Posted in: Comics, Oni Press | Tagged: Dave Baker, Halloween Boy

Dave Baker's Halloween Boy, From Self-Published To Oni Press Hardcover

A look at Dave Baker's Halloween Boy, as it jumps from self-published comics to an Oni Press hardcover at the end of the month

Published Tue, 19 May 2026 16:15:19 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Comments

Article Summary

Halloween Boy: Last of the Halloween Boys lands from Oni Press this month, collecting Dave Baker’s self-published saga in hardcover.
Dave Baker writes, draws, colours, and letters Halloween Boy in duotone style, his first full-length comic since Mary Tyler MooreHawk.
Halloween Boy follows a ghost-hunting, artifact-chasing pulp hero battling impossible threats and The Demon Who Lives.
Dave Baker and Oni Press frame Halloween Boy as a sincere, post-superhero adventure mixing classic pulp thrills with heart.

Oni Press is collecting Eisner Award nominee Dave Baker's self-published Halloween Boy series for the first time, at the end of the month, as Halloween Boy: Last of the Halloween Boys in hardcover, the collected voyages of the man known only as Halloween Boy, an adventurer without a past and a combatant of the impossible. The publication will mark Baker's first full-length comics work since Mary Tyler MooreHawk in 2024 from IDW/Top Shelf Comics and his more recent Godzilla Versus Los Angeles special. Here's a look ahead at the collection, written, drawn, coloured, and lettered by Dave Baker in his signature duotone style.

"Working as an archaeologist-for-hire, magical ghost hunter, and super-scientist explorer, Halloween Boy has a simple mission: help those who cannot help themselves. From routine artifact rescues gone wrong to helping the surviving members of an ancient religion enact a cosmic funeral dirge, Halloween Boy finds himself operating as the patron saint of the impossible. And yet, just how long can he win in this never-ending battle before things spiral out of control? When will the dark secrets of The Demon Who Lives finally rear their ugly heads? Find out in the pages of this thrilling compendium!"

Dave Baker says "Halloween Boy is my attempt at making a two-fisted adventurer for the post-superhero age. Does the book feature megalomaniacal villains, inter-planetary warfare, and classic pulp-inspired escapades? You bet. But, it's also a deeply personal reflection on family, fraternity, and purpose. The comics medium has been obsessively deconstructing and dismantling how we view what a hero is for the past forty years. I think there's value in that, and some of those tendencies can even be seen in this project. However, when it came to creating The Demon Who Lives, I really wanted to re-construct the heroic iconography that lured me into this great medium as a child. To repurpose, remix, and rebuild the best aspects of these types of stories in a hyper-earnest and sincere way. Hopefully, The Man of a Thousand Fates means half as much to other people as he does to me. Afterall, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance."

"As anyone who has experienced Mary Tyler MooreHawk knows by now, Dave Baker is one of the most potently creative voices making and creating comics to emerge within this decade. Dave's work is like riding a psychic vortex through eight decades of comics history – where Golden Age archetypes, underground comix, postmodern fiction, and, above all, some ripping good yarns all combine into a new kind of intensely calculated storytelling that defies the typical whims of space and time," said Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. "HALLOWEEN BOY is a brawling, bloody dose of 21st century pulp fiction with a brain buried underneath all of its bruises. Call your comic shop — because The Demon Who Lives is coming!"