Happy Halloween!!

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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...

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.