Graphic Book Review: Trick ‘r Treat

Zombos Says: Excellent

"I can't believe you would do such a thing. Are you daft? I ask you to read to our son's fifth-grade class and you pick this?" Zimba held up Wildstorm's Trick 'r Treat graphic novel; actually more like waved it violently, really. She paced back and forth in her frustration.

"None of the students wanted to ride the bus home," added Mrs. Crabtree, Zombos Junior's teacher. "Not after you told them about those unwanted children intentionally sunk into a rock quarry by their bus driver. And after that one about the evil kid-killing school principal–what were you thinking?–they scream every time Mr. Whiffle walks past in the hallway. I don't dare send any of them to his office now." Mrs. Crabtree took a deep breadth. "Thank the lord you didn't read them a story about the cafeteria having monster food or something. They're now so frightened of their own shadows because of that horrid comic book you brought."

"Graphic novel," I corrected her. I always love correcting teachers. I enjoy an occasional I-told-you-so, too.

"And then you had to show them all those unpleasant cartoon pictures of dead kids' heads, and blood, and that horrid little misbehaving beast, Sam, running around causing mayhem." Mrs. Crabtree took another breadth and folded her arms tighter. "I don't know why you couldn't just have read It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown or something enjoyable and not so scary. They love those well-behaved Charlie Brown and Linus, and how Linus sucks his thumb like a baby and waits for the Great Pumpkin to bring treats. You could have brought a blanket like Mrs. Zombos does and mimicked Linus sucking his thumb while waiting for the Great Pumpkin. It always gets a laugh. My students are not laughing now." Mrs. Crabtree took a deeper breadth and, this time, waited for penance, contrition, or somesuch from Zombos.

It did seem like a long wait.

Zombos ran his hand through his long white hair a few times, then said "Well, I am sorry that I scared the children too much, but I thought a good traditional Halloween story or two would tickle their fancy."

"Tickle their fancy it didn't," said Mrs. Crabtree with certainty. "I think in the future it best we leave reading-hours to your wife. She has shown better common sense in the books she chooses."

"Yes, yes, that would be best," agreed Zombos.

"Is that all you can say?" asked Zimba with a hint of exasperation in her voice. Well, actually more than a hint, really. "I'm so sorry Mrs. Crabtree. It won't happen again. Please, let's go have some tea and talk about next steps to heal the damage my husband has done." Zimba emphasized the word damage. They headed off to the kitchen.

I asked Zombos, "So, did Zombos Junior enjoy your book reading?"

"He loved it," said Zombos with pride. We both nodded the way people nod when they agree something is good.

"And what did you think of the graphic novel adaptation of the movie?" I asked him.

"Well, it did scare those little hellions, did it not?" he said, with a hint of a twinkle in his gray eyes. Well, actually more than a hint, really.

Kids, wicked adults, one little grotesque trick-or-treater, dressed in burlap and buttons, and Halloween traditions best not broken make Trick 'r Treat a bag-full of sticky-sweet, melting candy–and no rocks–you cannot wait to sink your teeth into. Four stories and an opening nightmare wrap each other like a colorful, hard to open, candy wrapper, around a traditional spooky story appropriate for midnight scarefests and, most certainly, Halloween. Various artists adapt the movie's stories with differing styles of panels and characters, and with endings reminiscent of a Tales From the Darkside episode or an Eerie magazine. In other words, bad things happen in creepy ways.

It begins with a stark reminder for Emma as to why you must never blow out the jack-o'-lantern before midnight, and ends with unburied dead things that come knocking for a revenge-filled treat. Wildstorm's adaptation of Michael Dougherty's movie to comic art format makes me want to see the movie even more. Captured in these pages is the best part of Halloween: the hair rising on the back of your neck fun that comes from reading an old Warren horror magazine while munching candy corn and candy bars until you are sick to your stomach. And then eating more.

Each artist uses a different page arrangement and color scheme: Michael Huddleston uses panels of varying sizes against a purplish background, with frenzied characters breaking free of them now and then, to tell the sordid story of Principal Wilkins and his unique jack-o'-boy's head, ripe for carving; Grant Bond keeps the purple background and adds irregular black borders to his slim, horizontal and vertical rectangular panels, holding them 5 to 6 per page as he recants the terrible tale of those school bus kids and the night they did not return home; Christopher Gugliotti gets costume-bright and water-colory with his razor-lined panels to illustrate Laurie's Halloween coming-out party for the dead and hairy; and Fiona Staples goes all Fiona Staplely in a Warren magazine-styled homage of closeups and full bodies–still kicking–(does she remind me of Angelo Torres?), leading up to the unfortunate run-in between old Mr. Kreeg, former school bus driver, Sam, the sweet-toothed devil, and those school bus kids back for more. Writer Marc Andreyko adapts the movie script scares to comic script quite well, too, with the anthology format of the movie effectively fitting into the confines of paper and panel.

As a graphic novel, Trick 'r Treat is definitely a treat. In bringing the movie to the comic book format, it embellishes the traditional, eerie thrills of spooks and nasties Halloween is noted for. Best to read it under the covers, with a dimming flashlight, on Halloween night while eating your tenth candy bar.