Doo Wacka Doodles

Hoiday season is upon us!

2011-12-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that festive time of year again. I hope you all have been good this year, or you'll be getting a beating from Krampus! I've been super stressed & super busy, but I did want to do a quick post. First of all, Christmas came a little early for me this year. I decided in October, that I wanted to get an Ipad, so I went to Wal-Mart and put one on layaway. This upcoming week was suppose to be the week that I paid it off and brought it home, but I couldn't wait! I got it last week, and let me tell you, it's a remarkable piece of technology. I even found this great vector app called 'Inkpad', and I've been playing around with it a bit. I made this cute mouse:

Many of the tools are kind of like Illustrator, so I was able to pick up using it straight away. I'm still trying to get comfortable using it, but it's exciting!

Now I wanted to tell you all about 'The 13 Days of Creepmas', if you don't know about it already. I really meant to post about this BEFORE it started, but I didn't get the chance.

'Creepmas' is a new holiday blogging event, much like the 'Countdown to Halloween' that many of you are already familiar with. Here is the Creepmas manifesto:

THE 13 DAYS OF CREEPMAS

I thought this was a neat idea and I've been looking at some of the blogs that have been participating. When I go on Christmas break, I'll have more time to look through all the blogs. I thought briefly about taking part, but I really have not had the time. And I'm actually not a big fan of holiday intermingling. Christmas has it's own charm for me, just as much as Halloween. Even though I like Halloween much better. If they do this again next year, I would like to take part if I have time. Christmas has it's own creepy, without having to borrow from Halloween.

The Creepmas celebration also comes with it's own badges by Tom Krohne. This Krampus one is my favorite (of course).

And finally, I saw something at Target this past weekend that might appeal to those with a taste for the dark side of the yule. This is a 6ft. dark pewter tinsel tree. It's like shiny black. Imagine the possibilities. I'm a big fan of the tinsel tree, in fact my tree is a 4ft. silver one. But, if this one happens to be around when it's time for Christmas clearance, I may have to get one!

And now we come to the end...

2011-11-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I've had a very busy cooking/cleaning day. I ate way too much, and now I'm about to go into a food coma. But before then, I have two more things to share, for the Lost Skeleton Tribute finale. Pictured above are some shots of Animala & Paul, doing the Rock Dance! These customized Ken & Barbie dolls were made by Jennifer Blaire (Animala herself) as a Christmas surprise for husband Larry Blamire. I love these! I'm so thrilled that they shared these images with us.

Next, I got this wonderful little cartoon from actor, filmmaker and artist, Mark Redfield. Redfield appeared in another great film of Blamire's 'Dark and Stormy Night'. Many thanks to Mark for sending this our way.

You can find more from Mark on his website Redfield Arts. He also has an Etsy store, where he sells his art. I also want to point out that he is one of the publishers/editors of the excellent new publication 'Monsterpalooza Magazine'. The premiere issue just came out last month, so get yours now! I can't wait to see the future issues!

Once again, I want to thank everyone for taking part in this Lost Skeleton tribute. I'm so thrilled to have had so many talented people come onboard to pay tribute to these wonderful & wildly entertaining films. Thank you! Thank you! And thank you!

The Almost Final Post of the Lost Skeleton Tribute!

2011-11-23T18:37:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are (almost) at the end of the Lost Skeleton Tribute. This post was suppose to be the last, but I'll have one final post tomorrow. Thank you all again for taking part in this. And thank you to those of you who came by and had a look & to those who made comments. Maybe we can do it again next year. I didn't think I would be able to get something done for this tribute myself, but I managed to get a little something done. This is Dr. Ellamy Royne from 'The Lost Skeleton Returns Again'. I really wanted to do a Ranger Brad too, but of course, didn't have time. But Tadeusz Sadowski brings us a wonderful Ranger Brad!

Tadeusz says:

I saw first saw the original Lost Skeleton 6 years ago with my dad at the age of 9 and I've loved it ever since. I drew this picture, because there just wasn't enough Ranger Brad in the first film. Larry Blamire is a great director and writer. I hope of seeing more of his works in the the coming years.

Well said!!

And Shawn Tabor & his son Alex contributed the following pieces.

Shawn says:

Alex and I watched both movies, LS and RLS. He was interested in RLS because Frank Dietz was in it. He had me write Mr. Dietz and tell him to shoot the creature in the eye next time! As for LS he watched it to do a mood thing. I was able to get him to don his "Zoom" costume to do another shoot around the house in the frontyard to play the part of the Alien invaders who come in all shapes and sizes. The models are all amatuer and our friends. I went to a local cemetery for the shoots as I wanted to capture the essence of spookiness and the skulls connection to dark secrets. Numerous photos were taken, each model holding the skull and posing in various costumes. It was a tough choice and I wanted to give each model her spot in the limelight. Other poses and costumes were chosen and good use was made of various props for the surrounding story. The ladies endured blistering heat and swarms of mosquitos. Some photos were from shoots last year, also shot during a heat wave. The photo of Viaden Castle was taken when I was serving in Europe in 1985. I manipulated the photos to achieve the look I wanted and then used the collage technique to "tell the tale." Alex helped me to select his photos. The space ship is a model superimposed over a background inspired by a similar photo. The Skull is a digital forensic skull used in solving crimes. However, it is the models who bring the skull to life and I would like to thank Alex, Michelle, Lori, LeaAnn,Sam and Dana for enduring the blistering heat and making the posters what they are!

Thanks to Shawn, Alex & Co. for all your hard work!

Make Your Own 'Lost Skeleton Returns Again' Horrific Skeletal Mind-Power Hypno-Mini Skull!

2011-11-22T13:07:00.000-08:00

Check that this super cool paper craft out that comes to us today from none other than Cortney Skinner! You can see some of Cortney's handy work in 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra', itself, as he built the transmutitron & and the Mutant costume for the film! I'm thinking I might make a couple of these for my Christmas tree.

If you've never been to the official website of 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra', you should definitely check it out. Especially Skinner's 'Virtual Skelectables'. There are some super fun Lost Skeleton items to check out like this fan club certificate:

There's much more, so go check it out!! Also, check out more of Cortney's illustrations and designs on his website, Cortney Skinner, Illustration.

Pictured below, Man! & Mutant!

Lost Skeleton Cut-Paper Collages from John Rozum

2011-11-21T11:33:00.000-08:00

Today we have three wonderful cut-paper art pieces from John Rozum. From top to bottom we have: 'Animala: Queen of the Jungle', followed by 'Animala' & 'The Lost Skeleton'.

John Rozum is best known for writing supernatural themed comics aimed at adults such as XOMBI, MIDNIGHT, MASS., THE X-FILES, and THE HANGMAN featured in THE WEB, or for writing supernatural themed comics for children such as SCOOBY-DOO or THE SECRET SATURDAYS in CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK. He's written many other comics as well as magazine articles, television episodes and even trading cards. He's also had several of his cut-paper works in some of the group shows at Gallery 1988 including 'Crazy for Cult 5' & the Pee-Wee Herman tribute show.

You can see John's online portfolio at Flickr. To see more work from John and see what he's up to, you can also visit his blog John Rozum.com.

And we're back! With Lost Skeleton art from Scott Brothers

2011-11-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

And we are back. Today's post is from the fantastic Scott Brothers. Gotta love this Lost Skeleton poster!

Scott has worked in the games industry for 12 plus years. His specialties include storyboarding and character design. As an animator at Humongous Entertainment, Scott helped bring to life such children’s favorites as Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam and Spy Fox. More recently Scott has been an art lead for mobile games on various IOS platforms.

To see more from Scott, please visit his website Catalogue of Curiosities.

LOST SKELETON TRIBUTE CONTINUES SUNDAY, NOV 20

2011-11-17T15:08:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!!

Thank you to all who have stopped by, contributed & made comments during this tribute to the Lost Skeleton films!

Now, a word about what's going down with the tribute time line. Originally, the tribute was suppose to end on the 19th. And I do have some more wonderful art to share. However, I've barely had any time off in the past two weeks due to the day job, and I'm about beat. So here's what I decided to do. I'm taking a few days off, and I'm going to pick up the LS tribute on Sunday, Nov. 20. Taking some time off and picking it back up at the beginning of the week also increases the chances that you'll see something of mine for this tribute. (Seriously, I've been that busy). So now the tribute will actually more likely run through the 23rd.

I do want to take this opportunity to mention that the soundtrack for 'Lost Skeleton Returns Again', is now available. Pick up one from the Creature Features website!

See ya real soon!!

Animala & Blamire from 'Sketchy' Frank Dietz

2011-11-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

Here we have two pieces from the very talented Frank Dietz. Frank is an amazing artist, and in addition to that, he too is part of the 'Skeleton Crew'! Here we see Dietz as 'Reet Pappin' from 'Lost Skeleton Returns Again'.

Dietz is a writer, actor, animator and a two-time Rondo Award winner for 'Artist of the Year'. You can see more of his art on his website, Frank Dietz's Sketchy Things and on his blog, The Sketchy Things Artblog.

He is currently making a documentary film with Trish Geiger (also from LSRA), about Bob & Kathy Burns entitled 'Beast Wishes'. You can find more about the film, including updates on the Facebook page.

Matt 'Mirthquake' Orsman's Lost Skeleton Tribute

2011-11-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

This fantastic piece comes to you from Matt Orsman. Orsman is a graphic designer/illustrator, who specializes in cartoons, caricature, corporate identity packages and key art for motion picture marketing. You can find much more from Matt on his website, The House of Mirthquake and on Facebook.

Bradd Parton's Alpha-Sketch Mutant

2011-11-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

Today's piece is from artist Bradd Parton. Parton's drawings are very unique in that they are constructed using all the letters in the alphabet. Amazing stuff!! The following image is the breakdown of all the letters:

Isn't that something! Check out more of Bradd's work on his website, Alpha-Sketch and on his Facebook page.

