ROUGH-TROSPECTIVE EPISODE 10: HALLOWEEN RETURNS TO HADDONFIELD (2003/Xmachina)
BY DEREK ROOK
HAPPY HALLOWEEN roughians, and welcome to what will be the oddest ROUGH-TROSPECTIVE for arguably THE MOST SCARCE comic book (or any Halloween movie franchise collectable) in existence.
Nowadays it feels like there’s more merchandise associated with Michael Myers than the band Kiss (although I don’t think they’ve made a Myers Casket quite yet. However, there’s just about anything else that that your blackest eyes could desire including action figures, Halloween costumes, t-shirts, snow globes, Pop figures, plushies, highway signs, comforters, young adult novels and COMIC BOOKS! CHAOS! Comics did a run back in the early 2000’s, followed by a string of books written by the talented and dedicated Stef Hutchinson a few years later through Devil’s Due Publishing and others. But among every batch of glorious, gory franchise goodies lies a black sheep (he had the blackest sheep, the devil’s sheep) that comes along under the cloak of darkness….a darkness so incredibly pitch, that most fans, can never even fucking see it.
Lucky for all of us, the internet has spent countless research hours tracking down and reviewing not one, but all of these books in detail, and these fine folks at SCREAMING SOUP! have outdone themselves in that regard, …including an impressive in depth (and honest) review of the book were here to deconstruct, HALLOWEEN RETURNS TO HADDONFIELD. If you’ve got 48 minutes and 15 seconds to kill, treat yourself to the entire thing, but if you are aching to find out all there is to know about THIS tricky publication, feel free to jump ahead to the 22:03 minute mark and pregame with us here!
So you’ve often heard me say that ROUGH HOUSE is not my first romp into publishing comics (and other collectables). If we go back a little over two decades now, you’d have seen that there were extremely few outlaw comic book publishers doing what would be considered “the Lords work”. For those of you who remember, there was BLACKEST HEART MEDIA (who would later go on to helm the famed EIBON PRESS) and it was from a fateful series of events that I got involved with their graphic novel production of Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBIE. And even though this was not my first time as a published artist, it was one of the books I became known for to this day.
Due to a series of issues (that I was not directly involved with) the writer and I decided to branch off from Blackest Heart and start our own indie publishing imprint with the purposely misspelled title, XMACHINA (derived from the Latin phrase “Deus Ex Machina”, meaning “God from the machine”.)
Through Xmachina, we published a PHANTASM sequel comic book along with a reprint of the original PHANTASM movie pocket novel, both of which were sanctioned by original Director Don Coscarelli. Then in short order, we printed our first issue of THE GATES OF HELL (a radically different version of what would come later courtesy of Eibon Press).
Things were ramping up extremely fast and in those days. It didn’t take long for one project to give opportunities directly to another. Among properties we “almost” locked down were George A. Romero’s DAY OF THE DEAD and BUBBA-HOTEP, both of which we produced artwork for, but ultimately they fell through. Point being, the phone was ringing and it was a glorious time. Even though we were two kids just figuring it all out, there was excitement in the air, none the less.
Of those aforementioned phone calls, I received one around midnight my time in late summer of 2003 (The call came from California) and it was a person who was the liaison for Joe Wolfe, one of the financiers for the original JOHN CARPENTER’S HALLOWEEN. Due to the crazy buzz Xmachina had generated through shameless self-promotion (with more than a little help from FANGORIA magazine) this person was vehemently interested in having us producing a new Halloween comic book series. The catch was, we had to produce (and be on the hook for) 40 thousand copies regardless of sales. I remember trying to give them a quick lesson on the comic book solicitation process but they weren’t having it. It was very much a “do or don’t” proposition. After some time to think it over, we ultimately declined, BUT still wanted to negotiate something for their upcoming HALLOWEEN RETURNS TO HADDONFIELD 25th ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION (a title they would ultimately shorten as the con went forward in the years ahead), a convention this person on the phone was also a partner of producing and promoting.
Ultimately, we agreed that Xmachina would produce their first convention magazine, appropriately titled “HALLOWEEN RETURNS TO HADONFIELD Official Souvenir Magazine”, to be sold exclusively at the convention. It was the first Michael Myers convention of its kind and it was going to take place at the original filming location of Pasadena California. The one caveat that I slipped in to the deal was that I could create a Halloween comic book story within the pages of the magazine itself, as I was a GIANT Halloween fan at that time and even though we weren’t going to be doing a Halloween comic book proper, I wasn’t too proud to back door one into the convention magazine.
We as Xmachina only had basically two (2) months to produce the entire magazine, get it printed, and have it convention ready, and with that impossible deadline, we produced a “magazine” (basically a comic with loads of other stuff inside) that included:
An 13 page original Michael Myers story originally titled “Halloween – Demystifying the Devil” but was later changed to “Halloween – Retribution and Descent”. I wrote the original script and my writing/publishing partner heavily reworked it from the source material into something more formidable for a comic book type story. Derek Rook, Stephen Romano, Mike Flippin, Ricardo Bernardini.
A six (6) song soundtrack CD was written and composed that included a soundtrack to the comic book portion of the magazine, an original song about Michael, Laurie and Judith, a “sequel” soundtrack song to Escape from New York titled, “After the Escape” and reworking’s of Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead and Near Dark. Stephen Romano, Rock Romano, Christian Lee Dukes.
A map of Haddonfield with all the key locations from all eight (8) films (at that time). Jim Means.
Halloween Alumni Yearbook.
Halloween Movie Trivia.
Rare Production photos (that can be seen everywhere on the internet now).
Donald Pleasence Remembrance Page, with quotes from – John Carpenter, Charles Cyphers, Kathleen Kinmont, Danielle Harris and more.
The magazine was highly ambitious but with the help of several talented and willing participants, we were able to pull off a very handsome and attractive chunk of pulp.
For those who don’t own a copy (and/or have never read it) the big question asked by fans is …”What’s the Michael Myers comic book story all about?”
Basically our original story, HALLOWEEN – DEMYSTIFYING THE DEVIL was of the conceit that the Halloween movies were based on a true story as told by Dr. Samuel Loomis (from his autobiography), the doctor who treated, and later hunted down Michael Myers. The movies all exist, but most are fabricated sequels and not accurate to specific key incidents. What was considered “real” and what was “fabricated” was left somewhat ambiguous, but certain elements, both realistic and supernatural, exist in our “true” story.
Still confused? No worries, so am fuckin’ I. I can’t tell you what I’d rather do than write my way out of eight (8) movies that already had three (3) split timelines by the time I got to it. Somewhere out there is a crucifix with Daniel Farrands stapled to it, and I’m going to hang it over my bed one day as his passion truly did not go unpunished.
The Halloween Movie Timeline in our story:
(Note - All the movies were based, in part, from the stories, theories and research as presented in the autobiography, “Demystifying the Devil”, written by Dr. Samuel Loomis.)
John Carpenter’s Halloween (1995) – This is the first movie based on the true story of Sam Loomis and Laurie Strode, one of the only two living victims of Michael Myers. The movie suggests that everything you see actually happened. When Loomis’ book was released, the movie rights were sold as well. Many partially to completely unrelated sequels followed.
Halloween II (1996) – Is the fictionalized sequel to the movie “Halloween”. A story was built around the last 3rd of Loomis’ book, which chronicled how Michael followed Laurie to the hospital where she was treated and how Loomis attempted to kill both himself and Myers in an explosion. Both survived but were critically injured. The movie depicted their “deaths” and for a time, ended the series.
Halloween III (1997) – Is a fictionalized self-contained story based around the manufacturer responsible for creating and selling the mask Michael wore on his original killing spree. The company, Silver Shamrock, was suspiciously tied to a series of deaths related to their products, but the company was abandoned upon investigation. Several shipments of masks were “displaced” and have re-surfaced in retail stores sporadically around the country in the years that followed the incident.
Halloween 4 (1998) – Loosely based on Michael’s 2nd escape and murder spree in Haddonfield. It was theorized in Loomis’ book that Laurie Strode was Michael’s biological sister, and that in her “death”, Michael would attack her daughter, Jamie Lloyd. After the events of that night, and the questionable “disappearance” of Michael, Jamie began displaying violent behavior, stabbing her step-mother before being arrested.
Halloween 5 (1999) – Nothing in this sequel is based on the real-life events that took place in Haddonfield the year prior. In reality, Jamie Lloyd was institutionalized into a juvenile rehabilitation facility by reason of temporary-insanity. She remained there until her 18th birthday and was released. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
Halloween 6 (2000) – A fictionalized sequel based on a very small chapter in Loomis’ book where his research lead him to believe that the origins of Michael’s evil may have begun with a druid cult. This was a delusion that carried over into Loomis’ later years when he attempted suicide by slicing his wrist insisting that he was removing the “mark of Thorn”. This mark was never discovered and deemed all part of Loomis’ increasing psychosis.
