Folks, October is right around the corner, which means it’s time to start getting ramped up for Halloween (and to attempt to hold the end-of-year holiday season at bay until at least the beginning of November). DC’s celebrating the spookiest month of the year in style with a newly-announced partnership with MeTV that will see the Justice League team with the network’s “cult film host” Svengoolie. The team-up, officially titled Svengoolie MEets the DC Universe, was announced today via THR, and will play out as a series of two-page stories across DC’s October-shipping titles. DC co-publisher Dan Didio will write the tales, with an assist from Svengoolie himself Rich Koz, while Christopher Jones and Hi-Fi will provide the visuals.
That’s definitely an odd pairing, but as far as marketing partnerships go it’s pretty entertaining. Svengoolie’s presence in the comics may bring fans of his show to check them out when they otherwise wouldn’t have. MeTV, airer of classic television series from primarily the ’60s and ’70s, also regularly airs the Lynda Carter-starring Wonder Woman series on Saturday nights right before Svengoolie (the network had also been airing the Adam West Batman series and George Reeves Adventures of Superman, but those have moved to a separate network, Heroes & Icons, which is essentially an offshoot of MeTV). There’s no mention in the THR piece of cross-promotion for DC on MeTV, which according to Variety serves primarily an older, baby boomer demographic.
Svengoolie’s team-up with the Justice League will not be the first time that a horror host has appeared alongside one of DC’s heroes. Ohio-based Nite Owl Theater host Fritz the Nite Owl guested several times — and even helped Superman and Captain Marvel save the world at least once — in the pages of the Jerry Ordway and Peter Krause Power of Shazam! series.
Check out some preview art for the team-up, including a page shared by artist Chris Jones on Twitter, below. Look for Svengoolie Meets the DC Universe to run in DC comics this October.