Animala figure by Robert Deveau

2011-11-13T12:04:00.001-08:00

For today's post, we have this fantastic Animala figure (with action fuzzy slippers) sent in by none other than Robert Deveau. Deveau has appeared in BOTH 'Skeleton Films'!

In 'Lost Skeleton of Cadavra' he was The Doomed Farmer:

And in 'Lost Skeleton Returns Again', he played Handscomb Draile:

This Animala figure was made using an exsisting figure, modified by Deveau. Says Deveau:

"Not long after we shot the original film, I found a three-inch tall figure of a girl in a bikini. She had a removable red plastic wig, which I removed. I sanded down her bikini lines and painted her to look like Animala, adding tiny slippers of black fluff, and glued her to a wooden stand. I made two, sending one to Larry and Jen. This is the one I kept for myself."

Deveau writes regularly at the Bantam Street Blog, and you can visit his website where he provides graphic design services.

Dr. Roger Fleming by Leigh Young

2011-11-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have been an admirer of Leigh Young's work for awhile now, so when she said she was going to contribute, I was very excited. I think it's just wonderful! Leigh is an Illustrator/Graphic Designer and if you would like to see more of her work, please visit her website, Leigh Young Illustration & her blog.

Animala art by Will Meugniot

2011-11-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

Here are two more fantastic Animala pieces from artist Will Meugniot. Meugniot is best known in comics for his co-creation of The DNAgents and newest creation, The N.E.D.O.R. Agents, while in animation he is credited as producer and director of many hit series including X-Men, Jem and ExoSquad. At top, Will shares an exchange between Marvel Comic’s Tigra and Lost Skeleton’s Animala. Next is birthday art for Anima...Pam... Jennifer!

For more of Will's work, please visit his website here. And his blog, here.

Artist Lee Copeland's Lost Skeleton Tribute

2011-11-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

Boy, oh Boy! The fantastic art just keeps coming! Today's piece is by another super talented artist, Lee Copeland. Look at all that 'Lost Skeleton' action! I can feel the atmospherium. If you would like to see more of Lee's work, please visit his website. He's also got a brand new Facebook page that you can 'like'. Lee is also a 'Little Shoppe of Horrors' contributor, with his work appearing in the most recent issue featuring Roman Polanski's film 'Dance of the Vampires' or 'The Fearless Vampire Killers'.

I'd like to take a minute again, to thank all of you who have taken part in this tribute so far. Due to last minute planning on the part of my employers, it turns out that I will have to work this weekend (which was NOT, part of my schedule). But, luckily, I'll be able to prepare blogs to post at a certain time daily, as I did for this past Mon-Wed. Still lots of great stuff to come, and I'm still expecting a few things to roll in. So keep checking back!

Animala by Aidan Casserly

2011-11-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm part of a caricature group on Facebook, and the week before Halloween there was a Vincent Price drawing challenge on. I was looking through the submissions when I noticed Aidan's work. So I went to his website, to have a look at some of his other illustrations. When what did I find? I found 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra'! I wrote Aidan and asked him if he would mind letting me post this, and he agreed. If you would like to see more of Aidan's work, please visit his website.

Animala & Betty! by Roger Koch

2011-11-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

I would now like to share with you three pieces from the talented & prolific, Roger Koch. And again, Roger was kind enough not only to let me post his early pieces of Betty & Animala, but did a brand new Animala piece (pictured above) specifically for this tribute! You can see more of Roger's work on his Facebook page, 'Roger Koch aka Zombie Dad'. Or purchase prints and other merchandise at his store.

Lost Skeleton Art from Andrew Barr

2011-11-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Now for your viewing pleasure, I bring you three pieces by the very talented illustrator, Andrew Barr. Above is a new Dr. Paul Armstrong piece, submitted especially for this tribute! In addition, I wanted to share these other two pieces that Barr did. All three are from the Lost Skeleton sequel, 'The Lost Skeleton Returns Again'.

You can see more of Andrew's work on his website, Something A GoGo.com and also at The Notchordamnatchoz blog.

The Many Pin-ups of Animala from Rock Baker

2011-11-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

Animala is a very popular character from the Lost Skeleton films. Even I have drawn her twice before. Here are some wonderful Animala pieces from Rock Baker done in a Dan DeCarlo-like style. Rock Baker has done work for AC Comics, Main Enterprises, and Moonstone, among others. Some of his regular strips include DINOSAUR GIRL (AC Comics, creator/writer/pencils), ROWENA (AC, regular pencils), and BETSY THE BOOKWRITER (Main, co-creator, writer, pencils). His specialty is cheesecake cartooning (what they call 'good girl art' these days). You can see more of Baker's work on his blog 'Baker's Log'.

Welcome to the Lost Skeleton Tribute!

2011-11-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

Greetings one and all! For the next two weeks, I will be hosting a tribute to Larry Blamire's films, 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra' and 'The Lost Skeleton Returns Again'. I would first like to thank all of my contributors who have made this possible. If you have something you would like to submit, please send it to me at: scbilbrey@hotmail.com.

First a few words from me about 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra'.
I was browsing through a local DVD store back in 2005, when I saw some movie on the shelf called 'Lost Skeleton of Cadavra'. It looked like something I might like, so I rented it and took it home to watch. I was instantly hooked on this movie. I loved it so much, I actually kept out the DVD from the store until I was able to order my own copy, which I watched repeatedly. It's cleaver, it's fun, and I always recommend this film to anyone who will listen to me. In 2009, I actually met Larry Blamire and it was awesome to shake his hand and let him know how much joy he'd brought to my world.

And now, let the skeleton posting begin. Our post today, is from the man who brought us the Lost Skeleton, writer/director/actor, Larry Blamire:

As a person who once dreamed of a world where a living, breathing (well), walking, sarcastic, bombastic and egotistical skeleton could exist for real, on a movie screen, I am proud and extremely unapathetic towards our growing and enthusiastic fanbase (like a submarine base, only with fans moving in and out of port, instead of subs). I am particularly grateful to those wonderful fans whose expressions of pure Skelly love extend to art and costumes and models (and the occasional parade float). We truly have the best. Not least among them, the awesome hostess of this tribute, Rondo Award-winning Belle Dee whose unique style has honored us with several wicked cool pieces over the years.

I HUMBLE NOW! --Larry Blamire The Man Who Dared to Dream About Rocks

Lost Skeleton Tribute begins tomorrow!

2011-11-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

The waiting is almost over. For the next two weeks I'm hosting a tribute to the Lost Skeleton films. I've had some great art submitted from a variety of artists, so I hope you'll stop in and have a look. If you would like to be part of the Lost Skeleton tribute, you can email me at scbilbrey@hotmail.com. If you are interested, please contact me before 11.13.11, so I adjust my posting schedule. Thank you! And if you haven't seen the Skeleton films, what are you waiting for? Here's a taste of what you're missing...

Happy Halloween Everybody!

2011-10-31T05:15:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say Happy Halloween to all. And for my final post, here's a few little cartoons. Thanks to Caffeinated Joe, for turning me on the this Felix cartoon!

I hope you all have a wonderful time!

A little bit of Halloween Music...

2011-10-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hey all!! This will be one of the last posts that I make for this month. I didn't get nearly as much done as I had planned, and now Halloween is upon me! I think that I may have come up with a plan to make next year's countdown go more smoothly, and have more frequent posts. Yes, I'm already thinking about Countdown to Halloween 2012! Today I will be carving some pumpkins with my siblings and then watching The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror later this evening. Before all that, let's set the mood shall we? How 'bout a little Halloween music?

First up, a podcast I've been listening to for awhile now, 'Music From 100 Years Ago' with host Brice Fuqua. Here's a link to all of the Halloween shows (and one called Autumn Songs). Also he has a short podcast featuring Berlioz 'Witches' Sabbath'. I enjoy listening to this show, not just on Halloween, but on other holidays as well. And throughout the year.

Next, one of my favorite new artists that I discovered earlier this year, Zack Bellissimo, has been posting his own Halloween mixes on his blog, Snaggle Toothsalad. Each volume is illustrated with Bellissimo's super art and as of yesterday (Sat. 29), he's posted 11 volumes. Maybe he's going for 13? Anyway, I'm a big fan of his work and I had originally planned to do a post about him in an 'Artists I Love' feature, which is something I did in my 2009 countdown. But I've been busy at other things. I will say that I love his art and you should check out his work. Go get some of his Halloween mixes or at least go look at the great covers. Here are 3 of my favorites he's posted this month.

Well, I'm off to do some pumpkin carving. I'll have a post prepared for tomorrow, as a final farewell to October *sniff*. Also have to figure out what I'm going to wear tomorrow. Ack!

Halloween Cat & Jack

2011-10-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite new pieces that I made this year. I also did two versions. An 'old paper' style (which ended up being very subtle), and the regular clean version. I couldn't decide which one I liked best, so I just decided to post both.

Autumnal Skull

2011-10-22T21:17:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone! Here's a little skull piece I've been working on. I've come down with flu or something, so I don't know how much more original art will be posted. I've got one other piece that's finished and a few sketches I was hoping to get done. I had planned to make a new costume this year for Halloween, but it looks like I may have to pull out some old thing from the closet.

Posting this skull is also a good time to issue a reminder: Lost Skeleton Tribute coming soon!! Don't forget! It's going to begin on Nov. 5 and run for two weeks. So get me your skelly stuff!!

Boo Berry 2011

2011-10-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

For the past few days, we've had the most amazing fall days here. Clear blue skies, mild temperatures, very breezy with the most beautiful fall leaves you could ever see. I've been trying to embrace these fleeting moments, because I know it will be over way too soon. Much like this month. Jeez, where has all the time gone? October is half over!

