Scream! and Misty - Halloween Special (2018)

Scream! and Misty - Halloween Special (2018)

Authors: Guy Adams / Rich McAuliffe / Alec Worley / Kek-W / Lizzie Boyle / Smuzz / Jordi Badia Romero | Artists: Frazer Itving / John Stokes / Steve Mannion / DaNi / Simon Coleby / Yishan Li / Smuzz / Jordi Badia Romero | Page Count: 52

"And thus sow the air with angels, subtle spirits bound to whisper spite in the ears of drowsing lords, waking men from apathy."

The Scream! and Misty pairing returns for a second Hallowe'en outing, once more resurrecting some old comic strips from their grave. There's seven stories included, but not all are from yesteryear.

It opens with The Thirteenth Floor, one of Scream!'s most popular strips. It continues the story of Max and Sam Bowers' partnership. The pairing theme continues with the strip's artists: John Stokes provides the B+W sections, while Frazer Irving takes over with full colour for the scenes set upon the titular floor itself.

There's not a lot of input from Max (not counting his creations), and the short page count doesn't help with characterisation of the other characters.

It feels like half a story, which is a criticism that can be applied to the majority of the book.

Scream! and Misty - Halloween Special (2017)

Scream! and Misty - Halloween Special (2017)

Authors: Guy Adams / Grainne McEntee / Feek / Kek-W / Hannah Berry / Alec Worley | Artists: John Stokes / Frazer Irving / Tristan Jones / Henry Flint / Simon Coleby / Warwick Fraser-Coombe / Ben Willsher / DaNi / Mike Hoffman | Page Count: 52

'His thirst for blood could be sated, but his longing for something else took hold. He wanted to be part of the hedonism, the nihilism, the dawning of another cycle in life's great illusion.'

Both Scream! and Misty have enjoyed a revived success of late, with two collected editions each (so far), so it made sense for publisher Rebellion to give us more. But what I wasn't expecting was that they'd give us NEW stories set in those worlds!

And they've been updated, set now in the current era of ubiquitous mobile phones and internet access. I can't speak with regards Misty, because I didn't read it back in the day, but the Scream! stuff works just as well despite the cultural and social sea-change since its original run (1984).

There are six stories included, two for each of the titles already mentioned, and two others that feature or bring together characters from other long-dead comics (e.g. Thunder, Buster, Speed, and Jet) that were not deemed important enough, it seems, to get a mention on the front cover and whose surprise inclusion makes it feel like we're getting less of what was advertised by the eye-catching cover art.