the Cleveland Public Library, and the Best Shop Cat in the Land, Winston!

Then, Sarah Kuhn, along with Laura Seigel Larson, will be here on Friday, October 27th from 6pm to 8pm for a free signing! We have her graphic novels in stock, and we also have free copies of last FCBD’s Girl Taking Over: a Lois Lane Story to hand out too!

And don’t forget about these other October events:

This Thursday the 19th is Late Nite Comics! We’ll have tons of dollar books out from 8pm to midnight, and if you buy 100 or more, they magically turn into 75 cents each! 50% off back issues including the wall! I’m mixing up some hot apple cider, non-alcoholic, but we can spike your cup upon request, and we’ll have other refreshments and snacks. You can expect some surprise sales on other things in the shop so we can clear out some stuff before we move everything for the carpet.

And not one, but two spooky special guests!

Cory Holliday, aka Vile Consumption, will be here selling his horror and comic book mashup prints, original art, and more! We have a sampling of some of his work displayed in the front window now.

Lenora from Midnight Rental will be here to socialize and sell her Midnight Rental merch! Check out Lenora’s Midnight Rental on the Found Footage Festival YouTube channel. You’ll notice our very own John Dudas in a couple of her videos!

Come out and support some local artists, and help us clear out some dollar boxes and back issue bins before we have to move them all when the new carpet is installed in November!

Wednesday the 25th Ben will be co-hosting the Midnight Rental Secret Screening with Lenora at the Grog Shop! It’s Halloween-themed, so I’m hoping for Halloween III. Or Halloween 6. A bunch of us will be there, and it’s always entertaining to watch Ben’s reactions to these horror movies he’s never seen. Join us! Doors at 7pm, with an hour of rad trailers and vintage commercials, followed by the show at 8pm.

It’s Halloween in the shop on Saturday, October 28th! All day we’ll be handing out free comics and candy to anyone in costume! Trick or treat yo self!

And this is another reminder that John would like you all to clear out your files by the end of October to help us out, so we have less to move at the beginning of November when our new carpet is installed.

MARVEL HEADER COMICS

Once more the Crypt of Shadows is opened, letting the darkness creep across the Marvel Universe! Five short stories of witchcraft, evil ancient entities, mummies, werewolves, and vampires, with Scarlet Witch, Deadpool, Daredevil, Man-Thing, Hulk, and Kraven the Hunter. Al Ewing and Paul Davidson bring Victor Strange “Out of the Shadows”, Steve Orlando and Paul Azaceta introduce the Bricklayer in “Brick by Brick”, Cavan Scott and Devmalya Pramanik give us Deadpool versus corpses in “The Living and the Dead”, Declan Shalvey and Alex Lins drop Daredevil into Man-Thing’s home in “Without Fear”, and Sarah Gailey and Eder Messias pit Werewolf by Night, Hulk, and Kraven against each other in “A Soul Worth Hunting.”

Get your spine tingled with the new Spine-Tingling Spider-Man series! Did you pick up the one-shot collecting the web series? It was creepy, and now writer Saladin Ahmed and artist Juan Ferreyra are back on “The Scariest Marvel Book Ever!” And it is truly even creepier. After battling Spidercide on rooftops for hours, Spider-Man heads home, feeling like the Ol’ Parker Luck isn’t a curse. But it is never that easy to shake a curse, and when he wakes, his life is missing. And that’s just the beginning of the terror. There is a splash page that gave me the willies. I’m not going to give anything away, but if you want a spooky story, this is it.

DC COMICS

Spinning out of the events of Stargirl: The Lost Children and Justice Society of America, writer Jeremy Adams and artist Diego Olortegui reunite Jay Garrick with his long-lost and forgotten, daughter Judy, also known as The Boom. After being pulled from the timeline in 1963, Judy returns to the present day still a teenager, and is reunited with her parents. She finds she and her dad aren’t the only ones that ride the lightning, but can she find space among all the speedsters?  Will her parents be able to keep up with her and make up for lost time? And who is the man behind the mask that the Boom recognized before she vanished? Will his plan for the greater good succeed now that he has a second chance?

Do I even need to sell you on this one? It’s the Justice League. It’s Godzilla. It’s Kong. It’s the Legion of Doom. It’s Legendary’s Monsterverse emerging on DC’s Earth! Writer Brian Buccellato brings a brawl between heroes, villains, and gigantic creatures to life with artist Christian Duce in this cataclysmic crossover event.

SMALL PRESS COMICS

Three tales from the Toybox of Terror! The wraparound story, “Love Evernever” is written by a friend of the shop, Timmy Heague from Arsenal Comics and Games in Ventura CA! His comic book writing debut! Do you like scary doll stories? M3GAN? Chucky? Then this is the spooky season one-shot for you! Artist Ryan Caskey brings Evelyn Evernever’s creepy doll girl to life in Timmy’s tale. Then writer Danielle Paige and artist Tango boot up “CH3RYL”, followed by writer Michael Northrop and artist Ryan Jampole giving us “The Gift That Keeps on Giving Killing.” This is one of the best Archie horror-themed books, and we ordered extra so grab one!

Want to get deep into the history of Hip Hop? Pick up the new omnibus of Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree. This is my graphic novel pick of the week, and it has a spiffy shiny gold foil cover. Originally published in four volumes, this collects all of that, plus 140 pages of extras, including a cover gallery of every front and back cover, story pages never before collected, and new annotation of the entire series by Piskor. We have one copy hitting the table, and it’s still available to order if you want to check it out.

One last horror pick this week, and this is my favorite. It has everything I love. Animals. Cozy vibes. Murder. Welcome to Woodbrook, a small town that “appreciates a lemonade in the summer and spiced cider in the fall.” Samantha Strong is an adorable brown bear and an upstanding citizen. And a serial killer. Her one rule: Don’t murder the locals. Luckily, there are plenty of victims in the big city to quench her bloodthirst. Everything is kept nice and clean, until the Bicentennial parade when one of Woodbrook’s own meets a grisly demise, and forces Samantha to hunt down the killer before Sheriff Patterson starts looking at her. From writer and artist Patrick Horvath.