Anyway, I finally finished up my Boo Berry piece and thought that today was a good day to post it. These fantastic autumn days have been giving me flashbacks to my childhood. I remember on Saturdays like these, getting up and watching cartoons, eating a big bowl of sugary cereal, and then going outside to play all afternoon. Ah, the good ol' days.

Two years ago I drew Count Chocula for the Monster Cereal blog's fan art month. (I'm disappointed to report that the Monster Cereal's blog is no longer available. It was a fun site with all things Monster Cereal related.) I decided that I wanted to do my version of Boo Berry this year. He doesn't necessarily 'go with' my old Count piece, although I suppose he could. One year I'll try to take on all three characters at once and in the same style. My new Boo Berry borrows heavily from the actor, Peter Lorre, who undoubtedly was the inspiration for the original character in the first place.

In addition here's the first ever Boo Berry commercial:

Also: To those of you who may have been worried that I might have Monster Cereal deficiency, never you mind. I've been eating it for the past two weeks!

Oooh! New Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows!

2011-10-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

So I happened to be at Wal-Mart this week and I just happened to see these:

At first I thought 'neat', but I wasn't going to buy them. But then I thought, what the heck, I'll try them out. They're pretty good as far as pumpkin spice flavored food goes. The taste is mild, not too overwhelming, which is nice. But be warned, you might get choked:

Although I must say, I was not seated, nor supervised during said marshmallow tasting. In addition to the 'choking warning' there's a handy little 'Tips & Ideas' feature. Here's some other things you can do with these new mallows.

I already had the idea that I would have some hot chocolate with these, but it is actually one of the suggestions. Still taste just like marshmallows, but with a hint of spice.

I also made microwave s'mores, but the pics didn't turn out. Those were okay. the mild spice of the mallows is kind of lost in the chocolate & graham crackers.

So I like these new flavored mallows. I'm even thinking that I might make some Rice Krispy bars with them.

Me & the husband went out to the movies this afternoon to see 'Captain America'. The theater was all decorated for Halloween and on the way out I took this shot:

When I took it I thought there was too much glare and that it wouldn't be a good photo. There is a lot of glare, but I like that in that glare, you can see the reflection of the fall trees. And that ghoul's face and the fall leaves are both the same mixture of red & green. I thought it was pretty cool. I'll have more original Halloween art coming soon! Keep a look out!

Time for a Witchy Re-Pulp

2011-10-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

I contributed to the 'Re-Pulped' blog again. I found this witchy cover and thought it would be perfect for Halloween.

Horror Cons & Things

2011-10-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

For the past three years or so, I've been doing commission work for a gentleman who lives in Florida. He goes to multiple conventions during the year, but the big one is Spooky Empire. That's the one I've consistently done pieces for. Every time he goes, I ask him to try to get photos of the people I've drawn, holding the art. So here's some of the photos from this year's event:

Alex from 'A Clockwork Orange'

And the man himself, Malcolm McDowell:

I don't know if you know how much this photo, thrills me, but it does. A great deal. I'd been thinking about doing an Alex piece for awhile (since the summer). This was the perfect opportunity for me to get it done. I was happy with the way this piece came out.

Then there was Butch Patrick as Eddie Munster:

Neat, eh? Drawing Eddie made me want to draw the other characters. And get The Munsters box set. Maybe I can make that happen before Halloween.

If you've been following the blog for a while, you've probably already seen the Herbert West 'Re-Animator' piece I did awhile back. Well, I sent along a print of this piece since Jeffery Combs was going to be there.

And I THOUGHT that I had posted my piece of little Damien from 'The Omen', but I can't seem to find it here on the blog. I'll have to try to post it some other time. I'm a huge fan of the original Omen, it's one of my favorite horror films. Here's Harvey Stephens, the original Damien.

On the same topic of conventions, last weekend I attended my first 'Horror Con'. I've been to conventions before; some comic book conventions, Wonderfest, Dragon Con. But I've never been to a convention that was just for Horror. I've always wondered what it would be like to go to a 'Horrorhound Weekend', Rue Morgue's 'Festival of Fear' or even 'Spooky Empire'. Well, my first experience was not all that eventful. I had planned on blogging about my trip last weekend, but there really wasn't that much to write about. I was there for about an hour and a half. It was late in the afternoon on Saturday and there weren't very many people there. I went to see Sid Haig do a Q&A, and none of my photos of him turned out. I met PJ Soles, and she was super, super nice! But the big highlight of the trip was meeting Ogre of the band Skinny Puppy. I'm a fan. I started listening to SP when I was 19, so I took along my vinyl copy of 'Rabies' to be signed. Here's some old photos of Skinny Puppy & Ogre.

And here's a more recent photo from an interview with him in Auxiliary Magazine.

And then there's this. *sigh*

Look at my face. Total goober going ga-ga! He was really nice. I could have fainted.

Ogre has appeared in two horror related films, 'Repo! The Genetic Opera' (2008) & 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams (2010).

Random things for a Saturday night...

2011-10-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

I've been busy yesterday & today working on an upcoming project and some more original Halloween Drawings to post here this month. So before I let another day slip by, I wanted to do a post. First, here's some little doodles:

And, I wanted to share this, because I was so excited about it.

I went to visit my mother and she brought out my old Fisher Price viewer. I hadn't thought about that in forever and I had no idea that she still had it. The first thing I wanted to know was 'Do we still have the Lonesome Ghosts cartridge?' And YES! It was in a large ziplock bag, along with all of my other films. I used to have a movie viewer that had a little monitor, in addition to the hand held. But that thing is long gone. Strangely enough, I found someone who posted a youtube video of this reel, so I thought I would share it with you.

Prof. Owl and the Haunted Tree Stump

2011-10-06T16:31:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Here's a new Halloween piece that I did for the countdown. Hope ya'll like it! As you can see by this piece and the banner for this year, I'm obsessed with this color palette.

I also wanted to mention that I work long hours Mon-Fri, so I'm not always able to reply to comments right away. But I do really appreciate you fine ladies & gentlemen, taking time to make them. I'll be doing my best to make pre-scheduled posts on the days that I'm working. I did well to get a Mon-Tues post in this week, but I missed Wednesday. I'll also be trying to catch up on reading all the other blogs that are pumping out some amazing content for Halloween!

Ideals Thanksgiving Magazine 1967

2011-10-04T15:16:00.001-07:00

These are some Halloween images from 'Ideals Thanksgiving' magazine from 1967. Even though these are called 'Thanksgiving' it's more of a celebrations of all things fall.

The Ghost Song

2011-10-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun song & I love watching this guy perform it!

Why Hello There October, Nice to See You Again!

2011-10-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome one and all to my Countdown to Halloween. I'm still not prepared but I've got some ideas of things I want to share, and some new original art as well. And as always, I've created a brand new super fun Halloween Banner for 2011, I hope you all like it.

As I said I'm not really sure where this countdown will go, so we are ALL in for some surprises!

Halloween Countdown Begins in less than a week!!

2011-09-25T10:12:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it? It's almost October! It is now officially fall, and the Halloween Countdown begins next week. Am I ready for it? Heck no! For the past three months I've been sketching and preparing a list of what I'd like to do, but I'm afraid it's going to be a mad, last minute scramble. I some stuff I just have to prepare the posts. Anyhooo, I thought I'd share some more of my random Halloween purchases this year.

From World Market:

This great repro-vintage candle.

Another vintage style item, a paper lantern. I hope they still have these after Halloween so I can get some on clearance. I think they're very cool!

These multi-colored skull tea-light holders. We couldn't decide on one color, so we bought these three, because we liked them together.

And my first Pumpkin Ale of the season.

And next, stuff from the Dollar Store (where everything's a Dollar!):

I love these Skeleton Straws, even though they are very cheaply made, they are super cute. I bought 2 packs! (Hey, it's the Dollar Store.)

They had this really nifty window cling set! I thought it might glow in the dark, but I haven't tried it yet.

Ok, I know it's not Halloween, but I love Thanksgiving/Harvesty images. So I had to get it.

And this great owl! Isn't he cute?!

They also had these great photo cut-outs, you can hang on the wall. Nice images too.

Here's the front:

Here's the top label with all the cut outs pictured.

And here's the backside of the package. Ooooh, creepy crawly!

Next up, Michael's Craft Store:

This wasn't in Halloween, but it caught my eye and I had to get it.

Make It & Bake It Suncatchers for $1. I used to make these when I was a kid. I remember I had a Garfield one hanging in my window. I have a sister who is still in elementary school, and I decided that I wanted to make her a Halloween gift package. They will include the next few items listed.

Super cute paint books for $1 each! I love the illustrations, they are so cute:

Here's some of the interior illustrations from these three books. Really cute!

Velvet Posters, $1 each.

And I don't want to elaborate on these too much, because they will be part of the countdown. But these are little 3 inch high vinyl figures that you can paint & customize yourself. They're really cute and they are $2!

This will probably be my final post for September. I'll see you all in October!

Target, Part II. The Return.

2011-09-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Husband and I took a trip out to the other local Target on Thursday. Much like the first Target, they still have a half Halloween, half Back-to-School section. However, I did get to see some new stuff. My husband ended up buying the super creepy mask you see above and was kind enough to model it for me & my camera.

First up a few shots of what they have as far as their more 'sophisticated' adult party stuff. They had a set of 'splattered' shot glasses (which would have been pretty cool if they were actual glass), and here's one:

A shot of some of the various items that go with this line:

A close up of the invitations & coasters:

Here's some more. Some year (maybe this one), I'm going to buy one of those skull cookie jars.

An nothing says 'Welcome' quite like a glitter covered doormat. 'I'd love for you to track glitter into my house! Come on in!"

Here's some more items with the Jack-o-Lantern design:

Super cute party stuff. The bat napkins are adorable.

