Happy Halloween from me (and Monster Mechas too)

Happy Halloween!

As a little treat for the spookiest day of the year, here's artist Keith Hopewell's second Monster Mechas cover for our little passion project — creating comic covers for a hit 1980s toy line that never actually existed.

I love Clankenstein. He could be my favourite monster mech we've designed so far – which isn't surprising as he's based on my favourite monster of all time!

Here's the first sketch Keith sent me of the lumbering Horrorcon:

And the cover is the perfect time to introduce some of our human cast...

The girl on the left is Elsa Fairghoul, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood for trick-or-treating with her younger brother, Eddie. The terrified woman is their mum, Gloria, who – in the story behind the toys – has no idea that her kids are involved in the battle between the Heroic Cryptoids and the Evil Horrorcons...

...or that her father is responsible for the Monster Mecha's creation!

But more on that origin story another day! In the meantime, here are Keith’s original sketches of the kids – complete with Elsa’s natural hair colour and her usual look.

In the alternative reality where Monster Mechas ruled the toy aisles of 1985, the original version of the Halloween cover caused palpitations at Mega Comics as Gloria's original costume was deemed too sexy!

Years later, after the alternate cover surfaced in Creatures of the Might: The 100% Unofficial Monster Mechas fanzine, fans started cosplaying as Mummy Gloria, leading toy manufacturer Miko Max to release an exclusive SDCC figure a few years later.

Of course, none of that really happened... but we're having fun dreaming up an entire fictional history for the toy line. I hope you're enjoying reading it as we are making it. There's more Monster Mechas on the way as we take a deep dive into the lore.

And when I say deep, I mean...deep!

In the meantime, I hope have a fantastic Halloween. We're going to watch the new Del Toro Frankenstein. Oh, and It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown... because tradition!

What about you? What are you doing to celebrate?

Stay spooky!

PS: If you missed our first Monster Mechas post, it's right here!