31 Days of Halloween - Day 6

There are a few things not specific to the holiday that I associate strongly with Halloween. One of them is Vincent Price. The late actor may have been criticized for a seeming lack of discrimination in some of the projects that he attached himself to, but he not only stayed busy as an actor for over sixty years he became relevant to successive generations of movie and tv viewers by making himself ever present in a  wide variety of movies, television shows, commercials and print advertisements. Among many of the wide variety of products that Vincent Price shilled for in magazines are these:

Price also had a long association with Sears. An avid art collector, Price partnered with the homegoods company to bring affordable art to the masses, but it wasn't just art that Vincent Price lent his name to for Sears. 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5 - Movie 2

In my previous post I watched a movie that proved I shouldn't go by whether I liked a movie or not when I saw it as a kid. This post is about a movie that I hated as a kid and an instance when I should have trusted my younger self's judgement.

I first saw Tobe Hooper's Funhouse (1981) when it debuted on cable probably that same year, so I would have been about 14. I didn't like it then. I felt it was just plain stupid.

I watched it again tonight and my opinion hasn't changed. This movie barely has the most rudimentary plot, which turns out to be that four unlikable teams on a double date to a carnival and for some reason decide to spend the night in the funhouse, where they fool around and then witness a murder, steal money and are stalked by the freak and his carny worker dad. It takes about 45 minutes before this starts to happen. There's also some business with the little brother of one of the "characters" (and I use the term loosely since I've seen furniture polish commercials with better developed characters than any you'll find in this movie) that serves no purpose whatsoever other than to pad out the running time of this movie into something feature length. The movie has no suspense whatsoever, and no scares. It's just completely pointless.

It has a few decent props in what must be the most elaborate and largest traveling carnival funhouse on the planet, especially the giant King Kong mouth. The mutant freak designed by Rick Baker and executed by Craig Reardon was a pretty cool looking monster and gets extra points for hiding his horrible, cleft features from the public by wearing a Frankenstein monster mask. But these are not enough to recommend sitting through this. You can save yourself the trouble by looking at the image that opens this post. There. You've seen the best part.

As a note of coincidence, William Finley, who played the title character in the other movie I watched today, Phantom of the Paradise (see previous post) was featured in this movie as a carnival magician who's scene was somewhat fun, but served no function in the movie as a whole.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5 - Movie 1

I tried to watch Phantom of the Paradise (1974) back when I was about twelve and saw it on tv. I hated it. Essentially a blending of The Phantom of the Opera and Faust set within the decadent world of the music industry in the 1970s, the movie was too garish and stylized, and the contemporary musical aspect of it was too big a part of it for my taste and expectations for what a monster movie should be. I've avoided it ever since.

Until now.

I'm not sure of what drew me to try it again, but I'm glad I did. All of the things that turned me off about it as a kid are what I think are the strengths of the movie now. The artifice and stagey aspects of it really  work for the story, and some of it is rather funny. Plus, I've got to say, the Phantom is a really strong image with his bird-like mask, bulging, bloodshot eye, and steel teeth.

Clearly I was too young for this movie the first time I tried to watch it. This is one case where my much younger self had no idea what he was talking about.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5 - Mask of the Day

Today's print and cut out wearable mask is the devil.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 5

For those of you in the NYC area looking for something to do, The Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn will be opening their new show "Can's Beat Em, Join Em: The Zombie Show" from 7pm - 10pm. Proceeds from the show will benefit the American Red Cross. The show itself runs through October 28. For those of you who can't make it in person, the artwork from the show will be made available on the gallery's website tomorrow.

My piece for the show, "George Dakei" rendered as a cut paper collage can be seen above now.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 4 - Movie

I hadn't planned on watching so many alien parasite movies this year, but here's another one; Night of the Blood Beast (1958). An astronaut crash lands on earth and is found dead by the team of scientists sent to retrieve him. Oddly, when his body is examined, even though all of his vital organs have shut down he maintains the blood pressure and temperature of a living man and his blood cells go on living, even though he now has a foreign, non-human blood cell in addition to his normal red and white blood cells. He also has crescent shaped lesions, from where something apparently broke out of his body. The  team of scientists find themselves isolated as magnetic interference cuts off their power and ability to contact the outside world. There's also a strange, monstrous creature on the loose, and then when things  seem to be unable of getting any stranger, one of the team members is found with his head torn off, and the dead astronaut is back on his feet, alive, and harboring gestating alien parasites.

For some inexplicable reason I've been wanting to see this movie for some time. While I don't regret watching it, it was not a good movie, and was bad in that frustrating way that occurs when the movie has a germ of intelligence and originality in it, but can't rise to serve that glimmer of hope.

The characters in this are the most jaded people I've ever seen in a movie, taking everything in stride. One of the medical personnel in charge of examining and monitoring the dead astronaut is the woman he was engaged to, though she doesn't display any grief over his death until well into the movie, and her colleague's attempt at comforting her was bizarrely inadequate. The rest of the scientific team are a bunch of hot heads who approach every task through clenched teeth and an urge to destroy.

The movie actually becomes compelling once the dead astronaut returns to life and pleads for the others not to destroy the alien parasites growing inside of him, and also not to destroy the related hideous monster roaming around, but to try and communicate with it and find out what it wants. In spite of his physical predicament, he's the only one who has a sense of optimism about what's going on, and seeks out the monster to find out what it wants. The monster says it's on earth for benevolent reasons, but is it?

Unfortunately a lot of time goes by before the astronaut's resurrection, and not much really happens until that point. At least not much interesting. With a little more effort this could have been a minor classic instead of the mostly forgettable b-movie that it is.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 4 - Mask of the Day

Ocular Invasion has a trio of free print and cut out masks  including the Studious Werewolf above.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 4

Here are two werewolf stories for your entertainment.

The first tale comes from the October 1976 issue of Boy's Life. Click each image to avoid eye strain.

The second story comes from the the October 19, 1973 issue of Read. 

31 Days of Halloween - Day 3 - Movie

Werewolf of London (1935) was Universal's first werewolf movie, predating The Wolf Man by 6 years, but is not as beloved, or even well remembered. Henry Hull plays a botanist who travels to Tibet in search of an extremely rare flower. As he finds it, he's attacked and bitten by a werewolf. Once he returns to London to obsess over work and neglect his marriage, he's visited by the man who is also the werewolf who bit him. He was also in Tibet to get the same flower. His specimen died, and he asks Hull to share his flower which is the only antidote to werewolfry. Hull refuses, disbelieving him, then finds himself transforming into a monster which kills one victim every night during the full moon.

This movie which actually features two werewolves, some great make-up by Jack Pierce, transformation sequences which are actually better than those in The Wolf Man, or at least staged in a more interesting manner, nice bits of comedic relief, and good acting, falters in one serious regard. Hull's character is a completely unlikable, self-absorbed jerk. Had he been otherwise, his affliction would seem more tragic, as it was for Lon Chaney, Jr. in The Wolf Man, and we'd root for him to find a means to cure himself. Instead we couldn't care less and figure he's going to get whatever he deserves.

It's this aspect of the movie which weakens it and keeps it from being the full blown classic Universal monster movie that it could have been, instead of just one of the studio's second tier monster movies.

My favorite thing about Werewolf of London, was something that caught my fancy when I first saw it as a child and continues to delight me to this day. This is that when Hull transforms into his homicidal animal persona, he still retains enough of his mental facilities to put on a scarf, hat and coat before he goes out into the night in search of victims. He also retains the ability to speak. Yet, sadly the obvious inner conflict between a reasoning werewolf, still driven to kill, is not addressed as part of story.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 3 - Mask of the Day

I'm not sure where this originally came from, but today's print and cut out mask is the Frankenstein monster as portrayed by Glenn Strange in such films as Universal's House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 3

Are you wondering what you should watch this month, or what you should avoid watching? Between 2006, when the Halloween countdown began, and 2011 I watched 268 different movies during the Halloween season. Below are links to each of the movies I watched arranged in alphabetical order.

Now pop the popcorn and pick something out for what I hope is a dark and stormy night -- the perfect atmosphere to watch these under.



Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
The Alligator People (1959)
The Amazing Colossal Man (1957)
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)
Attack of the Puppet People (1958)
Baron Blood (1972)
Bay of Blood (Twitch of the Death Nerve) (1972)
The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)
Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
The Birds (1963)
The Black Room (1935)
Black Sabbath (1963)
The Black Scorpion (1957)
Black Sheep (2006)
Black Sunday (1960)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Blood of Dracula (1957)
The Brain from Planet Arous (1957)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
A Bucket of Blood (1959)
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
The Burrowers (2008)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Captive Wild Woman (1943)
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
Cat's Eye (1985)
Chamber of Horrors (1966)
The Changeling (1980)
Chilean Gothic (2000)
Chosen Survivors (1974)
The Comedy of Terrors (1963)
Count Yorga - Vampire (1970)
The Crawling Eye (1958)
Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)
The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
Creature With the Atom Brain (1955)
The Creeping Flesh (1973)
Cronos (1993)
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Curse of the Fly (1965)
The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964)
Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
A Dark and Stormy Night (2009)
Darkman (1990)
The Day the World Ended (1956)
Dead of Night (1945)
The Deadly Mantis (1957)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Devils of Darkness (1965)
Die, Monster, Die! (1965)
Dr. Cyclops (1940)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)
Dr. X (1932)
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)
Dracula (1931)
Dracula - (Spanish language version) (1931)
Dracula (The Horror of Dracula) (1958)
Dracula (1973)
Dracula (1979)
Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
Dracula's Daughter (1936)
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
The Dunwich Horror (1970)
The Earth Dies Screaming (1965)
The Edgar Allan Poe Collection - Annabel Lee
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
Eyes Without a Face (1962)
Flip (2004)
The Fly (1986)
Food of the Gods (1976)
The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959)
Frankenstein (1910)
Frankenstein (1931)
Frankenstein (2004)
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1973)
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943)
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
Frankenstein vs Baragon (Frankenstein Conquers the World) (1965)
Frankenstein's Daughter (1958)
Frankenweenie (1984)
Freaks (1932)
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
Fright Night (1985)
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)
The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959)
Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
The Ghoul (1933)
The Giant Claw (1957)
Gorgo (1961)
The Gorgon (1964)
Gorilla at Large (1954)
The Green Slime (1968)
The H-Man (1958)
The H.P. Lovecraft Collection: Volume 4 - "Pickman's Model" 
Halloween (1978)
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Halloween - The Happy Haunting of America (1997)
The Hand of Death (1962)
The Haunting (1963)
Haxan (1922)
The Headless Horseman (1922)
The Hideous Sun Demon (1959)
Horror Express (1973)
Horror Island (1941)
The Horror of Party Beach (1964)
The Host (2006)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
House of Horrors (1946)
House of 1000 Corpses (2002)
How to Make a Monster (1958)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)
Insidious (2010)
Invaders From Mars (1986)
The Invisible Man (1933)
The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944)
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977)
Island of Lost Souls (1933)
Isle of the Dead (1945)
It Came from Outer Space (1953)
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007)
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)
Kill, Baby...Kill! (1966)
Konga (1961)
Laid to Rest (2009)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1999)
The Leopard Man (1943)
Let the Right One In (2008)
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
Lifeforce (1985)
Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997)
The Mad Ghoul (1943)
Mad Love (1935)
The Mad Monster (1942)
Madhouse (1974)
The Man From Planet X (1951)
Man Made Monster (1941)
Man of a Thousand Faces (1971)
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
Martin (1977)
The Mask (1961)
Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Matango (1963)
Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
Mimic (1997)
The Mist (2007)
The Monolith Monsters (1957)
Monster House (2006)
The Monster Maker (1944)
Monster On the Campus (1958)
The Monster Squad (1987)
Moon of the Wolf (1972)
The Mummy (1959)
The Murder Mansion (1972)
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
Mystery in the Wax Museum (1933)
Mystics in Bali (1981)
Night Monster (1942)
Night of the Demon (1957)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Night Tide (1961)
Night Watch (2004)
A Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Nightmare Castle (1965)
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 - Freddy's Revenge (1985)
A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 -  Dream Warriors (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 - The Dream Master (1988)
A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 - The Dream Child (1989)
Nosferatu (1922)
The Orphanage (2007)
The Others (2001)
Paranoiac (1963)
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976)
Phantasm (1979)
Phantasm II (1988)
Poltergeist (1982)
Puppet Master (1989)
Puppet Master II (1991)
Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge (1991)
Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)
Quatermass and the Pit (Five Million Miles to Earth) (1967)
Re-Animator (1985)
[Rec] (2007)
The Reptile (1966)
The Return of Count Yorga (1971)
The Return of Doctor X (1939)
The Return of Dracula (1958)
The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
Revenge of the Creature (1955)
Revolt of the Zombies (1936)
Rogue (2007)
The Ruins (2008)
Santo contra la hija de Frankenstein (1972)
Santo en el tesoro de Dracula (1969)
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
Scars of Dracula (1970)
The Secret of the Blue Room (1933)
The Sentinel (1977)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
The She-Creature (1956)
Shivers (The Parasite Murders) (1975)
The Skull (1965)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Slither (2006)
Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Son of Kong (1933)
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Splinter (2008)
Squirm (1976)
Sssssss (1973)
Strange Invaders (1983)
The Strangers (2008)
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Tales of Terror (1962)
Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Them! (1954)
They Live (1988)
The Thing (1982)
The Thing (2011)
The Thing from Another World (1951)
13 Ghosts (1960)
Track of the Moon Beast (1976)
Trail of the Screaming Forehead (2007)
Trailer Park of Terror (2008)
Trick R Treat (2007)
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
Twice Told Tales (1963)
The Undying Monster (1942)
The Vampire (1957)
Vault of Horror (1973)
Village of the Damned (1960)
Village of the Giants (1965)
Voodoo Island (1957)
The Walking Dead (1936)
War of the Gargantuas (1966)
The Werewolf (1956)
Werewolf in a Girls Dormitory (1961)
White Zombie (1932)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Witchcraft (1964)
The Woman Who Came Back (1945)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Zombie (1979)
Zombies of Broadway (1945)
The Zombies of Mara Tau (1957)

