Haunted Library - Ghostly Giggles (1972)

Welcome to our first outing to the AEIOU and Sometimes Why Haunted Library!

 

Maybe it's the fond memories of the monthly book order forms or the countless titles I've read that they published, but there's just something comforting about picking up a Scholastic book.

Today's visit to the Haunted Library brings you Ghostly Giggles by Ann McGovern, published in 1972. Before we go any further, we have to talk about that cover! I don't know art but I do know that sky just takes me back to 70s/80s books. And how about that skeleton? He is just having the time of his life...er, unlife? What more could you want than tap dancing with a bubble blowing ghost?

The book is packed with jokes, puzzles, magic tricks, and stories. As the book is close to 50 years old, the pages have suffered some yellowing. I am no expert at scanning and color correcting but there are two versions in the download.

One is the original images with no messing around. The other I tried to do a quick fix by slapping a filter on the images to remove the yellowing but this also results in the pages not being consistent in color one to the next.

Click on the library card to check out a copy and don't forget, all returns are due by midnight, October 31st.

Be sure to visit all the other houses with their lights on for you by clicking below.

Brad McGinty Holiday Postcards

It just wouldn't be the horror-days without some crazy postcards by artist Brad McGinty!

 There's just not much to say about this one other than "Ew!" 

The phrase Festering Festivities also comes to mind.

There is so much to love about this one: the kids' faces, the milk and cookies in the center of the pentagram, and the fact that the points of the star are Christmas trees.

You can snatch these up in batches of 6, 12, or 21 at Glorpgum.com. You may not get them in time to use this year, but classics like this never go out of style!

See all the Creepmas celebrants by clicking below.

Richard Cheese - The Lounge Awakens

It's holiday gift crunch time!

Star Wars is everywhere but what do you get the Star Wars fan in your life

 that collects everything?

The latest Richard Cheese album is probably something they don't have and you can get it digitally which means no need to worry if you'll get it in time for gift giving.

Cheese is the alter ego (emphasis on the ego) of Mark Jonathan Davis. Cheese is the ultimate lounge singer. He and his band, Lounge Against the Machine, take pop hits and swankify the ever-lovin' heck out of them.

He's not doing this Star Wars inspired album just as an opportune cash grab. He's really a fan of the franchise that works inside jokes into the act that fans will appreciate.

Saunter on over to his Bandcamp page where you can check out the track list, preview a few tracks, and order the album. You won't have a bad feeling about this!

A word of caution:
Although this album is mostly family friendly, his other live albums are definitely not.

Creepmas Music

Looking for that extra something special to make your 13 Days of Creepmas celebration that little extra dark twist? Here's a few musical selections that should help!

Sam Haynes is back with another holiday "pay what you want" album of horror-day cheer. Although it bears the same title as last year's release, this Special Krampus Edition has some new tracks. You can get it from his Bandcamp page.

Pianist Kris Knight has arranged Christmas classics with a slight Gothic twist. I like what he's done with his arrangements. The Gothic twist gives them a subtle darkness.
You can get this 7 track album direct from scarylittlechristmas.com.

I can't say enough about the Scary Solstice duology from the HP Lovecraft Historical Society. They present all the yuletide classics (and beyond!) with a Weird Al level of Cthulhu inspired lyrics. There are plenty of samples on their site. Each disc is $20 or you can get the combo pack for $48 that includes both cds in a tentacle stocking.

I mean, how cool is that?!?
Trek over to their site if you dare!

And no Creepmas music list would be complete without two of the biggest names in the dark ambient Halloween scene...

Nox Arcana has been putting out holiday music for several years now. Their first seasonal album, Winter's Knight, was released in 2005. They continued the story in 2009 with Winter's Eve and 2012 with Winter's Majesty. Starting in 2013, they are releasing one holiday EP every year titled Ebonshire. One of the things I love about their music is they don't just record songs, they like to set a stage and tell a story with their music. They've created a whole winter fantasy realm with this series of albums.

Midnight Syndicate has released their first holiday album this year called Christmas: A Ghostly Gathering, which I happen to be listening to as I write this post. I think their version of Up on the Housetop is my favorite track. It's got a Burton-esque whimsy to it but is menacing as the same time, like you really don't know to know what is possibly coming down the chimney for you.

Justine's Halloween has a great review and an interview with Edward Douglas.

Click to order

Do you have any favorite spooky holiday tunes?
Let me know in the comments.

Creepmas Cheer

Here's a few collect cartoons to lift your Creepmas spirit...

