the annual Halloween re-read

[Matilda]

Here are the Disney comics I re-read every year around Halloween, in a 6,6,6 list format!

Six Set at Halloween

Trick or Treat--Barks
Jet Witch--Barks
Fit to Be Pied--Rosa
It's in the Bag!--William Van Horn
Halloween Huckster--Rota
All Tricks and No Treats--Janet Gilbert/Vicar

Six Featuring Ghosts/Monsters, Published in the USA

The Mummy's Ring--Barks
The Old Castle's Secret--Barks
The New Laird of Castle McDuck--Rosa
The Last Voyage of Ringtail van Dukke--Geradts/Verhagen
Shiver Me Timbers!--Kruse/Bas Heymans (with the Jonathan Gray cover, of course!)
Hotel Transylvania--Janet Gilbert/Gattino (Donald gets to succeed at this job! Plus, Gattino monsters!)

Six Featuring Ghosts/Monsters, Not Yet Published in the USA

Nightmare Ship--Rota (my all-time favorite Rota story!)
Spook and Quackers--Laura & Mark Shaw/Fecchi
Pass the Parchment--Laura & Mark Shaw/Flemming Andersen
Fantôme à tous les étages--Rodolphe Jacquette/J González
The Bard's Tale--David Gerstein/J Cañizares Sanchez
The Tomb Raiders--Pat & Carol McGreal/Ferraris

Though I'm much looking forward to the Giant Halloween Hex, and I'm a big Magica fan, I don't really associate her with Halloween, so no Magica stories in the annual Halloween re-read. Same goes for Madam Mim.

What are the Disney stories you re-read every year at Halloween?

[deb]

Certainly Trick or Treat and Fit to be Pied. Also Hobblin' Goblins (Gyro's Goblin Finder story), Mickey Mouse and the Seven Ghosts, the Wispy Willie 10-pager, Donald Duck in Ancient Persia and The Many Faces of Magica DeSpell. This year's Giant Halloween Hex will go on my annual rereading list, as well as Shiver Me Timbers and The Call of C'rruso.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

I don't really have a tradition of re-reading or re-watching certain things on Halloween (nor on Christmas). Though I might rewatch "Goose Pimples". That DD cartoon is amazing.

[quackzor]

Have you got any new additions to your Halloween list Matilda, now three years later, when Halloween is closing in?

[Matilda]

I'm partial to ghost ships, so in addition to Rota's great Nightmare Ship and Kruse's Shiver Me Timbers, I will often revisit Martina's vascello fantasma, Geradts' Piratenzang, and Halas's Ghost of the Glen. Kruse's Trapped in Castle Rollingstein and The Diamond of Duncan McDuck are also ones I'll re-read, though not every year. I know there are people who can't stand the Shaws' stories, but I think they do a great job with Halloween-y stories: in addition to the two I listed above, I'd add their Duckton Abbey (a nice Daisy story!) and Quack of the Wild. Noel Van Horn finally got a Magica story onto my Halloween list: A Gibber of Goblins. Liked the conceit, loved the monster-art.

Do you have a Halloween list, quackzor?

[quackzor]

Thanks for the tips Matilda! no, I yet have to make up my traditional Halloween read, (that's was the reason behind me asking the question) a little bit late for this year's reading, tonight will just ha<ve read some classics of Barks' stories with Halloween theme, which I easily can locate and is itsself not a too shabby read! Happy Halloween!

[Matilda]

So, what's everyone reading for Halloween this year? We residents of the USA seriously need distraction from the upcoming election, and thanks to Covid there will be no trick-or-treaters coming to my door to distract me from Election Dread.

I have a few non-Disney comics I re-read at Halloween: a couple of classic Little Lulu stories, some of my favorite Halloween Comicfest ashcans. But mostly, Halloween is for Ducks.

