Vintage Haunted Schoolhouse Poster

FINALLY! I got this personal gem into a proper frame, ready to go up on the wall!

I am finding that the older I get the more I look back, longing for the black-and-orange nostalgia and Halloween innocence of my youth. As a kid, I absolutely loved getting the Friday insert section out of the local newspaper each October, eagerly and voraciously devouring page after page of glorious black-and-white ads for all of the local haunted houses (and being an 80s Halloween kid living in Northeast Ohio meant page after page of haunted houses! It seemed like every city had one!).

And even with page after page of wonderful ads, there was always one that caught my attention and became the one I always looked for: Akron's Haunted Schoolhouse and Laboratory. The iconic grim reaper graphic really caught my young eye, and it became the one (technically two) haunted house that my friend Jim and I would always beg our parents to drive us to every Halloween season.

Fast forward 35 years, and the opportunity to be a guest actor at the Haunted Schoolhouse presented itself. Needless to say I jumped at the chance, fulfilling all those old childhood dreams. It was everything I had hoped it would be, and I appreciate Dave allowing me to come back each season to "get my haunt on."

Two seasons ago, he unearthed this ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE Schoolhouse and Lab silkscreened poster from back in the early 80s. Up to this point I had never asked for anything from him, but I REALLY wanted a copy of that if one was available. And Dave totally came through, allowing me to own a piece of haunted house history!

And now it's finally in a nice frame, ready to go up on my wall. Amazing clipart and fonts. Admission $2.00. FREE BABYSITTING! They just don't make 'em like this anymore!

PEANUTS Halloween 2023 Posters

Mondo has announced their newest batch of PEANUTS posters for Halloween, 2023. Charles Schulz's classic comic strip panels featuring Snoopy, Linus, and the rest of the gang released as limited edition (and highly collectible) screen printed posters. This year's release features 3 memorable panels celebrating all things Halloween and the coming of The Great Pumpkin (including one panel that has never been published).

These posters will be available today starting at 12 Noon CT, and like all of Mondo's limited poster releases, will sell out quickly. Gotta be quick, gang!

Don't be a blockhead. Grab a poster here.

  

PEANUTS "Yesterday's Halloween Pumpkin" Poster

Charlie Brown, you BLOCKHEAD!! Everyone knows you don't just throw your jack-o-lantern into the trash after Halloween. You place it in a pumpkindump, like me!!

WHAT WOULD THE GREAT PUMPKIN THINK!?!?

Here's a timely, cool new poster featuring Chuck's sadly discarded Halloween jack-o-lantern, taken directly from a classic Charles M. Schulz comic strip panel. The latest PEANUTS poster offered by Mondo, this one will be available this morning! And like all collectible screenprinted posters offered by Mondo, this one will also probably sell out quick. Good grief!

  

THE EVIL DEAD by Rafa Orrico

Check out this cool new screenprinted Evil Dead poster by Rafa Orrico. Definitely a different take on a total classic, but amazing typography and an interesting interpretation of the Deadite face make this one worth snagging!

The poster, a limited-to-220 edition, is available from Mondo this Wednesday. Be quick!!

 

"Return Of The Living Dead" Poster by Florian Bertmer

Mondo sure is making it hard for me to NOT be a poster collector this October. First it was their stunning "Dracula: Prince Of Darkness" poster by J.S. Rossbach. 

And now they've just released this cool "Return Of The Living Dead" retro punk flyer looking poster by Florian Bertmer.

Such a great and unique design treatment for an absolute horror classic, featuring everyone's favorite goopy mess of a zombie, Tarman! Great colors on this one, too. (They released a Misfits-inspired "Devilock" color variant which sold out immediately, although I prefer the simple and bold colors of this version better. But that's just me...)

More brains!!

 

"Creature From The Black Lagoon" Poster by Jason Edmiston

GAH!! Incredible new limited-edition posters of everyone's favorite fish man, illustrated by Jason Edmiston. These super-limited posters will be available today over at Mondo, but you'll have to be quick because like all things at Mondo, both the regular and the variant versions will sell out in literal seconds...

Suspiria (2018) Poster & Trailer

I am the first to admit that I'm against remakes. Especially horror films. Never even come close to the original, ultimately serving only to tarnish the original's reputation, uninspired, cheap cash grab, Hollywood is out of new ideas, and on and on and on.