 

Horror Comic History - Prize Comics & Frankenstein

We had an infestation of technical gremlins yesterday but everything's been fixed!

At first glance, the below Nazi-punching superhero comic might not look like it belongs in a Countdown to Halloween post.

But in fact, Prize Comics #7, published in 1940, is considered by many comic historians to contain the first ongoing comic horror series: Frankenstein!

Looks like he even wrote the story if the credit below
the gravestone, Frank N Stein, is to be believed.

Our pal Frank continued on until issue #52 in 1945. By that time, he'd turned into a more humorous character than he'd been in his tortured beginnings. Kinda reminds me of
 The Little Monsters.

He was later resurrected in his own horrific series from 1952 to 1954

If you want to read any of the Prize Comics, head over to Comic Book Plus, the largest free and legal comic archive online. You can read in your browser or if you're a digital hoarder like me, download them after a quick and free registration!

Click here for Part 3 of Horror Comic History.

 

Be sure to get more Tricks n Treats by ringing all the doorbells on 

Countdown to Halloween Ave. and Blog-O-Ween Place!

The Films of Christopher R. Mihm

The internet is an amazing thing. One day you can just bebop around visiting your normal sites and out of nowhere you discover something you didn't know you were missing in your life. Today that is the home of Sainte Euphoria Pictures. Why is this exciting you may ask?

The above poster is the latest film from Christopher R. Mihm. Yes, I said latest, as in recently released, as in it's 2013 but oh my look at that gorgeous 1950s era throwback poster! I will forever be in love with horror and sci-fi movies from the 50s/60s drive-in era but I crush extra hard on those featuring living things that are not their normal size.

So you could imagine my excitement, dare I say, giddiness at discovering a brand new giant spider movie. While they could have taken more advantage of modern technology, they went with the ol' green screen and an actual tarantula. It might look a little better than it would have 50+ years ago but it retains part of what endears those older movies to me.

After looking around the site, I find this is the 8th retro-movie that Mr. Mihm has made! I spent some time checking out their trailers for movies like "Cave Women on Mars", "Attack of the Moon Zombies", " House of Ghosts", and "The Monster of Phantom Lake." I knew I was in good company and quickly took advantage of the 4 DVDs for $30 special.

I can't wait to get these and you can bet you'll be hearing more about them after I watch them. Until then, be sure to check out The Films of Christopher R. Mihm at Sainte Euphoria Pictures and enjoy a couple more trailers.

"House of Ghosts" is an homage to one of the kings of B-movies, William Castle.

Tune into more on YouTube!
Follow the madness on Twitter!

Space Janitors

Yes, it's Wednesday and this isn't a "Star Wars Wednesday" post. 

But it is Star Wars adjacent!

Space Janitors is a comedy/science fiction web series created by Davin Lengyel and Geoff Lapaire. It chronicles the lives of two janitors, Mike and Darby, who serve aboard an evil iconic space station. After all, someone has to buff out the blaster burn marks from the halls and mop up the hero guts from the not-so-bottomless shaft, right?

In a distant corner of the universe, a galaxy is at war. Rebels battle for freedom; villains fight for control. But the true heroes are the ones cleaning up the mess…

 

While they do draw a lot of inspiration from Star Wars, sharp eyed fans can spot other blatant and sometimes subtle franchise references including Tron, Halo and even Reboot.

The series is distributed by Geek and Sundry on YouTube. They're almost done with season 2 and have started an IndieGoGo campaign for season 3. And I have to say I'm a little sad that they're only a third of the way to their goal with 11 days to go. Seriously, these guys should be doing a Spaceballs sequel!

I think even if you're not a huge sci-fi nerd, it's still pretty funny, but you may miss some of the more specific jokes. Either way, I can't recommend this enough. It's one of the few web shows I get truly excited about when I see a new episode has been posted.
Go watch it!

S.L.U.G. Zombies Series 4 Stragglers

Today we're cleaning up the final remnants of S.L.U.G. Zombies Series 4 zombies. That may sound like it came from the department of redundancy department, but there's still one more post coming to cover the Series 4 non-zombies. There's no theme linking these together which is why they're all piled into one post.

Dismembered Dennis

Previous Job: Head Engineer

Likes: Overnight shipping

Dislikes: Return to sender

Favorite Food: Sweet & Sour Sternum

Probably my least favorite Series 4 "figure." Sure, he looks ok in a diorama but there's not a lot of play value for a dismembered zombie in a stack of crates. I suppose you could paint him up to look like a murder victim instead of a zombie and set up your own mini crime scene. Looks like this guy (puts on sunglasses) went to pieces. YEEEEEEAAAAAHHHH!!!

