From Zombos' Closet

Halloween Glowing Dagger and Mask Toy

Okay, so it doesn't make much sense for Dracula to need a dagger; but it beats a glowing stake, right? The mask isn't much of one, either: it's about the size of a fifty-cent piece. You can wear it over one eye for an eye-mask, I suppose. Jolly Roger Pumpkin Pirate or something catchy like that would maybe work.

It's still cool. Look at that handsome, luridly green Count Dracula menacing us with his glowing dagger as he flashes those pearly chompers.

You won't see Halloween toys like this anymore. Kids might trip and fall onto the nasty-looking point of this wicked plastic weapon of doom and go crying to their lawyer. Or maybe pop some other kid's eye out with it.

Then again, maybe that's why they included the eye-mask? Shrewd.

 

Me and Cthulhu From Day After Art

Chris at Day After Art has Cthulhu-ized me with one of his Cthu-You portraits. Take that you zombie-izers! Slimy, briney, tentacles beats rotting flesh any day. So, should I call myself John-Soggoth? It seems like a natural. That turtle-neck sweater really sets the tone, don't it? Thanks Chris!

My Halloween: Author Paul Bibeau

Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds...in between mouthfuls of candy corn...Paul Bibeau is an author whose intimacy with Dracula and the Halloween Spirit (Sundays With Vlad: From Pennsylvania to Transylvania, One Man's Quest to Live in the World of the Undead) combines with his mastery of the narrative form to conjure emotion as well as imagery.

Why is Halloween important to you?

I am a bitter lapsed Catholic who is about to turn 40. Christmas, Easter, and my birthday have turned into cruel jokes. Halloween is the only holiday left which hasn't broken my heart.

Describe your ideal Halloween.

Trick or treating ends early enough for me to turn out the lights, pop open an Octoberfest-style beer, steal fistfuls of candy from my kids, and watch Laurie Strode swat at Michael with a coat hanger.

What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?

Collectibles don't do it for me.

When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?

My earliest vivid Halloween memory is from around fourth grade. I remember going trick or treating on Governor's Island, just off the tip of Manhattan. It was a Coast Guard base, and there was housing in the center of the island that was built out of an ancient fort. Even now that seems like a bizarre, trippy experience.

What's the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what's your answer?

Q: What was my best Halloween season ever?

A: In 2006, I spent two weeks just before Halloween traveling through Banat and Transylvania. I drove through Bela Lugosi's hometown and visited the Borgo Pass, where Bram Stoker set Dracula's Castle. I almost died on the roads that snaked through the Carpathian Mountains. I don't know if I'll ever top that one.

Halloween Trick or Treater Vintage Photograph

Paul Bibeau (author of the excellent Sundays with Vlad), and his Goblin Books blog, noted these old Halloween photographs, collected on Flickr by stevechasmar.

Paul says "Titled 'Halloween in the Time of Cholera' the collection is funny, bizarre, and often deeply disturbing." I agree. It is also evocative: a shadow show of silver nitrate ghosts, flickering and merging across our own memories of Halloween.