Chapter 116: Octoberian Traditions
It was the month of Halloween yet the Creed fans were given an unexpected present.
They weren't shocked by the horror of it but the surprise that Creed Comics had in stall for them.
Just the tempting Issue #7s and Issue #8s that the cheap single issues were already given them the expectations for when the respective Issue #10s would arrive.
The bound and heavy versions of the popular ThunderCats, The Cybertronian Chronicles, and RoboCop were already within reach of their imaginations.
How could they have expected that the new release bypassed all that and directly went over the full 30 issues and debuted with 3 Volume Books?
ThunderCats, which only releases issues once a month, was the one with the most heightened Volume Books expectations.
Even RoboCop and The Cybertronian Chronicles, which only had a short but strategic release run, was also heightening up the Volume Books expectation to established levels.
It could be expected from all that that a direct-to-Volume Book release was something they didn't know they needed and compelled many of them to take the new books home from the get-go.
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When they finally got over their Volume Book rush, they finally turned to the thick but reasonably notebook-ish dimensions of the book stack that they are holding.
The crowd didn't know how Creed Comics did it but the perfect mix of black and smokey green brought the entire aesthetic of the covers to a level that portrayed mysticism and the story.
When they finally got to the stylish book covers, they can't help but feel a chill when they put them beside each other.
Volume 1 was against the dark-green background but a darkened silhouette of a man-ish and armored figure could still be made out.
It stood as the highlight of the cover with 'PREDATOR' directly below it.
Of course, underneath the gigantified and emboldened title is the sub-title that ominously spelled out Slaughterous Hunt 1.
It was just the start though as Volumes 2 and 3 depicted what the Predator was all about.
Volume 2's covet was a close-up and revealed version of the figure's head. Its 'face' looked like a metallic mask with a shapely form and had Marley-like locks as its hair.
Of course, the Jamaican hairstyle did not elicit laughs from the ones who saw it as it seems to convey inviolable intimidation and power.
Just the Predator and Slaughterous keywords were enough to convey what the masked figure was all about.
It was already solemn inducing enough but when the people finally turned to the 3rd Volume's cover, the dread they felt was finally justified.
It was still a close-up of the intimidating figure's head... minus the metallic mask.
The Predator finally revealed its ghastly face and opened up its mandibular mouth open wide to pounce at whoever got close to it.
As much as Cthulhu and Lovecraftian monster drawing sent chills to whoever glances at it for the first time, the Volume Book carriers felt that as well.
They knew that Alexander Creed did the art once again and they could only marvel at how the man was able to induce such fear to them through drawing.
As much joy and intrigue the other Creed Comics art had enforced on them, it turned out that they could convey the feeling of horror as well.
Although the 3 articulately crafted and mutually enforcing cover arts had spoiled them of what the so-called Predator was, it still did not fail to dampen their curiosity towards his story.
It was 30 issues in one buy-out and it would be stupid of the Creed loyalist to miss out on it.
Those that had no 30 dollars in hand could only reluctantly be appeased with their single issues while those that had sparing extras could only miss out on final Volumes that their budget can't include.
In any case, everyone was looking forward to peeking into an entire 30 issues of successive storytelling.
They didn't even care if it was rated R by the CARS. Or the fact that it was of the horror genre. As long as it was associated with the 5 masterpieces of Creed Comics, it was a must-have.
R-rated pertains to having only parents buy and allow minors to read the comic book. However, loopholes could always be used by nerds as they looked for the parents in the crowd and have them buy it for them.
The counterboys of the comic stores also didn't care for much of the regulation. As long as these teens are warned and read up on the rules, it was fine as long as they could sell the Volume Books.
Horror and R-ratings didn't sway away many people at all as they lined up to form a Creed buy train and kickstarted the incremental sales figures that would transmit as profit towards the profiting parties involved.
Comic book store owners were now laughing that their long-term income has finally shot up with 5 Volume Books to choose from while Creed Comics was the greatest celebrant atop all of them.
The Predator release opened up a lot of opportunities and revenue for Creed Comics after all.
The prints being sold out was just the ice cream's drip while opening up the horror comic book genre was the cherry on top.
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Still, the sales continued to rise throughout October as everyone found the perfect and reasonably cheap Halloween gift to give.
Halloween was clearly about tricking and treating but it must have felt great to exercise the Christmas tradition in advance.
The horror spirit of comic books was also impassioned as everyone who was enraptured by the Predator's slaughterous hunt and methods can't help but feel the dread.
From Volume 1, the mostly invisible and thermal-visioned Predator was hunting trained army men with ease and terrifying efficiency.
How could normies like them even stand a chance against a true human predator like that?
Volume 2 was the uppage of the forest hunt into a brawl in the army barracks while the last Volume was the true retaliation of human might that finally ended the unmasked Predator.
The entire 3-Volume storyline has closed up Predator's story but those that read up on it can't help but feel that it was just the beginning.
There were still clearly others on an alien spaceship overlooking everything that has happened.
Why were they just watching when their kin was killed? What was the point of the slaughtering of human soldiers? Why were there so many extraterrestrial skulls mounted in their ship's interior decoration?
The questions and theoretical answers just kept piling up but it only serve to elevate the lore that the fearsome Predator had on the readers.
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Alexander simply relished in society's acceptance and bafflement to the semi-completed Predator story.
He could still celebrate how Michael Meyers and Alien finally had its terror icon follow-up that debuted through comic books.
Poor Freddy Krueger could only come as the next in line as The Nightmare on Elm Street hasn't been released as of yet.
He could also congratulate himself for elevating and setting the stage for a franchise that he considered to be mediocre against the others he had in hand.
Overall, Predator: Slaughterous Hunt was a success in all-in-one packaging and setting up for the Halloween Predator releases that would follow up in the next Octobers.
The Yautja would fully be explored in the next standalone Volume Books and form a tradition for horror fans to look forward to.