Plastics.

Hi-lowe'en, everyone.

I hope you're all having a fine, fine October, as we really get into the spooky, spectacular season of our favorite day and night of the year.

I have been truly enjoying it all, and in fact have discovered a little interest I'd never really considered I had until now...

Blow-mold plastic Hallowe'en lanterns.

That picture is not mine, it is a collection of pieces from an anonymous (as far as I can see) user on Halloweenforum. But it gives you the idea of what I'm getting at, here.

I only have a few pieces at the moment, and I honestly have no idea if I will get more or not, but I know me, and if something really jumps out at me, I will bring it home!

So far, these are my finds...

Again, this pic and the rest are all others' pictures, none of which I can credit because I can find no names. My camera's acting up so I can't show you mine just yet.

And yes, I know the winking, smiling fella here is not technically a 'lantern' but a treat bucket. I don't plan on getting into those so much, but his face is too cute and fun. I found him in a flea market in TX for $8, so it was a no brainer for me.

The main thing about this piece, however, is that it was the beginning of my now-burgeoning interest in such items.

I never knew I really dug these little guys!

My next find...

I saw this cute coupling of Hallowe'en icons for just over $5, and it was another no brainer. It's a common item like so many made by Empire in the '60s. 

The toothy smile, the spooked cat's expression, even the little pumpkin stem atop, give this piece a character I just loved the moment I saw it. 

It's been lighting my room 24/7 for months now.

And my most recent find... 

I love this one.

Also made by Empire in the early '60s, it is similar to the previous piece, but the addition of more Hallowe'en stalwarts like a grimacing skull and flying witches made it really stand out... and the top hat gives it a jaunty little twist.

At $7, this one was a bit more expensive than its Empire brother, but again, total no brainer.

I know these items are fairly common, and can be found with ridiculous ease on the world wide interwebs, but I find that trying to find them in little flea and thrift markets not only makes the hunt more rewarding and fun, but better yet keeps prices low. No need to buy a $3 lantern and spend $12 on shipping, you know?

The ones I am (currently) trying to find...

Come on... way too cool.

Oh, and all of these...

I wasn't aware of the Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster pieces' existence, so this image from another user on that Hallowe'en forum has me pretty excited to try and locate them.

But I think the dashing, caped, top-hatted skeleton is the best piece here, just look at him!

I know that not all of these pieces are terribly old or 'vintage', though the three I have are reliably not reproductions but actual items from the '60s. 

But I am not really concerned with 'vintage'-osityness anyway. If I like the look and feel of a piece, it's mine. Simple as that.

And this one, well, it means a lot to me and will be a very nice find when I finally run across it in some little knick-knack shop somewhere...

Of course I mean the bandit-masked fellow lit up, and not the slightly burn-victim-skin-graft-ish thing on the right.

Why is it so meaningful to me?

Well...

... there were two of these, one on either side of the front yard gate, lighting up the walkway there, every Hallowe'en night at my grandmother's house and our big family display/yard haunt.

I loved the bandit lanterns, because they signified the official start of the celebration there, at least to my mind. 

Not long after my grandmother passed away, I asked an aunt if these were still in a box somewhere, and a number of people went looking for them, but to no avail. Sadly, these two sun-bleached, brittle lanterns either died a flaky death or simply vanished along with the family Hallowe'en haunt.

To have another of these would be very gratifying, and would no doubt occupy a place of honor here at the S&P. 

Miss you Gram.

Miss your Hallowe'en love.

Still... onward! There are more pumpkins to find and rescue from mundane flea market shelves all around me... and I intend to find all of them.

Did I mention I am really enjoying my October Hallowe'en season?

Alright, say it with me now...

DUMDUMSHREKPUMPKIN!

Starting down the winding road.

It is so very, very Autumn, here at the S&P.

I have been out and about, exploring the byways and darker lanes of Autumn's woodlands and forests and villages.

At one point I even got some time to enjoy a little snack...