Monthly Movie Recap - December 2012

Here it is, my last movie recap of the year. I took in quite a few holiday horror flicks this month in the spirit of Creepmas. Clicking on the linked titles will take you to Amazon so you can purchase these fine, fine movies.

The Wraith (1986)
Tick another unseen 80s classic off the list thanks to the Cult Film Club Podcast. I don't know how I missed some of these movies in the 80s. I liked it now and I would have loved it then.

Cool: The car!; Clint Howard with an Eraserhead 'do; the drive-in
Lame: Are we really not supposed to be able to figure out who the Wraith is? Also, it's kinda stupid that his main way of getting rid of people is forcing them to drive into his exploding car.
Rating: 7/10, it's like a sci-fi, non-emo version of The Crow

It's Creepmas Time!

Welcome to the first day of the freakish festivities!

If, for some reason, you're not familiar with Creepmas, click here.

To get you into the swing of the season, here's some required listening...

My putrefying pal, Morbius J Kromwell has put together another horrific Christmas Evil show for 2012. You can head over to Gravecast.com to grab it. And while you're there you should pop his RSS into your podcaster thingy because he occasionally does other mixes through the year.

George Van Ordsel's Monsterspookshow Radio has 3 Cryptmas specials available.

Also check out his other shows if you're a Halloween fiend, great way to discover new music!

 

If you feel you just don't have enough Cthulhu in your Cthristmas (and who doesn't?), you'll want to head over to the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's Solstice page.

There you can order their cds: A Very Scary Solstice and An Even Scarier Solstice to speed up that rush to holiday insanity. You can also download sheet music and listen to samples of some of the songs. If you know your Deep Ones from your Byakhees, these are a pair of Horroday albums you don't want to miss!

Be sure to head over to the Creepmas site and visit all 40 participating blogs!

Toon Alert - Bravest Warriors

I was wondering if I could go a whole week without posting...

Bravest Warriors is the latest toon from the brain of Adventure Time creator Pendelton Ward. While it may look identical to Adventure Time, I think if you watch this preview clip, you'll see the intended audience may be a bit older.

Bravest Warriors will debut new episodes Thursdays on the Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel starting November 8th.

 It originally started out as a short a few years ago, which you can watch below.

They also launched a new comic book series last week. There are four variant covers for the first issue but naturally I had to pick up this Star Wars inspired one.

It's already grabbed me like Adventure Time first did. Even though it's using familiar tropes, it's being done in such an original way that I'm all in.It does creep me out a little that one of the characters, Beth, looks like Marceline.

You can find Bravest Warriors on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Countdown to Halloween - It's Here!

Wow, I woke up this morning and there is so much cool stuff I want to share with you guys before getting to my proper Halloween post!

First, local band Darling Pet Munkee has a new 7 track EP titled You Better Believe It! I posted about them before but if you're not familiar with them, they do songs based on those classic comic book mail order ads. Here's the video of the first single from the new album, "Hypno-Coin." You can pay what you want for the new album online.

Horror rock band Calabrese (that rocked me recently) has released a video for their song "Dead Don't Rise" from their newest album Dayglo Necros.

Finally, another of my favorite bands, Zombina and the Skeletones have also released a new EP called That Doll Just Tried to Kill Me. If you don't know them, they're sorta rock n pop wrapped in a surfpunk soft shell. If you buy from their download page (as opposed to say, iTunes) you get a bonus track.

They've also posted band member Doc Horror's Halloween sound collage.
You can get that for FREE!

Well, the big day is finally here!
Our local weather is predicting no rain so I'm a happy spook!

Have a fantastic night and be careful out there!

Here's a Halloween safety video from 1977

And here's one from 1985

Be sure to visit the other bloggers that have their porch lights on. 

They're waiting for you! 

Countdown to Halloween Day 16 - Rubie's Card Games

I have a saved search on Ebay for "Halloween games" but more often than not, it yields the same things every time I check it. Last year, I managed to find these two kids card games from costume maker Rubie's in one auction.

The first one is Crazy Ates, which as you can probably guess, plays like Crazy Eights. The cards in the deck are numbered 1-9 with the standard suits: human hearts, diamond rings, wooden clubs and digging spades. The images on the cards have gross-out dishes like Roast Beast, Eye Scream and Handburger.

