Mark Parisi’s Halloween Comics Make Spooky Season Funny
Halloween is supposed to be scary. The haunted houses, the horror movie marathons, the costumes designed to give you nightmares — the whole holiday runs on goosebumps. But cartoonist Mark Parisi has spent decades proving that the spooky season has a second gear: comedy. His brand-new collection of 42 Halloween comics, released just days before the big night, turns vampires, witches, ghosts, and skeletons into some of the funniest characters on the internet right now.
October Is This Cartoonist’s Favorite Month
Parisi is the creator of Off the Mark, the single-panel comic that has been running since 1987 — nearly four decades of daily punchlines. He has openly said that October is his favorite time of year to draw, and it is easy to see why. The month hands him an endless supply of material: werewolves, vampires, witches, Frankenstein monsters, mummies, ghosts, creatures from the black lagoon, and monsters under the bed. Add in costumes, candy, bats, and pumpkins, and he has told interviewers there is basically a never-ending source of fun ideas.
This new 42-comic batch, shared on October 27, mixes fresh gags with older favorites that fans had not seen in a while. It follows a 50-comic Halloween collection from earlier in the month, which means October 2026 might be the funniest spooky season of his career.
When Monsters Have Relatable Problems
The magic of Parisi’s Halloween work is not just drawing monsters — it is dropping them into situations anyone would recognize. His vampires, zombies, ghosts, and witches are not lurking in haunted castles. They are dealing with trick-or-treating mishaps, modern annoyances, and painfully everyday problems. The joke lands because the setup is familiar and the monster in it is completely out of place.
That signature style comes straight from Off the Mark’s playbook. The comic has always been about humor in unusual and absurd situations, and Parisi is especially known for his sharp, playful take on everyday life. Placing a centuries-old vampire in a situation that feels like your Tuesday is exactly the kind of mismatch his fans live for.
The Man Behind the Monsters
Parisi is not a newcomer. Off the Mark is syndicated by United Feature Syndicate and has been named Best Newspaper Panel twice. Beyond the daily panel, he has lines of greeting cards in stores across the country and a middle-grade book series with HarperCollins called Marty Pants. He also co-authored a book called The Truth About 5th Grade with Kim Tomsic.
In other words, this is a cartoonist who has been making people laugh in print, in books, and on cards for longer than many of his readers have been alive — and his Halloween collections have become a yearly tradition for comedy fans online, featured again and again on sites like Bored Panda.
Why This Collection Hits Different
Plenty of artists do Halloween art. What sets this batch apart is the volume and the timing. Forty-two comics, released within days of Halloween, with both brand-new pieces and resurrected classics mixed in. It reads like a greatest-hits tour with a few surprises tucked inside.
It also arrives with a simple, refreshing message: Halloween does not always have to be scary. The holiday has plenty of room for laughter, especially when the monsters themselves are the ones getting the punchline.
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