Don't worry about the ghoul behind me -- he only wanted some pudding.

So far, I am seeing some mighty fine Hallowe'enin' goin' on, and if/when I get some good camera time, I will be happy to bring some pictures here, we can pass them around. It'll be just like old times, here at the pub.

It's interesting how I can see, in better detail and greater appreciation, so much more of the seasonal celebrating and decorating than I used to notice, all around my neck of the woods, now that I have my October free to explore it all.

I am realizing that -- I guess -- I used to be pretty understandably but quite narrowly focused on the tasks at hand and wholly missed quite a few darker corners of spooky goodness all around me.

Being able to finally see others' decorations and ideas, some brand new to me, others a wonderful and much needed re-connection, has been a great gift to me already. And we still have the whole month to go!

As I knew and hoped it would... it all gets me thinking of my own creations, and inspires me to newer and better Hallowe'en madness.

I have to say as well that having support and comments from you dear S&Pbrains is another great gift, humbling and gratifying for this ol' run-down pubkeep. I truly appreciate you all.

Next post, I am thinking along the lines of... hhmmmm... OH! Oh yes, that will be PERfect... mmmmuuaaAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

 Ain't October the very best?

Wishing all of you a fantastically frightening fun-filled Fall!

DUMDUMSHREKPOST#2!

It Begins Again.

Well, my friends... my patient, long-standing pubgoers who have been without their S&P for quite a long time... a new post here is long past due, and offered here with my gratitude for your patience and understanding.

My life is a good one, but it shifts focus in various directions, and this homely haunted house has been one of the longest suffering victims of such shifts.

So it is with great joy and renewed fervor that I post a very Happy October to all of the S&P-brains here!

This year is going to be rather different for your humble pubkeep.

I will not be putting on my traditional, massive yard-haunt display, and I beg your indulgence as I try to explain why...

For almost 20 years now, I've been putting on that Big Spooky Shindig every single Hallowe'en night, joyfully so, passionately so. I have thoroughly enjoyed and loved all of it, all of them. But among the victims of that focused direction is the numerous friends and family who also put on their own haunts and creations which I have NEVER been able to see for the last few decades, being unable to leave my own yard for the duration as I make sure everything's running right, people are happy, kids are plenty sugared up, and so on.

An uncle, a cousin, a brother and his wife and son, and many other loved ones in my life are Hallowe'en fanatics just like me -- Hallowe'en runs in the family, deep and devotedly -- and they do all kinds of decorating and creating and showing off and cooking and hosting and... I have never been able to attend any of them. Decades.

Also, and I think even more importantly, is that for the last three or four years, I was getting more and more stressed every October, with building and finishing, programming, painting, all of the myriad creations and processes that go into one of my Hallowe'en displays. It got to the point where I was entirely missing out on the season, missing out on celebrating Hallowe'en the whole month of October!

I couldn't enjoy, even when I had a little time here and there during the crazy busy month, things like TV Hallowe'en marathons and fright fests and specials, because even while watching them I had to be paying attention to my work on figures and props, which became ever more complex and time-intensive as each year 'improved' over the previous, my ego telling me to outdo myself with every coming season.

I missed a lot of wonderful Hallowe'en happenings.

And because of that, my ability to truly create and finish a proper haunt became less fluid and natural, and more forced, the last few years... and I feel as if my last two Hallowe'ens were simply not up to the standard I hold in my heart and have since I was very young. They weren't really worthy, not entirely.

And because of that, my desire to create and display has waned over these past few years.

I need to recharge my Duraskull batteries and find inspiration again, this time in the creations and sweat and efforts of others' displays, others' celebrations.

I plan on hosting a big 20th Hallowe'en Anniversary yard-haunt in 2016, so I am certainly not giving up the ghost of our favorite holiday, no ma'am, no sir. I could never do that. My devotion to and passion for All Things All Hallow's has never wavered, will never change. So next year will be a good one.

