The 1978 2017 2023 DC Calendar of Super-Spectacular Disasters: October Occult

This is an expanded and updated version of a post originally published October 1, 2017.

Welcome to October! Everybody loves October! Isn't that right, Mitch?


from "The October Game" in Shock SuspenStories (1952 series) #8 (EC, June 1953), story by Ray Bradbury, comic script by Al Feldstein, pencils and inks by Jack Kamen, colors by Marie Severin, letters by Jim Wroten
Aw, Mitch, this ain't gonna be the DC Calendar for you then this year, I guess.


Note: Want to see what makes October so bad for Mitch? Tune in again this Halloween! Hint: it's an DC story. It won't end well.

But for everyone else, here's a calendar! You know the drill: it's from 1978 but it still works in 2023!

"October: Atom and Hawkman" in The 1978 Calendar of Super-Spectacular Disasters; artwork by Al Milgrom
(Click picture to Great Pumpkin-size)
Throughout several past Octobers in this here puppet-town cow-blog I've brought you stories of superheroism and mysticism in Rutland, Vermont, set at their annual Halloween Parade. Just search for the category "One Night in Rutland" to find others, and be aware I still have not yet finished off this feature! (What is wrong with me?)

Anyway, no Rutland Rutrospective is complete without this page from the 1977 DC Calendar of Super-Spectacular Disasters, which tells the tale of the time the Atom, Hawman, and Hawkgirl fought Felix Faust, the Matter Master, and the Gentleman Ghost at the scariest party to end all parties in Vermont (unless you count that time I got into the vats at the Ben and Jerry's factory)!


They're on a collision course with wackiness! I can say this because the calendar doesn't actually tell us how many people died.


Take us up to date, Justice League computer: what's the latest calculations about the criminal genius behind all these seasonal shenanigans?


Huh, that's still baffling. Another clue, computer?


OH HEY IT'S EARLIER-PERIOD, MORE-INNOCENT DOCTOR LIGHT


Cover of Secret Origins (1986 series) #37 (February 1989); script, pencils, inks and letters by Ty Templeton