I don't have any new ones to add this year, but here's my current top two dozen:

Five that take place at Halloween:

Jet Witch—Barks
Fit to Be Pied—Rosa
It’s in the Bag!  William Van Horn
All Tricks and No Treats—Janet Gilbert/Vicar
The Halloween Huckster—Rota

And nineteen other spooky stories:

The Mummy’s Ring—Barks
The Old Castle’s Secret—Barks
The New Laird of Castle McDuck—Rosa
The Nightmare Ship—Rota
ZP e il vascello fantasma—Martina
Last Voyage of Ringtail Van Dukke—Geradts
Piratenzang—Geradts
Ghost of the Glen—Halas
Shiver Me Timbers!  Kruse
The Diamond of Duncan McDuck—Kruse
Trapped in Castle Rollingstein—Kruse
Spook and Quackers—Shaws
Pass the Parchment—Shaws
Duckton Abbey—Shaws
Quack of the Wild—Shaws
Hotel Transylvania—J Gilbert
Fantôme à tous les étages—Jacquette
A Gibber of Goblins—Noel Van Horn 
The Tomb Raiders—McGreals

What can I say? The Shaws are good at ghosts, demons and monsters. Their story "The Hanged Man" is also a favorite of mine, because it's an homage to "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh," which I loved when I saw it on TV as a kid--but it doesn't attach itself to Halloween in my mind.

That's two Mouse stories (Halas and Jacquette), the rest Ducks or Duck-adjacent (one Beagle Boys: The Tomb Raiders).

Six ghost ships/sailors; clearly I have a fondness for nautical ghosts.

There are two issues of Super Picsou Géant with Halloween-appropriate stories I haven't read on their way to me; I will report if any of those earn favorite status!

[deb]

How about “Trick or Treat” (of course!), “Ghost Town Railroad”, “House of Haunts”, “The Old Castle’s Secret” all by Carl Barks, “The House of Mystery” by Bill Walsh and Floyd Gottfredson, “Goosebusters” by Lars Jensen, David Gerstein and Fleming Andersen, and “Mickey’s Inferno” by Guido Martina and Angelo Bioletto?

[crazycatlord]

"O Congresso do Terror", by  Kaled Kanbour (apparently, no English or French translations).

[Matilda]

Oct 30, 2020 15:19:43 GMT deb said:

How about “Trick or Treat” (of course!), “Ghost Town Railroad”, “House of Haunts”, “The Old Castle’s Secret” all by Carl Barks, “The House of Mystery” by Bill Walsh and Floyd Gottfredson, “Goosebusters” by Lars Jensen, David Gerstein and Fleming Andersen, and “Mickey’s Inferno” by Guido Martina and Angelo Bioletto?

Great suggestions! "Trick or Treat" used to be on my annual re-read list (see my 2016 list, above), and I used to watch the cartoon every year as well. Now I no longer read it every year, nor watch the cartoon. Like "House of Haunts" and "Ghost Town Railroad", it's a story I revisit occasionally, just not every Halloween. "Ghost Town Railroad" I like particularly for the female characters. "The Old Castle's Secret" *is* on my current list.

These choices are idiosyncratic--I'm not sure myself why some stories become Halloween standards for me. Certainly the re-read list is not at all the same as the list of "best stories I've read that are Halloween-appropriate"! On such a list, all the Barks stories you mention would outrank "The Tomb Raiders" or "A Gibber of Goblins." But "Tomb Raiders" makes me laugh, and "Gibber of Goblins" has a great assortment of monsters and a fairly clever conceit, and it gets Magica on the list. Magica by herself isn't Halloween-related in my mind, so I need a bunch of monsters at her house to get her on the Halloween re-read list.

[Matilda]

Oct 30, 2020 15:53:27 GMT crazycatlord said:

"O Congresso do Terror", by  Kaled Kanbour (apparently, no English or French translations).

