Happy Halloween 2022!

 

Happiest of Samhains to you all! Have fun tonight!

The Season of the Witch

"Do I need a reason? Mrs. Kupfer was right, you know. I do love a good joke, and this is the best ever, a joke on the children. But there's a better reason." 

"You don't really know much about Halloween. You thought no further than the strange custom of having your children wear masks and go out begging for candy." 

"It was the start of the year in our old Celtic lands and we'd be waiting... in our houses of wattles and clay. The barriers would be down, you see. Between the real and the unreal."

"And the dead is looking in... to sit by our fires of turf. Halloween. The festival of Samhain."

The last great one took place three thousand years ago and the hills ran red... with the blood of animals and children."

- Conal Cochran

I still think Halloween III - Season of the Witch is about as underrated as they come.

Bloody Sunrise

Hey, Guys!

Guys!

Guys!

GUYS! 

It's Neil Gaiman! SINGING!

It has a plot and everything!

Click on the pic...

The Dark Arts

Illustration by Ally Burke of Dead Spider Hands

 Who doesn't love some original Halloween art this time of year? 

It challenges you. It creeps you out. It opens portals into the darkest of dreams...

Illustration by a fave of mine, Michael Whelan

Illustration by Danny Ingrassia.

Illustration by Scott M. Fischer

Illustration by Laurie Lipton

Illustration by Gregory Manchess

Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

I am so looking forward to this series! With Del Toro's fine horror sensibilities and sharp eye for the macabre, it should be absolutely stellar!

Click on the pic for the official trailer!

 

Behind You!

 

One panel horror stories by Brian Coldrick. I've featured him before, but he's always worth revisiting!

ShellHawk's Creations is Open!

These guys are available for a limited time in the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy Shop! I usually sell out every year, so hurry over there!

Plus, you'll be keeping me in clay and glaze. And electrical. And tools...

 

Halloween at High Noon: Left for Dead

I owe my boys over at Halloween at High Noon a big apology for being late to this party: their new album, Left for Dead, is out! Hooray!

I buy their albums every year when they come out and have quite the satisfying collection, these days!

 

Three Sisters Apothecary

I seldom take commissions, anymore, and never from strangers. I've had some bad experiences and they mostly turn out to be difficult and more time consuming than I'd like.

But every so often, someone I know will have an idea for a project that I feel I can accomplish to the standard I set for myself, and I agree. (They also need to be a cool person!) This particular commission was requested by someone I came to know through the Halloween Folk Art Society and the (now-defunct) folk art show, Halloween and Vine. (It's since been replaced by the All Hallow's Art Fest.)

Look on top! It's my jars!

Of course, I accepted because I'm totally addicted to their products and the proprietor is an awesome lady! She requested three jars with old-school, Shakespearean "labels" on them, and chose the color combination, as well. 

Soap Cauldron makes the very best soaps for both humans and pets, and their hard work over the last few years has resulted in an expansion into a new space! As you can see from the above pictures, the jars turned out great and really fit the space! I'm really satisfied to know they'll be on display in her shop.

 Congratulations to Emma and her crew, and I wish you a long, joyous, and prosperous experience in your new building! Enjoy the jars!

The Night Gallery - 2nd Edition Kickstarter!

If you're a fan of Rod Serling's The Night Gallery, and you missed the first edition of this gorgeous collection of paintings and information from the show, you're in luck! A new Kickstarter project has, um, kicked off with Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour—2nd Edition!

From the page:

Greetings, Art Lovers and Mavens of the Macabre!

In 1998, Syracuse University Press published Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After Hours Tour written by Scott Skelton and Jim Benson, the world's leading historians on the classic NBC anthology. At the time, the 404-page trade paperback was the most complete history ever documented on the 1969–73 TV series, featuring interviews and a selection of 100 photos.

Over the past 24 years, Skelton and Benson continued to compile interviews and imagery resulting in this newly expanded 824-page masterwork, now in full color!—a deluxe companion guide to Rod Serling’s dark fantasy series that revises, updates, and vastly expands the first edition from 1998 with the addition of deeper archival research, a crop of new interviews with cast and crew members, and more than 900 color and black-and-white photographs—including reproductions of all the introductory paintings!

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the First edition of the book they did on the art of The Night Gallery, and I can tell you that it's worth every penny!

Head over to the Night Gallery Kickstarter Page to become a part of this project!

Antler Guy

Please let me know who to credit for the inspirational photo of Antler Guy!

It seems to be my curse to find cool things long after many others have already gone through the cycle of discovery/enthusiasm/boredom/move-on-to-next-cool-thing-before-ShellHawk-finds-it. Such is the case with Antler Guy.

As far as I know (and those in the upper echelons of in the know can feel free to correct me), the Antler Guy Saga started back in 2017 as a fiction written on Archive of Our Own, a site dedicated almost entirely to fanfiction of every damn fandom, ever. It was inspired by the Halloween prop pictured above, which is a thing of beauty all on its own, TBH.

I'm not sure how he ended up there, honestly, but again, if you have any 'fo, let me know!

Antler Guy seems to be just an ordinary, extraordinary, neighbor, to neighbor Steve's neighbors. Steve, of course, seems to be the only guy hung up on the fact that his new neighbor, Antler Guy (along with his wife - Hell Wife, actually - and kids, and plants), shows all the signs of being an Abomination.

A man needs to have standards, you know:

One time Steve tries throwing holy water but all Antler Guy does is thank him, saying that no, Antler Guy isn’t Catholic but it’s the thought that counts, he is so kind to water his creeping deathshade vines regardless.

How could anyone who adores Hallowe'en not love the Antler Guy Saga?

