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.

My Book and DVD Store Now Open For Business

If you look to the top of the column to the right on this blog you will find a page labeled "Buy My Books and DVDs." On that page are links to the many books and DVDs that contain my work. Please take a look and see if there's anything that might interest you. If you have any questions, please ask.

There's also a store where you can buy some of my collage work. The inventory in this store will be changed in early November, so if there's anything there you are interested in, now's the time to buy it.

Oeuvres Incompletes

DC Comics has been developing a database of their published comic books including categories by creator. This is far from a complete list, but if you want to see some of the past work I've done for them this is a good place to start.

Closing Soon...

This is to remind those of you in the New York City area that Gallery 1988's  "Crazy 4 Cult: NYC" will be closing this coming Saturday, September 1 at 6:00 PM. I have a piece in this show.

Check it out before it's gone. The Gallery 1988 website has all the details.

More Than You Imagined

I have a piece in next month's "More Than You Imagined" show at the Bottleneck Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. This is the Bottleneck Gallery's debut show and proceeds from all sales will benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.

Click on the flyer above to see all of the stellar artists involved and check back closer to September 7th for a look at my piece.

Strange Kid Needs YOU!

Strange Kids Club is a fantastic website, and have been friends of mine for some time, supporters of my work, and welcome participants in the annual Countdown to Halloween. They've also published two comic books starring Strange Kid himself and are looking to publish a third issue which merges Strange Kid with a host of 80s television shows and movies including a Twin Peaks related story written by me with artwork by the amazing Glen Brogan.

This is where you come in.

Funding for the new issue is being furnished through Kickstarter. There are many incentives being offered for donating, but the real incentive is bringing to fruition a really cool, fun comic book full of great art and crazy storytelling. Head over to the Strange Kid Kickstarter campaign, watch the video, check out the list of contributors and sample pages, and give what you can to help this comic book see print.

Crazy 4 Cult: NYC -- Art Now Available

All the artwork for the "Crazy 4 Cult: NYC" show at Gallery 1988 is now available for viewing and/or purchase at the Gallery 1988 website.




image source

Crazy 4 Cult: NYC Now Open

Gallery 1988's debut East Coast show, "Crazy 4 Cult: NYC" has just opened, and the opening ceremonies continue until around 10 PM tonight. The show is taking place at 64 Gansevoort Street in the meat packing district of Manhattan and runs through September 1.

I was hoping to be in attendance for tonight's opening but other matters have caused me to cancel my plans to do so. Even so, some amazing artists will be on hand to talk about their art and work from over 200 artists will be filling the gallery space.

Gallery 1988 has posted a complete list of participating artists. You can also get a look at many of the works featured in the show by checking out this preview at /Film.

Ask Me Anything #23

It's the first Monday of the month which means it's time for "Ask Me Anything," the monthly feature in which you get to do just that. So, if you have questions about my work, my influences, movies I may have seen, books I may have read, food I may have eaten, or anything else that I might possibly have an answer for, go ahead and ask and I'll do my best to answer.

Head down to the comment section and post your question. I'll either post my answer in the comment section as well, or answer it in a special post all its own sometime later in the month.

Please take the time to view the previous questions so that we don't wind up with a lot of repetition. I've been asked a lot of good, thought provoking questions in the past as well as some really banal ones, all of which I tried to answer. You can see the previous questions by visiting Ask Me Anything  #1, #2 ,  #3, #4, #5, #6 , #7 , #8, #9,  #10,  #11,  #12 , #13, #14,  #15 , #16, #17 , #18 , #19,  #20,  #21 and #22.  Answers not found following the questions can be found in the archives section for each associated month under Ask Me Anything.

Now ask away.

Crazy 4 Cult: NYC - Preview

Here's a look at the piece I did for next week's Gallery 1988 show - Crazy 4 Cult: NYC which opens Thursday, August 9 from 6-9 pm at 64 Gansevoort Street, NYC 10014. I'm hoping to be in attendance for the opening.

The piece is based on Pan's Labyrinth and is a 3-D cut paper collage measuring about 16" x 20".