So still no Monster Cereals. This Target didn't even have the Oreos yet (which was a good thing). I ended up buying a hand towel set, and a plastic cloth. These were with the adult party stuff. I love the pattern. I wish I could get fabric with this printed on it. I'd have to have a skirt made.

Halloween shopping at Target

2011-09-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Look at that nosey cat!

There's a feeling of fall creeping in now, and I LOVE it! Yesterday, I suggested to my husband that we take a trip out to one of the local Target stores to see if they were putting out Halloween stuff yet. So away we went! This particular Target has a Starbucks, so I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season.

Now, I've always been a big fan of Target's Halloween t-shirts for girls/women, but this year's selection blows, as far as I'm concerned (more on that closer to the Halloween Countown, I have a rant planned). This shirt however, was pretty cool. It's from the little boy's section.

So as I suspected, the Halloween stuff was only creeping in at Target. I did get this great photo of the pegboard backdrop.

They had one aisle set up with stuff, the Jack o' Lantern theme, that looks just like what they did last year. But I do like these.

They have some spooky silhouettes on the aisles. Here's one. An owl marking the 'Candy Alternatives' section.

What does 'Candy Alternatives' mean? HALLOWEEN OREOS!!! And yes, I bought some. I really should have waited, but once I get through the current bag, I WILL NOT buy another one until next month, I swear.

Candy display encourages you to 'Be the GOOD House'.

Whee! Look at me!

Still waiting to see more, maybe next weekend we can go to the other Target. My total haul was light. The two plastic Halloween pumpkins you see my cat trying to crawl into, and a bag of Halloween Oreos. I really wanted some monster cereals, but they don't have those out yet either. I did buy these, not Halloween related, but totally bitchin' none the less.

Short update...

2011-09-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Just a brief update: If you hadn't noticed already, I've got some prints for sale and I've added my remaining Vincentennial prints to the order list. This was a limited signed & numbered run of 25 prints. You can read more about it here. I've got a couple left.

ALSO:

I'm still waiting on some contributors to send some stuff, so I decided that I'd wait till after Halloween. So if you still want to send something you can. Contact me at scbilbrey@hotmail.com.

I'm preparing now for the Countdown to Halloween, starting October 1. If you want to know more, and see who else is participating, please check it out here. If you are participating, Shawn Robare has posted some super fun badges for you to sport on your blog. It was hard to choose, but I went with the 'surprised Vincent'.

Evil Ed

2011-08-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

Last weeks topic on Art Jumble was 'Evil', so with the movie 'Fright Night' on the brain, I decided that I would draw the character 'Evil Ed'. While I'm not usually a big fan of remakes, there are occasionally some good ones. I've actually been looking forward to the new 'Fright Night' and it has had fairly positive reviews from what I've seen. So I will be going to see it, possibly this Monday. And funny enough, I will be going to see it in the same theater that I saw the original in, back in 1985. Scary.

My concept behind this piece was to do it in the style of a sticker from the 80's. I'm pretty sure it translates as such. :)

1940's Vampirella Cover Retake

2011-08-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, let me just vent for a sec here. Originally this post was suppose to be a step by step type deal, where I take you all through the process and try to give a quick lesson in Illustrator. I had a big long post, with some 30 odd pictures to illustrate. I wrote it all out in June and attached the pics. But for whatever reason, the pics were really small and when you clicked on them, they didn't enlarge. Getting that post ready took me a long time so naturally, I was pretty angry. All that work, and I was going to have to go back and re-do all 30 pics. So now it's August, and I thought I should finish that up, re-do the photos. So I did, and it STILL didn't work. Photos were bigger, but you couldn't click on to enlarge. So I'm VERY ANNOYED right now.

This is my version of a Vampirella cover, with a 1940's Belle Dee style Vampi. Maybe some time I'll try the tutorial again.

Happy Birthday Me!

2011-07-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

My birthday was this week. Yay me! Anyway, no big deal, I had to work. I had many well wishers, and one of my favorite artists ever, Pete Emslie, did this sketch of me. I've been a huge fan of his and I've been following his blog The Cartoon Cave for several years now. I love his work so much and was so thrilled by this drawing, I just had to share it. Ok, I'll shut up now, but look how cute I am!

For my birthday, I bought myself a bicycle. So I'll be out trying not to run down pedestrians this weekend.

ALSO... Do you love 'The Lost Skeleton'? Well, I sure do. So much in fact that I would like to host a tribute to 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra' and 'The Lost Skeleton Returns Again'. For two weeks in September, it's 'Lost Skeleton Week! And another week!" I'll be doing a few drawings for it, but I'll mostly be playing host. If you're interested in doing something for the tribute, leave a comment below. I'm mostly looking for art, but if you've made costumes or built a transmutitron that you want to share, that would be cool too. It will most likely be the second and third week of September. Then it will be almost time for 'The Halloween Countdown'!

Fun at the Black Lagoon

2011-07-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know what to say about this one. It pretty much speaks for itself. Everybody knows 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon' right?

I was thinking about doing a series of the Universal Monsters with Monster's Mate of choice. So hopefully, there will be more to follow. I've got some ideas about what I'm going to do for the other ones. I decided to start with the 'Creature', since I've never done a finished piece of him before. And it's a good summer time subject.

Enjoy this trailer:

Right now I'm working on illustrations for the upcoming Little Shoppe of Horrors magazine. This issue will focus on Roman Polanski's 'The Fearless Vampire Killers' aka 'Dance of the Vampires'.

Adventures in Polyester...

2011-06-23T22:11:00.001-07:00

Not horror related, unless of course the idea of polyester bell bottoms frighten you. They don't frighten me.

I actually love 70's fashion. I have this great book that I picked up at a book warehouse a few years ago called '70's Fashion Fiascos'. Most of the photos are taken from catalogs from the 1970's.

It's a great book. Last fall, I picked up this book and started doing some sketching from it. Mostly for drawing exercise/practice, and I thought it would be fun. I did a few drawings, but at the time, didn't really have the time to put them into 'final processing'. This past week, I picked up the book again and did some more sketches from it. And tonight, I thought that I would just finish up one, just to see. I'm pretty happy with it, and it didn't take me that long to do. So I will probably end up doing a series of these. Watch out.

If you want to experience some real 70's internet fun, I highly suggest you check out 'Plaid Stallions'. It's awesome!!

Queen of Blood!

2011-06-19T18:33:00.001-07:00

I've never really been a big sci-fi watcher, I'm more of the gothic horror type. But over at the Classic Horror Film Board, this month's challenge was 'Aliens'. So I decided to spend some time watching some 50s-60s sci-fi films in the possible hopes of being inspired to draw something from them. I watched 'Angry Red Planet', 'Planet of the Vampires', 'Invaders from Mars', and this one, 'Queen of Blood'. I really enjoyed watching all these movies, and I've got some more lined up to watch later. Check out the trailer:

ALSO:

I now have prints for sale!! Check the bar underneath my blog header for a link to my available prints. Some of these will be 'retired' and not reprinted once they are gone. These include: 'Mummy Trouble' (Hammer's Mummy), 'Alone' (Frankenstein's Creature), 'Trip to the Moon', 'Reptile!', 'Gorgon!', and 'Love on Skull Island' (King Kong).

Nosferina & Lugosi

2011-05-29T10:33:00.001-07:00

As some of you probably already know, last October saw the release of Monsterverse's new anthology comic 'Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave'. I really enjoyed the first issue, it was a lot of fun. And I'm really looking forward to the second issue that will be released this summer, with a cover by Rick Baker! You can check for updates on this great new comic series here.

This is a piece of fan art that I did last year, around the time that the first issue was released.

I draw Lugosi a lot. Mainly because I never feel like I 'get' him just right. It's become a goal of mine to draw what I would consider to be the 'perfect' Lugosi. So every couple of weeks, I'll do a bunch of Lugosi sketches. I have a bunch of old horror film books, and I'll use them for reference sometimes. This piece was drawn from a famous promotional photo from 'Dracula' featuring Lugosi and actress Helen Chandler who played 'Mina'. It originally was Lugosi & Chandler that I drew. Then I had the idea that I should draw BLTftG's new female character 'Nosferina', in place of Chandler. I've never been a huge fan of Helen Chandler in the Dracula film, and drawing this new icon seemed like more fun to me. I had a good time creating this piece and I'm pretty happy with my Lugosi here (although I will continue my aim for perfection).

By the way, while Lugosi gives me trouble in drawing, Karloff is fun & easy to do. Peter Cushing too.

I leave you with a trailer for 'Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave' #1. Pick one up if you haven't already. And be on the look out for issue #2 coming soon!!

Happy 100th Birthday Vincent Price!

2011-05-27T12:26:00.001-07:00

If the great Mr. Price were still with us, today would have been his 100th birthday. A few months ago, I was asked by 'Ghoulish' Gary Pullin if I would like to submit a piece of art for a Vincent Price tribute gallery that would be in Rue Morgue's May 2011 issue. Of course I said yes (!!!) There are so many Vincent Price performances that I love, I was having a difficult time trying to decide what I wanted to do. In the end, I decided to go with my favorite of the Poe/Corman films, 'Tomb of Ligeia'. This is a subject that I have done before in fact, back in 2009.

It's amazing to me to look at these two pieces, just to see how much my skills have improved in just two years. Even if I haven't been posting as much art as I did in my first year, I'm always sketching and drawing. And for the record, the 2011 Vincent, probably took me 3 times longer to create than the 2009 Vincent. You can see my original posting of the 2009 Vincent piece here. I also think it's funny that in that post, I mention that I wanted to do a piece based on his ghost story records, and that's what I ended up doing for the Vincentennial art show.

Here's a photo of me, peeking from behind the new Rue Morgue that has my Vincent piece in it!

