What makes this 43 inch Eureka jointed skeleton paper decoration so gravely great is the honeycomb Jack o'Lantern he's holding. You just don't see this kind of Halloween illustration anymore. It's creepy not cute, yet not threatening. How can skeletons holding Jack o'Lanterns be threatening (if his arms were empty then I'd worry). He's even got a pet vampire bat with sharp fangs. Cool.
Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…with author Lisa Morton…
Why is Halloween important to you?
Wow, I could write an entire book to answer that…oh, wait – I've written three already! Okay, seriously…Halloween is just such a rich holiday that operates on so many levels. As a kid, I loved the empowerment of wearing a costume and being paid off in candy (and the better the costume, the more candy!).
As an adult, I love the creativity, the seasonal aspect as we change from summer to winter, and the celebration of fear but done in a whimsical way. I think it's healthy to have one night a year where we, collectively, impersonate, mock, and honor death.
Describe your ideal Halloween.
I love seeing what people do to transform both themselves and their surroundings on Halloween. Every year I drive to locations where I've heard there are spectacular home displays (those are also usually where you get the best trick or treat costumes). I love the seasonal foods, so I have to eat a pumpkin stew and pumpkin seeds and even Halloween cookies from a local bakery. I'll probably wrap up the night by tuning in whatever horror movie or special is on television – the older the better!I'm ashamed to say I've never been to our local West Hollywood celebration, but I'm not a huge fan of crowds or traffic.
What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?
Oh boy, I've got a lot I love. As the author of three illustrated Halloween books, it's been (ahem) convenient to collect a lot of stuff that I could use as illustrations in the books, everything from vintage postcards to antique books to modern folk art and toys. But I think I have a special fondness for vintage noisemakers.
One of my favorite pieces of Halloween non-fiction writing is an essay by Carl B. Holmberg called "Things That Go Snap-Rattle-Clang-Toot-Crank in the Night: Halloween Noisemakers" (from the book HALLOWEEN AND OTHER FESTIVALS OF DEATH AND LIFE), and that essay really got me started on noisemakers. Strangely enough, I never used noisemakers as a kid (apparently they never really made it to the west coast), but I just love their colorful graphics and the idea of kids making scads of noise with these things on Halloween night. I've attached photos of two that are probably my favorites: You can't beat that image of the witch with her cats, and the winking owl with the jack-o'-lantern just somehow always make me smile.
When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?
The first one I really remember was probably when I was in first grade (I think I was seven), and my favorite show was this ridiculous thing called IT'S ABOUT TIME with cavemen, so I wanted to be a cavewoman. My dad's a hunter (and still is, at 83!), so he made me this costume from an honest-to-God deer hide, and my mom ratted out my hair, and it was all very authentic. The only bummer part was that I was too small to lift a real wooden club, so I had a plastic club. I remember parading proudly in the school costume pageant around the playground, and being really proud of that costume.
What's the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what's your answer?
Q: Lisa, if you could travel back in time to witness Halloween in the past, when/where would you go to?
A: Well, Lisa, that's a tough one…but I think I'd have to say that I would love to take part in an 18th-century Scottish party, such as Robert Burns describes in his poem "Hallowe'en". The night was one full of magic and romance and a little bit of spookiness, and it's no wonder the Scots loved the holiday so much.
I found this splendid Halloween Witch light-up, with sound, in the Pleasant Surprises store on Thames Street in Newport, Rhode Island.
Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…with dark fiction author Sally Bosco…
Why is Halloween important to you?
I like to make fairly elaborate costumes and get dressed up for Halloween. My favorite costume of all time is anime character, Kitty Cat Sakura (see photo in this article.) Beyond that, I like the feeling of the restless spirits walking the Earth. It gives us a knowing that there’s something beyond this physical plane. When I had a home dungeon every day felt like Halloween, but the room was breaking down and I had to have it knocked down and replaced it with a sunroom. So now Halloween is pretty much back to once a year. Another reason I like Halloween is that it’s the one day out of the year that adults legitimately get to play.
Describe your ideal Halloween.
I’d make elaborate costumes for myself and my boyfriend, Eric. We’d meet our friends, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell and go out to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Carmine’s in Ybor City, in Tampa, Florida and then we’d go to the best Goth bar ever, The Castle. People at The Castle are very serious about their costumes, so it’s always a spectacle and a huge blast. I’ve visited Goth bars in a lot of different cities, and nobody does it better than they do.
What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?
