All Work And No Play — Reviewing ‘The Powerpuff Girls: Halloween Special’ #1

“Light and fluffy” sure doesn’t mean there can’t be some spooky, “goes bump in the night” style shenanigans to wrestle with. Sugar, spice, and everything nice is no match for the overreaching power of horror and the scares that are afoot in The Powerpuff Girls: Halloween Special #1.

A cavalcade of horror references and homages is brought to life by Amanda Deibert, Cat Staggs, and Jeff Eckleberry.

What a treat this issue really turned out to be.

Honestly, I was not certain what to expect when walking into the whole thing. I mean, this whole series so far has been amazing in just how fun, colorful, enjoyable, and dynamic it has all been with every page turn. Fitting horror into it all seemed to be not a tall order at all, but one that could go any number of ways. From the girls just having some fun trick-or-treat adventures ruined by a villain, or costumes that came to life, or who knows what else.

Instead we are given a story that plays with stories within story elements and really touches on a ton of horror tropes, references, and homages.

First off, a big old hand for Staggs here.

Being able to marry the rougher eerie often drained color aesthetic of horror with the more colorful whimsical and fun energy of the Powerpuff world is wild. Yet, here we are gazing upon the finished product. Hell, there is even a point where the style changes up a bit to show us a ‘realistic’ version of Mojo Jojo and it’s something else entirely.

As is the page that is meant to be Buttercup’s story within a story being crumbled up. Just truly, top notch right there.

Overall there is a general sketchiness that gives that real instant horror story sort of vibe. Almost old timey (especially with the story it’s homaging). This plays into the darkness and general ominous heaviness we’re meant to feel at every turn. Each of the girls and their unique colors and personality, along with a few other characters, bring the more light and toned down vibrant colors to play. Not letting us forget what world this is meant to be.

Eckleberry pulls from that same energy to really give the lettering an even heftier impact here. While also stretching it out in other ways to fit the shifts in visual quality and tone that happens throughout the issue. Letting it all flow across the page in the right ways, drumming up more emotional and personality energy as they go. Letting the horror vibes run wild with every word that graces the page.

I love when creators can take a story that tends to skew more ‘adult’ in audience focus and adapt it into stories for children. Keeping a lot of the meaning and message but doing it in a lighter, yet still spooky, sort of way. Deibert pulls that off pretty easily here.

Truth be told, I was excited to see the news that she’ll be returning to the characters to write the next handful of issues of the main The Powerpuff Girls book starting in December. Just like the other writers, she shows how much she not only understands these characters but this whole world and what it can offer. Nailing all the personalities and doing some fun bits with the stable of villains (even if they were figments of imagination here).

Never forget, you can have fun and feel the tingles of terror at the same time. In fact, sometimes it’s the best sort of feeling.

The Powerpuff Girls: Halloween Special #1 is now available from Dynamite Entertainment.