31 Days of Halloween - Day 2 - Movie 2

Another movie that shares some elements with Alien (1979) is Queen of Blood (1966) a staple of my childhood since it appeared on television regularly. The comparisons to Alien are easy to make, but I feel this movie comes a lot closer to sharing similarities with A.E. Van Vogt's "Black Destroyer."

John Saxon and Dennis Hopper star as two of the astronauts sent to Mars to rescue alien ambassadors from a civilization outside our solar system whose ship crashed on its way to earth. Only one survivor is found, an uncanny, mute, green skinned woman with unusual nutritional requirements and a sinister purpose for the residents of earth.

The DVD is a vast improvement over the grainy faded prints that I'm used to, and gives this low budget film a polished look. The film achieves a grander scale because it was constructed around special effects taken from two Russian science fiction films with a design sense that has similar feel to William Cameron Menzies' Invaders from Mars.

The dialogue is pretty clunky, and Basil Rathbone as the lead scientist behind the rescue mission seems out of place, but the movie does have an eerie beauty to it, and some genuinely creepy moments once Florence Marley as the alien survivor is brought aboard the rescue ship. As a bonus, Forrest J Ackerman's self conscious acting is on display as Rathbone's assistant.

I still enjoyed this movie quite a bit.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 2 - Movie 1

Human space explorers arrive at a strange, desolate, alien world to investigate a transmission coming from the surface. Investigating they come across an ancient derelict spacecraft containing the skeletons of their giant crew members. One by one the human crew is killed off by a species of parasitic alien which takes over their bodies.

This is Planet of the Vampires (1965), Mario Bava's horror-science fiction hybrid. As usual, Bava extends his budget through creative sets and his stylized use of color and lighting. The space crew is decked out in mod leather outfits that look like the SS version of the X-Men costumes, and there are some interesting visuals, but as a whole, Planet of the Vampires is somewhat sluggish, padding out a story which could have been told in about half the time allotted for it. Despite the high body count and Bava's experience with horror and suspense films, this movie is not terribly suspenseful. Because of the atmospheric quality of lighting, the similar hair styles and identical uniforms it was often hard to follow who had been killed off and when exactly.

There are also no vampires per se in this movie. Disembodied aliens have been trying to lure space explorers to their dying planet for some time, using their powers to turn the visitors homicidal against one another in order for them to inhabit the dead bodies so they can take control of their spacecraft and leave the planet and take over the planet of their unwitting rescuers. So the undead are really just the dead being puppeteered by an inhabiting life form. No body bites, eats or drinks the blood of anyone else.

It's an interesting film to watch, particularly when noticing its obvious influence on Alien (1979) and it really feels like the kind of movie that would show up at 1:00 AM in the days before cable.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 2 - Mask of the Day

This year marks the 75th anniversary of Walt Disney's masterpiece of animation, Snow White, as well as the 75th anniversary of feature length animated movies, of which the Walt Disney Studios have now produced 52. To mark the occasion I present to you these paper masks. Alas, not all of the seven dwarves are represented, but you still get the three most popular, the heroine, and the witch.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 2

UNICEF has been collecting donations using its "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" campaign since 1947. This year they have seven great new designs on their boxes, which you can order through them, here.

You can also make a direct donation to UNICEF using the same link and read about the history of Trick or Treat for UNICEF here.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 1 - Movie 2

My daughter was home sick from school today, so we ended up watching Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010), the remake to the 1973 made for tv movie. I'd seen this movie in the theater when it first came out and found it to be a major disappointment. The movie had gorgeous sets and did some nice thematic work with color, and I even thought the little creatures in it were pretty cool looking, but these things do not make a movie.