My favorite Halloween artifacts are my Living Dead Dolls, especially Sadie and Walpurgis. I keep them on my writing table for company and inspiration. The other Living Dead Dolls pretty much hang out in my bookcase. Sometimes I find them in different positions in the morning, but that might be due to my cats. I like to think they move on their own, however.
When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?
My parents dressed me up like Snow White and took me around to relatives’ houses. They didn’t want me to do the door-to-door trick-or-treat thing until I was older. Yes, I was an only child and very sheltered. It was still great though, because at that point it was all I knew, and I loved the creepy feeling of Halloween from the very first.
What's the one question you want to be asked and what's your answer?
Q: What was your most memorable Halloween spent away from home?
A: One year I went to Paris for Halloween, and I was so excited I even took some bat wings with me. But then I found that they don’t celebrate Halloween at all. The only people who were dressed up were in theShakespeare Book Store, which is American. It was still a great night, though. It was odd to realize that Halloween isn’t universal.
Hope everyone has the best Halloween ever!
Sally writes young adult horror/paranormal novels. Her newest release is The Werecat Chronicles, available on Amazon.
Here's some of the Boney Bunch from Yankee Candle for Halloween. Simply delightful. Not too cute, not too dark, and full of character. Definitely hex-citing enough for guys to enjoy, too, especially with those blood-red dripping candles.
A pleasant bite at Crazy Burger, then a nighttime walk past One Way Gallery in Narragansett, Rhode Island reveals these two engrossing pieces of horror art. I couldn't make out the artist's name. Perhaps he's a child of Pickman…
Zombos Says: Very Good
Ghoulies, ghosties, beasties, here be monsters all, hobnobbing their way through the mortal realm in 19 tales assembled by Christopher Golden, with book-body parts supplied by Jonathan Maberry, David Liss, Kevin J. Anderson, Nate Kenyon, Sarah Pinborough, and many more. Squatting in the monster's corner is you, metaphorically speaking of course, as the next meal, the next victim, and next sideline viewer or partaker of nasty events. Identifying who the monsters and victims are can be a little challenging because sometimes they swap places or appear similar, depending on your vantage point, and the tone of monstrosity varies from story to story, as does the terror.
Perhaps the clearest monstrous vision here is seen through Pinborough's The Screaming Room. Having snakes for hair and turning people to stone doesn't make the Gorgon a social butterfly, but when her dates do eventually show up, she does get to spend a very long time with them, enjoying their constant song of love. Only they aren't singing and she's deluding herself, turning her loneliness into happiness. A simple premise sustains a truly terrifying revelation, and this story will not easily leave you once you put the book aside.
Often the monster ranks are swelled by those we unleash ourselves, and in Maberry's Saint John, you may be hard pressed to find the saints, but sinners abound. Armageddon leads to madness, but sometimes madness can lead to redemption, and here the sinners must face a holy roller to reckon with, dressed in swirling white robes and long sharp blades wielding salvation. Not surprisingly, coming from an author who specializes in death and destruction in apocalyptic measures, Maberry creates an unbalanced world populated with unbalanced people, and places his heroic protagonist, who's either deep-dish crazy, made so by the monstrous events of his past, or following God's crib-notes, within it, preaching one slash and thrust sermon at a time. There's an intimacy here as Maberry focuses on one small street corner and those people stepping into it, coming under Saint John's light. Victims and monsters are interchangeable. Salvation is tenuous. The emotional complexity deep and disturbing. Maberry may have created a new and noble antihero ripe for novelization.
For a swim with Lovecraftian primevalness, Tananarive Due brings us to Graceville, Florida in The Lake. Abbie's new job, new house, new life is growing on her so much she's becoming a whole new person; or thing, anyway. People say not to swim in the lake in summer, though the reasons are hushingly unclear. She swims anyway. The lake's calm water is so inviting. Slowly changes in her attitude start to match the physical changes between her toes, and the changes in her appetite. Is she dreaming? Is she delusional? Is she embracing a whole new Abbie? Her understated tranformation unfolds in carefully building paragraphs, rendering the terror mood gently and matter of factly, until the ending reminds you it's not wise to swim in the Graceville Lake during the summer months.
You won't find gore or check-the-door scares in The Monster's Corner, but you will find, hanging out in its dark recesses, a well varied assortment of true monsters, seeming monsters, and would-be monsters, all either vying for your understanding–as carefully outlined in Gary A. Braunbeck's witty And Still You Wonder Why Our First Impulse Is To Kill You–or your blood.