Halloween 7 (2001) – A sequel of the fictional scenario where Laurie Strode returned to face Michael Myers one “last” time. The failing Halloween movie series benefitted from the return of the original film actress to portray Laurie Strode, Jamie Lee Curtis. The real Laurie Strode left Haddonfield soon after the original incident and is now presumed dead.
Halloween 8 (2002) – The last movie sequel, completely fictionalized and unrelated to the original incident. At this point, Loomis’ book was completely purged from, and no connective tissue used to helm this film. Among fans of this film series, the movie is considered to be a farcical representation of the source material and is largely maligned by fans. As a result, this remains the last will and testament to a failed franchise.
Ok! Now that you’ve been fed this heaping exposition dump, scroll below this paragraph to view the actual pages of the story as they were originally presented in HALLOWEEN RETURNS TO HADDONFIELD Official Souvenir Magazine. Use the scroll arrows to advance the pages (there’s 15 all together) and prepare to read perhaps the most peculiar Michael Myers story never realised:
When I say this was a herculean effort on all parts to make this book happen, I’m not even kidding. I was literally inking my last page of art in the car, on my way to the nearest FedEx hub. Stephen Romano was literally living in a recording studio for a month while trying to provide art direction for the book at the same time. The colorist had to stop before he was 100% finished because we had to send the files to China for printing. And probably the most nerve wracking of all was that the entire shipment of 3,000 books (even though it said 2,000 copies on the back cover) had to be shipped from the printer in China, directly to the Xmachina booth at the Pasadena Convention Center floor, ONE DAY before Steve and I arrived by plane to attend the convention. We didn’t even know for sure if the books would be waiting for us when we arrived, OR how they would look. FUCK!
The show went off “OK” for a first time convention. It had the CHILLER THATRE Convention happening the very same weekend on the East coast, and there were some monumental wildfires happening all over the area which prevented many of the guests from being able to attend. There was however one of the best ensembles of Halloween cast members from any of the Halloween conventions that occurred since. Almost everyone was there, and happy, healthy and alive to boot. Some friends came in from California and Las Vegas and the weekend went underway.
Historically, our HALLOWEEN RETURNS TO HADDONFIELD book sold relatively well at the convention, but when you have 3,000 books to sell in one weekend, the sales seemed sizably smaller by comparison. What didn’t help was that once the convention was over, we had no other way to sell the book. For a small amount of time, it was sold on the Halloweenmovies website, but that deal quickly went away, leaving us with boxes of books to wipe our collective asses with.
It wasn’t until around 2007 when they announced that the Halloween series was being rebooted by Rob Zombie that I received a call from a friend who promptly told me that our book was selling at above $200 bucks on ebay and that I should partake in the sales considering we didn’t make a dime off the book when it originally came out.
The years that followed I’d released small batches of books at conventions and online, as “Special Editions”, with a brand new slip cover, signed and numbered and usually with an original sketch to make it a special purchase for fans. I would sell them at a lower price than the secondary market and guaranteed them to be brand new (versus a used copy that everyone else was selling).
This Halloween story was meant to be the DARK KNIGHT RETURNS of the HALLOWEEN series, which took into account every official storyline, every movie and ultimately I created a world where they could all co-exist in some fashion or form. The idea was to build interest among Michael Myers fans, enough for us to be allowed to create our “Ultimate” Halloween story.
Yeah, that never happened.
Incidentally, HALLOWEEN RETURNS TO HADDONFIELD was the last book that Xmachina ever published. Soon after, the core crew disbanded and went on to different projects, to live different lives and the company itself went belly up. I quit the publishing/Illustration industry all together, and for almost a decade, I dedicated myself to Corporate Security Management where I stayed until returning to the biz in 2010. But that’s another story.
Even though the road to this books creation was tumultuous and ultimately ill received, there’s no denying that in spite of the big swing and miss, that in the end, a couple of guys with a LOT of talent and a TINY publishing company was fortunate enough to have the franchise holders calling us, …not the other way around.
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t, kids. Because the truth is, “You Can’t.” So do it anyway and let the naysayers struggle to unfold your haphazardly put together piece of middle finger origami.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN one and all!
See you in the not-so-funny books!
