I really love finding old b & w cartoons that have a spooky theme. I've been trying to catalog them at my other blog Oh! So Spooky, but I've been so busy, devoting most of my time to this blog. Well, since it's Halloween, I'm going to post some of the cartoons that I've found & added to my collection. YouTube can be awesome sometimes!! These are 3 very early animated shorts 'Ko-Ko's Haunted House' (1928), 'Felix the Ghost Breaker' (1923) and 'Alice's Spooky Adventure' (1924).

Koko's Haunted House - A bit of live action & animation

Felix the Ghost Breaker - This can also be downloaded here for free at the Internet Archive

Alice's Spooky Adventure - Some more live action, combined with animation

"So, okay I ain't the Avon Lady..."

I love Halloween specials!! This month I have taken the opportunity to do some pieces based around some of my favorite Halloween specials. Some you may know, others you may not. My first piece for the month is the Witch or Fairy Godmother, from 1978's 'Witch's Night Out'. A brother & sister go out trick or treating and fail to scare any of the adult with their costumes. So they call on a witch (voiced by the very funny Gilda Radner) to turn them into real creatures of the night. All begins simply enough, but eventually things get out of control. I used to watch this one on The Disney Channel every year & the VHS tape is part of my collection.

I would also like to take this time to direct you to another blog, Halloween Specials.net. This site had many listings for Halloween TV specials, along with descriptions, photos and sometimes video. In fact, you can watch and/or download 'Witch's Night Out' here.

Isn't this a lovely site? This photo was taken by my husband today at a corn maze we went to. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.
Also, I went to the store very early this morning and came back with this:



It's good stuff, but I'm still thinking about the awesome Ben & Jerry's Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream I had last year. It was beyond heavenly.

Since I've had such a long & busy day, I'm going get some much needed sleep. But I leave you with this Ooky Spooky Tune. The Brian Sisters singing 'The Boogie Woogieman'. Enjoy!

Artists I Love: Ragnar

No, I can't take credit for these wonderful pieces, but the artist is one of my favorites and a big inspiration to me. I discovered the works of Ragnar about 8 years ago, when I used to hover around a certain internet message board for artists. I think a lot of the artists there were animators or comic book illustrators working in the field. I loved to go there and look around, even though I was too shy to participate. Well, I started seeing these wonderful pieces posted by Ragnar & I LOVED them. Some of the first pieces I saw of his was a series featuring a classic monster with a sexy girl. He released his art book 'Chromaphile' in 2005 and I am sad to say, I let that one slip thru my fingers. I had it on my Amazon list, but never got around to ordering it. Now it's out of print. But then came his next book 'Vernaculis'. Contained within these pages is the wonderfully delightful Halloween inspired pieces for a set entitled 'Phantomime'. These are just a few samples from that series.



If you want to see more from 'Phantomime', or any of Ragnar's other non-Halloween works, please visit his web site www.littlecartoons.com. Also in his gallery, you can go to 'archives' and see the monster & girl pieces that won my heart so many years ago.

Here are two other pieces that are not in the 'Phantomime' gallery, but are great Halloween pieces. This first piece is suppose to be included in an upcoming book entitled 'One Eyeota'

And this piece I just happened to come across this evening. I got really excited because I've never seen this one before. There is a print available from the Wonderful World of Animation Art Gallery for $250 smack-a-roos. Good thing they have a layaway plan!! As much as I would love to have a print, I hope that this one will turn up in a book, sometime in the future.

***UPDATE****
A modified version of Ragnar's 'Night Without End' appears in his book 'Symptomatica'. ALSO! Ragnar is planning to release a Halloween book sometime in 2010!!! This is very exciting news, like a dream come true!

Is it October the 1st. Already?

Where has all my planning time gone? Well, it's October first which can only mean that the Countdown to Halloween has arrived!! First up, I made this cool new banner for my blog for the month of October. I think it's very Halloween-y. I had originally made all these lists of things I wanted to post, but I think there will be a lot of 'winging it'. Although I do have some pieces that have been finished for awhile that I am very pleased with & excited to share. There are so many blogs participating in the countdown, and I am looking forward to viewing as many as possible in the next few weeks. It's an exciting time!!

Well, I hope you will enjoy the mixed bag of tricks & treats I will be sharing all thru the month of October. Happy Hallloween!!

Emma Peel

Emma Peel from The Avengers. This is actually a test post. I'm trying out the pre-posting feature on blogger. I figure it will come in handy next month when the Halloween Countdown begins.

Stuff for other people...

First up a hooch handlin' honey for Bootleg Brand. Second, a field hockey button design for my friend's daughter's field hockey team. Busy, Busy, Busy. Countdown to Halloween, less than a week away!!!