Written by Drew Edwards
Drawn by Kaan Erdogan
Colored by Sergio Calvet
Edited by Russell Hillman
Published by Sugar Skull Media

Here’s another special edition of Halloween Man, like HACK/SLASH VS. HALLOWEEN MAN, and HALLOWEEN MAN VS. THE INVISIBLE MAN. This story Has Lucy and her friend and fellow scientist, Forrest, building a machine which, theoretically, should be send someone into the Afterlife itself. Solomon volunteers, becoming the first ever “necronaut”.

The machine, of course, works, and the rest of the story follows Solomon’s journey through and attempts to come back from the Afterlife. First he arrives in Purgatory, which looks like Las Vegas, where he meets a miniversion of himself, who claims to be his mortal-self, from when Solomon “died.” But because Solomon was revived, albeit as an undead zombie, the part of him that remains mortal can’t fully pass on to the afterlife. The “casino” in Purgatory is staffed by ghosts, and Solomon shares a drink with DEATH, or at least its personification, a skeleton man in a business suit. The other “Four Horseman of The Apocalypse” are also there, and Solomon finds himself battling them.

I won’t spoil the details of the big battle, but let’s just say that there’s a lot of impressive action, that I think fans of the regular series will appreciate. And in the end Solomon is giving a white winged horse to fly him out of the underworld and back to the land of the living. The rest of the issue details Solomon’s journey, which turns out to be more perilous than he expected, as he faces many demonic forces that try to keep him there. And these forces can take many forms, both familiar faces to try to tempt him to stay and horrific beings that wants to trap him.

Artist Kaan Erdogan does a good job with this artwork, it shines in certain scenes, like the aforementioned fight with the Four Horseman, which the detail to action is impressive. However I have to say that in some of the later scenes through the underworld, maybe the art should have been, I don’t know exactly to say it, but “darker?” This story, probably more so than any previous Halloween Man story, feels the most like a HORROR story, but the artwork doesn’t express that as well as it could, in my opinion. Again, no big spoilers, but there’s a sequence where Solomon faces a green double-headed multi-tentacled sea monster. It’s good, but not quite as SCARY as it could have been.

Still, a very good story. There’s a useful flashback where we see how Lucy invented Solomon’s special guns, and explains how they work. There’s also some foreshadowing involving a mysterious woman in Solomon’s life, other than Lucy. So although it works as standalone issue for new fans, I would consider this special issue an essential addition to your Halloween Man collection if you’re already a fan. I’ll grade this an A

Halloween Man: On a Pale Horse Special #3