The problem was really with the characters. None of them are likeable, or even sympathetic. Guy Pearce plays a self absorbed architect/property restoration expert who is much more interested in making sure his current project makes it onto the cover of Architectural Digest than he is in bonding with his young daughter who has come to live with him. Katie Holmes plays Pierce's girlfriend put in the awkward position of trying to win over a little girl who doesn't want her while also trying to make the girl's father pay attention to her. Instead of being at the center of a tug of war between the father and daughter, she's pushed away by both. Bailee Madison, as the daughter, while understandably feeling alienated, rejected, frightened and alone, is so blank most of the time when she's not screaming and being disbelieved by both adults that there are small nasty creatures living in the house, that the wall she puts up around herself keeps the audience out as well, making her hard to empathize with.

This is less a fault with the actors than it is, surprisingly, with the script by Gullermo Del Toro (who normally has a gift for stories involving children faced with broken homes an supernatural creatures) and Matthew Robbins.  Since there was no way to become engaged with anyone, it was hard to muster up any feelings of concern for their outcomes.

On this second viewing, since my expectations had previously been shattered, I went into knowing I was probably not going to like it more this time around. I was right, but I probably felt a little less disdain for it.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 1 - Movie 1

My favorite subgenre of horror is the ghost story, and I prefer my ghost stories the old fashioned way, suggestive, subtle, and slow building with more atmosphere than special effects. The Innkeepers (2011) is exactly this kind of ghost story.

Set during the final weekend before the Yankee Pedlar Inn closes its doors and goes out of business, the two remaining staff members, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) spend the time attending to the four odd guests and trying to record evidence of the Inn's alleged ghost, Madeline O'Malley. Nothing happens for a very long time in this movie, and when it finally does it is in very underplayed moments, but from the very opening the movie builds up a tension of expectation that something's going to happen. Scenes are framed in a way that makes the viewer keep a keen watchful eye for anything out of the ordinary, and at the same time suggest that whatever that something is it's existing right outside of the frame that we are looking at. The Inn becomes a character itself.

The characters look and act like real people, so they are empathetic, and the way the story unfolds lends credence to the reality of the situation. This works incredibly well with the slow, purposeful, build of tension, but unfortunately that tension never breaks or delivers. We learn nothing about the haunting itself, and when the climax comes, its quite anticlimactic and incredibly short. The movie ends up feeling like more of an anecdote than a story as if it's one of a string of incidents tied to an allegedly haunted location reenacted on some ghost hunting show. It's a shame, too, because everything leading to the end suggested a lot of promise.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 1 - Mask of the Day

The first print, cut-out and wear masks of this year's Halloween Countdown should get you in the appropriate mood for the season. Here, I present to you a pair of black cats.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 1

Welcome to my 7th annual Halloween Countdown. Every day throughout the month of October I 'll be dropping treats into your virtual Halloween bucket through a series of posts pertaining to the spirit of Halloween.

While the Countdown is transpiring, I'll be suspending any posts here that don't support the mood of the Halloween season. Regular posting will resume in November, though my regular feature "Ask Me Anything" won't return until the first Monday in December. For those of you new to this blog, or who only venture here during the Countdown, "Ask Me Anything" is something I run on the first Monday of every month (except October) and is meant for you to ask me anything you want about my work, inspiration, this blog, or anything at all. Feel free to revisit in order to do just that.

This year, my Countdown posts will cover a broad spectrum of subjects ranging from pictorials to longer essay pieces, comic book stories, artwork, costumes, monsters, reading recommendations and more. I will also be continuing with my tradition of daily horror movie watching throughout the month (something I've done since way before the internet) and will provide my reactions to what I watch, hopefully providing some new titles to add to your own viewing queue.

What else will you get?

Last year I also posted FREE daily print and cut out paper masks. people seemed to have enjoyed those, so I'll be running more of them each day this year as well.

For those of you who are friends with me on facebook, (feel free to friend me if you're not -- just mention the Countdown) I'm going to attempt to continue providing a short Halloween related video each day.

Be sure to visit my companion blog, The Grim Gallery, where I'm slowly posting my thousands of monster related images at the rate of one per day. There are monsters, ghosts, ghouls, and creeps there every day 365 days a year, but during October, the images tend to be more relevant to Halloween.

