Comic-book recommendations for Halloween reading

With Halloween just around the corner, publishers have released new or updated editions of some horror and Halloween-themed comics. Each of these would make fine reading with a flashlight once the sun goes down on All Hallows’ Eve.

‘Batman: The Long Halloween’

“Batman: The Long Halloween” follows the fall of District Attorney Harvey Dent as Batman tracks “Holiday,” a serial killer who strikes on a holiday each month.

Most of Batman’s well-known rogues’ gallery appear, as does the mob boss Falcone, who appears in “Batman Begins.” The stylized art is by Tim Sale.

Set just after the “year one” era of Batman, the book features Dent, police Commissioner James Gordon and Batman beginning a tenuous alliance to root out the mobsters of Gotham City. A killer begins a campaign against men working for The Roman, aka Carmine Falcone, starting with the Halloween slaying of Johnny Viti. More slayings follow on major holidays each month, earning the unknown killer the nickname “Holiday.”

Tim Sale provides a great atmospheric tone for “Long Halloween,” and Loeb crafts a compelling mystery that will have readers talking long after finishing the book.

DC released a new edition of “The Long Halloween” in softcover this month.

The early tales of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Development (following their appearances in “Hellboy” comics) were collected in hardcover editions in 2011 from Dark Horse. The B.P.R.D investigates the supernatural mysteries that are beyond the expertise of regular agents. When Hellboy quits the team, Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman must run the team and protect the world from a growing menace of a strange invasion of frogs.