But this year, I am going to revel in the entire month, the entire spooky season's worth of tricks and treats everyone else has been able to enjoy for a long time. I am looking forward to it immensely, and I have no doubt it will all inspire and supercharge my Hallowe'en fanaticism again and again.

Will I be back 'better than ever'?  Well... yes and no.

Yes, I will be better than I have been the last three years, I'd certainly hope. But no, I will not be better than ever, I will be as good and worthy as I have always been and was until I got so tired and strung out -- as Bilbo once lamented feeling like 'butter scraped over too much bread' -- and I think that will be the greatest gift of this year's restful revelry.

Of course, we will decorate, oh Hell yes! Just, you know, not like we usually do, but like... well, like NORMAL people do.

Part of my October celebration will be more posts here at the ol' S&P as we gleefully bask in Autumn's chilling magic all month long. I hope to post every few days at least, and I hope that whatever I do post and show and tell and review and celebrate will be of interest and be enjoyable for all of you dear pub-going friends.

I am so very happy to be back here at the Skull & Pumpkin Public House. I've missed it, and all of you.

But this year, rather than resuming my place behind the bar, I will instead be hanging out with everyone else on the other side of it.

And I already know it's going to be one hell of a happy Hallowe'en.

To October, to enjoying the season, to reaffirming passion and to Hallowe'en itself, come on everyone, for the first time in ages... let us lift our glasses...

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!!!

Happy Hallowe'en, dear S&P-brains!

It has happened again -- HALLOWE'EN!!!

I hope every one of you are enjoying this, our favorite day and night of the year, in any and every way that is important, meaningful, traditional and right for you.

I have been quite noticeably absent from this ol' homely house, and I apologize... but it seems every time I have tried to get back in here on a regular basis, life hands me another distraction or dilemma.

No complaint, no excuse, just life. You all know how it can be.

I really do hope to be able to be here on  regular basis, because I miss it, and all of you, and it was one of the most beloved 'things' in my life for a good long while. It will be that again, and hopefully sooner than later.

Until then, though, I thought I could be forgiven for re-posting what I feel is one of my better scribblings on the walls of this spooky public house, concerning our blessed, hallowed All Hallow's Eve, from a few years ago. It says what I feel, and I feel like every Hallowe'en is part of the same long, wondrous day and night, like we're just picking up from where we left off the year before. So why should I try to re-word or re-write it?

Enjoy, and celebrate!

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It is here.

Our day, and most thrillingly, our Night.

It is the New Year celebration of an ancient world, and an ancient celebration of what has come and gone, what may lie ahead, and what our place will be in whatever comes.

It is the birthday of childhood fears, but the anniversary of casting those fears away, all at once.

Even as it changes with time and tide, it has never disappointed.

It calls us to come out and play again, to talk and laugh and scream and chase and run as the children we still are, will always be, no matter how we try to hide it.

It sets the sun a pumpkin orange, carries leaves on a woodsmoke wind to tap our windows, scratch our memories, to tickle and reawaken our love -- our need -- for the Tall Tale, the Scary Story, the Fright.

It is yours, and it is mine, and it connects us across miles.

It does not teach us to fear -- we already know fear quite well. It doesn't say 'See? Here are horrors you wouldn't know but for Me.'

No. Like all Fantasy, which is itself a child of our darkest primal nights, it does not teach children that there are dragons. They already know that.

                                             It just shows us all that dragons can be slain.

It is our secret satisfaction at the puzzle unsolved, our continuous joy at the Great Mystery, for it is the stating and confronting of our most primal fear... and because it is the facing of our own death, it boldly and blessedly reminds us to live while we are alive.

                                         It is Hallowe'en.

It is today, and tonight. God, what a gift.

The Skull & Pumpkin wishes all of you a meaningful, magical, 
and mystical Hallowe'en, wherever you may be.

A toast, raise them up high now:

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

A Hallowe'en Tree-t.

NO, not 'treaty', but treat!

And an incredible tree-t it is.