Zombos Says: Good
(story good, but artwork lacking)
Since Zatanna is wearing pants they put her fishnet stockings on her arms, overly done coloration brightens to distraction, and another apocalyptic vision gets everyone in a huff. And don't get me started on using Justice League in the title: it's somewhat confusing, but since Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg aren't up to the task at hand, I suppose it will have to do for now.
Even John Constantine winds up here as Madame Xanadu sees a bleak future and calls Shade (actually she calls his M-Vest). Enchantress is dreaming madness and chaotic spells ensue. This first issue sets up the looming hunka-burnin' catastrophe with mini-ones, and introduces key participants including Deadman, Constantine, Zatanna, Shade, and a mysteriously confused young girl.
Getting in their way is the artwork, with color that saturates the opening action in a golden haze, and the closing setup in purple. Mikel Janin draws everyone with almost the same face, and poses characters stiffly in his scenes. One welcome exception is Constantine dropping in unexpectedly. Another is the encounter with filthy flying teeth (now try and say that 3 times fast), which is rendered less effective by a putting-green background.
Peter Milligan's story builds well to the quiet climax, adding mystery and pending threat, but Janin's layout, while grid-wise assists the narrative, content-wise needs more oomph and fluidity to bring on the darkness.
And for gosh sakes, dull those colors!
Zombos Says: Very Good
I wouldn't have picked this one up if DC hadn't sent it to me for review. I have a problem with the cover. It sucks. Okay. I know. You want more of a critical assessment than a fanboy kind of knee-jerk opinion. Here it is then: it sucks a lot. It's too yapping Twilight-y, and its composition panders more to stereotypical male herdy-nerdy readers with its voluptuous, booby and elf-y coy female posturing brazenly. I don't know what age range they thought they were aiming for with this one, but I'm not near it apparently. And it doesn't jive with the more sophisticated content, which I can tell you doesn't suck.
Andrea Sorrentino's heavily dark boundaries and shadow-fused illustration would easily be at home in a black and white world, but Marcelo Maiolo's color dashes and toning brings emotional depth as well as objective and personal perspective through its variation across the pages.
This first issue re-establishes the centuries-old love-hate relationship between Mary and Andrew: she's intent on feasting and he's more of the fasting kind. Joshua Hale Fialkov interweaves their lovers' dialog between present and past, and in spite of his 400 years of vampire-killing savvy, she gets in the last word. Much bloody mayhem ensues
If Fialkov and Sorrentino can sustain the emotional intensity and visual flare started in this first issue, the series should have a long run. Their predominant use of wide-format panels gives ample room for telling the story with imagery and narrative, and red dialog boxes and discrete splashes of blood punctuate the lovers' quarrel, broadening it to apocalyptic proportions.
At 20 pages an issue, it's a tough call whether I want to wait for the trade paper or pick up each issue. I'm tempted toward the latter based on the promise shown here.
Is it me or is everything so apolcalyptic these days?
Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o’Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds…in between mouthfuls of candy corn…with My Scary Halloween.
Why is Halloween important to you?
At some point we all leave our childhoods behind and with it a treasure trove of make-believe, candy, and the wonder that one night a year ghosts and witches do exist. Halloween allows me to reconnect with that childhood wonder and in that moment that sense of fascination recharges my creative soul for an entire year.
Describe your ideal Halloween.
I love my Halloween scary – from the front porch where kids are greeted with macabre yard haunt, to the decorations that fill my house with a very spooky atmosphere – every detail is carefully considered. In the background a horror movie is playing, or perhaps a playlist of my favorite Halloween music. I usually have a few friends over to hand out candy, tell ghost stories, and enjoy a warm bowl of Autumn stew. After the activities fade and I am alone, I watch horror movies until late at night when the last of the pumpkin scented candle burns out.
What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?
I collect a Halloween village and every year I spend a month putting it together. I build platforms, carve rocks out of foam, and wire the whole thing together (pictures are on my website). This is a fascinating hobby for me and I’ve learned things like engineering, electrical wiring, woodworking and painting – all the same things I’ve put into use in my own actual home.
When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?
I don’t have many memories of celebrating Halloween as a kid. One of my most memorable Halloweens was my first year in San Francisco. The Castro neighborhood put on quite a big “show” and the costumes were incredible. One woman was being wheeled around in a phone booth covered with crows in homage to The Birds, and of course, there were the 8-foot-tall drag queens with headdresses that practically reached the traffic lights. I’d never seen anything like it (or since).
What’s the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what’s your answer?
Q: Do you want to go trick r’ treating?
A: Yes! Let me grab a bucket.