I have to admit, I love Halloween.
The pageantry. The costumes. Even the candy — which, as a diabetic, I can’t eat any more. I love all of it.
Which is why I love to see the cool newspaper pages — inside and out — that creative folks come up with each year to celebrate the fall holiday.
Last Thursday, we saw the Victoria (Texas) Advocate‘s Halloween-themed entertainment tabloid. Yesterday, we took a look at what the student paper at Indiana University was doing for Halloween, including fun tips on how to survive if zombies invade campus.
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ZOMBIE MANIA IN GREENSBORO, N.C.
Today, we pick up with that zombie theme, with a hilarious survival guide by Tim Rickard of the Greensboro, N.C., News & Record:
This ran in the News & Record‘s weekly Go Triad entertainment tab.
Tere are some great tips here. After all, how can you tell if you’ve been texted by a zombie?
What’s the one thing worse than being a zombie?
How hard would it be to shoot your mom if she were a zombie?
And finally, this tip for how to escape a fast-moving ambulatory zombie also works well in dealing with spiders or surly managing editors:
Fabulous stuff — designed and written by Tim, we’re told. Average daily circulation for the News & Record is 67,625.
Would you like a PDF for your growing collection of cool pages? Download one here.
Thanks to Greensboro design director Ben Villarreal for sending it to me.
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HALLOWEEN IN TOLEDO, OHIO
The weekly Free Press Star of Toledo also went all-out for the season.
On this week’s cover, a local TV celebrity dresses up like a political candidate from Delaware. Or something like that…
The inside pages are quite bloody. Click on any of these for a larger view:
Here’s the center spread, turned sideways and containing a complete calendar of all the area’s Halloween-themed events:
Note how even the column sigs are customized with a Halloween theme this week:
The designer was James Molnar, who’s sent us clever stuff in the past as well (here, here and here). Find the entire edition here.
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HALLOWEEN-THEMED FRONT PAGES
A number of papers have played Halloween themes out on page one this week. Here are the most notable over the past couple of days, culled from the daily archive at the Newseum…
The big question in most communities this year: Just when is trick-or-treating? In fact, we’re debating that very thing here in my own section of Virginia Beach.
The Register of Sandusky, Ohio — circulation just 4,200 — took on that very question with its Thursday centerpiece, which it turned into a directory of cities and dates:
Although this ran yesterday, it wasn’t quite early enough for folks in Cedar Point, however. That town held its annual trick-or-treeting on Wednesday. That’s a live trick-or-treeting photo on A1 by staffer Laura Woolf.
The Dispatch of Casa Grande, Ariz. — circulation 7,925 — noted that little goblins will be out begging for food Sunday night in their community, meaning that kids will be a) tired and b) coming down from their sugar rushes during early-morning school hours on Monday:
The photo on today’s front was by staffer Steven King. No relation, one would hope.
The World-Herald of Omaha also spun its Friday Halloween-themed story forward with tips. Which candies are OK and which should be avoided by kids with braces?
Here’s a closer view of the important part, at the bottom:
The photos are by staffer James R. Burnett. Average daily circulation for the World-Herald is 153,340.
The Daily Herald of Provo, Utah, created a fabulously simple illustration for the top of A1 today:
I’ll bet that looks very creepy, peering out of a newspaper rack today.
The free Metro tabs, too, went with a scary face motif today, designed by art director Benn Storey:
The illo was used by all the Metros today. That particular one, however, is the flagship Metro of Boston, distribution 163,000.
And finally, there’s this very cool illustration on the front of today’s Chicago RedEye:
The idea, of course, is that everyone might be dressing up as Lady Gaga this year. Of particular note is the reference in the deck to “fame monsters.” Pretty funny, guys.
If anyone out there in RedEye land can tell me who’s responsible for this Gaga page, please drop me a line.
Average daily distribution for RedEye — the free commuter tab of the Chicago Tribune — is 250,000.
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MY HALLOWEEN SHAME
I’ll close with my best personal story of this Halloween. So far.
A few days ago, my wife — knowing of my fondness for toys and for Halloween — brought home a gift for me. A very, very realistic battery-powered walking tarantula.
This sucker is cool. He’s about eight inches across and covered with fuzzy black flocking and everything. I suspect the cats will love him.
Just one little problem.
I’m afraid of spiders. I mean, really really afraid. Pathologically afraid, even.
I tried to mess around with it a little, but I can’t even get it out of the box without my skin crawling off my bones and running down the hallway.
Sharon, of course, is very aware of my phobia. I suspect she bought it just so she could watch me freak out.
So now you know what I’m doing Halloween. Drinking a lot of alcohol in hopes of getting up enough nerve to play with my new toy.
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So did you do anything cool for Halloween this year? Cool pages, graphics or just wear a costume to work today? Send me a photo, please.