I still haven't even had time to give my Wonderfest/Rondo recount here, I will try to get that together. Since I've been back I've been busy working on other stuff. One of those things is a step-by-step sort of tutorial kind of thing. I hope to have that ready to post soon.

Vincent Price Presents...

2011-05-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! I'm very, very busy getting ready to make the journey to Kentucky for this year's Wonderfest. I'm excited and nervous and feeling totally unprepared. I can hardly believe that it's next weekend!! The new issue of Rue Morgue is apparently out, although I haven't received my copy yet (I'm told it's on the way), and the bookstores around here usually don't get them until two weeks into the month. I'm going to hold off posting that piece here, until I actually get the printed magazine in hand.

BUT, I've got more than one Vincent to share this month. In addition to being asked to be part of the Rue Morgue Vincent Price art tribute, I was also asked to be part of 'Vincent Price Presents' art gallery show at Star Clipper Comics in St. Louis, MO. This show is part of the Vincentennial celebration. There will be the most awesome Vincent Price film festival there, May 19-28, with special guests Roger Corman and Victoria Price. I would love to go, but I'll only be there in spirit.

And speaking of spirits, I decided that I wanted my Vincent piece for this gallery show to represent my love for Vincent's ghost story records. I first found a copy of 'A Hornbook for Witches' on vinyl at a local public library when I was about 19. I instantly fell in love with it. I made a tape recording of the record and listened to it over & over. It wasn't until about 5-6 years later that I discovered that there were more (!!!) records of Vincent reading stories of ghosts, witches and the like. I found someone online who was selling burned CDs, and ordered all of them. This was before I discovered the wonderful world of 'sharity blogs', like the amazing 'Scar Stuff' (sadly, no longer with working links). But ordering those discs was money well spent! I listen to them a lot.

The 'Vincent Price Presents' gallery show opened last weekend, and will run through June 29. I have 25 signed & numbered prints that are available at Star Clipper. Before I sent off my art to St. Louis, I took a snapshot of my framed #1.

And here is a 'virtual spin around' of the gallery space (wheee):

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T11:14:00.001-07:00

I've been really busy this past week but I wanted to do a little something for Easter. I'd been doing little sketches of January Q. Irontail (voiced by Vincent Price) from the Rankin & Bass Easter special 'Here Comes Peter Cottontail' all week. 'Here Comes Peter Cottontail' (1971) is available on DVD, and while I couldn't find a good trailer or clip to post along with this, I will suggest that you read The Haunted Closet's post from 2009 about it. Irontail is my kind of Easter Bunny!

Rue Morgue #111 Coming Soon to a Newsstand Near You!!

2011-04-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

As time ticks away to May 1st, and I anxiously await my debut in Rue Morgue, I thought I would share some previews. The cover of this issue features John Waters, with cover art by Mitch O'Connell!! HOW COOL IS THAT! I love John Waters, and I've been a big fan of O'Connell's work for years.

Also, Rue Morgue put together a video trailer for this issue. Although I'm not in the trailer, you get to see some of the other amazing pieces that are part of the Vincent Price at 100 tribute. This is the first time I've even seen some of the other pieces that are going to be in this issue.

Check it out!!

Getting Groovy at Wonderfest

2011-04-14T11:14:00.001-07:00

Well, I am finally able to reveal the art that I did for this year's Wonderfest. This was a fun project and an interesting one, as I was working with Graphic Designer, Lee Staton, who designed to logo. Working with someone else on a project like this was a new experience, and it was a very pleasant one at that. Everything went smoothly, and it was nice to have another set of eyes to work out ideas with.

This image will be used on the Wonderfest convention badges, t-shirts, promotional-mailers, etc. I've seen the postcards and the badges, and they look awesome! I'm very excited to see the t-shirts whenever they are ready. I'm getting more nervous/excited about Wonderfest day by day!

So, I'm going to go ahead announce my other big news:

I'm going to be in Rue Morgue magazine next month!!! I was asked to be part of a special art tribute to Vincent Price, along with a few other artists. I will post the piece that I did at the beginning of the month, after the issue hits the stands. I'm so excited and so thrilled that I was asked to participate. I can't wait to see what the other artists did, but I can tell you that I got a sneak peak at Gary Pullin & Justin Erickson's contributions and they are AMAZING!!

I'll have more Vincent Price related news soon, but right now, I have to go work on that or there won't be any news to report!

Thanks all, I'll post again soon!!

No Foolin', I win!

2011-04-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

I'm very pleased to announce that I have won a Rondo award for 'Fan Artist of the Year'! I can hardly believe it!

Things have been busy lately. And when I say that, I don't mean that I'm getting a lot done, but I have some major projects in the works. One that I'll mention is that I am going to be a featured guest at this year's Wonderfest. I recently completed the art that will be on the t-shirts and some of the printed material, like tickets & badges. Wonderfest is going to be very exciting because I will get to meet Hammer actresses Caroline Munro & Martine Beswick! They will be the first Hammer stars that I've ever met, and I'm so thrilled. In addition, I will be able to attend the Rondo Award ceremony, where I will accept my award. This terrifies me as I'm not especially good at speaking in front of a large group of people. I'll just have to keep it short & sweet!

Got to go for now, lots to do. More news to come...

RePulped!

2011-02-17T10:16:00.000-08:00

Some time in December, I was reading the blog 'Strange Kids Club' and there was a post about David Hartman re-drawing a Casper the Friendly Ghost cover. Artists doing their own versions of old comic covers?! What a great fun idea!! So I followed a link to this blog called 'Covered'. A few days after I found this blog, as luck would have it, there was a post entitled 'Like Minded Sites' which included 'Repaneled' where artists recreate interior comic panels, 'Cornered' where artist recreate those little boxes that appear on the top left of comics that usually have the price and date (if I'm wrong feel free to correct me), and 'Rejected by Covered'. Rejected by Covered is just that. If you didn't make the cut at Covered, then Rejected will post it. I have to show the banners for these two blogs because they're so great.

In the comments of Covered's 'Like Minded Sites' there was a post regarding a new blog starting on 1/1/11, called 'RePulped' where artists remake pulp fiction covers. I decided that I had to do this one first! Originally I had a sci-fi cover picked out as my first submission, but it's one of those things that's probably going to take me a while to finish. I wanted to do something quick and fun, so I went with this simple Ghost Stories cover. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I will get to the sci-fi cover when I have more time. It's all sketched out and everything. I also have a 'Covered' type project that I want to do here on the blog, that is going to be a tutorial of sorts.

You can see my Ghost Stories piece on RePulped here.

And Anthony Vukojevich liked my piece enough to plug me on 'Repaneled' here.

Repaneled is also something I would like to do in the future. I have a few ideas already!

Strange Love

2011-01-28T22:13:00.000-08:00

I've been in a big fat creative rut this month. The weather has been terrible, my 'real' job has been stressing me out more than usual, and I've been in a funk because I haven't produced anything new in a while. I have some outstanding & looming projects that I need to get finished, so in an attempt to get some creative spark, I decided that I would take the time to work up a finished piece based on a sketch I did recently of Yutte Stensgaard as 'Mircalla' from the film 'Lust for a Vampire' (1970).

'Lust for a Vampire' has never really been a favorite of mine, but it's been growing on me. This is the second film in Hammer's 'Karnstein' trilogy. The first being 'The Vampire Lovers' (my favorite), and the third being 'Twins of Evil'. I've been on a 70's Hammer Horror kick this month, triggered by the recent DVD release of 'Vampire Circus' (1972) to DVD/BluRay. I enjoyed 'Vampire Circus' so much, I decided to go back and re-visit some of the Hammers from that time period, that I don't really watch as often as some of the earlier films. Re-watching 'Lust' I find that I actually do enjoy it. It might not be as good as 'Lovers' but it does have it's own charm. And Ralph Bates, who I never tire of looking at.

I Eat Birds of Paradise for Breakfast...

2011-01-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

I did this piece back in September of 2010, and for whatever reason, I never got around to posting it. Probably busy thinking of other things (like Halloween) at the time. It was right around 'back to school' time, and I was feeling the need to watch 'Blood of Dracula', a fun, 1950's teenage vampire flick. In fact they probably just could have called it, 'I was a Teenage Vampire'. I had been wanting to draw the character Nancy, turned vampire for awhile, so here she is! AND, here is the trailer:

It's a New Year!

2011-01-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2011!

I'm still busy trying to finish up projects from 2010, but I've got some fun stuff coming up soon after that. Stay tuned....

A Christmas Favorite!

2010-12-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

Seriously, 'Merry Christmas Mr. Bean' makes me so happy!

Holiday Book Recommendation: Christmas Curiosities

2010-12-12T12:11:00.000-08:00

I am a Halloween person. There is no use in trying to fight or argue with that. I think about Halloween & spooky related content almost year round. But what about Christmas? I loved Christmas when I was a kid. It was great. Fun times!! But in the past 10 years or so, Christmas became an aggravation to me, as I hated going into a store the last week of October, and seeing Christmas merchandise. Past few years it's been mid-October. Can't even let the Halloween corpse die, before ushering in the new holiday.

But surely there are some Christmas things out there that a girl like me can relate to right? Well, yes, in fact there are. So I thought I would post a few things over the next couple of weeks that make this jolly holiday interesting to me.

Last year I picked up this book, 'Christmas Curiosities: Odd, Dark, and Forgotten Christmas' by John Grossman. I LOVE this book. This is a fine collection of strange vintage illustrations. I don't have a scanner, so I photographed a few pages just to give you an idea of the book's content.

The actual book in hand! Small in size, big on seasonal strange.

What the heck is wrong with that kid?

Witches at Christmas? Yes, witches!!

Christmas dinner would be way more entertaining if this happened.

I love the bat jockeys. And I really love this art. Apart from the bat jockeys themselves, I love the bare tree and the mountains with that orange setting sun. It has almost a Halloween feeling about it.

