One of the most iconic creatures associated with Halloween is the werewolf. Along with vampires werewolves are creatures that everyone expects to see on Halloween because no celebration of everything dark would be complete without some wolf/human hybrids running around. But the origins of the legends of werewolves are even darker than Halloween. Legends going back to ancient Greece mention humans with the ability to transform into wolves and other animals. Every culture around the world has at least one legend related to werewolves, and werewolves figure prominently in folklore and fairy tales in many cultures. European culture, which strongly influenced both American culture and the creation of the Halloween holiday, mentions werewolves quite regularly in stories and myths going back to the early Middle Ages. There are many mentions of how to avoid werewolves, what to do if you are bitten or scratched by a werewolf and how to kill werewolves in tales and books from France through all the European countries with most of the tales centered in Eastern Europe, where a lot of the popular vampire tales come from.

Werewolves are still a part of cultural lore today being featured in films, TV shows and books. The BBC America show Being Human which was adapted for America by the SyFy channel features a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost living as roommates and interacting with the human world. The Harry Potter books and films also feature werewolves among other fierce monsters. Shows like Faked or Faked and Destination Truth and Monsterquest have sent teams of researchers around the globe looking for evidence of real werewolves and other monsters. So it’s natural that werewolves would be a Halloween staple. It wouldn’t be very much fun to celebrate everything scary and dark without werewolves, vampires and witches. Just make sure that if the moon is full on Halloween night you are not caught out alone in the moonlight or else you might find yourself trying to outrun werewolves roaming the neighborhood in search of Halloween treats.

There is as much variation in werewolf costumes as there is in werewolf legends. Some costumes focus on the human aspect of a werewolf and feature raggedy clothing, dirt smears, scratches and bruises. Others focus on the wolf and involve elaborate masks, professional quality special effects make up, contact lenses that are designed to look like a wolf’s eye and furry paws and arm pieces that are soft and realistic. And no werewolf costume would be complete without the teeth. The thought of coming face to face with a supernatural wolf is made even more terrifying when you add long, slashing fangs to the picture. Werewolves are brutal killers when they are in wolf form, and large razor sharp teeth are one of the most terrifying aspects of a werewolf. You can buy very realistic looking teeth caps that fit over your own teeth to make your werewolf costume even scarier, or you can use dental appliances that fit over your teeth to give you the kind of animalistic look that is necessary to make a truly scary werewolf costume.

What started as an industry convention for graphic novelists, artists and fans has grown into one of the three biggest trade show style conventions in the world. Comic-Con San Diego, also called SDCC, set the standard for all other gatherings of this type around the world. Other cities throughout the US now hold their own Comic-Cons throughout the year but the original and the most well attended is still the original in San Diego. Comic-Con is always held in the summer. The last few years tickets for SDCC have sold out in a matter of minutes. The San Diego Visitors Bureau has said that Comic-Con, on average, brings over 160 million dollars to the city in just four days. But Comic-Con wasn’t always such a huge attraction.

Comic-Con was started in 1970 by Shel Derf, a huge comic and graphic novel fan, along with other fans and graphic novel creators, artists and writers. It started as an industry specific convention that gave collectors of comics and memorabilia the chance to meet and to buy and sell their collectibles. It was also a chance for fans to meet the artists who created the works they loved as well a chance for the artists and writers to network, sell their work, and attend panels and seminar that could enhance their work. Over the years Comic-Con grew steadily but still was largely under the radar. Only 300 people attended the first Comic-Con, which was only three days long. The founders of SDCC began to reach out to other genres and include other groups in the convention as the years went by. They began to include science fiction/fantasy authors and the staff and stars of science fiction TV shows and movies. Once they started including other genres and groups the SDCC began to take off as more and more marginalized groups joined in. When video games became more accessible and wildly popular Comic-Con embraced the fans, designers, and creators of video games and launched the convention into mainstream popularity. What really put the SDCC over the top in terms of popularity though is the fans. Fans of popular comics, science fiction movies and TV, video games, animation and many related subgroups compete with each other to create often stunning costumes to wear to Comic-Con every year. Fans roam the convention space in costume and attend workshops and panels where they can interact one on one with the writers, directors and stars who are putting out the content they love. The highlight of the convention is always the Masquerade Ball and costume contest, which people prepare for all year.

When movies and TV based on science fiction and graphic novels became a gold mine for Hollywood major studios started to realize the value of sending stars and other staff to Comic-Con every year which drew even more fans. The studios, gaming companies, and artists who attend Comic-Con get valuable feedback directly from the people who are buying the products, collectibles and art they put out and the fans get the chance to meet their heroes, add to their collections, dress up and party with other fans like themselves and get exclusive looks at new games, movies, books and other art.

Halloween is a relatively new holiday in the US and wasn’t always celebrated the way it’s celebrated today. Trick or Treating, wearing costumes, and celebrating everything spooky was unheard of in the US before the early 1900s. All Hallows Eve was considered to be a somber religious occasion by the Puritans who settled much of the northern part of the country. There are scattered references to people in the southern colonies observing Halloween, because there was more diversity of customs in the south, but Halloween was not considered an actual holiday until the late 1920s. Many of the Halloween traditions that exist today were adapted from European practices that were brought to the US by European immigrants.

In the mid 1800s huge waves of immigrants started coming to the US from Europe, and they brought with them their local holidays and customs. In Scottish and Irish communities “guising”, or dressing up on All Hallows Eve to go door to door and beg for money or treats became popular. The costumes that were worn were usually nothing more than a flour sack or rough scrap material with a face drawn on it wrapped around the face or using coal or greasepaint to create a scary looking face. While sometimes kids who were “guising” would play small pranks on houses that turned them away it wasn’t Trick or Treating the way that most people know it today. In European communities Halloween was often celebrated by adults at indoor parties where they would drink alcohol, feast, and play games like bobbing for apples.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s mass produced costumes started to appear. Costumes were sold for kids and for adults, who began to use Halloween as an excuse to have lavish and extravagant parties where people dressed up in costumes that mimicked fashion trends and pop culture figures. Costumes for kids were limited to figures like cowboys, ghosts, angels and demons. Sexy costumes for adults began to appear since it was considered acceptable for people to break from social mores for a night on Halloween. As the practices associated with Halloween got wilder people grew concerned about the damage done by kids who were “guising” and by the drunken adults having wild parties. In the 1940s the concept of Trick or Treating was creating to try and organize the chaos that had become associated with celebrating Halloween.

The Boy Scouts and local groups started to organize Trick or Treat events for kids, reasoning that if they held carnivals and organized events where kids could dress up and go door to door asking for treats people would be more responsible and the bulk of the damage caused by Halloween pranks could be contained. Trick or Treating reached its ultimate popularity after the war when people flocked to the suburbs and Trick or Treating in suburban neighborhoods became the beloved Halloween tradition that it is today. Adults still like to have wild parties on Halloween, that hasn’t changed much over the years, but Trick or Treating is still evolving. One thing is certain though, Trick or Treating is here to stay.