05-05-06

All Hallows' Eve

It is at this point that I mention for about the millionth time that Halloween is not a Pagan holiday, but is, in fact, the Christian holiday of All Hallows Eve.  You can tell this, because the day on which the holiday occurs follows the numbering system of the Roman/Gregorian/Julian calendar, and not a solar/lunar system favored by Old World Pagans.  This is not to say that the Christians didn't borrow heavily from the pagans to develop the day.  Samhain, which occurs at about the same time, is the period in Celtic culture when the wall between the physical world and Otherworld is at its thinnest, and the spirits and beings there, as well as those earthbound spirits which get their power and abilities from Otherworld, are most able to manifest here.  Combine that with the Christian conviction that any spirit not in direct service to their God is, by definition, and evil spirit, and you have Halloween:  the last hurrah of the evil servants of their One Enemy before the Coming of the Saints.  All this occurs, as you know, not during the first complete moon cycle following the Spring Equinox, but on October 31st.
          Similarly, the post-apocalyptic world of October 31st by Amy King and Nancy King is peopled by the dead and the damned.  Updated in a page format, as if the King sisters were scanning in an already-printed comic book or graphic novel, O31, is the tale of the ragged remnants of Los Angeles in a dark and hopeless future.  Nobody, with the possible exception of "apprentice" Charlie, is without sin, and many of the characters revel in their crimes.  Madmen created by madmen hunt one another and any targets of opportunity they may find across slums and shell-shocked ruins.  Prostitutes and exotic dancers argue the merits and dangers of their respective professions.  Broken mercenaries seek to atone for their past sins and find some tiny spark of life in their battered souls.  And it all leads to...
          I honestly have no idea.  71 pages and eight-and-a-half chapters into the comic I'm still not sure where the comic is leading.  There are too many plotlines to follow, and the comic jumps between them almost randomly as if the Kings were channeling James Joyce.  Unlike a Joyce novel, however, you do get the feeling that the comic is heading somewhere.  You just can't be sure where, at this point.  Or what the consequences of the journey will be.
          Perhaps O31 owes its provenance to British gangster films.  The characters are certainly similar.  The "heroes" (deftly identified by the Kings' use of color on their pages and greyscale on all others) are largely differentiated from the villains in that they are slightly less likely to shoot random people to check if their gun works.  Or, failing that, they probably won't slather the victim's blod on themselves in a sensual and symbolic bath.
          The art is serviceable and skillfully executed.  There is a slight Manga influence, but the line-flow and story construction are very definitely American.  The occasional difficulties with human proportion and stiff subjects go mostly un-noticed behind the Kings' artistic shading and coloring.  It's not David Mazzuchelli or even Frank Miller, but it does the job it's supposed to do, it carries the story forward without distracting your eyes and mind.
          Halloween is a long, dark night, filled with fear and despair, but holding out the seed of hope that, if you survive, there is something better on the other side.  So is October 31st.
October 31st by Amy King and Nancy King
Updates: erratic
Caveats:  Violence, adult themes.
Rating: