Vintage Halloween Greeting Card with Ghost and Black Cat

The black cat's wide-eyed, flattened scramble toward the nearest exit sets the tone for this presentation of what can only be described as the world's least subtle Halloween metaphor. A sheet ghost with a jack-o-lantern for a head looms menacingly above, its drapery billowing with the kind of dramatic flair usually reserved for community theater productions of Macbeth, while the pumpkin head grins with cheerful malevolence — a face that says 'I am having a wonderful time, you are not.' The card's creators then apparently looked at this scene of supernatural animal harassment and thought, yes, this is the image that says 'A Happy Hallowe'en Be Yours,' because if you wanted to convey festive holiday warmth, obviously a cat having a complete psychological breakdown is the move.