Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, although more for the weeks leading up to October 31 than the day itself. Used to be different when I was an active trick-or-treater, but I stopped that like two years ago. You wouldn’t believe how snooty people can get when a guy in his 30s rings their doorbell and asks for candy. I mean, come on – get in the spirit of the holiday, people!

Anyway, I like that cable is full of month long “Screamfests,” I like that the world seems to be celebrating creepiness, and weird unseasonal snowstorms notwithstanding, October is a gorgeous month in New York City.

To chip in just a little bit to the spoooky vibe, I’ve decided to post two short comic stories I did for anthologies that were never released. (That, by the way, is a very common thing in comics-land. Anthology projects are pretty common whenever you have groups of comics creators who might have resources and time to each do a 5-page story, but not a full issue or pitch. Most of the ones I was involved with fell apart at the publishing stage, but I still think it was a very worthwhile use of my time. These early stories taught me a lot about scripting for length, keeping things tight, and understanding how to make something work on a page.) I’ll post one today and one tomorrow.

The first story, “Windows,” is a 6-pager that I worked on with one of my favorite artists, John Rubio. Rubio is based in Texas, and I think he could be huge in comics, if a project ever came along that he wanted to jump into with both feet. Right now, he mostly works in illustration and graphic design (in fact, he did the logos for 27 and Strongman). I was very lucky to get him for this story, as you’ll see. Incredibly clean art, expressive characters, the whole bit. Just amazing. Let’s hope something grabs him one day and we get to see something longer.

“Windows” was my effort at writing a story set in one of the most terrifying locations I could think of: a skyscraper window-washing platform. The guys who work those are stuck hundreds of feet in the air, exposed to the elements – that’s scary enough. However, I decided to up the ante a little and add in a little goblin-like creature snapping the platform’s cables one by one. I don’t think my scripting is perfect here, and I wouldn’t mind adding a few sound effects just to clarify things a bit, but considering that it was the first comic script I ever had drawn, I’m good with it. Unless you’re one of the few folks who picked up one of the very limited edition short story collections I’ve sold at cons from time to time, this will be totally new to you.

So, enjoy, settle in, and prepare to be mildly unsettled by… WINDOWS: