Casper The Friendly Ghost And Little Lulu Halloween Special 2009

Title: Casper The Friendly Ghost And Little Lulu Halloween Special 2009
Date: 2009
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Little Lulu By: John Stanley, Irving Tripp
Little Lulu Created By: Marge Buell
Casper The Friendly Ghost By: Harvey Comics

Sorry guys, you immediately lose points with me for failing to credit the writers and artists on the Casper stories and for barely managing a well-hidden reference to the names of the creative team on Little Lulu. I'm sorry, but I just find that inexcusable, even in an ashcan-format freebie, even when reprinting old material, even if that old material may not have been properly credited. Do your homework. Then give credit where it's due! That's just simple decency, Dark Horse!

There are four stories here, all reprints of classic material. The dates when they originally appeared are not provided. The two one-page gag strips are both amusing, if simple jokes.

The longer stories were both pretty good, especially the Casper one, which had Casper trying to blend in with the crowd so that he could make friends on Halloween. Halloween gives him certain advantages when it comes to trying to interact with people, but sometimes it just isn't enough. But there's one little girl who isn't afraid, even when Casper's true nature gets revealed in the midst of a Halloween party. The ending was surprising and sweet.

The Little Lulu story involved Lulu trying to keep Alvin awake with a story about Hazel the witch and her daughter Itch. Itch is out to create some mischief by levitating a little girl's bed, but the resourceful and scrappy girl (who is Lulu, of course) isn't about to be intimidated by a bit of witchcraft.

In spite of my annoyance with the crediting thing, Dark Horse did choose a couple of good stories with interesting twists to reprint here.

Rating: 6.5/10

This is the first in a short series of reviews of books I picked up today on a visit to Million Year Picnic in Cambridge MA. Million Year Picnic is a great indy-friendly comic book store that carries a ton of small press comics and minicomics. This was the only book in the series by a major publisher, as it was a kids' freebie that the store gave to my son (he enjoyed having the Casper story read to him, but lost interest in the Little Lulu stuff, in case you're wondering). Million Year Picnic was kind enough to purchase some copies of my comics today, so if you're in Cambridge, please consider stopping by and checking out their whole selection of small press comic books.