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!