From the Greystone Archive: Halloween

This was one of the all-time best Halloween storylines. I'll put this up against any comic's Halloween stories. It takes place at Transylvania University -- which really exists in Kentucky. The story quickly becomes a retelling of the Curse of Rafinesque -- a real-life botanist from Philadelphia. Rafinesque was hired as a professor at Transylvania University and placed a curse on the institution after the president threw him out. The president, of course, had a very good reason for throwing Raf out: The botantist was having an affair with his wife.

Every seven years since, something horrible has happened at Transylvania University, which still celebrates Halloween by sending two students to spend a night in Rafinesque's tomb.

Rafinesque was a fascinating figure. I had way more stuff than I could cram into the storyline. Here's the rest:

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (1783-1840) was called “the Daniel Boone of Botany.�

Although he was not appreciated during his lifetime, scholars now recognize his amazing contributions to science.

For example, his 5,400-line epic poem discussed a theory of evolution that predated Darwin's by more than 20 years.

And he was the first to classify over 100 species of plants and animals.

One such classification stands out among the rest. A gentleman who had welcomed Rafinesque into his house was awakened in the middle of the night by a tremendous clatter.

When he went to inspect the disturbance, he found a mostly-naked Rafinesque, wildly running about the room, swatting in the air with the handle of the host’s favorite violin.

The disheveled houseguest was chasing bats, convinced that they belonged to an undocumented species.

They were.

And Rafinesque was the first to document them.

While spending the night in the house of John Jay Audobon.

Courting Disaster, my weekly comic about sex, love, and relationships updates every Friday. You'll laugh your pants off.

This week's question...

A reader writes... Q: My buddy is totally promiscuous, sleeping with anybody he can. Most of these women he doesn't even care about. We're in our 20s. I tell him he's developing bad karma, but he says the women enjoy it too and that everyone is having fun. I am sort of jealous, but that's not my style. Do you see any harm in his playboy behavior?

Go on over and offer some advice.

From the Greystone Archive: Halloween

Halloween 2001 was uneasy. The month before, we had suffered all of the fright we could handle. That's why Mac decided to throw a party -- to get out of a rut. In the excitement, an invitation gets delivered to the wrong address -- to that of an actual witch. The guest and Argus make a love connection... and hilarity, as always, ensues.

Courting Disaster, my weekly comic about sex, love, and relationships updates every Friday. You'll laugh your pants off.

This week's question...

A reader writes... I have been dating my girlfriend for three years. In the past few months, she has grown really cold toward our relationship. I am quite busy, and I didn’t go out with her for about a month. During that time, she got really close with another guy. She was hanging out with him, clubbing until 5 a.m. I try to do anything I can to please her, but there’s been very little chance for me to meet up with her lately because she has been really busy. What should I do? I am not an obsessive person by the way. I just want things the way they were before.

Go on over and offer some advice.

From the Greystone Archive: Halloween

All month I'm going to be highlighting Halloween storylines from years past. This first one is from the very early days of Greystone Inn. Mac and Argus discover the rowhouse they share is featured on a tour of haunted sites in Philadelphia. This is how they discover their ghost roommate.

The ghost would reappear years later to play a very important role in the wedding of Mac and Sam.



And don't stop at the end of that storyline... it leads directly into a storyline in which Argus discovers his lawyer is a vampire.

Starting today, "Evil Inc" will begin appearing in front of 800,000 more people. The Trend, circulated throughout the suburban areas of Philadelphia, covers eight counties within the Delaware Valley.

The Trend is a weekly publication, and it will run six "Evil Inc" strips in every issue. As I do in my graphic novels, I will convert the strips to read in a continuous narrative -- resulting in a short, standalone "Evil Inc" story in every edition.

Trend readers will be brought into the "Evil Inc" world from the beginning with a few months of "best of" strips from the series' start that will eventually dovetail with the strips being sent out to other newspapers (such as the 150,000-circulation Philadelphia Daily News, which runs the series in its comic-strip format every day).

After the Oct. 1 launch, "Evil Inc" will be added to other community editions of The Trend, as well as The Star and the Northeast Times -- two other weekly newspapers published by the Trend's parent organization, Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc.

Through this roll-out, "Evil Inc" will have been introduced to a whopping 1.2 million new readers by January 1, 2009.

Readers of The Trend may already be somewhat familiar with my work, as the paper has prominently featured me in its coverage of Wizard World Philadelphia for the last two years.

I'm stealing Kris Straub's Slipcast to give you guys and early report on Baltimore Comic Con last weekend. Enjoy!