Kids might act better today if there was a threat of being tied to a tree & lashed by 'Ol St. Nick.

Speaking of beatings, It's Krampus! I've been a big Krampus fan for many years now, and he seems to be getting more popular every year. More about him later, but if you want to read up on him you can do so here.

Another favorite. Something about the strangeness of it I adore.

A snowman & Christmas tree make out.

A moth goes on a killing spree.

And nothing says 'Merry Christmas' like dead bird.

These are just a few of the many wonderfully strange images this book has to offer. This book is available at Amazon, but it looks like it's only available through Amazon Marketplace sellers. Maybe it's no longer in print? If that's the case, I highly encourage you to order this now before it is out of print & the price skyrockets.

Snow, Man!

2010-12-09T11:54:00.001-08:00

I recently completed this cover for a Christmas mash-up compilation put together by one of my favorite mash-up DJs, DJ BC. This is the 5th in the 'Santastic' series, 'Santastic V: Snow, Man!' The website also has the previous 'Santasics' available for download, as well as a few other holiday related mash-ups. And it's FREE! I've just been able to download it today, so I'm listening to it now. Download 'Santastic V: Snow, Man!' Here.

Little Shoppe of Horrors #25 Out Now!

2010-11-26T20:36:00.000-08:00

A bit late announcing this but Little Shoppe of Horrors #25, featuring the making of 'Blood on Satan's Claw' is now available! This was an exciting issue for me, because in addition to two interior pieces, my art also appears on the inside cover!! I'm totally in love with the front cover (below) by the way. Ade Salmon did a beautiful job. This piece belongs in a fine art gallery! Or on the wall at my house! My inside cover appears above (top of the page), and for my interiors, this time I thought I would try doing just straight forward black & white pieces. The first is of Stephanie Beacham from 'And Now the Screaming Starts' (1973) and the second is Vincent Price & Peter Cushing from 'Madhouse' (1974).

Well, time certainly does wizz by doesn't it? Halloween came and went like a flash. I didn't do nearly the full Halloween Countdown, like I wanted to. Now Thanksgiving is over and it's on to Christmas. I don't know for sure, but I am going to try to do something Christmas related here on the blog. I'm not a big fan of Christmas, but I'm thinking about putting together some posts about what I DO like about Christmas. Because there are somethings I actually look forward to. We'll see if I'm able to do it, I think it will interesting if I do.

Quick Note

2010-11-07T21:56:00.000-08:00

I wish I had more time to play around with all the fun templates that Blogger has, but I do have to get ready for a long work week. Ugh!!

Happy Halloween!!

2010-10-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

I just wanted say I hope that you all have a wonderful and Happy Halloween. In a few days time I'll have some post-Halloween thoughts to share, and various odds & ends.

Stop by the super cool blog 'Ranch Dressing with Eartha Kitsch' to see her Halloween post on Kooky Spooks. There you will also find my photo of me as a young lass, along with several others, who had this strange inflatable head costume.

Teacher's Pet: The Tale of the Tell-Tale Taffy

2010-10-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

Halloween is right around the corner, so how about a cartoon. 'Teacher's Pet' was a great animated show created by Gary Baseman that ran from 2000-2002. I loved this show, I used to watch it on ABC Saturday mornings. I wanted to share one of my favorite episodes, a Halloween episode (of course), 'The Tale of the Tell-Tale Taffy'. Leonard & his dog Spot (who is living a double life pretending to be a boy named Scott) go out trick or treating across the street, against his mother's orders. While Leonard & Scott are out trick or treating, the family cat (Mr. Jolly) & family bird (Pretty Boy) are dealing with new visitor. A cat named 'Spooky', who Mr. Jolly is convinced is a vampire.
Spooky is voiced by the great Tim Curry, and I did a quick drawing of the character in lieu of a still shot:

Enjoy!

Feelin' Devilish!

2010-10-23T04:52:00.000-07:00

I had intended to post this little guy last Sunday, but I was having some pains of the wrist. I also had some important household things to attend to before a very long work week. I cannot believe that Halloween is but a short week away. The time has just wizzed by.

Straight Outta Cairo!

2010-10-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

And usually right back to England. Tonight Turner Classic Movies will be airing the Hammer Mummy Films, starting in about 20 minutes.

8 pm – The Mummy (1959)
9:45 pm – The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)
11:15 pm – The Mummy's Shroud (1967)
1 am – Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)

The two characters you see here are Christopher Lee as 'Kharis' (before he was a mummy) from 'The Mummy'. And Valerie Leon as 'Queen Tera' from 'Blood from the Mummy's Tomb'.

I thought I would go ahead & share the art I was working on, even though it's unfinished pieces that I put together and tried to give it somewhat of a finished look to mark mummy day. I had BIG plans for this piece, unfortunately I had some trouble getting this piece to where I wanted it to be. Next week I will most likely NOT have a new Hammer piece, but the following week I hope to have my Hammer Frankenstein piece finished and looking awesome.
I hope some time I will be able to finish out this piece and see my vision realized. Only time will tell....

Horror Icons of the '80's

2010-10-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

I recently completed these two commission pieces and thought that I would share them here on the blog. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark & Freddy Kruger! I'm pretty pleased with the way these two pieces turned. Elvira was super fun to draw. Fred was a bit more difficult, but the extra time I took on him was worth it. It's also the first 80's horror characters I've tackled (apart from Creepshow's 'Fluffy')

Old Witchy!

2010-10-10T12:45:00.001-07:00

I few months back I had this idea of what I wanted to do for the Halloween countdown this year. The plan was to do a series of 31 simple Halloween pieces, inspired by vintage Halloween decorations. Well, that didn't happen. I did do some new ones, and I will be posting them throughout the month. The first was my 'Jolly Good Halloween Cat', and now here is 'Old Witchy'. And I have decided to include my 2 different versions of this piece. This piece was originally done in color, as seen below. But because she reminds me so much of a 1930's cartoon style, I decided to convert the image to BW/Sepia tone. The color version is not without it's charm, but I am much fonder of the BW style here.

Zombies, Reptiles and Horny Beasts! Oh My!

2010-10-07T21:44:00.001-07:00

It's Friday! October the 8th! So here's your friendly reminder that tonight on Turner Classic Movies it's Hammer Time, yet again. Be sure to tune in if you get TCM. I'm looking forward to rewatching 'The Devil's Bride' (or 'The Devil Rides Out', original title), since I don't have this one on DVD. It's a terrific film. And Christopher Lee never looked better. Yowza!

Hot Stuff.

Jolly Good Halloween Cat!

2010-10-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well, well. Here it is October 3rd! Three days into the month of October. Last night I finally decided on, and finished up my Halloween Banner for 2010. I just wanted to let everyone know that I will NOT be posting every day this year, but I will be posting several times a week. So if you stop by and see that I haven't posted in three days or so, fear not! I have not abandoned the Countdown! I really don't know what direction my countdown will take, since I mentioned before, I've done no prep work this year. But I do have several new original art pieces that will be going up this month.

DON'T FORGET: If you live in the US, Turner Classic Movies is airing Hammer films every Friday night in October, starting at 8pm. I will have some related art for each Friday's post, but I wanted to let everyone know in advance. Here is the schedule:

Oct. 1

8 pm – Horror of Dracula (1958)

9:30 pm – Brides of Dracula (1960)

11 pm – Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966)

12:45 pm – Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1969)

Oct. 8

8 pm – The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

9:45 pm – The Devil's Bride (1968)

11:30 pm – The Reptile (1966)

1:15 am – The Gorgon (1964)

Oct. 15

8 pm – The Mummy (1959)

9:45 pm – The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)

11:15 pm – The Mummy's Shroud (1967)

1 am – Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)

Oct. 22

8 pm – X The Unknown (1956)

9:30 pm – Five Million Years to Earth (1968)

11:45 pm – These Are the Damned (1963)

1am – The Stranglers of Bombay (1960)

Oct. 29

8 pm – The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

9:30 pm – The Revenge of Frankenstein (1959)

11:15 pm – Frankenstein Created Woman (1966)

1 am – Frankenstein Must Be Destoyed! (1969)

And of course, you can learn more at the TCM website.

Ruuunnnn to your TV, because...

2010-10-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry this post is so late, but I did want to let you know that tonight on Turner Classic Movies they are showing four of the Hammer Dracula films. Even as I write this, Horror of Dracula is 10 minutes in. So check out what all the hubbub is about! There will be more Hammer posts to come this month, as TCM is airing Hammer films every Friday night through the month of October.

Holy Flurking Schnit!

2010-09-30T11:41:00.001-07:00

It's almost October 1st, and I'm completely ill prepared for the Halloween Countdown. I expect there will be a lot of 'winging it' this season. So be prepared for a lot of Halloween randomness.

The Frankenstein Monster is Strange...

2010-09-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted. Mainly due to the fact that it's been a very hot, uncomfortable summer and in those conditions I find it difficult to work. But now fall is in the air and I have so much to do. I have several commission pieces that are WAY long overdue & of course the never ending list of things I want to do. Oh yeah, and the Halloween Countdown is not too far away, and I'm preparing for that as well.

But first, I finished up a piece of Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein Monster that I started on months ago. This finished piece was posted over at TCM's official blog 'Movie Morlocks' with a tribute to Strange written by my friend rhsmith. Check it out:

Frankenstein's Ladies

2010-07-03T01:01:00.000-07:00

Time to get back to work! I just finished this piece of Veronica Carlson & Kate O'Mara from 'Horror of Frankenstein' (1970). This piece was a bit of a frankenstein monster itself. I drew it twice, and then I had a separate drawing that I did of O'Mara's face that I used instead of the one that I drew from my reference photo. It is meant to be a companion to my 'Vampire Lovers' piece. I'm 80% happy with the way it turned out. I don't know if it's because I've not been drawing as much lately or what, but these two women were a challenge for me. I'm pretty happy with O'Mara, but the Carlson....mmm, I don't know. Maybe I've been looking at it too long. I've got a Veronica Carlson commission coming up so I've been doing lots of sketches of her. Hopefully next time I'll nail it.