And I was filled with complete dread (and dare say outrage) upon hearing the latest title to be remade: Dario Argento's 1977 masterpiece, Suspiria.

How could you do that!? WHY would you do that!? How can you compete with Goblin's original, iconic score!? And on and on and on.

And then a strange thing happened. I started seeing the first clips of the new film, and I wasn't mortified by what I saw. I specifically remember thinking, "that actually doesn't look half bad."

Of course Argento's signature bold swatches of vibrant color were absent, but this new version had its own muted, highly sophisticated look and feel. Every shot looked meticulously planned and stylistically shot, giving an unexpected sense of maturity (similar to the look and "slow burn" feel of Hereditary or The VVitch). And yes, you could even relate what was going on to Argento's original "ballet school for witches" storyline.

And on top of that, the official film poster was released today. And I absolutely love it:

Poster image courtesy of Bloody Disgusting.

The title typography is striking, especially when it's framed in by the bold, stark blood splatters and monotone eyes. It really relates to what I have seen in the trailer. This poster is so far ahead of most other film posters that are churned out anymore.

At this point, I'm almost rooting for this film to be the one remake that does it right. I'm hoping that Luca Guadagnino can take the classic original and do something truly interesting with it. He has an amazing cast to work with (I'm looking at you, Tilda Swinton), and I just hope that the story is as interesting and focused as the film's cinematography.

Suspiria hits theaters on November 2 and I think I'm going to be in line to see this one. Check the trailer below and let me know what you think!

October 19, 2018

Exactly six months from today, Michael returns to Haddonfield.

The new teaser poster for Halloween was released today, showing an aged, one-eyed Michael Myers.

The excitement is slowly starting to build at the Cemetery, an now the official countdown begins. I'm staying cautiously optimistic for this one and I'm really hoping this new "sequel after part 2" really nails it.

More info at Bloody Disgusting.


  

"Creature From The Black Lagoon" by Brandon Holt

I'm hoping to change my luck with Mondo poster sales by actually scoring this upcoming release. This Creature From The Black Lagoon poster by Brandon Holt is absolutely stunning! Keep an eye on the Mondo site to see when this one will go on sale. And good luck!

  

Stranger Things

Yes, I'm all in on this series, too. Incredible poster by UK artist, Matt Ferguson.

  

"Creature From The Black Lagoon" Poster

An absolutely stunning new poster for Creature From the Black Lagoon, created by Stan & Vince. Available from Mondo, but you'll have to be quick...

 

Night of the Living Contest, 2014!

One week to go, Halloween fanatics and fellow haunters! Time to kick it up a notch.

Put those thinking caps on, because it's time for the annual giveaway contest where you can win some free stuff from the Cemetery. It's time for the Night of the Living Contest!

I'll ask three Halloween and horror related questions. The first to answer all three correctly wins.

And what do you win? One hand-screened Highbury Cemetery 2014 shirt (size large). White ink on a dark grey shirt, and it's one of the best shirts that we have ever produced here in the Cemetery:

As an added bonus, the winner will also receive a hand-screened, signed and numbered 8.5" x 11" Highbury Cemetery 2014 mini poster. Metallic silver ink on black card stock. It's a limited edition of 12 and is the first poster printed in the Cemetery basement. This is definitely something that will be added to the yearly Halloween ritual here, as it was a lot of fun to make these and they turned out great!

So here we go! The first person to answer the three questions below correctly wins. Simply drop your answers into the email form to the right side of this blog or drop them into the comments below and you could have a spooky package delivered to your door just in time for Halloween!



Night of the Living Contest Questions:

1. What is the name of the heavy metal rock star who comes back from the dead to play a guitar that shoots bolts of electricity in the movie, Trick or Treat?

2. In what year did Walt Disney Productions originally release their classic Halloween album, Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House?

3. What is the name of the Pittsburgh area cemetery that was used to film George Romero's 1968 zombie-genre defining classic, Night of the Living Dead? 


Good luck everyone! And did I mention that all the answers could possibly be found somewhere in this blog?

