Your New Favorite Indie Superhero: Dave Baker’s ‘Halloween Boy’ Reviewed

Halloween Boy: The Last of the Halloween Boys by Dave Baker is a bold re-invention of the adventure pulp genre with a heavy dose of dark fantasy. It was originally conceived as an underground comix reinterpretation of Lee Falk‘s The Phantom before being retooled and expanded into its own original story. The title character acts as a paranormal investigator and super-scientist explorer whose battles with the impossible put him at odds with his own mysterious past.

Within his book, Making Comics, Scott McCloud talks about a new breed of comic creators who do away with genre expectations and give new life to a genre by rediscovering its basic appeal. Halloween Boy is a bold reinvention of the superhero genre by returning to its pulpy origins and adding new elements of dark fantasy.

Baker has returned to a pure tradition of entertaining comic-making — the joy comes from reading about characters with wacky names and bizarre character designs going on fantastic adventures. The world-building is expansive and makes the character of Halloween Boy feel like he’s been around for hundreds of issues. Many of the concepts can be best described as “I have no idea what it means; I just love the way it sounds.” The Chamber of the Mirrored Soul, Frankenoid, Draculo Satanikill, Hades Island, Hell Prowler; it’s these naming conventions bordering on lowbrow poetry that act as rocket fuel for the imagination.

Halloween Boy’s heavy penciled art is unique, and the handcrafted quality adds a layer of charm readers desire in this hyper-digital age. Don’t let the simplicity of the art fool you; Baker knows how to deliver splash pages and double-page spreads. While the panel structure is clean and often grid-like, Baker breaks with the rigid form to express fantastic moments.

The limited color palette of black, white and orange is occasionally broken up by purple, representing flashbacks. The limited colors work well overall; however it’s occasionally hard to differentiate characters from the backgrounds.

Baker cites Shotaro Ishinomori and Keita Amemiya‘s tokusatsu work as an artistic influence. You can see this tokusatsu influence within the toyetic hero designs juxtaposed with grotesque monsters. Some pages look as if Guillermo Del Toro made Kamen Rider. Baker also loves The Prisoner, so readers can rest assured that this is a creator with really good taste.

Halloween Boy is one of those rare characters that has an X-factor that inspires reader curiosity and could believably run for a very long time. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait long for more adventures because Baker is working on Volume 2. Additionally, he is also writing an intriguing reinterpretation of Stardust the Super Wizard titled Citizen Stardust. 

Those who want to discover their new favorite indie-darling can order Halloween Boy right now from Oni Press.