If you like what I post this year and want more, be sure to check out my previous Halloween Countdowns by visiting the October archives for the years 2006-2011. The Archives can be found in the column on the right side of this blog page.

Finally, for more Halloween than you can handle, please visit The Countdown to Halloween where you will find links to hundreds of blogs also participating in the Countdown this year. Everyone involved works incredibly hard to bring you the best treats possible all month long. It would be almost impossible to visit every one of the blogs involved every single day, but please try to get to each one at least once and leave them a comment to let them know their efforts are appreciated.

Happy Halloween.

What Time Is It?

Just for fun, I've been taking a spare hour here and there to create some cut paper collage portraits of various characters from Adventure Time. I really like the wide range of character types and the overall design aesthetic for the show, and the characters are something i can replicate pretty quickly and easier with a pair of scissors and some paper.

None of them have backgrounds yet, but they will and then will wind up on my online store where they will be available for purchase. These will be very cheap with the bulk of them in the $15.00 - $20.00 range, and only a few being slightly more expensive.

I'm not sure exactly when they'll be made available, but I'm hoping to do so before the end of October, so keep checking back. In the meantime, if there's a particular character you're interested in please let me know. I've made around 40 of them so far.

500 Monsters

My companion blog, The Grim Gallery, reached its 500th post today. This is a blog I created in order to put all of the monster and horror images I've accumulated over the years out into circulation for other monster lovers to enjoy at the rate of one image per day. That means that as of today there are 500 monster pictures for you to look at.

Next Up At The Bottleneck Gallery

I'll have a piece in  "Can't Beat Em, Join Em: The Zombie Show" at The Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. The show runs October 5 - 28, perfect for Halloween. Proceeds benefit the American Red Cross.

For those of you who can't make it, I'll be featuring my piece here on opening day.

In One Week...

At midnight, October first my 7th Annual Countdown to Halloween will begin. Every day in October I will post seasonally appropriate material leading to the holiday itself. You can investigate my past six countdowns by visiting the archives to the right and clicking on the month of October in the years 2006-2011. Also by clicking here, or, on the severed head to the right, you can visit the Countdown to Halloween website and see the hundreds of other blogs that will be participating this year, as well as those who took part in year's past. You can also register there to participate in the Countdown to Halloween yourself, if you would like to do so.

NBC To Bring Midnight, Mass. to TV

It's been officially announced, so now I can tell you as well. NBC has bought the rights to my comic book series, Midnight, Mass. which was published as two mini-series through DC's Vertigo line. This is the third time that this has happened and hopefully this time will be the charm that sees this come to fruition. I'm a bit more hopeful this time with the talent involved.

You can read more about it at Deadline.com .

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy, matey!  Today be the 10th Anniversary of International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Reckon t' conduct all o' yerr affairs o' t' day, be they business, or social in t' appropriate manner o' speech, that bein' of a seafarin' hearty. 

Strange Kid Comix #3 - Sneak Peak

Here's a look at a few of the panels from the first page of the story that Glen Brogan and I contributed to the forthcoming Strange Kid Comix Magazine #3.

I'm a huge fan of Twin Peaks and it was with great pleasure that I finally was able to tell a story set within the framework of that television series, a thrill augmented by seeing Glen's dead on visual interpretation of that world. I owe a debt of thanks to Strange Kid founder, Rondal Scott for making this possible.

Way back when I was writing The X-Files comic book series I had planned to include a story in which Mulder and Scully attended the retirement party of Gordon Cole, the FBI Regional Bureau Chief played by David Lynch in Twin Peaks. This would have also included cameos by other FBI agents from Twin Peaks including Albert Rosenfield and Denise Bryson, the character played by David Duchovny. Unfortunately, The X-Files comic was brought to an end before I got to this story.

Strange Kid Comix Magazine #3 was made possible through the generosity of contributors via Kickstarter. If you'd like to pick up a copy, there is still time to make a donation through the Strange Kid Kickstarter campaign which has more information about what's included in this fun issue.

"More Than You Imagined" - Art Now Available

For those of you who live too far away to see it in person, the Bottleneck Gallery has posted all of the artwork for the "More Than You Imagined: Art Inspired By Premium Cable" show on their website. This includes my Tales from the Crypt inspired piece which can also be viewed by scrolling down to the previous post. The show runs through September 28 and proceeds from all sales go to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Bottleneck Gallery Preview

Here's a look at the piece I did for the "More Than You Imagined: Art Inspired By Premium Cable" show which debuts at the grand opening of the Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn, NY tomorrow night.  Sales from the show will benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation.