Oni Press has released a collection of the first 5 issues of the famed cartoonist’s self-published pulp fiction action-adventure series in hardcover, which is now available.
Oni Press has shared with AWN an exclusive 7-page excerpt of “Halloween Boy Vol. 1: Last of the Halloween Boys,” the first volume of Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist Dave Baker’s underground, self-published graphic novel series, marking Baker’s Oni Press debut.
Written, drawn, colored, and lettered by Baker in his signature duotone style, “Halloween Boy Vol. 1: Last of the Halloween Boys” collects the initial five issues of his double-sized “Halloween Boy” tales in a single hardcover volume for the first time with a new, never-before-seen cover. The release is Baker’s first full-length comics work since “Mary Tyler MooreHawk” debuted in 2024 from IDW/Top Shelf Comics and follows his contribution to the sold-out “Godzilla Versus Los Angeles” special, also published by IDW.
“Halloween Boy” chronicles the voyages of the man known only as Halloween Boy, an adventurer without a past and a combatant of the impossible. He traverses the galaxies taking on impossible quests and defending the innocent in an effort to live up to the legacy of his long-lost father, until his adventures unlock secrets about his origins and his father’s true motives. Halloween Boy must then face both the truth of the past and his father himself.
“‘Halloween Boy’ is my attempt at making a two-fisted adventurer for the post-superhero age,” Baker said. “Does the book feature megalomaniacal villains, inter-planetary warfare, and classic pulp-inspired escapades? You bet. But, it’s also a deeply personal reflection on family, fraternity, and purpose. The comics medium has been obsessively deconstructing and dismantling how we view what a hero is for the past forty years. I think there’s value in that, and some of those tendencies can even be seen in this project. However, when it came to creating ‘The Demon Who Lives,’ I really wanted to re-construct the heroic iconography that lured me into this great medium as a child. To repurpose, remix, and rebuild the best aspects of these types of stories in a hyper-earnest and sincere way. Hopefully, ‘The Man of a Thousand Fates’ means half as much to other people as he does to me. Afterall, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.”
“As anyone who has experienced ‘Mary Tyler MooreHawk’ knows by now, Dave Baker is one of the most potently creative voices making and creating comics to emerge within this decade,” said Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. “Dave’s work is like riding a psychic vortex through eight decades of comics history – where Golden Age archetypes, underground comix, postmodern fiction, and, above all, some ripping good yarns all combine into a new kind of intensely calculated storytelling that defies the typical whims of space and time. ‘Halloween Boy’ is a brawling, bloody dose of 21st century pulp fiction with a brain buried underneath all of its bruises. Call your comic shop -- because The Demon Who Lives is coming!”
Baker is an Eisner-nominated writer and illustrator whose works include “Fuck Off Squad,” “Everyone Is Tulip,” “Forest Hills Bootleg Society,” “Night Hunters,” and “Mary Tyler MooreHawk.” He has also written for licensed properties including Star Trek, Godzilla, and TMNT.
“Halloween Boy Vol. 1: Last of the Halloween Boys” is now available here.
Source: Oni Press
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