 

Highbury Cemetery Shirt, 2014

The shirts are done! Freshly hand-screened in the Cemetery basement by Highbury and Mrs. Highbury, the 2014 shirts are our best yet. Solid white ink on dark grey shirts with this year's logo on the front:

And as a surprise bonus, all shirts will come with a hand-silkscreened poster with this year's logo. Metallic silver ink on black card stock paper. Signed and hand-numbered by yours truly in an edition of 12.
 

Like what you see? Wish you could score a shirt and poster of your very own? Hmm. Maybe I can help you. It looks like I might have an extra to give away for our annual Night of the Living Contest. Be sure to stop by this Friday, as I will put up some horror-themed trivia questions and the first person to answer all questions correctly will have a shirt and poster delivered to their door, just in time for Halloween! But put your thinking caps on, because I'm bound to search out the most pointless and obscure questions so that the winner will earn his or her prize!! We'll see you all here on Friday.



And, as the days continue to count down to the big night, it's time to check the forecast and see how things will shape up for this year (after two years of awful, wet, heartbreaking weather, I'm a little nervous to see what it will be...):

A full day of sunshine - 56˚/40˚

This is the forecast I was hoping for!! I know it's still a ways out and could change daily, but for now I'll walk with a bit more spring in my step and this will power my final push toward the big night. Fingers crossed!!

 

"John Carpenter's Halloween" At The Capitol Theatre, Cleveland

Celebrate the 35^th Anniversary of the 1978 classic, “John Carpenter’s Halloween,” with a series of HALLOWEEN films on the big screen. The celebration begins in October with the nationwide release of “John Carpenter’s Halloween” and continues through the month with “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” and “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers” in select theaters. Each of these films will be presented in a striking, new HD transfer and 5.1 audio.

If you are in the Cleveland area, the movie is playing tonight at the Capitol Theatre, 1390 West 65th Street. The movie starts at 7:30. See you there!!

The Countdown Begins, 2013

Dusk advances on a fading twilight while a chill permeates crisp evening breezes. Falling, brittle leaves gather lifeless at the rooted bases of their cores' metamorphoses. Absent is the comforting sunlight of a warm summer's afternoon. The cold, withered tendrils of Autumn's touch begin their embrace to commence this transition...

This is October. This is the Countdown to Halloween.



Welcome to Highbury Cemetery's Countdown to Halloween, 2013. A month-long, daily celebration of all things Halloween, with posts galore spilling from the cemetery gates of our little home haunt. We'll have posts about props, project how-tos, music, art and everything else imaginable to honor the high holiday of All Hallow's Eve.

To kick off October properly, we're unveiling our new logo (celebrating the 10th year of our home haunt!). Something we create each year to be used on posters, t-shirts and whatever else we can think of to slap it on. Something to set the tone for the haunting season.

We present the new logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2013:

 

Vintage Poster Restrikes from Hamilton Wood Type

A good friend recently sent me a link to Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum's page of vintage poster restrikes. Beautiful, old woodcut poster plates that were rescued from the Globe Printing Company of Chicago. All reprinted posters are available here.

As The Scare Crows by Methane Studios

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! In our last post, we detailed a great poster from Methane Studios. Well, after diving a little deeper into their offerings, I found another really great poster that I had to post up for everyone.

Another beautiful piece by Robert Lee, this one is a 4-color, 15.5" x 24" edition of 100 entitled As The Scare Crows. And lucky for everyone, this one is also still available.

 

Halloween Owl by Methane Studios

An 18" x 24", 2-color screen print produced by Robert Lee of Methane Studios in a limited edition of 50. And they're still available!

And tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so why not take a second to stop and remember what you're thankful for.

We at the Cemetery are thankful, of course, that it's the season to again watch Thankskilling!!

Limited Edition Posters From Phantom City Creative

Here's a little something I found for anyone who didn't get that perfect holiday gift, or if you're still looking for that special gift for your favorite blogger (I'll take one of each, thank you very much). Limited edition posters from Phantom City Creative, out of Toronto, Canada. Visit their etsy site to order these screen printed masterpieces.

Night Of The Living Dead

Dead Snow

Let The Right One In

Repo The Genetic Opera

2010 Shirt and Poster

Just put the wraps on this year's t-shirt and poster art. I'll be printing the shirts this weekend, and here's the poster:

I based this year's art on our new blog banner. Last year's shirt and poster can be found here and here.

8 days until Halloween. Today's check of the weather report says:

54 degrees and 30% chance of showers