Another year, another Halloween party here in the Studio. This year’s party felt like it took longer than usual, and I think that might be in part because I tried to fit too much into each panel. Not only does this make the page take longer to get out, but it also makes the figures smaller and maybe even harder to make out, so I’m going to try avoiding that for the Christmas party if I can. I am happy with everything we fit in, though.
There’s a couple characters here we haven’t seen in a while, maybe even some of you didn’t even know some of them were in the Studio. This year I finally got to do something with Carmella Creeper, the undead DJ from the monster cereal line. I always pictured her in charge of the music for these parties, but this year we got to see her. We also got a fun little nod to the Poll Me Closer series, plus I finally got to pair Corey Park with one of the Tom & Jerry witches I introduced last October. We also have a follow-up to the Canute Ask. Of the costume ideas submitted, Link and Zelda just seemed weirdly fitting and also gave me some ideas for how to use them in a scene.
I hope y’all enjoy this year’s party! In spite of it all I’m pretty happy with the final page, and I’m already busy working on Christmas’s!
So the Mystery Solvers Club is something alluded to in an Ask a while ago. It’s one of a few clubs that haven’t gotten a Club Card yet, so I haven’t gotten to elaborate on the club itself much, but activity I imagine them doing is setting up “mysteries” involving some of the spookier Studio residents of the haunted mansion. The idea there is basically not that different from the ClashMe app, just handled a bit different. I figured Fred could talk about that a bit here, and I paired him with the Ghost Witch of Old Salem for demonstration purposes.
The Goth Club is one focused more on interests than activities. This club came about through Asks, which makes it a bit unique among the lineup. Like always, I used a randomizer to pick a character from my list and this time it was Thorn, the lead singer of the Hex Girls. I think the Hex Girls were an awakening for a lot of young people’s interests in alternative ladies.
I had a handful of ideas I was looking at for this month’s Subscriber Scenario pic. In the end, though, I decided to go with the one from someone who hasn’t had an idea used for this feature yet. While the premise here is maybe a little thin, it’s kinda fun I think. I always have a big soft spot for the Scooby-Doo gang, and it’s nice to finally get Fred and Scooby into the Studio, even if they’re not necessarily the focus here
Last year we started a new Halloween tradition of a highlight comic set in the Studio Halloween party. Like last year, our randomly-selected costume model, Space Beth, takes the center panel while we check in around the party with the rest. I know some characters who appear here may be hard to place, especially in the glory hole panel, and I imagine some will only be identifiable through the tags in the public post. I’m pretty happy with how this comic turned out, and I hope y’all will enjoy seeing some of the Studio residents enjoying the spooky season.
Last year I started a new Halloween tradition. Mirroring the annual Studio Santa pin-up, one Studio member gets randomly selected to show off their Halloween costume for that year. The winner this time was Arlene Wilcox, a one-episode Scooby-Doo character, and I had this idea for a scene that I thought would be more interesting than a regular pin-up. I don’t expect to do this kind of thing too often with these series, but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity for what I thought would be a fun little pic.
I’d been wanting to do something with Yung Hee and Velma for a while, since I feel like her main inspirations are Velma and Jade Chan. This Ask seemed primed for making that connection, and I included Daphne ’cause it would’ve felt weird to leave her out. Even though this is a pretty simple Ask, I like the idea of a mystery solving club. Whether they solve actual Studio mysteries or host, like, murder mystery parties, either way I like little looks into how Studio residents entertain themselves when they’re not on camera. I’m not sure how many potential mystery solvers there could be for a club like that, mostly I can just think of other characters from Hanna-Barbera Scooby clones, but I might revisit the concept if I have a good reason to.
I’ve kinda wanted to do a pic like this for a while, to the point that I had the sketch I used for this Ask in my work folder for a long time. I reworked it a little into a pretty simple answer. This is basically the same way I handled Mako’s threesome with Korra and Asami, but I think it’s a fun way to approach the dynamic.










