By TygerLily Ernst

Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode #1
Written by Stefan Hutchinson
Drawn by Jeff Zornow
Devil’s Due Publishing
Cover Price: $3.50; Available now

I must confess that I’m a huge Halloween fan. Really a horror film fan in general, but Halloween has my heart. It was the movie Halloween that made me afraid of the hall closet in my grandmother’s house well into my teenage years. So, when I had the opportunity to review Stefan Hutchinson’s Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode, of course, I jumped at it and gratefully I was not disappointed.

At first look you know you’re in for a ride. There are a variety of covers, Michael with a knife, his reflection in a pool of blood, and one where Michael is holding a human head, but the one they used is striking. It is simply the mask with hair of fire, truly ominous.

What you will find surprising is that the content does not repeat the movie. Essentially, this story focuses on Laurie and her fears showing that in scenes with exploding jack-o-lanterns and more fire. What we see is how scared Laurie is and how the other people in town treat her after “the night when the world changed.” As a result, Laurie wants to leave town to escape. Because of this a great deal of sadness permeates this issue, as well as the normal guilt and questions of “Why me?” Also, Dr. Loomis makes a brief appearance.

The fifth in the Halloween series by Stefan Hutchinson, the comic captures the fear that you want in a Halloween story but doesn’t feel too familiar. It’s old and new at the same time. Visually, the artist, Jeff Zornow, presents beauty in each frame and gives the reader the gore that you can’t see on film — truly gruesome images that are strangely pleasing to the eye. The story itself can be enjoyed by everyone who loves horror, even someone who hasn’t had the fortune of seeing the movie.

Even though I’ve seen both the original and the Rob Zombie version over and over, this comic left me wanting more and looking forward to the next edition.