Bernard K. Finnigan's masterwork, "When Halloween Was Green" is everything a fan of October 31st could ask for. It has deadly creatures, apparitions, and monsters, the majority of which most readers will never have heard of. He unleashes these phantasms on the reader with breakneck abandon, not so much urging you as dragging you from one quickly-turned page to the next, keeping you equally eager and nervous about what is to come.
Into this witch's brew, Finnigan drops characters both relatable and likable, letting us see the suspense and horror unfold through their eyes as well as giving us someone to cheer for. Main characters Benny and his Uncle Keith are dedicated (and knowledgeable!) Halloween aficionados. They and a small group of people with a true understanding of why Halloween is scary are all that stand against the coming storm with its blackened clouds of screaming ghouls and shape-shifting monstrosities. It is small group that is dying off fast. Because if you're the thing to be scared of, your smartest move is to rid the rest of the world of those who know how to fight you.
"When Halloween Was Green" is a thrill ride that brings old Irish legends back to life on the page and unleashes them on unsuspecting victims and wide-eyed readers. I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Finnigan briefly at a comic con in Oregon in March 2018. He was charming and articulate, and it was clear after just a few moments conversation that his heart belonged to the chilling winds of autumn, the flickering glow of jack-o-lanterns, and the quick silhouette of those astride broomsticks flying over the moon. There could be no better person to take your hand through prose and show you that the holiday you know and love is something you really don't know at all.
The story, with characters you quickly fall in love with, harrowing scenes, nerve-wracking suspense, and laughs in all the right places is indeed a reason for true Halloween fans to rejoice. The only thing that mars an otherwise flawlessly-told ripping yarn is that the text is riddled with misspellings, grammatical errors, sentences missing words, and the occasional jumbled phrasing. Mr. Finnigan needed no editor for his premise, pacing, and storytelling, but he would have benefited greatly from a proofreader.
One word that stuck out for me, as a professional cartoonist as well as a horror story fan, was the mention of a celebrated comic book hero who swings on webs and climbs up walls. One of the characters we feel for almost upon his introduction dons the red-and-blue garb of this famous superhero as his Halloween costume. His iconic outfit is then identified, over and over, and incorrectly, as "Spiderman". Any fan knows (and there are a lot of us who do), that the correct spelling is Spider-man. Without the hyphen, it comes across as the squashed version fans dread, which reads as "Spiddurmin". It seems a very small mistake and I admit I am nitpicking, but it was one of those things that each time yanked me out of the narrative while I was deeply immersed in an otherwise wonderful story.
Make no mistake, it is a wonderful story, and it is definitely worth your time. Now that you know to expect the misspellings, there is nothing to keep you from diving in and enjoying the extraordinary tale that Mr. Finngan spins. Read it this fall. Add it to your October reading list. Better yet, pass copies along to friends and fiends alike. More than a story that deserves to be read, it is one that deserves to be shared.