Happy Valentine's Day

It was Valentine's Day in 1931 that audiences were introduced to 'Dracula'. With that in mind, I decided that it was time for me to pay tribute to The Count & his prey, Mina. This is #2 in a series that I began last year, that I'm unofficially referring to as the 'Monsters & Mates' series. Some of you might remember my 'Black Lagoon' piece from last summer. And now 7 months later...a NEW one! I did try working on a Wolf Man piece shortly after I did the Black Lagoon 'Creature', but it just wasn't coming together. And this piece is actually a second draft. I had drawn both figures and had begun re-drawing them in Illustrator, when I realized that I just didn't like my drawings very much. It was very stiff, and I wanted it to be cartoony fun. So I went back to the sketch book, and drew it again. This time, worlds better. And the good news is, if you like the Monsters & Mates there will probably be more coming real soon. I have really solid Frankenstein & Mummy drawings, that I can't wait to get started on. So as soon as I have some free time, that's my next project.

It's 2012!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and a happy turning of the year. It's taken me until now to update the blog from my Christmas Krampus theme, mainly because I was so indecisive about what sort of header I wanted. I still haven't settled on a theme, so I just went back to my old header, but now in RED! With NEW pictures in the frames. That will have to do for now until I decide on a new banner for the blog. I decided to use all pictures of ladies, since (as you can see), February is 'Women in Horror Month'. You can see the official website for the event here. And speaking of Women in Horror, towards the end of last year I did this piece for 'HorrorHound' magazine, for some of their merchandise.

Here's the art:

And here is my art, on an official HorrorHound bag:

Pretty cool, eh? The bags (and possibly t-shirts) will be available at the HorrorHound conventions. I don't know if they will be available to buy online, but I will post that information when I have it.

Hoiday season is upon us!

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

A reaction to the continuing incursion of Christmas into Autumn and Halloween,CREEPMAS is a good-natured chance for Halloween lovers to exact revenge by bringing some spooky good cheer into the holidays or, more appropriately, the Hallowdays.

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...

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!

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!

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

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.