I Luv Halloween - Development and Publication

Development and Publication

Illustrator Benjamin Roman made his professional debut with the first volume of I Luv Halloween; he wanted to create "something that was offbeat and a little gory, but with a kind of humor and playfulness." Having spent years trying to get into the comic book industry, he moved to Los Angeles, California, in 2003, and worked at Kinko's in Hollywood; there, he met a Tokyopop employee, who passed along some of his "rejected proposals" to now-former editor Mark Paniccia. Keith Giffen, an American comic book illustrator and writer who had previously adapted the Tokyopop-licensed manga Battle Royale and Battle Vixens for an English-language audience, joined the project as the writer. Together, they spent three to four years working on the series. Although Roman did not draw the series with any particular influences in mind, he read Calvin and Hobbes and Marvel books as a child. Drawing inspiration from science-fiction and horror films in general, Roman acknowledged that "some of that same kitsch finds itself in I Luv Halloween." For the plot, Roman and Giffen were given "a lot of leeway creatively," and Roman commented: "I think that we were seeing how irresponsible we could go with that story and still get away with it. We were just trying to let loose with the characters, however violent that mentality my have turned at some points." As a way to celebrate the conclusion of the series, Roman gave away more than one hundred pages of I Luv Halloween artwork and five hundred replicas of Finch's mask at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con International.

The three I Luv Halloween volumes were published in North America by Tokyopop from October 11, 2005, to September 11, 2007. Tokyopop later re-released the series in a single volume, I Luv Halloween: Ultimate Twisted Edition (ISBN 978-1-4278-1072-4), with colored illustrations and a bonus story on October 1, 2008. The series is also published in Germany by Tokyopop Germany and in France by Akileos. However, in May 2011, Tokyopop shut down its North American branch, with the publishing status of original, OEL titles left unclear. I Luv Halloween also spawned an animated adaptation produced by Menfond Electronic Arts and released by Tokyopop in July 2007 as featured content on MySpace TV. Ben Chan wrote an original music score for the I Luv Halloween short episodes.