I mean, it has certain of the best elements of both The Addams Family and The Munsters, both of which lampooned the "normal American family," and promoted the family we all really wanted, in our heart of hearts. It was the family in which husband and wife loved each other deeply (madly, in the case of Gomez and Morticia) and treated each other with respect and devotion, no matter what. Antler Guy and Hell Wife definitely fill these shoes.

The funny thing is, Neighbor Steve privately calls them, "The Abominations," and when it's time for Son (yes, Antler Guy's son is named, "Son") to tell the school his last name, he, like any innocent child, just goes for it. So Antler Guy paints their new surname on their mailbox "with only a few glyphs of soul-rending terror added to keep up to snuff."

It's a fun read, with some solid life lessons thrown in for good measure.

Some brilliant person made a nifty video of Antler Guy's vocalizations on YouTube, someone else included the "legend" on Fanlore, and of course, The Ultimate Blog of Antler Guy is to be found on Tumblr...

I really wish someone in The Industry would make this a screenplay and get it into the development pipeline!

Shop Update!

If you've been itching to add to your Halloween folk art collection, tune in to my ShellHawk's Creations Etsy shop update, tomorrow at 4:00 PM PST!

If you purchase right away, I can get your new piece shipped to you in time for Hallowe'en!

See you there!

 

You've Got Mail: Hallowe'en Edition

So remember, like, a thousand years ago, when I was on my then-local TV station regarding the DVD which had been released on home haunters?

If you don't, don't worry, because I barely remembered it, and I owned the DVD!

Anyway, I was going through my mail after the postman came the other day, and I pulled out a letter, addressed to my former, married name. Generally speaking, mail addressed to that name comes off someone's old mailing list, and it's a credit card offer or somethin generic like that. But this one was handwritten.

Which, after the shenanigans I was put through, made it even more suspicious. But I didn't recognize the handwriting. So, of course, I opened it.

Guess what? It was fan mail, of all things!

This nice person actually took the time to write a real, live letter to share his love of Hallowe'en and let me know that something I said on the DVD resonated with him! How cool is that?

I assure you I will remain the down-to-earth, humble person I've always been, and not let my fame go to my head!

Oh, The Horror!

So I had a funny (read invasive) experience with Pinterest a couple of days ago. I opened up my email and here it was:

Recently, we removed one of your Pins for violation of our guidelines on self-injury and harmful behavior. After a review of our decision, we've decided to reactivate the Pin, but please take some time to go through your Pins and remove any that may go against our Community Guidelines.We limit the distribution of or remove content that displays, rationalizes or encourages suicide, self-injury, eating disorders or substance abuse. This content impacts the community-it can be triggering, or reinforce harmful behavior. These rules apply to all Pins, including ones on your secret boards.If we notice more Pins that conflict with our Community Guidelines, we may take additional action on your account.If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, low confidence, or self-harm, resources are available in our Help Center where you can get free, confidential and immediate support. 

Thanks, 

The Pinterest Team

OK, before you think I'm a total jerk, I want to let you know they pulled a pin off of my "The Horror" Pinterest board. 

Literally, it is a board made up entirely of horror movies, with Amazon links.

HORROR. MOVIES.

And there's no way to figure out which particular movie they pulled, or what the actual criteria is, or why a board of horror movies triggered the action. (I mean, because horror movies are pretty much inherently violent and triggering for some folks, who generally know to steer clear of them.) 

Because let's be honest, if they can pull one horror movie off a board dedicated to them due to their thinking I violated their ToS, they'll shut my entire account down, recipes and all.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad they reinstated it. I just wish I knew what in their AI triggered it and why it didn't have a criteria for movies in there.

Anyone else find the AI is sometimes drunk?

Stranger Things, WITH DRONES!!!

This makes me irrationally happy!

Click on the pic for something special! 

War of the Worlds

This post contains links which take you over to Amazon and I might make a small commission for qualifying purchases, though it's more likely I get turned into a newt.

Ah, The War of the Worlds! One of Young ShellHawk's favorite movies to see on Tom Hatten's Family Film Festival! Too young at the time to have read the 1898 original version of the book, I, probably like most of you, took the 1953 version of the movie to be the end-all and be-all of the story.

But nine-year-old me was so wrong! There's so much more to it.

For instance, back in 1938, Orson Welles and his radio show crew together broadcast a version of The War of the Worlds on live airwaves which ended up scaring the daylights out of all Americans within the sound of his voice. Overnight, Welles became a household name because of the nationwide "hysteria" he'd caused the night before.

Ostensibly one of the best Hallowe'en pranks ever pulled (even though it was pulled on October 30th), the 1938 Orson Welles broadcast of The War of the Worlds has lived in horror and pop culture legend ever since. Sounding like an emergency broadcast had broken in and taken over, Welles and his crew alerted people of the danger of aliens landing and taking over towns and cities, leaving destruction in their malicious, Martian wakes. Their voice acting was so accomplished, people just tuning in, mid-broadcast, thought the radio show was a real news broadcast and began calling their local police departments, concerned for the safety of themselves and their families, and looking for evacuation instructions.

But the 1953 movie, updated for a more modern audience, was a marvel of the visual effects of the day, so much so that it won the Academy Award for best VFX for that year, in addition to being nominated for Best Sound and Best Editing.

I mean, who doesn't remember the sound of those weapons going off and vaporizing everything in their paths?

It's worth noting that the 1953 version of The War of the Worlds was very much massaged into being an "In God we trust" film. Communism was the Big Bad in that day and age, and McCarthyism and "the Red Scare" was in full swing. It's hardly surprising the film reflected the hysteria of possible Communist takeover with the Martians as proxies and people of the cloth standing in for scientists.

Even so, I'd highly recommend watching this film in all its glory this Halloween season! It's a classic monster/sci-fi/horror film which shouldn't be missed!