I love 'Horror of Frankenstein'. I just saw it for the first time recently and I thought it was awesome! Of course it doesn't hurt that Ralph Bates, who plays Victor Frankenstein, is smoking hot. But this film went in directions that I didn't expect. Feast your eyes on the trailer:

Wonderfest 2010 and other reports...

2010-06-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Well, no new art post today. Hopefully I will have something soon. I was doing yard work and for 2 weeks my arms were covered with itchy blisters from poison ivy. On top of that, I've been working extra hours at my job, which takes away from my precious drawing time.

Well, it's a bit late but I wanted to mention that last month I sold prints of my work for the first time at Wonderfest in Louisville, KY. It was a great experience, even though I was very nervous. I met a lot of wonderful people and hope that next year, we'll be able to stay an extra day or two. Seems like there was just so much packed into about 2 1/2 days. Above you'll see me, cheezin' it up for the camera before we went to dinner on Friday. Nothing important here, I just liked the picture :P.

I also got to meet some fantastic artist/people while I was there. Below is a photo of me with Mark Maddox.

And here I am with Frank Dietz, who was my table neighbor all weekend. I had to keep borrowing his black pen because I lost mine.

I had Maddox & Dietz both sign my copy of Little Shoppe of Horrors #22. Since that was the first issue that I contributed to, my goal is to meet and have every artist who participated in this issue sign it. It may take me a while.

I also got to meet Jeff Preston and William Stout who, unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get photos of. But they were both super nice and I was pleased to meet them.

And closing out for today, I wanted to mention that I was featured on Turner Classic Movies official blog, Movie Morlocks today. This was very exciting for me & I was so thrilled to be asked. Check it out:

Little Shoppe of Horrors #24 Out Now!

2010-05-18T18:25:00.001-07:00

This time, it's all about the mummies! These are three of the pieces that I did for this latest issue of Little Shoppe. I've been away in Louisville, KY for Wonderfest this past weekend and have not yet had a chance to read this issue, but I'm really looking forward to it! ALSO, reprints of all issues are now available!! Get them here.

Bela

2010-04-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get back into the drawing habit, so I decided to take on a subject that has proved very challenging to me in the past. Bela Lugosi is some one who has distinct features, but I've always had trouble capturing him. The drawing is always off by a line, and in Lugosi's case, that makes a huge difference. I tried very had to not only capture his unique look, but I wanted to keep him looking handsome. So after multiple attempts, this is probably my most successful Lugosi to date.

Plague of the Zombies

2010-03-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

A bit of late news: Little Shoppe of Horrors #23 featuring 'Plague of the Zombies' & 'The Reptile' was released in September 2009. This was the second time I've had my art appear in LSoH's and a great thrill for me, since I love the magazine & adore Hammer so much. So why am I only getting around to posting about it now? Well, basically there were two major reasons. One: I had just started a new job after being unemployed for about 2 1/2 months and Two: I was busy trying to prepare for the Halloween Blog Countdown. Then after that came the Holidays... By then I had forgotten about the fact that I hadn't posted it.
I recently completed a few new pieces for the up coming Little Shoppe of Horrors #24, which will focus on the Mummy films that Hammer made. I'll be posting that art later on when the magazine is actually released.

Also... If you haven't vote for the Rondo yet, now would be the time. Voting will be over in about a weeks time.

More exciting than the Oscars...

2010-02-22T03:57:00.001-08:00

It's the Rondos! That's right monster kids & horror fans, voting for the eighth annual Rondo Awards has begun! Go now and vote for your favorite movie, book, magazine, podcast, etc. Voting will continue through April 3, 2010, so spread the good word.

**UPDATE** This year the Rondo ballot features a Fan Artist of the Year category in addition to the (Professional) Artist of the Year. Since this is a write in category, I decided to start a thread at the CHFB where fan artist can post some of their art from 2009 in consideration for the Rondo. You can view this thread here.

Marlow

2010-02-04T20:40:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post. Right now I'm busy working on a few pieces for the upcoming Little Shoppe of Horrors Mummy issue.

I finished this up last week for the CHFB monthly challenge which was 'Something New'. Well, I always do something new for the challenge, so I decided to take on a 'newer' subject as well. It's been snowing a lot in these here parts. I've seen more snow in the last month & a half than I have in years. Last Sunday, I slipped and fell on my foot, so I've been hobbling around all week. I was just glad nothing was broken. But with all this snow, it makes me want to watch all of my horror DVD's that have a winter backdrop. One of these is 2007's '30 Days of Night'. I really like this film, I know that some don't. But I thought it was an interesting idea and I really felt like the vampires were actually frightening. No romantic vampires here, just killers. I especially liked the head vampire, Marlow, played by Danny Huston. So I decided that I would draw him for the challenge. Well, I best get back to my mummy business.....

Herbert West, Tales of the Re-Animator

2010-01-22T08:38:00.001-08:00

I recently did a tutorial for my friends & fellow board members at the CHFB, demonstrating how I put my pieces together. I started out showing how I do the basic drawing in Illustrator. I then followed it up by showing an alternate version with additional elements. I included links to other online tutorials that show how to do the battered pulp cover, battered comic cover, and a site that has some terrific fonts, free for personal use.

If you are interested in the tutorial I posted, go here.

Fluffy

2010-01-16T22:15:00.001-08:00

Here's a drawing I did last month of 'Fluffy' from the movie 'Creepshow'. This thing scared the crap outta me when I was a kid.

Trip to the Moon

2010-01-16T03:26:00.001-08:00

I've been fascinated with the films of Georges Méliès. I recently watched 'Trip to the Moon' (Le Voyage das la lune) for the first time, and it got me all fired up about finding more of Méliès' films. I was able to watch some of them on You Tube. Such amazing stuff and I am just fascinated by the imagery. I'm saving up my nickels to buy a fancy $80 DVD set that has all of the films Méliès' made, it also includes a book.

Watching 'Trip to the Moon' was triggered by a budding interest I'm having in early 20th Century films and ideas of space travel. Or early Sci-Fi, before there was such a term. This interest was brought on by the following cartoon, Willie Whopper in 'Stratos Fear'

Art Jumblin' - Cleopatra

2010-01-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! I hope that you all had a terrific holiday season, and welcome to 2010! This year, in addition to the Classic Horror Challenge, I've decided to challenge myself to doing a piece a week for the Art Jumble blog. We'll see how long I last. Hopefully, I'll be able to do it. The topic for this week is 'Cleopatra'.

The Vampire Lovers

2009-12-30T20:49:00.001-08:00

So, I haven't posted any Hammer film fan art in awhile so here's a good way to (almost) end the year. 'The Vampire Lovers' from 1970. This is one of my faves, and Ingrid Pitt is just fantastic in this one.

Make wise decisions this Holiday Season...

2009-12-29T08:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I probably should have posted this before Christmas, but it's still the 'holiday season', so remember: Make wise decisions. I will have a few other posts before the end of the year, sort of a 2009 dump. Not to make light these posts, it's just a few things I didn't get around to posting because of the big Halloween Countdown. So stay tuned...

Animala at Christmas

2009-12-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

I posted recently about 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra' and posted my first 'Animala' piece. I did another one, just in time for the Holidays. Oooooh, Shiny indeed!

Twilight Madness??

2009-12-13T13:52:00.001-08:00

Here's something I know nothing about. 'Twilight'. I decided to go ahead and do a piece for this weeks Art Jumble topic & this is what happened to be the topic. My feelings about this final piece are luke warm. Lately I'm finding myself unable to get excited about my personal work. Hopefully that will change soon. I think I'm beginning to pressure myself too much, thus the process isn't fun anymore. And that's bad, because it's suppose to be fun for me. That's why I started up drawing again. I am thinking about doing some pieces that are related to cartoons & toys from my childhood, that may prove to be quite fun. We shall see.

Any way, I've never seen 'Twilight' but I'll admit that I'm curious about all the hype. To get the general idea of what the first movie is about, I settled for the 30 Second Bunnies version.

No YouTube on this one, if you want to watch it, follow the link.

A Christmas Story

2009-12-05T14:39:00.001-08:00

Here's something about Christmas that I like, 'A Christmas Story'. It is probably my favorite Christmas movie. Has nice up lifting feeling without being to sappy or syrupy. Every year TNT runs the movie for 24 hours starting Christmas Eve night. So if you've never seen it, this will be your best opportunity.

Blue Steele

2009-11-29T16:56:00.001-08:00

Even though I've posted several things over the last couple of days, I'm beginning to feel like I'm in a rut. My sketches don't seem to be working out the way I would like them to, and my main source material (my monster movie books), have just about exhausted themselves. So what's the perfect thing to tackle when you're having trouble making things work? Draw one of the people whose likeness gives you the most trouble. That's what I did. I drew a Barbara Steele a few months back, and while graphically it was pretty nice, the likeness wasn't all that great. I like this one much better. It actually kind of looks like her now.
I'm still working on some commission pieces and trying to work on some other personal pieces. I'm also trying to join Art Jumble, as I am already thinking about my 2010 New Year's Resolution, and how I would like to take on that challenge. I am still waiting to hear back from the administrators there. (fingers crossed ladies & gents).

Rower!

2009-11-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

I'm a huge fan of Larry Blamire's film 'The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra', and I'm surprised at myself for not getting around to drawing some of this films great characters before now. This is a very 'toon-style' version of Animala, the woman made from 4 forest animals. I did a sketch of the Betty character some time ago, but haven't gotten around to making a final. I have so many ideas of 'Lost Skeleton' pieces that I would like to do, I guess I will just get around to them as I can. So this is Animala 1.0.