Now I've mentioned more than a few times over the years that I am an ardent admirer of Ray Bradbury, and of the work of his longest/greatest illustrating collaborator, Joseph Mugnaini. Surely anyone who has been around here for any decent length of time should know this.

Another name I've mentioned more than a few times is Shellhawk.

Beyond being 'one of us'-- a truly insane Hallowe'en Kid -- Shell is a fine potter, sculptor, painter, a real artisan, and she fills you in on her work and her life over at one the S&P's longest friend-blogs, Shellhawk's Nest, as well as proudly plies and trades in her craft at her Etsy store, Shellhawk's Creations. 

I have enjoyed her work and her friendship for years, being the proud owner of one of her famous Mini-boo figures, as well as one of her even more famous Jack O'Lanterns of unique, one of a kind designs.

I was also quite proud to be asked to contribute to one of her blog's wonderful themed guest-blogger series in 2012. You can read my entry as well as find the rest of the series here.

Well...

I have just been the recipient of a beautiful, serendipitous melding of Bradbury, Mugnaini, and Shellhawk, in one incredible labor of love that found its way to the ol' S&P, to take its place among the spooky detritus adorning the place...

What is it? Are you actually asking that?

It is a hand-painted, glazed, fired platter from the skilled hand and temperamental kiln of Shellhawk herself, depicting the perfect Joseph Mugnaini illustration of Ray Bradbury's beloved, enduring literary invention, The Hallowe'en Tree.

See for yourself -- the vintage Mugnaini original:

... and Shellhawk's beautiful tribute work:

Not that even Mugnaini himself could reproduce it stroke-for-stroke. For one thing, like an improvising jazz musician, you can't play the same genius solo twice.

For another thing, he's dead. Just sayin'.

Of course, being from Shellhawk, no one piece is ever delivered to its recipient all by its lonesome-if-gorgeous self...

Yes -- a black spiderweb with a rubber spider, two Hallowe'en pencils

(bats and pumpkins!) and a little jar of green slime! Bravo!

But this...

... is an orange and black dream on a plate.

I am just so very, very proud to be the keeper of this incredible piece of artistic Hallowe'en love. It will forever grace the S&P, reminding those whose eyes it catches to read more Bradbury, love more Hallowe'en, and keep and enjoy good friends.

A toast, to Shellhawk, to Mugnaini, and to Ray Bradbury...

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!

My deepest thanks, Shell.

Everyone else... GO to her blog and her store, will ya?

DDSpookyPlate!

A post of a different color.

So... onward!

During my time on sabbatical from this homely house of Hallowe'en hijinks, I found myself needing quite often to simply relaaaaaax.

Among the various distractions I have been enjoying lately, one of the greatest and most enjoyable has been a rediscovery of one of greatest joys of my young, creative Monsterkid days...

COLORING!

Now, waaaaay back in December 2009, I posted about how spoiled I was as a kid (speaking facetiously -- we were broke!) and in that long post, I mentioned the incredible coloring albums Monster Gallery and Science Fiction Anthology (both Troubadour Press, 1974) and how we adored coloring those books with real markers of a zillion hues, under our artist mother's supervision (which, I hasten to add, was not in any way about how we colored -- we were free to go crazy -- but only about keeping our kid hands, faces and clothes as 'unmarkered' as possible).

Well, sometime last Fall, I was proud and excited to be the recipient of a pristine 1974 edition of Monster Gallery (above). Now, I was never going to color it, to keep it pristine -- this and its twin sister Science Fiction Anthology command high prices nowadays. However... what I didn't know was that all the coloring illustrations in that book (by the marvelous Mark Savee) were reproduced, in fact the entire Monster Gallery book was reprinted/reissued in the early '90s as simply Monsters. And a pristine copy of that book came along with the original book! Surprise!

So I found myself  with a clean original to keep clean... and a real, heavy-card stock over-sized page Monster Gallery -- just under a different title! -- that I could color!!!