The next one is the Old Hag Card Game, which plays similar to Old Maid. Instead of the normal deck of 51 for Old Maid, this is only a deck of 37. There is the Old Hag card and 18 sets of paired cards. The cards feature funny images which remind me of Halloween themed Garbage Pail Kids. Although I'm not sure what's up with that Kitty Kat card, it kind of looks out of place for a kids game.

There is a third game in this series called The Grossout Game. I have seen this one for auction but to me it's not as Halloween themed as the other two so I've passed on it.

Be sure to visit the other bloggers that have their porch lights on by clicking below. 

They're waiting for you! 

Countdown to Halloween Day 14 - Cereal Killers Series 2

Wax Eye proclaims they're "Home to stuff that'll make your eyes melt" and that's not just good marketing! This year they produced the follow up to their wildly successful Cereal Killers sticker cards.

Both series have been written and painted by Garbage Pail Kids/Wacky Packages artist Joe Simko, so that right there should give you an idea what you're in for, but there's so much more! Each card mashes up a beloved breakfast cereal with a beloved horror movie in ways that will make your inner monster kid growl with delight!

My favorite is Trix R Treat (bottom left)

There are two ways to order to get lots of cards. The first is buying a 24-pack hobby box, like you would any other trading cards. The second is to order them as a set of three mini cereal boxes with each box containing 20 cards. The only downside to the latter is you're not guaranteed a full base set. But how can you not want those boxes? They have a different cereal on the reverse side as well.

In addition to the ghoulishly groovy cards above, there is also a 10 card subset of B&W base cards that feature B&W movie classics like Plan 9, Nosferatu, and Dr. Caligari among others.

And what would a trading card set be without chase cards? There are Silver Spoon foil cards, Sugar Glitter cards (middle, left & center), Glow in the dark fluorescent stickers and sketch cards by various artists to be found.

Some of the card backs are part of a larger image you can put together, just like your favorite card sets from childhood. Some of the backs show an x-ray view of the box (middle, far right). A couple of the backs have the set checklist because, let's face it, as much as you like having the checklist, nobody actually enjoys seeing it when opening a pack!

The absolute best thing about these cards is that Wax Eye is having an all month Halloween 50% off sale! If you place an order this month and check out with code "trixortreat" you'll get half off any hobby boxes or 3 box sets.

No matter if you enjoyed GPK or Wacky Packages as a kid or you still enjoy them now, the Cereal Killers cards should be a must have for any horror fan!

Be sure to visit the other bloggers that have their porch lights on by clicking below. 

They're waiting for you! 

Zombie Playing Cards by Bicycle

Zombies are everywhere these days so I suppose it was only a matter of time before they got their own playing cards. This deck was recently released by Bicycle.

Every one of the 52 cards has some useful tip for surviving the zombie apocalypse. It kind of reminds me of the WWII spotter decks, except this one would be found in Zombieland. The face cards are unique to each suit. Even the Jokers (top center) are zombified! It's little things like that that I really appreciate in a themed deck of cards! I also like that the Aces are wearing shirts with their suit on them.

Be sure to visit the other bloggers that have their porch lights on by clicking below. 

They're waiting for you! 

New Vid Picks - September 4

Usually every Tuesday I tweet out a link to the AEIOU and Sometimes Why New Vid Pick of the Week. This week has so much video goodness that I have to make a post! Now that we're passed Labor Day, it's "Get Ready for Halloween" season so there's horror titles aplenty.

New Stuff

I haven't seen this one yet, but if it's half as fun as the first one, it's bound to be a good time.

Another one I haven't seen yet but I've heard good things about it. I think this sumamry tells you all you need to know: "In a culture that is currently overrun with romanticized vampires, it is up to four geeky teenagers to defend their friend and beloved sci-fi convention from a group of very real, and very blood-thirsty vampires."

Old Stuff New to BluRay

If you haven't see this, I suggest you stop reading the blog at the end of this sentence and watch it! This is the one I'm most excited to see on BluRay. Can't wait to pick it up!

Dr. West and his green goo in glorious HD!

I saw this when it was first released. I remember thinking it was pretty good and really liked the creature but I wasn't being entirely sold on the ending.
I know it's got a pretty big following so maybe it's time to revisit it.

Do you need this in BluRay? Only you can make that call but it is a good horror/scifi/comedy...especially if you have coulrophobia.

Universal is issuing this as part of its 100th Anniversary collection and it's well deserved I say! Sixteen Candles should be required viewing for teens, which is true about almost any John Hughes movie.