I'll keep an eye out for it! I see it has been printed in Dutch---Dutch and German I can also read. Always happy to hear of Brazilian stories worth checking out.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

I grew up in a catholic country. So no monsters, candies or pumpkins for me. I spent all the November 1st's of my childhood in a cemetery. As you may know, Halloween exists also in Catholicism, with the original name of 'All Saints day', and it is a festive day in places like Italy, France, Spain (no school!). However, since it is followed by the 'All Dead Day', which is November the 2th, at least in Southern Italy we have (had?) the tradition of spending one or even both of those two days visiting our dead in the cemetery. (The funny thing is that it is also an occasion to meet all your relatives that are alive there at the cemetery 😅 ). When I grew up, Halloween was only a thing in American movies, like lockers in schools or fat bikers with leather jackets over hairy arms. I think that nowadays the celebration is common in Italy too. Maybe not the trick or treat thing, but certainly witchy decorations in shops, some kids dressing up, parties where girls exploit the dressing up code to go around basically undressed. You know, traditional Halloween. 😄

Anyhow, I do not plan to do any Halloween related reading or activity. I even think I first read Trick or Treat by Barks on a March afternoon last year. 🤔
(On the other hand, I live in London now, and I see a some pumpkins smiling at me in my street...maybe I should start Halloweening a bit...)

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Oct 31, 2020 2:58:05 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

I grew up in a catholic country. So no monsters, candies or pumpkins for me. I spent all the November 1st's of my childhood in a cemetery. As you may know, Halloween exists also in Catholicism, with the original name of 'All Saints day', and it is a festive day in places like Italy, France, Spain (no school!). 

Hmm… I'm French and I wouldn't really have described the equivalence like this at all. The Toussaint is clearly the quivalent to, well, All Hallows' Day (Halloween being “All Hallows' Eve”, i.e. the day before All Hallows' Day). Insofar as Halloween has a continental equivalent, then althoug it comes at a completely different point in the calendar, I'd say Mardi Gras traditionally filled that role in France. A day on which children dress up in a bunch of costumes, run around the neighborhood making mischief, and eat a lot of sweet foodstuffs (albethey pancakes rather than sweets) — y'know?

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Oct 31, 2020 3:13:47 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Oct 31, 2020 2:58:05 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

I grew up in a catholic country. So no monsters, candies or pumpkins for me. I spent all the November 1st's of my childhood in a cemetery. As you may know, Halloween exists also in Catholicism, with the original name of 'All Saints day', and it is a festive day in places like Italy, France, Spain (no school!). 

 The Toussaint is clearly the quivalent to, well, All Hallows' Day (Halloween being “All Hallows' Eve”, i.e. the day before All Hallows' Day).

Isn't this what I said?

EDIT: ah, you mean 'Halloween' is not exaclty 'All Saints Day' but its Eve. That's true. 

Yes, we have mardi gras in Italy too. We call it most often with the Latin name of Carnevale. Ever heard of Venice or Viareggio? 

[Matilda]

As a liturgical Christian American, I get to celebrate both American Halloween and All Saints Day, which admittedly do clash in their ways of symbolizing our connection with the dead. This year, no trick-or-treating, sadly. So my celebration Saturday will focus almost entirely on reading the comics listed above. All Saints Day, we'll remember all our beloved dead. I do have a few Days of the Dead comics to read Sunday and Monday, including the comic book adaptation of Coco! I have no Disney Duck comics for Days of the Dead. Has there been any Brazilian story involving Dia de Finados?

One of the most interesting things to me in reading Disney comics from other countries is the way stories will reflect the holiday rituals of the story's country of origin. Carnevale, set in Venice or in Brazil. Sinterklaas (no new Disney stories with Sinterklaas, I hear, but there are PLENTY of old ones). Befana at Epiphany. New Year's featuring oliebollen or costume parties.

And then it's super-fun when a story with a country-specific tradition gets printed somewhere else, and it gets adapted. Befana is translated as "the wife of père Noël." A Christmas story gets thoroughly redrawn and rewritten as a Sinterklaas story. I seem to remember there was one where Halloween was reinterpreted in Germany as Carnevale, back before Europeans had become familiar with American Halloween customs...not practicing them, necessarily, but seeing them in American media.