Halloween is a joyous time of year, not unlike Christmas. Children can be found riddled with laughter, adults drunkenly hitting on one another, and gifts given out from one person to another. Except, of course, everyone is dressed with their guts hanging out, blood streaming down their face, or their boobs pushed up and their stomach sucked in so tight that you're pretty sure those things could pop at any second. Halloween is a celebration of the dead, and comics fans are lucky to have the option to celebrate the spooky holiday in many different ways.

My goal here is to give horror and comic fans a good suggestion to sit and read on their front porch, in between scaring the crap out of ungrateful grade schoolers who think candy is a god-given right. So light up that jack-o-lantern, brew up some pumpkin spice ale, and grab one of these books to make your Halloween more enjoyable than a hooker on payday. 

 

 

 

This is the series that really kicked off the careers of Steve Niles (who'll appear later on this list once again) and Ben Templesmith, and it should also be kicking off your Halloween reading extravaganza. 30 Days of Night tells the story of a group of vampires who take up residence in a remote Alaskan town where the sun sets for about thirty days, allowing them freedom from the classic vampire burden, sunlight. Though the original plan was to hide themselves from the town's members, there obviously wouldn't be much of a story if everything went according to plan.

There are many different mini-series of 30 Days of Night, but I would recommend starting with the original three issue fright-fest. Plus, you know, vampires are all the rage right now.