Summary: It's Halloween which means it's the perfect season for a horror anthology starring your favorite DC super heroes.
Plot: Now, even though these anthology specials tend to be mixed bags I usually love them just for the concept of the anthology itself...but with the ten dollar price tag and only three stories that I actually liked this is the first DC special I just can't recommend. On top of that, although I did enjoy the Supersons story, the Jason Blood feature and the Damian Wayne story I really think that they would have been better served by a larger page count. It's the Halloween season so I think the market could definitely bear a series of specials rather than just one and then these stories could have spread their wings more and really shined. Or barring that they should have kept the story count to just four so each story could have been a bit longer.
Art: Although I did feel a bit let down by the price tag of the special  new Kelly Jones art very nearly made it worth the cost of admission.  As always, he does a fantastic Deadman but I also really enjoyed his Damian Wayne and the monster and acrobatic energy of Robin and Deadman were perfect.
Grade:6/10

Summary: As Sabrina's familiar, Salem has often been her protector...but what happens when he needs protection of his own?
Plot: This newest one shot addition to Archie's amazing but sadly stalled(or defunct?) horror line definitely stands among the best entries. Though more of a straight forward horror book lacking the twist of turning a non-horror story into something else like Afterlife With Archie or Chilling Adventures of Sabrina it is none the less a really great Halloween read. Bunn's characterization of Salem nails that slightly snarky, trickster voice that has always made me love Salem and the plot on Salem freeing pets who had been turned into demons by a warlock had a quick pace and a suitably dark conclusion that evoked an almost Lovecraftian feel.   My hope is that this one shot does well and perhaps we'll finally get the end to Archie that was originally solicited nearly ten years ago, but that might be a hope too high. We'll see though. I don't know if you saw this out there shaxper but no archie fan should be with out this issue!
Art: Though not as moody as the art of Francesco Francavilla from Afterlife, Schoening does have a very detail oriented style that reminds me a lot of the old horror mags which is a great fit for the story as it's dark, morality play like ending definitely would have felt right at home in Creepy or Eerie. I really loved how scary he made the various stray pets, they were clearly horrifying but without making their proportions feel exaggerated. That level of realism lent the story a much scarier feel than it otherwise would have if Schoening had just done generic monster dogs.
Grade:10/10