A Little Halloween Mischief, One Card at a Time

A little Halloween mischief made its way into the neighborhood this year!

This Halloween, while the kids trick-or-treated, the family and I spent some time handing out Magic: The Gathering & Pokemon cards along with some card-sized flyers for our Mischief Night book series. Since our latest book, Mischief Night 4: Hex and Havoc, features a little inspiration from collectible fantasy card games, it seemed like a fun way to introduce a few more people to Tim and Lucy’s adventures.

The idea was simple: give the kids something fun to take home, and maybe introduce a few of them (and their parents) to a book series they haven’t heard about yet. Will it lead to any book sales? Who knows! But it was fun getting out there and sharing something we’ve been working on.

From a 24-Hour Challenge to Something Much Bigger

One of the things that makes Mischief Night especially fun for me is remembering how it all started.

The original idea came from a 24-hour comic book challenge I decided to take on with my son, Alex. The goal was to create an entire comic book together in just 24 hours. We came up with the characters Tim and Lucy, put together a story, and spent the day drawing, writing, and bringing our little Halloween adventure to life.

Neither of us really knew what would come of it. It was just supposed to be a fun creative challenge between a dad and his son.

Fast forward, and that little challenge has turned into four illustrated books, a growing collection of Mischief Night Minis, and plenty of other ideas we’re still having fun developing.

One of my favorite parts has been working on the Minis. Alex and I love coming up with the jokes and silly situations for Tim and Lucy. Sometimes we come up with an idea right away, and other times we bounce ridiculous jokes back and forth until something sticks. It’s a pretty fun way to spend an afternoon.

Even the little behind-the-scenes things have become part of the experience. We’ll sit together, put flyers inside Halloween trick-or-treat cards, and watch a show while we work our way through the pile. It’s not exactly glamorous book marketing, but it’s time spent together doing something we’ve created.

And honestly, those are some of my favorite parts of this whole project.

Spreading a Little Mischief

Getting the flyers and Magic cards out into the neighborhood felt like another small step in the life of Mischief Night. It’s one thing to create something and put it online, but it’s another to actually hand it to someone and share a little piece of what you’ve been working on.

Maybe someone will look up the books, maybe they’ll tell a friend, or maybe the flyer will end up tucked away somewhere until next Halloween. I’m not expecting an overnight sales explosion, but every opportunity to introduce someone new to Mischief Night is a good one.

More importantly, it’s another excuse for Alex and me to keep creating, laughing, and coming up with new ways to share our little Halloween world.

What started as a 24-hour comic book challenge has turned into something neither of us could have really planned. And that’s pretty cool.

If you’d like to check out what we’ve been making, you can find all four books, along with the Mischief Night Minis, right here:

Visit StLouisDad.com/MischiefNight

Thanks for supporting our little creative adventure. There’s always room for a little more mischief!