two anthology funny books

The DC Universe Halloween Special for 2010 demonstrates the anthologist's creed, to put your best feet at the forward and tail ends of an anthology. Billy Tucci both writes and draws the opening story, Trick for the Scarecrow, but special kudos to colorist Hi-Fi. There's a nice and very Halloweeny orange and yellow color scheme that sets the story apart from the dominant tones of 99% of what we see in comics, and works even around the very blue and gray Batman. I'm not entirely sure I understood the story, but it was intriguing and nice to look at.  Brian Keene wrote Fears of Steel with Superman encountering The Demon.  I didn't understand this one either, nor could I say that the depiction of The Demon was The Demon I knew, but the art had panache and the story seemed to reflect an artistic vision of sorts. The other few stories in between these made no impression at all.

I can kind of recommend House of Mystery Halloween Annual #2.  There's a nifty main story in three parts about a group of cursed trick or treaters. First part is House of Mystery proper, second part Madame Xanadu, third Lucifer by the respective writers.  Liked part one, loved the Madame Xanadu segment written by Matt Wagner with some very nice art by Brandon Graham, pencil ink colors trifecta. The Lucifer section was enh but overall this reminded me of the better days of the old House of Secrets-House of Mystery. Alas, this was a $4.99 book that would have been better with less pages less price. The pointlessness of the John Constantine Hellblazer story did not remind me of the best Hellblazer from 20 years ago but rather of the stories in the DCU Halloween special. And the iZombie story was, what?  It's a to be continued in the regular book, but where the first issue of the series was promising and got me back for a second this has not much at all about the characters or concepts or anything to make one go back to the mothership, so why do it at all. I got my $2.99 worth but paid more.