I made an excited trip to the craft store for a good set of 'real markers of a zillion hues', just like those we used 35 years ago.

And I began to color, for the first time as a grown up kid, all the pictures I'd never finished or colored all that nicely the first time around.

 I was so happy to finally color the Phantom 

a bit like the cover art -- I was never able to

as a kid, I didn't have the skill yet, and 

certainly didn't have the patience!

And of course, I finally got to really do my best

on one of my all-time favorite movie monsters, the Fly! 

I so enjoyed doing the eyes like I'd wanted so long ago 

but never could accomplish!

About halfway through the process of coloring all of the book -- I relaxed at night, and each picture took about three nights as I took my time to do it as best as I could, as a kind of loyalty to my younger self's wishes from long ago -- I had occasion to visit relatives in Los Angeles, and I took my Monsters book and markers with me, of course.

And my godson, my nephew Young Will, introduced me to a little bit of artistical paradise called brush markers. 

And my life changed.

These little art store treasures act like good watercolor brushes, with either water or alcohol based inks and an ability to blend and... oh! the desire to just work with them became an addiction, so smooth and satisfying did they perform their task!

I began hunting the internet for good monstery, Hallowe'eny coloring pages to print up on card stock and keep using those damned addicting brush markers!

I also discovered that Science Fiction Anthology is nearly impossible to find in clean shape for under $100, but lots of wonderful Monsterkids have posted good resolution coloring pages (again from Mark Savee) from the entire book online, and I've finally been able to color all of that book as well, something I was never able to do as a kid, but so desperately wished I could.

Frank Herbert's Dune, a real treat to color

with good brush markers to blend. Vivid and bold!

H.G. Wells' First Men In The Moon. 

Again, brush markers allow one to really

play with tone and shade.

And my favorite, Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles.

For some reason, this one haunted me as a child, as the book

did then and now. I enjoyed coloring this so much I stretched

it out over a whole week of nights.

Of course, I have certainly found plenty of

other wondrously wicked b/w illustrations to use

as coloring pages, from all over the 'net.

A sampling...

 I do not know the artist of this coloring page, but

I so enjoyed coloring it, I've done it in different 

colors twice since this one was done!

 This Phantom as the Red Death is from a

wonderfully weird coloring book from the UK

in the 1970s, just called Horror.

 This and the next were taken from an awesome, very

collectable coloring album called 

Berni Wrightson's Monsters (Seuling, 1974). 

I never had it as a child, but wanted it then, and

it has been so wonderful to be able to just print them

up and use those amazing brush markers to make

them come to life! Look at the blending and

shading one can accomplish!

So listen, Monsterkids.

Get yourselves a set of brush markers, some card stock, and a good printer, and go online to search 'til your heart's content! 

It has been a true return to something I so dearly loved as a kid and hadn't done in decades.

And when you're finished, you will have some works of spooky, monstery art of which you can be quite proud.

In fact, I think I need to print something up for tonight...

It's nice to be back, dear S&Pbrains. Thank you for hanging in there with me, and for coming back to the ol' pub.

I promise to bring it back to life.

DDSPrismacolor!

It's been a long, long time...

... and I am sorry for the absence.

I have been living. Sometimes not so easily, but living my life... and finding time, and often even the inclination, to post here has been very sketchy for a good long while now.

I miss it. I miss all of you, who I am sure have given up and moved on to other Hallowe'en pubs... if, y'know, there are any other Hallowe'en pubs in the October Country...

I am alive and well, for the most part, and ready to return on a more regular basis. I am truly hoping to make it up to all of you who used to enjoy and visit frequently.

The Skull & Pumpkin will reopen soon.

Your humble pubkeep says so... it must be so.

I appreciate your patience, and your kind fellowship in this All Hallow's world of crazy Monsterkids here in the October Country.

Lest I forget...  say it with me now, and raise your glass high...

To the return of the S&P, as soon as can be...

DUMDUMSHREKPOP!!!