And if you've never heard of 'Lost Skeleton', check out the trailer below:

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!

2009-11-26T10:43:00.001-08:00

Well, Thanksgiving has arrived! The end of the fall/harvest season. Today I will be enjoying MST3K and having a faux turkey roast and a terrific broccoli casserole. My little festive drawing is inspired by two sources.

1) A rare cartoon from 1949 I read about on the Cartoon Brew blog called 'The 3 Minnies: Sota, Tonka, and Ha-Ha'. You can read more about it here. This post was from June of 2007, and sadly the video link no longer works. But I swear that I have seen this when I was a kid. Anyway I fell in love with this still.

and 2) This terrific vintage Thanksgiving greeting card. Last month I posted a link to the Flickr account of a vintage collector riptheskull. He has a terrific collection of vintage Halloween Items, and he also has a great collection of vintage Thanksgiving cards. I really enjoyed looking thru these, some of them seem very Halloween-ish. Here are a few examples:

I also wanted to share this old Ub Iwerks cartoon 'Jack Frost' from 1934. This is one of my favorites to watch around this time of year. I really love the singing Jack o Lanterns & the scarecrow.

Now, that Thanksgiving has arrived tomorrow Christmas will completely take over. Ug! Now, I'm not a Christmas hater. The biggest problem that I have with Christmas is that stores try to push their merchandise earlier & earlier each year. I hate going into a store to look at Halloween stuff, only to find that there is Christmas stuff out as well. And of course between now and the end of the year, I will do everything in my power to stay away from Holiday Shopping areas. But there are things about Christmas that I do like. And I'm thinking about doing a Christmas Countdown of sorts. Or maybe a '25 Things About Christmas that I Like'. So that should be a fun little experiment. Stay Tuned, and hope you all have a great Thanksgiving Day!

It's almost here...

2009-11-25T19:24:00.001-08:00

I have been super busy this past week. My current new job is particularly demanding, so this past week I've done nothing but sleep, work, sleep. Some times eat. Maybe. So now I have a few days off to recover & enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. I'll be getting up in the morning to watch the Macy's Parade and have some cinnamon rolls. Then I plan on spending a good portion of the day watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. Some of you might remember many years ago, Comedy Central would have the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon. Ah, those were the days. They would start Wed. night and run them for about 24 hrs. I would stay up as late as I could on Wed., then take a nap so I could get up and watch more. Well, this year, I'm going to watch some of my DVDs, back to back. I have two of the box sets, and last year I discovered a place online that carries all the rest of the episodes that are not available in official release. For $6 each, you get a plain white disc with only a show number written on it. The quality is about as good as a VHS tape, but I don't really care about that. I just wanted to watch some of my favorites again. If you're interested in picking up some MST3K episodes, here's where I got mine Cheepins.com

I'm excited because I just ordered a few that I don't really remember seeing before, and I've been saving them for tomorrow. I was going to order the movie 'Santa Claus', a Mexican Children's film from the late 50's where Santa battles Satan (or Pitch, rather). However, it has been taken off the Cheepins list, as it is going to be released in a box set, due out at the beginning of December. I highly recommend it!

Vertigo

2009-11-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

This month's CHFB challenge was Alfred Hitchcock. I knew right away that 'Vertigo' was the film I would work from. If I ever made a top 10 list of my all time favorite movies, this would be on it for sure. I wanted to try to do a kind of pulp paperback novel kind of thing for this one.

Dracula's Daughter

2009-11-13T08:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday the 13th everybody. I'm getting back to the drawing board now that the Halloween blog mania has started to die down. Or at least I'm not frantically trying to find something to post daily.

I just finished this piece of Countess Zaleska aka 'Dracula's Daughter' from the 1936 film. This was Universal's first sequel to 'Dracula' which starred Bela Lugosi. This time around there was no Dracula or Lugosi to be found. Stepping into the main vampire role was Gloria Holden, who played, well, Dracula's Daughter. Of the Universal Dracula sequels, I actually prefer 'Son of Dracula', but I do like 'Dracula's Daughter'. And the countess presented a unique personality on screen.

I made this sketch several months ago and only last night did I think of how I wanted to execute the final piece. This was an experiment with Illustrator's Gradient tools. I thought it turned out pretty well. She looks very art deco goth!

Guy Fawkes Day

2009-11-05T14:05:00.000-08:00

I hope that everyone had a very Happy Halloween. Now that I don't have to post everyday, I'm trying to get back to the drawing board. Since today is November 5th I wanted to share a page from a book that I picked up at the thrift store. The book is from a Childcraft book from 1964. I don't know much about these, they are kind of like a set of encyclopedias for children. The cover says 'The How & Why Library'. This is Vol. 5, Holidays & Customs, and it has lots of great illustrations. This spread talks about Guy Fawkes Day, which is today!
I would like to share some more of these pages in the future & hopefully by then I will have a scanner. Right now I'm having to photograph everything, which is kind of a pain.
Well, Happy Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night my friends!

Happy Halloween Everybody!

2009-10-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

What a pouty face. Well, it's one of the few that turned out okay. Once again another Halloween has come, and I didn't get my costume finished in time. I just kind of threw on what I had so I could take some photos. Hope that everyone has a wonderful Halloween & thanks for joining me in the Halloween countdown!

Time is ticking away...

2009-10-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

I can't believe in a few hours, it will officially be Halloween. The big day. The day I think about all year long. I went out tonight to pick up some sale Halloween items, and will most likely take one last trip on November 1st. Christmas stuff has already began to muscle it's way into the limelight now, even though Thanksgiving is still weeks away.

I'll be busy working on my costume, that may or may not get finished in time. It's a costume that I started to put together for last Halloween, and it just didn't happen. So hopefully, I'll have it ready for tomorrow.

I was watching some of The Munsters marathon on WGN this evening (hosted by Alice Cooper, heck yeah!) and I was reminded of one of my favorite commercials. Thanks to the wonderful world of YouTube, here it is:

When I was seeking out that commercial I found some other Frankenstein Ads.
And here's an older commercial for Shasta with the Frankenstein Monster. Oddly, he's referred to as Igor:

Frankenstein Monster and the Bic Pen:

Doritos & Pepsi:

Jackson Hewitt:

Mixed Treat Bag

2009-10-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

As Halloween rapidly approaches, I realize I won't be able to post about all the things I had originally planned. *sigh* I was having trouble trying to figure out what to post tonight, so I just decided to throw a bunch of stuff together.

A friend sent me this photo he took of a newsletter cover from 1952.

Here is some Halloween merchandise that I picked up & received as gifts this year.

Here are some sketches I did that I haven't had time to turn into final pieces yet.

Annie, Laurie and Linda from John Carpenter's 'Halloween'

Fredrick, Igor and Inga from 'Young Frankenstein'.

Tomorrow I will be getting up to enjoy this years Martha Stewart Halloween Show on tv, then I'm going to catch up on all the shows that ran this week on marthastewart.com.

Halloween's Past

2009-10-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

I have to make an educated guess on the year, as I don't have the photos in front of me

1976. The Pink Princess.

1978. (But I don't think this was my actual costume).

1979. I wish I still had this thing.

1984. The Red Princess. A jump in years here

from the 70's to the 80's.

You know, I'm quite disappointed that my family didn't take more photos of me at Halloween when I was growing up. It's really a shame too, because most years, my grandmother made my costumes. I'm also disappointed that I'm not better prepared for this post. I actually still have 2 of the costumes that my grandmother made, and was going to photograph my little sister wearing them. Unfortunately, my timing didn't work out and I most likely won't get to shoot the photos until after Halloween. Oh well, I can always use them for the countdown next year.

Halloween Parties

2009-10-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's two cartoons with a Halloween Party theme.

'Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party'

And Toby the Pup 'Halloween'. Wait till about the 3:25 min mark for things to get spookin.
A side note about this one. As far as I know, all Toby the Pup cartoons are public domain. However, not many of them survived. This was posted on Youtube earlier this year from a European source (can't remember where), and then removed a few months ago.

If you enjoy these old cartoons you might also want to check out Uncle John's Crazy Town. His posts are great year round, but right now he's got a few spooky ones up for the month of October.

HP Lovecraft

2009-10-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

When I did the EA Poe piece, I wanted to do a companion piece of HP Lovecraft. He was also great fun to draw as he, like Poe, has a very distinctive look. And I am also including three Lovecraft related clips for today.

First up, a trailer for HPLHS's (HP Lovecraft Historical Society) terrific film, 'The Call of Cthulhu'. Filmed in the style of a 1920's silent film, this is one of the best Lovecraft adaptations I've ever seen.

Next, still in the 1920's style, an animated short film by Peter Rhodes of 'The Other Gods'.

And last, a trailer for John Carpenter's 'In the Mouth of Madness'. While not based directly on any Lovecraft story, it is very 'Lovecraftian'. This is a film I re-discovered in recent years, and I think it's quite good at capturing the feeling of Lovecraft.

Sing Cats Sing!

2009-10-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

So this is a bit of a cheat post. These cats were part of another composition I was working on that just wasn't coming together, and I knew I wouldn't have it done by Halloween. So I just did floating cat heads. It still looks pretty cute.

Next week I will be away until Friday, but I am going to try and make pre-posts for all of next week. I wish that I had more time to work on my unfinished art pieces before the end of the month but it looks like that's not going to happen. I can't believe Halloween is less than a week away.

Well, hopefully, I will have everything up & ready for next week before the day is through and I hope that everyone has a wonderful week.

Also I know I haven't had a chance to respond to my comments, and I probably won't get to that until after Halloween. But thank you for posting feedback, and I WILL get to it, I promise!